Jose Mourinho takes brutal swipe at former Man Utd manager after he singles out three important matches in career

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Jose Mourinho couldn’t help but launch a cheeky dig on one former Manchester United manager after he was asked about the most ‘perfect match’ he managed.

The 61-year-old former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United head coach is widely regarded as one of the best managers of all time.

Jose Mourinho was axed by Roma last January before the ‘Special One’ made his sensational return to management with Turkish side Fenerbahce in June 2024.

The Fenerbahce boss has enjoyed incredible silverware success during his prolific managerial career in England, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Mourinho’s first season in charge of Fenerbahce has the Super Lig outfit second in Turkey’s top-flight league and the Turkish side are eight points behind Galatasaray.

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Mourinho singles out two matches

Speaking to Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, Jose Mourinho admitted that it was “hard to answer” what would be the most perfect match he managed.

However, one of the matches that the ‘Special One’ did pick out was during Porto’s scintillating UEFA Cup triumph in the 2002-03 season.

Mourinho’s Porto side came up against Lazio in the semi-finals and Claudio Lopez opened the scoring for the Italian side in the sixth minute of the first leg.

Porto produced a sensational comeback at the Estadio das Antas and thumped Lazio 4-1 in the first leg before securing a 0-0 draw away from home in the return leg.

Another of Mourinho’s match picks was during Inter Milan’s famous treble-winning season, with the Portuguese selecting the 2010 Champions League final.

Mourinho’s Inter Milan knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League semi-final before beating Louis van Gaal’s Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final.

The former Manchester United manager told the newspaper: “Hard to answer […].

“Porto vs Lazio, 4-1, 2002/03 UEFA Cup semi-final. They scored after 50 seconds and didn’t touch the ball after that.

“Inter vs Bayern, 2-0 [2010 Champions League final], after a minute, we already knew who would win.”

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Mourinho’s dig on ex-Man Utd boss

Mourinho’s third and final pick came against United when he was managing Tottenham, with the ‘Special One’ taking a swipe at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over at United as caretaker manager in 2018 after Mourinho was axed as Red Devils head coach.

The 51-year-old United legend was appointed as Mourinho’s permanent successor in 2019 and Mourinho inflicted a humiliating defeat on Solskjaer’s side in 2020.

Mourinho took over at Tottenham in 2019 and Spurs secured a crushing 6-1 Premier League win over United at Old Trafford.

The ex-Spurs and Roma boss insisted that Tottenham could have scored up to ‘nine times’ against Solskjaer’s team after blowing United out of the water in the match.

“Manchester United vs Tottenham, 1-6 [in the 2020-21 Premier League] and it could have been seven, eight, nine,” Mourinho continued.

“It’s equally difficult not to find a perfect match in my Chelsea who ate up the Premier League.”