Jose Mourinho wary of Didier Drogba, Wesley Sneijder threat
Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder were January purchases of Galatasaray who face Real Madrid in the first-leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: April 03, 2013 11:46 am IST
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho warned of the danger Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder will pose to his side's Champions League hopes as they prepare to face Galatasaray in the first-leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday.
Mourinho managed Drogba and Sneijder at Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively, but he said friendships would be put aside for what he expects to be an extremely tough tie.
"They have been my players and we respect them but for tomorrow we have completely different objectives," he told a press conference on Tuesday.
"They want to win and I want to win."
Mourinho also dismissed suggestions his side were fortunate to have drawn the Turkish champions and said the tag of being favourites didn't sit easily with him.
"It will be a very complicated game. Galatasaray are a team that have a great manager (Fatih Terim) and great experience at this level.
"He knows how to organise his team well, how to defend and work for a good result, but they will have no fear in coming here.
"They have players that have been in the best teams in the world and up front they have three players in (Burak) Yilmaz, Drogba and Sneijder that can do damage to any team.
"I don't like to arrive at this stage as favourites.
"When I won the Champions League with Inter and Porto we weren't favourites and when I have been with Chelsea and Madrid we haven't done so.
"All the teams that get to the quarters arrive with great confidence and excitement and therefore I don't like to talk about favourites."
Mourinho confirmed Iker Casillas would not be in the squad despite returning to training in recent weeks but said they he had no other injury worries.
That means Raphael Varane and Fabio Coentrao should return after missing Saturday's 1-1 draw at Real Zaragoza.
Varane meanwhile said that elimination at this stage of the competition would be a huge disappointment, but also warned against the threat posed by Yilmaz.
"Our goal is to win the Champions League, therefore if we don't achieve that it would be a disappointment so we have to try and get the right result.
"I don't think Galatasaray will have fear of playing against us. We are playing against a team that attack, I dont' know if this will be a good thing but we have to do more damage than they do.
"We know that Yilmaz is a very good striker, that he has scored in many games and he is very fast. We need to pay attention to him and be very careful of his movement."