Mourinho insists Chelsea thoughts can wait

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho batted away all questions about his Champions League return to Chelsea in February, insisting on Saturday that he is only focused on Sunday’s visit of Lazio.

Friday’s Champions League second round draw pitted the Italian champions against their coach’s former employers in a mouth-watering tie that will also see Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti make his return to the city he left in June after eight years at the AC Milan helm.

But despite the excitement caused by that draw, Mourinho played down the significance of his return to a club where he was idolised.

“I don’t have anything in particular to say because the game is more than two months away,” he said.

“We’re talking about my ex team, my ex players, my ex fans, my ex stadium, but that’s exactly it, they’re all exes and as a professional I’ll be treating the second round match the same regardless of whether it’s against Manchester United, Chelsea or any other team.

“Right now I want my team to concentrate on the Lazio match before the break, on the winter break itself, on the Italian Cup and then when it comes to Chelsea so be it.”

Inter lead the Serie A table by five points from neighbours Milan and depending on weekend results will head into the two and a half week holiday break with anything from a two to eight point lead.

And Mourinho is wary of a Lazio team that although just three points above the relegation zone has already beaten Inter once this season in the Italian Supercup in China, although that was a minor miracle in a game totally dominated by the champions.

“If we play the same great match we did in Beijing in August in the Supercup then we’ll win because normally when you play very, very well, you win,” said the Portuguese.

“We did that in Beijing but we lost, which can happen in football.

“Tomorrow we have the chance to win and we’ll do it. Lazio are a team that are much better than the points they have in the table.

“Like us they played in midweek but they did so with players who won’t be on the pitch tomorrow (Sunday) whereas we’ll have practically the same team that played against Livorno on Wednesday.

“We respect Lazio but we want to win, we’re prepared, we’ve not worked much but we’ve done so well.”

Mourinho rested several players for the Italian Cup match in midweek but Lazio played a virtual reserve side in the Europa League.

Inter stalwarts such as Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito, Javier Zanetti, Maicon and Esteban Cambiasso should all come back into the side but Wesley Sneijder is suspended after his sending off last week.