The last time Jose Mourinho lost a home league game, Christian Vieri was leading Inter’s striking force. Mourinho was in charge at FC Porto as they lost 3-2 at home to Beira-Mar on February 22, 2002 and he has not lost since. Mourinho didn’t lose a single home league game at Chelsea and is yet to do so as Inter boss. However, he hasn’t come much closer to losing his record than the weekend’s game at home to Siena.
Siena lie bottom of Serie A, but outplayed Inter for large periods of the game and were leading 3-2. With three minutes left on the clock all the visitors had to do was to shut up shop, but Mourinho’s men very rarely give up. Wesley Sneijder scored his second of two free-kicks to tie up the game with moments remaining. His shot from 35 yards struck the post before rolling into the net as Inter breathed a sigh of relief.
Siena looked heart-broken and it was no great surprise that Inter stole all three points in injury time. Goran Pandev fed Walter Samuel who beat the offside trap and slid the ball past Siena keeper Gianluca Pegolo. It was extremely harsh on Siena who showed their frustration at the end of the game as Cribari was shown a red card for dissent.
Mourinho told Sky Sports Italia:
“Siena were better than us on the pitch. They were faster, more mobile and they didn’t deserve to lose. We had luck and incredible character, the character of a team that is convinced it’s impossible to lose at home.”
Mourinho was visibly disappointed with his team’s performance and rightly so. Massimo Maccarone had given the visitors an early lead, but Inter struck back and looked like leading going into half time with goals from Diego Milito and Sneijder.
But moments after Inter had taken the lead, Siena equalised witha goal from Albin Ekdal who is on loan from Juventus. Maccarone gave Siena a deserved 3-2 lead with his second of the game, leaving Inter with it all to do.
Mourinho was clearly worried about losing his record as he added to Sky Sports Italia:
“When we were losing I thought it would be my first defeat at home after eight years, but I would have preferred to lose against Siena and Malesani than a team that I don’t like.
Then I thought that there were still fifteen minutes to play. I didn’t have Materazzi so I thought of advancing Samuel. Samuel is left-footed so he could work well on the wing and get crosses in. I asked myself if the draw was positive, but it wasn’t so I told myself ‘let’s risk’.
And, as I told my president, a lucky coach is better than a good coach.”
Mourinho showed once again why he has such an outstanding record at home, and why Inter with so many players missing are not beaten until it’s over.
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