Winning Europa League is like Lewis Hamilton winning Formula Two: Jose Mourinho


Winning Europa League is like Lewis Hamilton winning Formula Two: Jose Mourinho

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Jose Mourinho compared Tottenham competing for the Europa League to Lewis Hamilton winning Formula Two.

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Toby Alderweireld scored a late headed winner for Tottenham Hotspur to make sure a 2-1 triumph against Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday.

Spurs after their win over their arch rivals moved onto the eighth in the table and boosting their odds of meeting all requirements for Europa League.

Mourinho is anxious to fit the bill for the Europa League, despite the fact that the Spurs boss contrasted it with Formula One title holder Hamilton contesting at a lower level.

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“The Europa League is not the biggest competition in Europe.” – Mourinho said in a news conference.

“But it’s the second and when a club wins the Champions League or when a player wins it or a manager does, well, if you ask Lewis Hamilton if he wants to win Formula Two or 3000 or whatever you call it, I don’t think it will be a great deal for him.

“But it’s a competition and I prefer to play Europa League than not to. I think it’s a title Tottenham would like to get. Of course, at Manchester United, it’s a club with a dimension that thinks about the Champions League, but we played in the Europa League and we won it.

“I think we should do everything to play in the Europa League next season and we should fight for that.” – the United head coach added.

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Manchester United won the Europa League courtesy of a 2–0 win over Ajax in 2017. This was Mourinho’s second major trophy of his first season as Manchester United manager. It also maintained his 100% record of winning every major European Cup final as a manager.

Mourinho’s troops sit three points behind 6th put Wolves and two loose of Sheffield United with three games remaining to the end of season.

Mourinho accepts he could have driven Tottenham to a best four completion on the off chance that he had been in control for the whole season, having supplanted Mauricio Pochettino in November a year ago.

“I know that I could even look to the situation in a selfish point of view and say since I arrived if the championship arrived in that moment there, even with all of the problems after that, I think we would be fourth or fifth,” he said.

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“I don’t want to be selfish and only look at it as a fan, hypothetically, not yet, finishing above Arsenal. I would love to play in the Europa League. It’s not a competition that I’m in love with or like very, very much to play, but when you cannot play Champions League, you play Europa League.

“Because in my career I only played Europa League twice and I won it twice, it wouldn’t be bad to play a third time and win a third time. We have to fight until the end to try to finish in a Europa League position.” – the Portuguese manager concluded.

Also read: Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal: Toby Alderweireld scores a dramatic North London Derby winner