Anthony Gordon revealed what Jose Mourinho said to him after Newcastle beat Benfica 3-0 in the Champions League, before the elite manager hailed the Magpies and four of their players.
The Magpies won their second Champions League game of the season on Tuesday night. They turned over Mourinho’s Benfica 3-0, with goals coming from Gordon and a brace from Harvey Barnes.
Gordon has maintained the form he showed on England duty over the international break, following his goalscoring performance against Latvia with a goal and an assist against Benfica.
After the match, he was seen in conversation with the opposing side’s elite manager, Mourinho. Gordon has revealed what the boss said to him.
“He said ‘You’re too much,’ which is a big compliment for me because as a kid, he was my favourite manager in the world growing up,” Gordon said.
“It’s quite weird because he was quite a defensive manager, but I just love the way… even then, the bench was getting up. He really creates a team environment, it’s like us against the world. I recognise that from my own game, so it was a big compliment.
“It means an awful lot. Even if I didn’t idolise him, a compliment from any coach at this level means a lot.”
Mourinho then gave public praise to Gordon, as well as three other Newcastle players, as he hailed the Magpies as a whole.
“The first. I wouldn’t call it a transition, but it was a quick attack in which [Amar] Dedic lost to the best player on the pitch, who had a tremendous game, Anthony Gordon, on the diagonal.”
He added: “This tells me about the level of Newcastle. While the score was open, and I think it was even unfairly open, because in the first half the team played well on the pitch, the players felt comfortable in a stadium with a palpable atmosphere.
“The danger they posed for us was obviously from set pieces and everything indirect in the box, because it’s difficult to compete with a team with this physicality, but we had great chances to score, three or four. Before they scored, we had a beautiful shot from [Dodi] Lukebakio that hit the post, so I reiterate that the first-half result doesn’t reflect the game at all.
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“In the second half, we conceded a goal we couldn’t afford, a set piece in our favour, where our initial positioning for the transition was correct, but then we made mistakes in our defensive movement. And when we concede that goal, the differences in characteristics between the teams come to the fore.
“There’s a team with a higher horsepower engine than the other, a team with much more intensity, a team with much more speed. As I said, they have four lightning-fast wingers.
“They don’t have one or two, they have four. And when you change two who come on in the 50th or 60th minute, when you change one and then later change another, we, losing the compact play we had in the first half, were exposed.”
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