Jose Mourinho shows his true Chelsea colours with touching gesture

Jose Mourinho is back at Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the Champions League and the former Blues boss couldn’t stop himself from sharing his admiration for the club

Jose Mourinho showed his true colours following his pre-match press conference on Monday night. The former Chelsea boss will lock horns with Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Champions League tonight as the Blues look to get back to winning ways.

A couple of weeks ago, Bayern Munich sailed past the west London outfit, starting the new ‘league phase’ with a 3-1 victory at the Allianz Arena. Chelsea showed great promise, with Cole Palmer pulling one back shortly after Harry Kane had doubled the Bundesliga champions’ lead.

But once the England skipper netted his second goal of the match, the Blues struggled to regain control. The following evening, Qarabag FK staged a comeback to defeat Benfica 3-2 at the Estadio da Luz.

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Enzo Barrenechea and Vangelis Pavlidis put Mourinho’s team in the lead within the first fifteen minutes. Leandro Andrade reduced the Azerbaijani team’s deficit a few moments later before Camilo Duran and Oleksiy Kashchuk scored either side of half-time.

Mourinho might be feeling the heat to produce a result for Benfica, but he was his usual charismatic self upon his return to Stamford Bridge on Monday night. After addressing journalists in the Drake Suite, the Portuguese manager revealed his true character.

Mourinho took a few moments to shake hands with members of the media before catching up with a former colleague. As the 62-year-old was about to depart, he opened his arms and gave a woman, who was waiting for him by the door, a warm embrace.

Before they parted ways, a few words were exchanged. In the pre-match press conference, Mourinho wore his heart on his sleeve for Chelsea, admitting he’ll ‘always be a Blue’.

The Benfica boss, who clinched three Premier League titles during two stints at Stamford Bridge, declared: “Chelsea is a winning machine,” he said. “I’m the biggest one until someone wins four [league titles]!”.

“Benfica will be the fourth club I’ve come here with; it’s a stadium where I won’t feel any kind of antagonism, I think. But it wouldn’t hurt me either. I can isolate myself without any problem.

“As they say, ‘I’m not a Blue anymore.’ I’m a Red [Benfica], and I want to win. Of course, I will always be a Blue. I am part of their history, and they are part of my history.

“I helped them become a bigger Chelsea, and they helped me to become bigger at Chelsea. When I say I’m not a Blue, I hope everyone understands that I’m speaking about the job that I have to do, that I have to do tomorrow.

“Before the game and after the game, it will be my Chelsea, but during the game, it will be my Benfica.”

Mourinho also threw his support behind Enzo Maresca, who won the UEFA Conference League and Club World Cup last season. The ex-Chelsea manager said: “From the outside, it looked like Chelsea [had] lost the identity as a club.

“But what happened last season, it seems they are back on track. They gave trust to Enzo, he brought his ideas. The Conference League is an easy competition to win for a big club, I did it with Roma.

“The Club World Cup badge means a lot. Congratulations to them. I think that gives them a place of trust, of confidence. I live five minutes away from here, I feel it. My son comes to every game.

“There was a period of disappointment, a period of doubt, now it’s one of happiness. I think Chelsea is back on track. It’s more difficult to win the Champions League than the Club World Cup but Chelsea has the potential to do it.”

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