Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is confident his team can match European
champions Bayern Munich in Friday night's UEFA Super Cup clash - but
refused to fan the flames of his rivalry with Pep Guardiola.
The
pair were fierce competitors in La Liga as respective head coaches of
Barcelona and Real Madrid but the Spaniard came out on top, Mourinho
winning just three times in 15 games.
He disputed his poor record
against Guardiola on Thursday, before relenting and turning his focus to
the teams rather than the personalities.
"Your statistics are
wrong and very wrong," Mourinho told a reporter. "But I don't want to
discuss that. Because it's not important. It's wrong.
"Go there
and see what happened with Inter in the Champions League semi-final. I
won the Spanish Cup final in Valencia, I won the Super Cup in Spain. I
was champion in Spain. I won the match for the title in Barcelona with
Real Madrid.
"Maybe you are right and I am wrong. But I don't care. It's not important.
"It's about a Super Cup where the European champion is playing against the Europa League champion.
"Pep
is not European champion and I'm not Europa League champion. We just
coach now the European champion and the Europa League champion. This is
not about us. It's about Chelsea and Bayern."
Mourinho said he was sure of a competitive match at the Stadion Eden.
"It's good for us," he added. "Before we start the Champions League, it's very good to play with Bayern.
"I
don't want players to feel that because we were successful in the
Europa League, you can keep the same level and you can be successful in
the Champions League, because it's a different planet.
"What I
really feel is that in spite of a difference in experience between the
two teams and the stability Bayern has - because over the last years
they were basically the same team, the same players - we can compete
against them.