Jose Mourinho slammed former Manchester United star Daley Bind and Matthijs de Ligt after Tottenham Hotspurs dramatic comeback win against Ajax on Wednesday night.
The Dutch outfit appeared on course to reach first Champions League final in thirtheen years as they scored twice in the first half in Johan Cruyff Arena to lead 3-0 on aggregate.
But Brazil international Lucas Moura netted three times in the second half which was completed in the sixth minute of injury time and book Spurs’ place June 1 final in Madrid.
But Mourinho was not happy with Ajax’s approach after they gained such a comfortable advantage and accused them of treating the second half ‘like they were playing Vitesse in the Eredivisie League’. The former Manchester United coach also believes Blind and De Ligt were at fault for the lack of defensive organisation shown by Ajax. Asked if Ajax needed to change their philosophy when they were leading 3-0 on aggregate, Mourinho told beIN Sports: “For me, yes.
“For me, the philosophy is what makes a team grow up in a direction.
“Every team grows up, you need that base, you need that philosophy, you need that style of play adapted to the quality of the players.
“Ajax deserve all the credit for that and all the admiration of people like us who love football, and we give them the credit they deserve.
“And to win matches, especially special matches, for special matches you need sometimes not to be tied to your philosophy.
“Sometimes you even need to go against your philosophy to win a football match ‘And I think if Ajax, in the second half, hide their weaknesses better, but everybody knows their weaknesses, they have to cope with that.
“We saw many examples in their attacking situations, we had other situations where Blind and De Ligt were outside.
“The basic thing you do when you have an advantage is keeping your balance all the time – never unbalanced.
“The balance starts exactly with the defensive line in position then after that a certain number of players always behind the ball line.
“But they stuck with their philosophy, they played the game in the second half like they were playing Vitesse in the Dutch league.
“They played like it was a group phase game, or one more game in their own league. “And I think in this moment they don’t believe what happened to them.
“Tottenham changed, they used very, very well direct football, they were lucky, they had the gods of football with them, but they chased that luck.”
