Mourinho pained by FA Cup exit

LONDON — Jose Mourinho said he and his players should feel “ashamed” after the “disgrace” of crashing out of the FA Cup against League One team Bradford City on Saturday.

On an extraordinary day of upsets when the Premier League’s top three clubs were eliminated, Chelsea were beaten 4-2 after leading 2-0 against a club some 50 places below them in the league pyramid. Manchester City were defeated 2-0 at home to Middlesbrough while Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur are both also out of the FA Cup. The odds on Chelsea and City both losing were 285-1.

“Frustration is not the right word — embarrassed would be more appropriate,” Mourinho said of his team’s exit.

Although the Chelsea manager had started with only three of his usual first-choice team, he had told the players before the match that it would be a “disgrace” for them to lose and he repeated that assessment in defeat.

“It’s a disgrace, a sports disgrace, but it’s a disgrace,” the Portuguese said. “I know in the history of the competition this happens now and again. For me it’s the first time, for Chelsea not a lot. I think it is unacceptable to lose against a team from a lower league.”

It was indeed Chelsea’s only defeat against lower-league opposition in Mourinho’s two spells as manager and also Bradford’s first win at Stamford Bridge for 113 years.

“I feel ashamed and I think the players should feel the same as I feel,” Mourinho said. “But on another side, this is the beauty of football, this is the beauty of the FA Cup. I feel happy for them. With my bad feelings about the game, the result and the team, I can feel space to feel happy for them.”

Mourinho went to shake hands with Phil Parkinson, the Bradford manager, when Chelsea went 4-2 down deep into added time but was ushered away.

Parkinson later explained that he still feared a comeback by the west London side and said that Mourinho had personally congratulated his entire team after the game.

“He came over to shake hands and there was still three and half minutes left,” Parkinson said. “I didn’t want to get drawn into that. I don’t think he meant to be disrespectful but I was just focused on getting things right. He came into our dressing room and shook every player by the hand. It was a touch of class.”

Mourinho was adamant that his team selection was not to blame and his players should have been “more than good enough”.

The manager also explained that Andre Schurrle did not play after arriving in the morning with a “little pain” in his back. Schurrle is wanted by Wolfsburg as Chelsea look to sign Shakhtar Donetsk’s Douglas Costa.

Manuel Pellegrini was also left to defend his preparations after City had arrived home only 19 hours before the Middlesbrough match following a trip to Abu Dhabi.

“I don’t agree that the late flight was the reason but people can have their opinion; we had six or seven chances to score,” Pellegrini said.

“We had to change our style of play because we didn’t have our strikers for around a month. After that the strikers are coming back and they needed time to get back. I am concerned, not because it’s the Chelsea game (next Saturday), I’m concerned because in the last two games we haven’t scored at home. We can win that game at Stamford Bridge.”

Aitor Karanka, the Middlesbrough manager, revealed that he had foreseen the victory when the match was still goalless at half-time. “They might have thought I was crazy but at half-time I told my players we have Manchester City in our hands,” he said. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Fast fact:

Ireland-based bookmaker BoyleSports said one Dublin punter walked away with 25,740 euros (US$28,847) from a 15 euro treble on Bradford, Middlesbrough and Leicester City, who beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1.