After watching his Manchester United side fall to a convincing loss to Juventus, Jose Mourinho acknowledged that they are a long way behind the Italian champions.
Although the scoreline was only 1-0 in Juve’s favour thanks to a first half Paulo Dybala strike, it was a dominant and comfortable performance from the visiting side.
Mourinho admitted that he has a begrudging respect for the way they have conducted themselves in recent years as they bid to end their Champions League drought.
“We are a bit far behind them. Juventus are champions for sevens years in a row, two Champions League finals, and are not happy with what they have,” he told reporters afterwards.
“They want more, they want [Cristiano] Ronaldo. They go for the best in the world. A big club with a big past and a big desire to have a big future and they put everything they have to win the Treble.
“But the Treble is our Treble, yet, but they are really close to it.”
Mourinho does believe that the Old Lady are serious contenders to end Real Madrid’s stranglehold on the competition and came away from the game extremely impressed with Juventus’ central defensive pairing.
“We played against one of the biggest candidates to win the Champions League and we did what was possible to get a different result, especially with the way we played in the second half,” he continued.
“[Giorgio] Chiellini and [Leonardo] Bonucci could go to Harvard University to give lessons on how to be a defender. [Paulo} Dybala and Cristiano were great in attack and they were excellent all over the pitch, they are great.
“They had lots of the ball and frustrated our intentions to be positive. They were more aggressive, and there were no attacking solutions to try from the bench, no Felliani to change the direction of the game. We knew it would be a fight with Valencia for second place.”
The Portuguese tactician also hinted that his side may have to spend once again in the transfer market if they are to close the gap with the Serie A champions.
“How can you reach that level? You can only reach that level by getting the best players. It isn’t easy, as many of those players belong to the best clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, so we try to work with what we have,” he explained.
“Victor [Lindelof] and Chris [Smalling] had very positive games. [Luke] Shaw as well. It was a good experience for some of the boys, it is Romelu Lukaku’s second Champions League season.
“We work hard and we try to improve. Quality is quality, and it is everywhere. Not just the creative players, Chiellini and Bonucci were beautiful.”
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com