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Mourinho claims United have been lucky in Champions League quest

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho feels one of his former sides have been lucky in their pursuit of...



Mourinho claims United have be...
Soccer

Mourinho claims United have been lucky in Champions League quest

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho feels one of his former sides have been lucky in their pursuit of Champions League football. 

Spurs play host to Leicester on Sunday, knowing a win will lay a top-4 finish on a platter for Manchester United.

While claiming to be oblivious to the minutiae of the Champions League battle above him, Mourinho seems to know plenty about how United arrived there.

"First of all, I'm not looking at that fight," he said ahead of the Leicester game.

"I don't know mathematically what's possible for them, I think they play the last game between them, I don't know if things can be decided there.

"I don't know if Chelsea are in a safe position, I don't think they are. I think they are still in this fight, and if Manchester United does it, they'll do it by playing very well in the second part of the season.

"And when you play well, you deserve. And in the top of that everybody knows they were a bit lucky more than one time. Lucky that others didn't have.

"Us for example, didn't have that luck."

United go into the weekend level on points with Leicester following a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

After that game, Palace manager Roy Hodgson bemoaned the "Christmas pantomime" decisions that went against his side.

Prior to Marcus Rashford opening the scoring at Selhurst Park, Palace had a strong penalty shout waved away. A second-half equaliser was also ruled out for offside.

When asked about Manchester United's favourable VAR referrals, Mourinho spat back, "But VAR shouldn't be about that. VAR should be just simple, pure, clear decisions.

"The space for the mistake is the space of man on the pitch having to make very difficult decisions at 200 mph. Different angles of vision. That's the mistake that we learn how to respect in football.

"It's sometimes difficult to accept but they're the mistakes you understand because everyone makes mistakes in the game - coaches, referees, players. We all make mistakes."

Spurs could end the season with a Europa League place. However, Mourinho feels that would be beneath them.

"I think Spurs would be even better than that without all the problems that we had. I think no other team had even similar problems to that," he told his Zoom conference.

"As I was saying, in the most difficult moment of the season I was just speaking about surviving, surviving was to leave us in a position where we could eventually fight for that.

"The fact that we're fourth since my arrival, without Lloris, Harry Kane, Sissoko, Son, without almost everybody, is a good reflection of the potential that we have, the work we're all doing.

"That's why I say the minimum we deserve is to finish in a position to keep us in European football, a competition that we don't deserve. It's not our level, we're better than that, but still European competition.

"Football is not about what you deserve, it's about what you effectively get. So we can't say we deserve it and then don't get points in these two matches. So we need to win matches now."

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Chelsea Jose Mourinho Leicester City Manchester United Premier League Spurs Tottenham Tottenham Hotspur