MOURINHO: VERY IMPORTANT ROUND

Jose Mourinho emphasised that emotions
must be put to one side when we face
Didier Drogba as an opponent for the first
time tomorrow evening.

Speaking ahead of our Champions
League knockout tie in Galatasaray
tomorrow night, Mourinho contemplated
coming up against a man so important in
his and Chelsea's history. He was keen to
stress, though, that the focus must be on
returning to London with a positive result.

'I am looking forward to the match
because I like to play against the best and
Galatasaray are the Turkish champions,'
said our manager.

'We are going to play to win but we know
they are strong. They have many special
attacking players and they have lots of
goalscorers, we know that. But as I
always say, we are trying to build a team
for the future and so we are going to play
as we always do, by trying to win the
game.

'To face Drogba is difficult. It's a strange
feeling, I have to admit that, but we have
to do our job,' added Mourinho when
asked about facing the 35-year-old. 'We
know he wants to do his job too. It's a
strange feeling you have to forget during
the game. When players belong to my
career they belong to my life, but during
the game you have to do your job.'

Galatasaray, now managed by Roberto
Mancini, strengthened their squad in the
January transfer window and have held
on to all their key players, so it is an even
stronger team we will face than the one
Mourinho overcame 10 months ago when
in charge of Real Madrid, according to our
manager.

Having progressed to the knockout stage
of the competition it is a reality that
discussion around who could lift the
trophy intensifies. Mourinho feels that
progress beyond the last 16 must be
made before any bigger conclusions can
be drawn.

'We are not the favourite, that's obvious,'
he stated. 'But I think when a team
reaches the quarter-finals anything is
possible. This round is a very important
round for every team because the ones
that reach the quarter-final can start
having a little feeling even if they are not
a favourite.

'Chelsea won it when they were not a
favourite, I won it twice when not a
favourite, and I didn't win it when I was
one of the favourites. This competition
has space for a surprise because it's a
knockout.'

Following the release of a conversation
Mourinho undertook in private, our
manager questioned the ethics behind
making a private matter public. He also
explained why there was no issue
between him and his 32-year-old striker
Samuel Eto'o .

'From my perspective the comment is
obviously not a good one and it's
obviously not one that I would do in a
serious way or an official way: firstly
because I don't make fun, secondly
because if there are managers in the
world that really defend their players I am
obviously one of them, and thirdly
because Samuel Eto'o is Samuel Eto'o .

'He is a four-time Champions League
winner - people think three times but it is
four times: one in Real Madrid, two in
Barcelona, and one with Inter. It was with
him that I had the best ever season of my
career. He is one of the few players that is
working with me in a second different
club. A manager never does that when he
doesn't like the player or the person.

'He has no reason to be upset because
also he said a few years ago that I was
the only manager in the world that he
would never play for and after one year
he was playing for me at Inter, and a few
years later he is playing with me here at Chelsea, So no story.