'Stop crying,' Jose tells Rafa

Last updated : 07 December 2005 By Paul Lagan
Jose Mourinho has gone on the offensive to protect his midfield star Michael Essien.

By telling Rafael Benitez to "stop crying and sit down," Morinho is trying to prevent Essien from the backlash resulting from the horror challenge on Liverpool's Dietmar Hamann.

Hamann said: "It was the worst tackle I've ever been on the receiving end of. I really feared I had broken my leg.

"I was going for the ball and I think he came over the ball and caught me just below the knee," he added.

Boss Rafael Benitez said: "It's clear in the video. I have my opinion, I have seen Hamann's leg."

Mourinho said he did not see the incident thus preventing him having to defend Essien directly - instead he challenged the Liverpool bench to sit down and stop crying.
"I cannot give my version of it because I didn't see it," said the Chelsea boss.
"I was telling the Liverpool bench that they were crying all the game. They needed to sit down a little bit and relax."

It's classic Mourinho and it worked.

Essien was lucky that the referee, Herbert Fandel from Germany, did not see the incident, in fact he gave a free-kick to Chelsea.

Uefa have said this morning that they will not take action against Essien as they do not use video as evidence.

So all in all, because it was a dour draw, the only talking point is the bad tackle.

Chelsea finish second in the group behind Liverpool. Both sides are into the knockout stage of the Champions League with Chelsea facing one of the other group winners.