‘Success is Madrid’s, failure is mine’

Real Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho has reflected that any comeback against Borussia Dortmund will be the team’s success and any failure will be just his.

Los Blancos host the Germans this Tuesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with a 4-1 deficit to try and turn around.

 “Percentages, I do not like to talk about that. There is a large imbalance in the scores. We know that the game starts 1-4 and when that is the case then it is complicated to do the maths and to justify our chances,” began Mourinho in his pre-game Press conference today.

“What went wrong in Dortmund? I have already spoken to the players. I spoke to them a couple of days after the first leg and told them everything.

“The important thing was my reaction and my comment and my education in terms of the game that we played in Dortmund.

“Would the success or failure depend on me? No. In virtually all clubs, not just in Madrid, the success is the success of everyone.

“And the failure is the failure of the Coach. Not only in Madrid, but in all the clubs and even in all cultures. I’m calm, I know it well.

“The failure is the failure of the Coach. The record of 100 points is Madrid’s [from last season] and if we do not reach the final then it will be my failure.”

The Portuguese was asked of Madrid’s chances and belief in turning around the score-line tomorrow.

“For me it just depends on football. It’s a game that we are losing 4-1 in and 90 minutes remain, and it is possible. The game in Dortmund was too one-off for us to do something similar. So we will not have the same chance to overcome it.

“Nor has any player jumped ship, everyone wants to play and that gives me confidence for the game. it makes me believe that it is possible. But it is just football.

“Today I read a statement from a very important person [Franz Beckenbauer] in which he spoke of teams doing things lawfully or unlawfully.

“Three years ago I spoke like that and the world descended on me. We can say that a team can do things legally and illegally. My team just makes things lawful.

“We are so pure, so naïve, so innocent, that Lewandowski can score four times against us without us committing a single foul on him.

“If we are ahead on the scoreboard, we will try to score more and see what we can do. We do not lack a player to score four goals, Cristiano can score five in 10 minutes.

“I read that Saturday’s game was boring, but to me it was an example of a compact, united, aggressive team working towards a goal.

“Is the comeback possible? We will try and play and move ahead. If we score one, we will be two goals short, if we score two we will be one short.

“If we play like we did in Dortmund, forget it. If we play like we have in many games and we have the spirit to win the game, we will. Football is football and anything is possible.”

Mourinho named his provisional XI before the first leg in Germany, but explained that he won’t be doing the same for the return leg.

“I will not hide what is obvious. In Dortmund it was obvious, but for the situation with Di Maria. It was a team without doubt, an XI that everyone knew.

“Tomorrow the situation is different. We can play with people who do not usually play or with a system that we would not normally use.

“Cristiano is okay, Arbeloa and Marcelo are injured, but the rest are available.”

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