Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Jose Mourinho’s Spurs in a dramatic Premier League clash on Sunday.
Nuno Espirito Santo admits he has ‘huge admiration’ for Jose Mourinho after his Wolverhampton Wanderers side stunned Tottenham Hotspur on their own soil yesterday, in quotes reported by the Sun (2 February, Goals Pull-Out, page 5).
In a clash between two Portuguese tacticians, the relative youngster came out on top against a man 11 years his senior.
A typically stylish Raul Jimenez strike, set up in magical fashion by the in-form Diogo Jota, saw Wolves triumph 3-2 in North London and leapfrog Spurs in the Premier League table.
And Nuno was understandably thrilled to claim three points in a game that held special significance for the former Valencia coach. He was a goalkeeper at Porto when Mourinho was still cultivating his ‘special one’ image, winning the UEFA Cup and Champions League together in the early 2000s.
“I have huge admiration for Jose,” Nuno admitted.
“Tottenham are an amazing team and can create so many problems. The second half (for Wolves) was much, much better and the movements for the goal were good.”
Nuno told Sky Sports in late-2018 that Mourinho taught him ‘ how to win’ at Porto and it is fair to say the apprentice is building a managerial reputation to rival that of his experienced master.
Wolves have gone from the middle of the Championship to the top end of the Premier League since Nuno took over at Molineux in 2017 and, with the Black Country giants reaching the latter stages of the Europa League, he will be hoping to replicate Mourinho’s UEFA Cup triumph of 17 years ago.
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