Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho believes Peter Crouch’s red card was the turning point of the match: UEFA Champions League update

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho believes Peter Crouch’s red card was the turning point of the match: UEFA Champions League update

Real Madrid manager, Jose Mourinho strongly believes that Peter Crouch’s sending-off with a red card in the 15^th minute of the game versus Real Madrid was the deciding factor in Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-0 loss over Los Blancos in the first leg of
the quarter final of UEFA Champions League at Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening.

Brace from Emmanuel Adebayor and a goal each from Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo took Los Blancos a step closer to the semi-finals of Europe’s most elite football competition.

Jose Mourinho, the Special One, said that he has had a bitter experience of playing with ten-men in The Champions League and claimed that it is very difficult to win if you are a man down.

“11 against 10 at the Champions League level; it’s always mission impossible. I played (with) Barcelona against Chelsea with 10, impossible. I played with Inter against Barcelona with 10 men, impossible, Arsenal played with 10 men against Barcelona a few
weeks ago, it’s impossible. It’s just a question of the team with 11 keeping concentration, keeping a high tempo, not letting their opponents breathe, not letting their opponents have the ball and we did that in the second half, not in the first half,” he
stated.

The Portuguese felt sorry for Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp as his pre-match plans were shattered after Crouch was given marching orders. He reckons that an early sending-off can damage any team’s confidence and this is exactly what happened with Spurs.

Despite sitting in the driver’s seat with a four goal cushion going into the second leg, the former Chelsea manager has warned his team against complacency and reckons that the English teams are mentally strong and they never give up too easily. Tottenham
have proved this in the earlier stages of this year’s competition, when they were four goals down in the first half against Inter Milan and they put up a fantastic performance in the second half to finish the game 4-3, courtesy of an amazing hat-trick from
Gareth Bale.

Madrid will travel to the White Hart Lane for the second leg of the tie on 13^th April, 2011.

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