Marouane Fellaini's stoppage-time winner seals last-16 spot with game to spare; Portuguese believes other clubs are better placed to win competition
Wednesday 28 November 2018 00:25, UK
Jose Mourinho launched water bottles into the Old Trafford turf in a display of "relief" after Manchester United qualified for the Champions League knockout phase with a dramatic victory over Young Boys.
After a night of frustration, the Portuguese hurled a water carrier to the ground after Marouane Fellaini's stoppage-time winner sealed United's passage to last-16 with a game to spare.
"Relief, frustration before that, and relief for the goal," Mourinho said, when asked to explain his wild celebrations.
"We didn't play for 0-0, we didn't play to be in trouble until the last minute. So frustration. I was not unhappy with the players, not at all, I was frustrated with the fact that we could not score.
"My players were very tired in the end and that is what I love, I want my players to be tired. They gave everything and did that with moments of very good football, moments of quality, moments of hypothetically beautiful goals, but also with moments of pressure, moments of lack of confidence.
"That frustrated us but in the end we scored."
United look set to finish in second behind current Group H leaders Juventus, who have a two-point advantage heading into their Matchday 6 clash with Young Boys.
Mourinho believes qualifying from such a group ahead of Valencia and Young Boys constitutes success, but feels other clubs are currently better placed to mount a substantial challenge for the European Cup.
"Realistically I think to be in the last-16 in this group is an achievement, not a big one, not a fantastic one, but it is an achievement because we could finish third and be playing in the Europa League in February, which is not going to happen," he added.
"There are better teams than us, there are teams with more quality, more realistic ambitions.
"But I always say when a team arrives in the Champions League quarter-final, and not the last-16, the last-16 is still a long way to go, but when a team goes over one knockout phase and arrives in the quarter-final, anything can happen.
"But at this moment we are going to finish second as you know and we are going to get a team that won the group. So we can have Barca, Real, Bayern - the best teams in the world."
