Mourinho's antics bring angry response from Barcelona

Jose Mourinho was once popular in Barcelona as part of the club's coaching staff but he is now threatening to rival Luis Figo as a hate figure at the Nou Camp. The Chelsea manager has come under renewed attack from Barcelona players for his behaviour and tactics during the clubs' Champions League tie.

Samuel Eto'o led the criticism as bitterness lingered at Chelsea's 5-4 aggregate win. Eto'o's claim that he was called "a monkey" by a steward has been denied by Chelsea, who added that the striker spat at a steward, and Uefa is set to investigate trouble in and around the tunnel after the match.

"We were the only team that wanted to play football," Eto'o claimed in the El Mundo Deportivo newspaper. "Chelsea going through is a disaster for football. And if this team wins the Champions League, it would make you want to retire. With so much money and so many players, what they do is not football."

Chelsea will note that their four goals on Tuesday indicated that they can do far more than defend but Eto'o also trained his ire on Mourinho's personal conduct.

"Mourinho is shameless," he said. "At the end they followed his game, did what he wanted, although this time I suppose he will have appeared in the press conference (unlike after the first leg)."

Mourinho was criticised by the midfielder Demetrio Albertini for his exuberant victory celebrations on the pitch.

"Mourinho cannot behave like this," he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "His behaviour is very bad for football. As a coach I don't know him. He may have won the Champions League but he cannot go on like this. I was a part of the group that was in front of him when he started celebrating. You can win, or lose, but certain behaviour is not acceptable."

Chelsea's manager may be encouraged that his behaviour, starting before the first leg, apparently unsettled Barcelona.

"It was clear that Mourinho knew exactly how to go about creating tension around the match," said the midfielder Gerard. "We were too innocent and have to learn from their non-footballing tactics."

Eto'o also believed his side were denied victory by Italian official Pierluigi Collina. The striker feels Collina, regarded by many as the finest referee in the world, should have disallowed John Terry's winning goal because of a foul on goalkeeper Victor Valdes by Ricardo Carvalho.

"Collina helped Chelsea. He denied me a clear penalty and in the fourth goal they fouled Victor Valdes, but those things happen," he said.

Barcelona captain Carles Puyol and Brazil playmaker Ronaldinho were also bitterly upset Terry's goal was allowed to stand.

Ronaldinho, who scored both of Barca's goals in the second leg, said: "When the linesman doesn't run directly to the halfway line (after a goal has been scored), it's because something has happened. I saw the tug on Victor Valdes, we all saw it and the linesman did too."

Puyol added: "I saw the assistant stop after the fourth goal, and after we went to speak to him, that is when he ran to the halfway line."

Ronaldinho also claimed there was a confrontation in the tunnel after the final whistle.

"I am very unhappy with the defeat and afterwards there was a confrontation in the tunnel because there were a lot of stewards and they would not let us leave," Ronaldinho told the AS newspaper.

"We failed in some areas but we did not deserve to lose how we did and be knocked out of Europe."

Meanwhile, Chelsea will have to be far more methodical if Mourinho is again to collect the trophy he secured for Porto last year. The manager has the best side in the Premiership but that may only illustrate the gulf that has to be bridged before an English club can dominate the Champions League as Spanish, Italian and German rivals have done.

Without Petr Cech, Chelsea would not be in the quarter-final draw to be made on March 18th. "I helped my team win the game," said the goalkeeper, understating the matter. The defence, so accustomed to squelching every threat on the domestic scene, had its finest moments on Tuesday while making a frantic clearance or an appallingly risky challenge inside the penalty area such as Carvalho's precision tackle on Eto'o.