Football Talk - Mourinho mocks Milan rivals 25/01/10
Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has mocked Milan by claiming his side would still have beaten their derby rivals with just seven men.
Inter took a huge step closer to retaining the Italian title with a 2-0 win over Milan on Sunday, despite finishing the game with nine men. Wesley Sneijder was sent off in the 25th minute before Lucio was shown a second yellow in the closing seconds of the game. The Nerazzurri had opened the scoring with a 10th-minute strike by Diego Milito and Goran Pandev's 65th-minute free-kick sealed victory, which sent Inter nine points clear of Milan at the top of Serie A.
"It was a strange game," he said. "I think we all understand that it was no coincidence that he (the referee) showed the red card to Sneijder. I have realised that they are not going to allow us to wrap this title up. But we were perfect. We would have won this game even with seven men. Maybe with six we would have struggled, but we would have won with seven."
Mourinho believes Inter can win their fifth straight title - and his second from two years in charge - but also hinted at problems in the Italian game.
"Everything was done to try to prevent Inter from winning, but my squad is strong and we will win the Scudetto," added the Portuguese coach. "But I will leave it at that. This is your country and your league. I am just a foreigner working here. One day, I will go and leave this problem with you.
Milan coach Leonardo accepted Inter were the better side for the Rossoneri but insists the title race is not over yet. "We already knew that Inter are strong and one game alone cannot determine where we are," he said. "We will look back at all the positive things we have done recently and look forward to what we can potentially do. All this game does is teach us a few lessons. It will not knock us off track and we will carry on taking each game as it comes."
