Jose Mourinho ready to swim with Euro sharks

Jose Mourinho (in pic) insists Chelsea will show no fear when they dive into the shark infested waters of the Champions League last 16. Mourinho’s side got back on track with a 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in their Group G finale at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to erase the bitter taste of their first defeat of the season at Newcastle last weekend. As group winners, the Blues will be pitted against one of big-spending French club Paris Saint Germain, Italian champions Juventus, Swiss side Basel, Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen or Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine in Monday’s draw for the knockout stages. Asked how he felt about the impending draw, Mourinho produced a typically memorable response as he suggested he would have no problem taking on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the rest of the expensively assembled Paris squad.

“I like swimming with sharks, in a cage! I did it in French Polynesia. I didn’t want to do it, but my wife and kids pushed me. The draw is the draw. We have five possible opponents. I think Paris would be good because it is easy to travel for us and the fans. But we can’t decide. Everyone is hard. You think Basel is easy? We lost twice to them last year and they beat Liverpool this season and Manchester United a few years ago. Leverkusen is a German team, Shakhtar? I don’t think there is an easy team at this moment,” Mourinho said.