The Porto manager, Julen Lopetegui, has stressed he has complete faith in the referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz, who will officiate his side’s game against Chelsea tonight, despite suggestions the Spaniard is close to José Mourinho from his time at Real Madrid.
Lopetegui, a Basque whose playing career included a spell as a back-up goalkeeper at Barcelona which briefly overlapped with Mourinho’s time at the club under Sir Bobby Robson, was asked about Lahoz by local media in his pre-match media conference at the Estádio do Dragão.
The Valencia official, who is apparently known in La Liga for his leniency, was marked out after drawing regular praise from the Portuguese over his three-year spell coaching Real Madrid. Mourinho had once claimed he would be happy for Lahoz to referee all Real’s games, an opinion that did not change even when he dismissed Iker Casillas – the Spain goalkeeper with whom Mourinho would fall out with so infamously towards the end of his time at the Bernabéu and who will start for Porto tonight – in a 1-0 win at Espanyol in February 2011.
“I don’t know if it was a red card or not, but I like Mateu,” Mourinho said at the time. “He is a great referee and he lets the game flow. Referees can make mistakes, but I still maintain he is a great referee. I like him because he doesn’t have any time for divers and, in my team, there are no divers.”
Remain friends
The suggestion building in Portugal was that Lahoz and Mourinho remain friends, which might in some way influence this game. “But he’s a great referee, a great professional,” said Lopetegui. “Mr Mourinho can have the friends he wants, I don’t care. I know [Lahoz] is a great professional.”
The Porto manager was reluctant, too, to discuss his opposite number, who claimed a Uefa Cup and Champions League during his time at the club, “other than to say Mr Mourinho is a wonderful coach and did great things at Porto. Winning trophies. I will respect that.”
Lopetegui was quick to dismiss suggestions Casillas, who will overtake Xavi as the player who has made the most appearances in the Champions League when he features for the 152nd time at the Dragão, would be more motivated for the fixture against Mourinho. The pair’s relationship had deteriorated over the coach’s time in Madrid, with Real’s iconic World Cup winner eventually finding himself ostracised and out of the side. The 34-year-old severed ties with the club in the summer and moved to Portugal having broken down in tears at his press conference as he announced his departure.
Lopetegui said the goalkeeper had brought a dash of “glamour” to the Porto side in the period since.
Meanwhile, Mourinho says none of his Chelsea players are untouchable.
“Untouchables in football, only consistency can give you that status,” said Mourinho, whose champions are 15th in the Premier League after two wins in the opening seven games. “You have to be a fantastic player, but you have to be consistent. In this moment we have fantastic players, the players that gave us the title last season. But football is about today, it’s not about yesterday. In football you have to be consistent in your performance, in your emotion.
“At this moment I don’t have untouchables.”
Chelsea do have Diego Costa available for tonight’s clash, with the striker in the middle of a three-match domestic ban. Mourinho lauded Costa’s performance in the win over Arsenal, when the striker was a nuisance and retrospectively banned for grappling with Laurent Koscielny.
Asked if he would like 11 players to show the same desire as Costa, Mourinho said: “I think we would lose every game because the desire to suspend him is so big that we wouldn’t have players to start the game. I’m happy to have only one and let him play until they decide to suspend him again.” (Guardian Service)
