Brendan Rodgers has hit out at Diego Costa for two apparent stamps on his Liverpool players during an ill-tempered Capital One Cup semi-final but Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said the striker was the victim of a television vendetta.
An extra-time goal from Branislav Ivanovic was enough to give Chelsea a 2-1 aggregate victory after the teams could not be separated over 180 minutes of the two-legged semi-final.
But most of the talk was about Costa, who could face retrospective punishment - likely to be a ban - for what looked like a stamp on Emre Can, that Rodgers branded “nasty”. The Chelsea striker also clashed in similar fashion with Martin Skrtel.
“He’s an outstanding player, an outstanding footballer," said Rodgers of Costa. "He obviously has this edge to him. We see the TV incidents, the two that he had. The one with Emre Can, that was poor I felt.
“He could easily hurdle over the young player. But he directs his studs right on to his ankle, which could have been nasty.
“And the one with Martin Srktel, again, there’s no need to do it. That’s the sad thing. He’s a top-class player. And he’s clever enough that the officials don’t see it. But it’s poor by him because he’s an outstanding player, a top player, and he doesn’t need to do it.
“The referee didn’t see it, it’s not my job to tell him [whether it should have been a red card]. It’s disappointing when you see such a good player behave like that.”
Sky Sports television pundit Jamie Redknapp said that Costa should have been sent off. Mourinho, who believed Costa should have been awarded a first-half penalty after a challenge from Skrtel, insisted Costa had not purposely stamped on Can.
“I don’t know what you understand by a stamp,” said Mourinho. “Maybe you are already influenced by the campaign on the television with the certain pundits saying that Costa has crimes – they must be nuts the guy who says that. I saw the incident and about the penalty I didn’t speak. If I comment about that I will be in trouble.
“Sky calls it a crime, I have to say that it was absolutely accidental. He goes to the ball, he chases it, the opponent goes to the floor and he puts his foot there when he is looking at the ball.
Accused: Jose Mourinho believes Jamie Redknapp is waging a campaign against him and Chelsea on Sky Sports (Photo:GETTY)
“It is a great campaign, we know how much that pundit loves Chelsea and particularly loves me. When you are there and you are paid, and you are very well paid, much more than some managers that have to put their ass for 90 minutes every week on the bench. You have a very good seat, very good money, no pressure. They are always right, they never lose, they always win and they have to be fair and they have to be honest.”
Mourinho also pointed out the fact that Rodgers, who was a youth coach under the Portuguese at Stamford Bridge, failed to praise his own goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and instead focused on the superb performance of Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois.
“We are very different persons," said Mourinho. "He worked with me at Chelsea. I don’t know whether or not he learned from me.
“We are different. I could speak about Skrtel and I don’t. He speaks about Courtois and forgets Mignolet. He speaks about my keeper, but when I do I speak about him?
“To say Courtois played fantastic, I could say the same about Mignolet. We have different profiles, he is a fantastic manager but we are different persons.”
Having been knocked out by Bradford City in the FA Cup, Mourinho hailed the mental strength of his players to come through a semi-final against Liverpool.
“My view is that this was a big semi-final with two big games and when we speak about this one it was really big,” said Mourinho. “Both teams are in the limit and the result is that we had the edge. The result speaks for itself, 1-1 there and 0-0 there and one goal to decide in extra time.
“I always say to the players that when a difficult moment arrives, we coped because Liverpool was creating more than us. We have to be humble and intelligent and wait for the right moment to be in control of the game.
“That moment arrived in the second half. Mignolet was amazing and when we scored the team showed maturity and control.”
Chelsea face Premier League title rivals Manchester City this weekend. Filipe Luis was forced out of the Liverpool game with a calf injury, Cesc Fabregas suffered a hamstring problem that forced him off and Ivanovic cut his foot.
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