Former Liverpool star who played under Mourinho tells shocking story of gamesmanship

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We all know some managers and players will go out of their way to get gain an advantage in games. It’s understandable – there is a lot at stake from a financial, professional, success standpoint.

Liverpool legend Jerzy Dudek, who won the Champions League with us in 2005, has revealed an incredible story about Jose Mourinho.

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The Polish keeper played under the Portuguese boss when he left us. He signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2007, with Jose taking over three years later in the summer of 2010.

He regales a story about how he was sat on the bench when Madrid went to Ajax in the fifth group game of the 2010/11 Champions League.

We’ll let Jerzy tell the rest.

“We were 2-0 up, through to the next round and still had one game to play,” he said. (Echo)

“Mourinho told me that if Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos, who had been booked, got themselves sent off they would miss the final meaningless group game against Auxerre and have no suspensions hanging over them going into the knockout phase.

“He asked me to run down to Iker and pass on the instruction of what they needed to do.

“I nodded and jogged down the touchline with a bottle of water to pass to Casillas. ‘Iker, the boss said tell Xabi and Sergio to get another booking so they miss the next game.’

“I jogged back to the bench and noticed that Iker was whispering in Sergio’s ear. He then ran over to Xabi.

“In the 87th minute, with the score at 4-0, Xabi was given a second yellow card for time wasting. Sergio was also given a second booking for time wasting in stoppage time.”

To be fair, we seem to remember Rafa doing something similar with Dirk Kuyt around that time too.

Will we see such gamesmanship from Jose at Anfield on Monday night? We wouldn’t put anything past him.

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