"He's a great coach" says Quique Flores about Jose Mourinho, 8-14-2008 Inter v. Benfica Eusebio cup preview

Preview: Benfica 0-0 Inter (4-5 penalties)

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August 15, 2008 , Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal,
19:45 local time, 11:45 PM USA Pacific time

See the play by play and starting lineup, starting 11 click here

I'm so glad neither of them started attacking each other professionally. What a relief. Both Jose Mourinho and Quique Flores, former rivals in the Champions League, praised each other so highly, you'd think they're best friends. So refreshing after the Mourinho-Ranieri exchange.

Today, August 14, 2008, Benfica coach, Quique Sanchez Flores spoke in Spanish, in the press conference. He also praised Jose Mourinho and spoke positively of Benfica pre-season progress. Here's the English translation:

What are the main objectives to achieve in Friday's game against Inter?

Tomorrow all factors are important. We play again at home, in front of our fans in a game that will end our pre-season. We want Benfica to keep growing as a team and gets confident with every movement. The level of difficulty will be very high seeing that the opponent is strong, as a team and individually. Hopefully we can win the trophy, but I have to be reasonable and sustain what I've been saying since the beginning: the most important thing for us is the growth of the team and not much the results. After, when the season officially starts, the most important thing is to get consistent results. If we can add to the trophy we won in Guimarães, it would be fantastic.

About José Mourinho had praised Quique Flores in the exclusive interview to Benfica's official website.

I faced him in important games in the Champions League. I have a good image of José Mourinho. In addition to having conquered various titles with lots of effort and work, he has a lot of personality, facing the profession with responsibility and without fear. He's a great coach. He deserves everything that he already conquered in soccer.

We know each other through the work that we've done in our previous clubs and we have many things in common. We both are methodic coachesthat value organized work and the fact that the players assimilate certain concepts, always with creativity. We have the same philosophy of soccer, that's why Chelsea and Valência were similar teams.

Source: slbenfica.pt Portuguese text Victor Pinto

See the videoclip of Quique saying this in Spanish with Portuguese subtitles

Lisbon, Portugal, August 14, 2008. Quique giving praises to Jose Mourinho as a coach. Visit:Quique Flores devolve elogios de Mourinho

- Your thoughts on Quique's statements?

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