Jose Mourinho Sends Congratulations To Lucky Bristol City
21/12/2017
Jose Mourinho's side received a surprise exit from the EFL CUP by non - Premier League side Bristol City, Korey Smith making it 2-1, three minutes into added time.
Jose Mourinho had rested some of his players though squeezed in Rashford, Martial, Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba on the same squad but this didnt go down well at the end as Mourinho blamed the loss on his players that didn't contribute mentally to the game and that his opponents showed they deserved the game from kick off.
After the game the Portuguese told skysports "In the first half we lacked the intensity that they had,"
"When I say intensity, I don't just mean physical, I also mean mentally. For some of us it was just one more day in the office. Probably a day that some of them don't even want to come to the office.
"For the Bristol boys, it was a big, big day and in the first half we could see that."
Jose Mourinho later added on the clubs website additional information on the reasons behind his selection for the game "The reality is that the ones [players] that were on the pitch were the ones that were not in the last match [against West Bromwich Albion] and are the ones that not going to be in the next match. I think they lost a good opportunity also to play semifinals and also to have two more matches to play.
"But I don't want to blame the players at all because I think they were professional -- it wasn't a case of 'we don't care about the game' or 'we don't have responsibility' or 'we don't have pride'. I think they showed they had that after the 1-0 and they had that until they scored the second goal in the last few seconds and we had no chance to react."
Bristol City advanced at the expenses of United but Mourinho believes that his opponents were lucky.
"My thoughts are that they were a bit lucky but they fought a lot to be lucky. They win the game in a moment where we have no possibilities to react. They win the game in our best moment in the game.
"They win the game in the moment where everyone was waiting for our goal. So I have to say they were a bit lucky. Also in the first half we hit the post twice before the score the first goal. But they played brilliantly, they fought like this was the game of their lives, which it probably was and it's nice to be like that.
"And a beautiful day for football because a team from a lower division won and get into the semifinals. A big day for them, a big day for their supporters so I want to congratulate them and I don't want the fact that I say they were a bit lucky to be the main thing. The main thing is that they won and fought hard for it.
"The most important thing was that a Championship team beat a club like Manchester United. In this club, we know how to win, we know how to lose, so we lost saying congratulations to them and good luck for the semifinal."
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