Mourinho's Verdict On Defeat To Basel

Jose Mourinho has been reflecting on Manchester United’s UEFA Champions League defeat to Basel on Wednesday night.

The Reds' perfect record in Group A this season came to an end at St. Jakob-Park as Michael Lang’s late goal secured a 1-0 victory for the Swiss champions, who kept their own hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages alive. But United still look on course to finish top of the group, with a home game against CSKA Moscow to come on 5 December.

Read the key points the boss made in his post-match press conference and on BT Sport…

PERFECT FIRST HALF WITHOUT THE GOALS
“The first half was a perfect half without the goals. It was difficult to repeat in the second half, we knew the opponent would try a different reaction. We lost because in the first half we should be 5-0 up but we could not score one goal after being so dominant. It looked for many periods in the first half that it was impossible not to win. I think the majority of the second half the feeling of everyone was okay, it will be 0-0, but they got the late goal."

POGBA GOING OFF HAD AN IMPACT
"Did Pogba coming off have an impact on the team? I think it did have an impact, we were not such a good team after Paul came off but it had to be with the levels of fatigue after 65 minutes. I brought to the pitch an experienced player like [Nemanja] Matic and thought it couldn't affect the game. I bring Marcus [Rashford] to give us more speed, more problems to them, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] to hold the ball and the approach was good.”

NO COMPLAINTS
“I cannot complain or blame the players. I think we play a match like this 10 times and nine times we win comfortably but the one was now. I lost here with Chelsea also in the last minute, we had one shot on target and played really bad, but that wasn't the case today. I think we were really, really good in the first half.”

THE APPROACH
“We played against a team with five defenders, we knew that we tried to play with three attacking players, that worked in the first half. We didn’t score in the second half, we knew one point was enough. In the end, we lost so it's hard for me to be upset with the players. In the first half, the attitude and football was good. It’s just football. An easy match to win. It’s great for them [Basel], now they have a good chance to qualify.”

PRAISE FOR RETURNING ROJO
“[Marcos] Rojo played very well. He could be playing a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t need to rush him. The first half was very easy, he had lot of the ball, he didn’t have to be physically demanding. He controlled very well his game, so I’m really happy.”