‘We did nothing that Jose told us to do,’ former FC Porto player reveals the moment that changed Mourinho’s career was not planned by the coach

Jose Mourinho’s rise from being a promising younger coach to ‘The Special One’, began on the evening when his FC Porto facet knocked out heavyweights Manchester United from the 2004 UEFA Champions League. Mourinho had already guided the Portuguese membership to UEFA Cup glory the earlier season, however beating the massive boys in Europe’s elite match is what introduced him within the limelight. He would go on to win the match that season with Porto.

The spherical of 16 tie towards Manchester United was a tricky one and nobody gave Mourinho’s facet an opportunity. But they gained 2-1 at house, courtesy a brace from Benni McCarthy, and got here to Old Trafford with the only level agenda of not letting the Red Devils rating.

But that modified rapidly as Paul Scholes scored for Manchester United simply after the half-hour mark. United have been forward on the away aim rule and Porto desperately wanted to attain to get forward on mixture. The aim lastly got here within the 90th minute and the picture of Mourinho celebrating on the sidelines and Sir Alex Ferguson’s sombre face continues to be recent within the reminiscence of soccer followers.

The scorer of that aim was mid-fielder Costinha who has now revealed that the aim got here fully towards the plans of what Mourinho had requested the workforce to do.

“I remember that in the moment we did nothing that Jose told us to do,” Costinha instructed soccer web site aim.com. “Nothing we did was a Mourinho plan!

“The coach can prepare you perfectly for games but there are moments when players change things by themselves – and in a good way.

“In that particular moment, we didn’t do what Mourinho wanted. We did it differently. But the ball went into the net. Howard had dropped it and John O’Shea was caught ball-watching and didn’t react quickly.

“I did, though, and when I scored, I just saw the image of my supporters. I forgot everything in that moment and just went over to celebrate with them. What a feeling!” the mid-fielder added.

He additional went on to reward Mourinho for instilling lots of confidence in his gamers.

“He said; ‘Costa, look at the draw: Manchester United. The first game is at home and the second away.

“’You are suspended for the first game but we will beat them by a goal and then, you will be there in the second game when they will press us.

“’Long balls, duels and you will put them out of the competition.’ He then stood up and left.

“What else can I tell you about Mourinho? He was right: that’s exactly what happened.

“He always gave us the right input at the right time. He managed our mentality perfectly. He always kept us focused.

“Even when I was talking to an Italian club at the time, he called me in the hotel afterwards and he said; ‘Costa, stay with us, we are going to win the league and the Champions League. Then, you can go to England or Italy.’

“He always talked to you like that. And you believed him and it made you more confident. So, we went into matches with more belief than we would have normally had,” Costinha was quoted as saying.