Rafa Benitez: Football is one big lie

Napoli manager Rafael Benitez has branded football a big lie and revealed how he masterminded Liverpool’s Champions League final comeback against AC Milan.

The former Inter Milan and Chelsea boss in an interview with La Repubblica talked about how managers work their way around the press hiding the truth of the matter.

Benitez said:

“Football is one big lie. There are lots of things you can’t say in public. I know when one of my players has had a bad game, but I’ll never admit it to the press. I consider it my right and my duty to talk to the player who has underperformed in private and tell him where he went wrong and how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Otherwise, what is a coach for?

“If I meet up with Ancelotti, I know he won’t tell me everything that’s going on at Real Madrid. And I won’t tell him everything about Napoli. We can only afford to be honest about other teams.

On Liverpool’s Champions League final comeback after going 3-0 down, Rafa Benitez said:

“Two minutes before the break we were 2-0 down and I was wondering what I could tell the players at half-time. And then suddenly they scored a third. So I told them: ‘So far they’ve been the only team on the pitch, but if we score, it could be a complete turnaround’.

“We went on to score three times in six minutes. Dudek did great on the penalties. He knew beforehand how four of the five Milan players took them. Neither Ancelotti nor I got a single decision wrong. We did everything we could.”