“Look at today’s games: Barcelona-Levski, no yellow cards for Barcelona; Bayern Munich, one yellow card; Liverpool, no yellow cards; Valencia, one yellow card; Roma, one yellow card; Chelsea, four yellow cards. But the referee had a good game.”

While questioning the justification of some of the bookings, Mourinho said it appeared there’s one rule for English football and another for the European game.

“I think if Drogba has to be booked then Diego has to be booked also because it is exactly the same situation: offside followed by a shot. John Terry? Not for me, maybe later, but not that one. And Lampard, I don’t think so. My players are players with a lot of fair play. They don’t get yellow cards in English football and in European football they have a lot of cards.”

Inevitably the questioning came around to why Frank Lampard had not taken tonight’s penalty.

“I told them if the next penalty after last weekend’s miss is crucial for the game, it is better for another player to take the responsibility. But, in the future, if the next penalty comes in a moment where Lamps is cool and in conditions to take it, he will take it again,” Mourinho explained, then continued to state his support for his under-fire midfielder.

“Maybe people remember that Lampard missed a penalty against Charlton. I remember that over the last two years, he scored more then ten penalties for us, important penalties, crucial penalties, and he never let us down. So I told him he can miss a penalty when the team doesn’t need the penalty.”

Further probing from the media regarding Lampard clearly irritated Mourinho who responded impatiently with:

“I think something is happening with the English press with Frank Lampard. I spoke with him about it and for me, he is guilty. Do you know why he is guilty? Because you never had a player like him for the last ten years and, because of that, you are having a go at him.

“He is guilty because he scored so many goals. He is guilty because he plays so many matches. He is guilty because he plays for Chelsea and for England with 100 per cent of his effort every game, game after game. He is guilty because he has an unbelievable record of consecutive matches. He is guilty because he is such a good player. But I think you should respect him a little bit more.”

And with that, Mourinho refused to answer any further questions and departed sharply.
______________________________________contradicted yet agn at 7:38 am ;