Mourinho told me to ‘shut down Ronaldo’ to win final

Shaun Wright-Phillips reveals the secret plan to keep Cristiano Ronaldo quiet in the 2007 FA Cup final between Chelsea and Man United

Transcript

00:00We keep Ronaldo quiet, we win the game 1-0.

00:02You both started, right, in 2007.

00:04What was going through your mind?

00:06Wow, first of all.

00:07First one at Wembley.

00:08Yeah, wow, basically, like to be given a nod

00:12ahead of like Duffs and the Robins

00:14and the people that were there.

00:15It's like, okay, there's some real belief in me,

00:18sort of thing.

00:19But Mourinho was very clever.

00:20I always found him premeditated

00:22about everything he did down to training

00:26and what was going to happen next.

00:27And he came up to me earlier in the week

00:29and he said, like, I think I'm going to start you

00:31in this final.

00:32Really?

00:32And he said to me, his exact words were like,

00:35I know you love attacking

00:37and I know I want you to attack.

00:38But he said, we need you and Paulo

00:40to focus more on defending.

00:42He said, if you can attack, then you attack.

00:44But I promise you, we keep Ronaldo quiet,

00:46we win the game 1-0.

00:48And that was basically what me and Paulo did.

00:50We just aimed to keep Cristiano Ronaldo tired.

00:53And if I could break, then I would.

00:55But my focus was solely on him.

00:58Smart. I must have started on the left.

01:00He didn't tell me I was starting,

01:01so he must have made that decision late.