Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has told Liverpool's and Tottenham's players they must be mentally prepared for this weekend's Champions League final.
The pair will do battle in Madrid on Saturday night in what will be the first all-English final since United's penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea in 2008.
Neither club has much experience of winning trophies in recent years and Mourinho has told both sets of players their mentality must be right going into the fixture.
“First of all you have to be ready yourself. The players must know, must feel, must smell that you are ready. That’s, I think, the most important thing,” Mourinho told RT.
“The final is a state of mind. They’re not my words, I don’t know which manager said that many years ago, but some big manager said that ‘finals are not to play, finals are to win.’
“You have to play a final feeling that you are going to win, you are going to be prepared for everything, nothing can surprise you.
“The right back needs to know about everything about the player who can play left winger. [If you are Liverpool] you have to know about Lucas [Moura], about [Erik] Lamela, about Son [Heung-min], about [Dele] Alli because sometimes he can play there. You have time to go for every detail."
Mourinho, who hasn't lost a European final as a manager, added: “That’s my experience of European finals, four, and for all four, I used every minute of that week to prepare the team and to reduce the unpredictability.
“Because the players are going to have enough tension with them, it doesn’t matter the experience, they are going to feel it, it’s not a normal game, they are going to feel it.
“And if you can give them confidence with your state of mind, but also this tactical base, then reduce the levels of pressure, increase the levels of confidence, and you are closer to win than to lose."
