Just a couple weeks ago, the blood of Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho boiled over when Chelsea Assistant Marco Ianni celebrated his side’s equalizer with a fist bump directly in front of Mourinho’s seat on the touchline. A fracas ensued and Mourinho had to be physically restrained.
With that incident still fresh in people’s minds last night, what Mourinho did to taunt the Juventus crowd seems a bit pot-calling-the-kettle-black. After securing a come from behind road win in Champions League play, over the tournament’s favorite no less, the Portugese did the Hulk Hogan style “I’m cupping my ear so I can (in this case not) hear you” gesture to the home crowd (you can watch the video at this link).
The celebration, which certainly seems a tad hypocritical given the recent context, was explained after the game.
“I was insulted 90 minutes and I’m just here doing my work,” Mourinho said in postgame media opportunities.
“I was insulted, my family was insulted, and I did the gesture meaning I wanted to hear more songs now.”
He further expounded on the gesture and gave this rationalization for BT Sport: “In beautiful Italian they insulted me for 90 minutes. I didn’t insult them. I just made a little thing. I respect Juventus, I respect their players, their manager — I respect everything. I’m really proud of my boys because the performance was really good.”
Okay, so it’s the old “well they started it” defense. Jose Mourinho also took aim at the Football Association during his postgame interviews (watch that video here).
The “extra-curricular activities” if you will overshadowed the master class Mourinho displayed in this match. His substitutions, tactics and decision-making were all reminiscent of vintage Mourinho. Especially so with the misdirection genius on the first goal. The trickery was a thing of beauty.
Now United are in prime position to get through to the knockout round.
“We have one final to play at home against Young Boys. If my mathematics is right then we qualify [only if Valencia don’t beat Juventus] so I think now I leave it to the Old Trafford people,” Mourinho added.
“I hope we arrive on time! We had an amazing escort here today — thank you to the Italian police. Hopefully we can get all three points.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.