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Enzo Maresca makes Jose Mourinho feelings clear as Chelsea boss explains Benfica challenge
Sep 29 2025 12:38 · By Sam Truelove/Bobby Vincent · 13 Reads
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Jose Mourinho was appointed Benfica boss earlier this month (Photo by Valter Gouveia/Sports Press Photo/Getty Images)
Enzo Maresca has admitted it will be a "privilege" to take on Jose Mourinho's Benfica side in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Chelsea welcome the Portuguese side to Stamford Bridge in what will be the Blues' second game of the Champions League league phase. Bayern Munich beat the west Londoners in matchday one of the competition earlier this month and Maresca will be intent on putting some points on the board.
Mourinho will make his Stamford Bridge return after replacing Bruno Lage as Benfica manager two weeks ago. Lage was sacked from his role after Benfica's shock Champions League defeat against Qarabag.
"It will be a privilege to face Jose tomorrow," Maresca said at his pre-match press conference. "A legend for this club, not only for this club but for different clubs."
He added: "For me, it's first of all a privilege to represent this club in the Champions League. For sure it's also a privilege to face a fantastic manager like Jose tomorrow."
Chelsea faced Benfica in the round of 16 in the Club World Cup, with the Blues coming out 4-1 winners. The game on Tuesday night will likely be a much different encounter, however.
"It's probably a little bit more difficult [to prepare] and the reason why is because they just played I think three or four games with Jose. All the teams that I started to watch unfortunately were with the former manager," Maresca said.
"I watched three or four games with Jose. I watched also some games where Jose was Man Utd or Spurs or Roma in Italy. But for sure it will be a completely different game compared to the Club World Cup game."
He added: "I think from Benfica, from Chelsea you can expect the way they are playing now, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1. But you can also expect that they can play back five. So I expect two or three different things and we have a plan for these two or three things that I expect. But he showed during his career how good he has been playing with different shapes, so we expect different things."