Mourinho explains sage advice he gave Lampard in heated exchange

Jose Mourinho claims he was offering Frank Lampard some sage advice in a heated touchline exchange during Tottenham’s win over Chelsea on Tuesday.

A long night looked on the cards as Spurs, playing without a recognised striker on the pitch, went behind in the 19th minute to Timo Werner’s first Chelsea goal.

But Mourinho’s men got better as the night went on and deservedly levelled in the 83rd minute through Erik Lamela, which sent it to penalties.

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The first nine spot-kicks were successfully converted before Mason Mount missed the decisive one to send Spurs through to the quarter-final.

It gave Mourinho a first managerial win over Frank Lampard and the pair ended the night as friends, though it did get heated midway through the first half.

Mourinho took umbrage at his former midfielder chatting when the Portuguese appealed for a foul and offered him some advice, mixed in with a few expletives.

“With Frank the most important thing is my feelings towards him rather than any words we exchanged,” Mourinho said. “I owe him everything he gave me, he always gave me everything he had as a player and I never forget that.

“My feelings towards him will always be feelings of how much I owe him for how much of an incredible player, friend he was.

“The only thing I was telling him, just an opinion of an old coach to a young talented coach, which was when the players need us it is when they are losing, when they are winning we don’t need to be the protagonists of the touchline, we need to be there when they are losing.

“In the last match when they were losing 3-0 I felt really sorry for him because he was sad and quiet in his chair.”

Lampard brushed the incident off, however.

He said: “We were having some fun on the line. I get on well with Jose and I think he said that to me.

“I commented on the fact that he seemed to speak more with the referee than he speaks with his players so it is just a moment with us. I have a huge respect for Jose, no matter what he says on the touchline.

“I think he was feeling the sense of the first half and how it was. All was well at the end of the game and that will never change.”