Jose Mourinho was emotional in the aftermath of Roma’s win over Leicester on Thursday night, but he was still composed enough to direct a cheeky dig towards one of his many rivals.
Roma beat the Foxes 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico to progress to the final of the Europa Conference League and present Mourinho with an opportunity to add another trophy to his collection. It was a grand occasion in Rome and Mourinho was in tears upon the full-time whistle.
Speaking afterwards in his post-match press conference, he paid tribute to his players, their “extraordinary” performance and singled out goal scorer Tammy Abraham for particular praise. Then, he changed tack, to send a message to Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.
“If you allow me a message for a coach who is my friend, the great Carletto: let’s both go and win the finals!” he said triumphantly. If that was any other manager it would probably be taken at face value, as a message of support for a colleague, but it being Mourinho means there is another possible layer to it: a dig at Real’s opponents in the Champions League final, Liverpool.
Whether he meant it as such or not, Mourinho certainly has quite the history with the red half of Merseyside. As well as being the side he has faced most often in his career – 31 games, 12 wins, nine draws, 10 losses – they are one of the sides he has clashed with most.
It all could have been very different. Back in 2004, when Mourinho’s stock was very high following his shock Champions League victory with Porto, Liverpool were looking for a new manager after the end of Gerard Houllier’s six-year reign. They ended up going for Rafa Benitez, but Mourinho had been on the club’s radar too.
Ultimately it was Mourinho’s iconic run down the Old Trafford touchline during the Portuguese side’s run to the final which swung it in Benitez’s favour. “One of our core values was respect,” then-chief executive Rick Parry later revealed. “Seeing Mourinho celebrate like that reinforced my initial belief. ‘Was he really a Liverpool manager? Did he characterise the club’s values?’”
That is Parry’s story, but The Evening Standard has reported that Mourinho actually rejected an offer from the Reds in order to join Chelsea on account of Roman Abramovich’s greater enthusiasm for getting a deal done.
So, Mourinho joined Chelsea, and it was from Stamford Bridge that he began his rivalry with Liverpool. It didn’t take long for a mutual dislike to brew. Chelsea’s 3-2 win over Benitez’s Liverpool in the League Cup final in the 2004/05 season was the real starting point, with Mourinho’s infamous ‘shush’ gesture to the Liverpool supporters not going down well. He claimed it was a reference to the media, but no-one was really convinced.
Liverpool got their own back through Luis Garcia’s ‘ghost goal’ in the Champions League semi-final that same season to leave Mourinho furious. Fresh from their Premier League triumph, Chelsea thrashed Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield in October 2005 to hit back – a result which prompted Mourinho to moan about the English press criticising his so-called boring style of football.
Chelsea skipper John Terry later gave a good insight into just how much Mourinho hated Liverpool. “I remember the team talk Mourinho gave before we played after we won the league [in 2005],” Terry told former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher for Sky Sports in 2020. “I think we were something like 20 or 30 points in front and he’s going, ‘there’s no way you can lose this game against these’. He couldn’t even say the name Liverpool, he couldn’t even pronounce the team. He was like, ‘you do not lose to these today, we’re so much better than these’. That still kind of sticks there.”
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Terry said Mourinho and Benitez “hated each other” and hated losing to each other even more. Perhaps following the age-old maxim of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, the Special One later tried unsuccessfully to lure Steven Gerrard to Stamford Bridge to really wind up Liverpool fans.
Fast-forward several years and to the conclusion of the 2013/14 season – that is when things really picked up again. Demba Ba’s infamous goal after Gerrard’s even more infamous slip helped Chelsea scupper the Reds’ Premier League title hopes and give Mourinho a reason to go full Mourinho. After the 2-0 win a pumped-up Mourinho, decked out a Chelsea gilet, decided to beat his chest down the Anfield touchline.
Liverpool got their own back in 2018, picking up a 3-1 win against Mourinho’s struggling Manchester United side. It was a result which directly led to his sacking at Old Trafford. And while he later rocked up at Tottenham, where relations were a little more cordial, there is still no love lost between the Portuguese coach and Liverpool.
