By the time Rafa Benitez was forced to end his football career, he already knew for sure that he was destined to become a football coach. The severe trauma he received as early as 19 years old when he played for the student national team made him go to school with great zeal. “For me, football has always been a matter that deserves a deeper scientific study.” Being a very clever specialist, Benitez is by no means a despot - he always treats football players with understanding and never stoops to those coaches who begin to prohibit one or another of their players. "Organization and discipline are very important components of success in any team, but when working on team discipline, I never apply any prohibitions." He says to himself: “Regarding the Champions League final two years ago, I would like to note two very important differences from the upcoming finals: now we will not miss our goal in the first minutes and, secondly, and most importantly, I have since recovered a lot. The thing is that I work a lot and eat too much chocolate. "
- Rafael, please comment on the phrase: "To play against a team that closed in its half of the field is like having sex with a tree."
“Who told her?”
- Valdano.
- So let her comment on it. I know him for twenty years - he is one of those people who just do what they say.
“How is Mourinho?”
- In no case. Mourinho is working. And Valdano just talks and does nothing else.
“And he accuses you of being addicted to defensive football.” Does this bother you?
- We play well, and football, in turn, has a lot of different faces. There are teams that control the game for a long time owning the ball or who play positionally. There are teams that spend all the time in the attack and who are constantly defending.
- They say you accustomed your Liverpool to boring football.
- Football is a big sport, but in big sport you need to achieve results. Beautiful football is an invention of commentators who live off the game, just talking about it and not doing anything else. What does it mean to play spectacularly? We have good matches and win.
“But do you like playing well?”
- Of course, I like to play well and win.
- Therefore, the result justifies everything?
- All this chatter is the real stupidity, more characteristic of philosophers. And I am on the edge of the football field and have to make specific decisions, playing every week. And that’s exactly what I do.
“Beautiful football is an invention of commentators who live off the game, just talking about it and doing nothing else”
- What is more important in football - talent or the best organization?
- In football, you cannot give everything to the inspiration. I like strong players, winning players. And the winners are only those people who have been instilled with a culture of working since childhood. And they work all their life.
- In your coaching activities, a whole coaching staff helps you. It should be noted that Carlo Ancelotti prefers to work in a brigade.
- If you have a whole team of assistants, then you manage to notice a greater number of nuances during the preparation of the team. Nobody needs surprises.
- I believe that you have already managed to overcome the language problems that prevented you in Istanbul when you had to look for words to motivate your wards during the break with a score of 0: 3 in favor of the opponent?
- Two years have passed and during this time I learned a lot of new things. But the problem in the communication of the foreign coach with the players is not that he does not know how to say what he wants to get from them and what they tell you. Very often they don’t answer at all and make me think that they don’t understand what I’m telling them. But that time they really understood very well.
- You once said that if in the finals it comes to after the match penalty, it will be in the hands of Liverpool.
- In any case, none of the teams will have a significant advantage and a small loss of concentration of one of the parties will be enough to decide the outcome of the final match. Personally, I prefer to think that there will not be a favorite in this game, because it really is.
- What do you feel, having got with your team for the second time in the Champions League final, without being favorites in this race? No one expected to see Liverpool in Athens.
- And we were waiting for this.
- Aren't you sorry that Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson said the other day that he wished to win for Milan?
“I don’t know why he made such a statement, and I’m not quite sure what he could say.” If he really said such things, then it amazes me. As I understand it, he prefers to be knocked out of the rally by a team that will then win the main prize, because his Manchester lost to Milan. I assure you that we will do our best so that Ferguson does not have to uncork the bottle of wine that Ancelotti gave him.
- Maybe you should give him a bottle of wine ...
- I would prefer to give it to our fans.
Translation by George BYCHKOV