Real Madrid are a better team than Tottenham, says José Mourinho

Posted Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by theguardian.com

• 'Spurs should be proud of Champions League campaign'
• Portuguese sees fall in standard among top English teams

Real Madrid are a better team than Tottenham, says José Mourinho
José Mourinho says he did not enjoy playing Chelsea, his former club, in the Champions League last season when he was manager of Internazionale. 'I don't like to play against my friends,' he said.

The Real Madrid coach, José Mourinho, believes his team has the edge over Tottenham Hotspur and is confident he can end the London club's Champions League run in the quarter-finals.

Spurs' debut Champions League campaign has already delivered famous wins against Internazionale and Milan, and the reward for Harry Redknapp's side is a game against the Spanish giants.

Mourinho, who won the Champions League as the Inter coach last season, concedes he has some misgivings about coming up against the tournament's dark horses but he is approaching the tie with more relish than he did last year's last-16 encounter with his former club Chelsea.

"I didn't want Chelsea-Inter because last season it was difficult to play against Chelsea," said Mourinho, who left Chelsea in September 2007. "I did it and I did everything I could to help my team but I was not comfortable. I don't like to play against my friends.

"Any team is difficult and any team is a motivation for us. Tottenham are a good team: they beat Inter, they beat Milan, they have ambitions, they have a very good team and a good manager. You can feel that it is a happy team, and happy teams are dangerous teams."

Asked whether Spurs could produce an upset, Mourinho told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's possible. They have a not very easy draw but they have not had an easy draw from the beginning. But I want to believe, with all respect of course, that their campaign in the Champions League will finish in the second leg at White Hart Lane.

"They have reason to be proud already and I think they have a reason to fight us and to try to reach the semis but I believe that we are a better team."

Mourinho believes there may have been a fall in standards among the top teams in the Premier League. "[In my first season at Chelsea] you had to win and win and win and win, and every point you lost you are in a difficult situation because the top teams were winning a lot. In the same way that we are doing now in Spain," he said.

"At this moment in the Premier League they are losing a lot of points. Every team had difficult moments, so for me it looks like the top teams have lost a little bit."

Mourinho's former captain at Chelsea, John Terry, was restored this week as England captain a year after losing the armband following revelations about his private life. The Portuguese declined to comment on the rights and wrongs of the matter but he believed Terry was a great leader.

"I don't want to go in that direction. I don't know completely the process. I just think, because I know him, he's a great captain," he said. "I have never worked with Rio Ferdinand before but I have no doubts that Rio is also a great captain.

"For some national teams it is difficult to choose [a captain]. In England they have so many people with the character to be captains – Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard. The English national team is full of big personalities and big players."