Jose Mourinho has backed his former club Porto to repeat their heroics of 2004 and knock Manchester United out of the Champions League.
Mourinho was in charge of the Portuguese club when they shocked United on their way to winning the competition.
And although his former club are not the force there were and are reckoned to be the weakest team left in the last eight, Mourinho said last night that they have it in them to cause a surprise.
Mourinho – whose Inter Milan team were knocked out by United in the last round – said: ‘All coaches have a belief in his team and FC Porto are a team with tradition in the Champions League. ‘They can eliminate United. It is possible. In 2004 everyone thought it was impossible, but it wasn’t. So why can it not now be possible?
‘These current players have not won anything at the European level, but have experience, mental structure the club is strong.The players have no fear.’
Mourinho also had a dig at another former club, Chelsea.
Sacked by the London club early last season, Mourinho said: ‘It was a club with a big economic dimension, but with lack of structure.
‘The structure of a club should be molded to the philosophy of their coach, his needs and his way of thinking.’
Meanwhile, United’s title slump has prompted them to place their Champions League ambitions at risk by playing their Barclays Premier League game against Aston Villa on the afternoon of Sunday April 5.
United had initially promised their supporters that the game would be switched to Saturday lunchtime if they were drawn to play their Champions League quarter-final first leg at home on the following Tuesday.
But even though the European champions do indeed now play Porto at Old Trafford on April 7, United have chosen to keep the Villa game on the Sunday in order to give their players more time to prepare after coming back from international duty.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will only have 48 hours to ready his team for the Porto game but decided that it was the lesser of two evils, given that the Villa game is now so huge and that 20 players will be returning from international games all over the world.
