Mourinho talks up Madrid-United clash

Jose Mourinho believes Real Madrid’s mouth-watering Champions League clash with Manchester United is ‘the match the world is waiting for’.

United travel to Bernabeu for the first leg of their last-16 tie in midweek, and the Real Madrid boss was seen at Old Trafford to watch the current Premier League leaders defeat Everton 2-0 and extend the gap between themselves and Manchester City to 12 points at the top of the table.

Despite the attractions of Bayern Munich taking on Arsenal and AC Milan facing off against Barcelona in the same round of the competition, Mourinho believes the tie between his own side and United is the main lure for spectators.

“It is the match the world is waiting for,” Mourinho said.

“The world is not waiting for other matches in the Champions League, so I hope we can give the world what they are waiting for.”

Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson are known to enjoy a good relationship and the former, who has won the Champions League on two occasions with both Porto and Inter, was quick to praise his managerial counterpart.

“I feel privileged about that because he is such an important person in the world of football and, more importantly than that, he is good person,” Mourinho added.

“I have always had a fantastic relationship and I am proud of it. We have had so many matches between us which started with Porto. We had some with Chelsea, Inter and now Real. At all of my clubs I have met Manchester United and Sir Alex.

“Of course, I want to win and he wants to win, but I believe the loser will have a little bit of space to feel a little bit happy because of the friendship, but I want to win.”