Former Real Madrid and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho slammed Barcelona in the wake of Liverpool’s 4-0 win at Anfield yesterday, comparing the attitude and mentality of the the Catalan side to that of a U-14 team.
Barca went into the second leg having won the first leg by 3-0 and were expected to get through to the final. Liverpool had created problems and dominated phases of the first leg too but in the second leg they took their chances with the Anfield crowd urging them on.
After the game, Mourinho, who managed Barca's rivals Real Madrid from 2010 to 2013, called out the Blaugrana and singled out Liverpool's fourth goal as an example of their poor mental state.
“If you see that goal in an under-14 or an under-15 match you would say, 'the kids are sleeping, the kids have no mentality to play football, the kids have to learn the basics of the game,' Mourinho said on beIN SPORTS.
"But we are speaking about the best players in the world and to concede that goal really shows you a state of mind.
"At half-time I said if Liverpool score a second goal the atmosphere will be really difficult to cope with and the atmosphere was really difficult to cope with.
"But Barcelona have some of the best players in the world. It's their natural habitat to play at that level, it's their natural habitat to play Barcelona [versus] Real Madrid, Champions League final, Champions League semi-final every season."
Any coach would have a difficult job of explaining that result after such utter humiliation and Mourinho knew that Valverde had a difficult task trying to explain that defeat.
"It's something that's so difficult for me to explain, it's so difficult for me to believe that my team is winning 3-0 in the first leg and we're going to lose 4-0 in the second leg.
"I would like to see Valverde try to explain but I still believe it will be very difficult for him to explain,” Mourinho said.
Judging by how he went on to explain the scenario later on, one might say that Valverde did not do a very good job. “It is what it is,” Valverde said after the game.