He has worked with the very
best. Jose Mourinho has
coached some of Europe's
finest in the last decade,
starting with his great Porto
side which stunned the rest of the continent by winning the

Champions League in 2004. He
then guided Chelsea
agonisingly close to their holy
grail and dominated
domestically, led an all- conquering Inter outfit which
made history, and now a
Madrid XI aiming to reach a
third straight semi-final in the
game's premier club
competition. In order to advance to the last
four, Mourinho's men must
beat Galatasary, but standing
in their way are two of the
coach's finest former charges -
Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder. So as the pair set out
to upset the man who was
their mentor at Chelsea and
Inter, respectively, Goal.com picks a possible dream team
from the Portuguese's players
at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and
Madrid. It is impossible to pick such a
side without leaving out a
wealth of top talents, players
considered to be among the
world's finest. Yet the idea
was not to select the 11 best players per se, but the
greatest line-up of footballers
in their time spent under
Mourinho's guidance. And
after much deliberation, it
was decided that this team would play in a 4-3-3
formation, the system
favoured by the Portuguese
at both Porto and Chelsea, and
not his current 4-2-3-1. So here
goes...

Four men fight it out for the
starting spot in goal. Vitor Baia was an experienced head and a natural leader at Porto,
while Petr Cech proved a revelation at Chelsea and Julio Cesar stepped up at Inter as Mourinho won it all
with the Milanese outfit. But
the best of the bunch is Iker Casillas . Currently sidelined and with his route to the
Madrid first team potentially
blocked by the fine form of
emergency signing Diego Lopez , Casillas remains the best goalkeeper in the world
and, therefore, he is an
obvious choice in this side.

There are tough decisions to
make throughout the rest of
the team. Candidates for the
right-back role include Maicon , who was at his brilliant best under Mourinho
with his breathtaking
attacking play in the treble-
winning campaign of 2009-10,
his former Inter team-mate
and club legend Javier Zanetti and Madrid's Sergio Ramos . Here, Zanetti gets the nod due to his brilliant
performances up against
Lionel Messi in Inter's 2010
Champions League semi-final
with Barcelona (albeit on the
left), and his overall consistency on both flanks
during the Portuguese's two
successful seasons in Italy. Paulo Ferreira and Alvaro Arbeloa would probably not even make the squad. In central defence, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho edge out a number of other
brilliant defenders, including Ramos , Pepe, Lucio , Walter Samuel and Marco Materazzi . Carvalho was a rock for Mourinho at Porto
and later formed an excellent
partnership with Terry at
Stamford Bridge. His first
season at Madrid was also
solid, although he is now in his twilight years and can no
longer compete for a first-
team place at the Santiago
Bernabeu. Meanwhile, if Raphael Varane continues his current progession, the
young Frenchman is likely to
become better than any of the
above, while Ramos can
consider himself unlucky to
miss out following his fine form since switching to the
centre in 2011-12. With Zanetti on the right, Ashley Cole starts at left- back in this team. The England
full-back upset Arsenal by
meeting Chelsea officials
publicly and then moving
controversially across the
capital, but went on to become perhaps the best left-
sided defender in the world
under Mourinho. He simply has
to be in this team. Marcelo is another alternative, but
Mourinho does not always
appear to trust the Brazilian
defensively. Fabio Coentrao and Christian Chivu make up the numbers. Claude Makelele is the logical choice as the defensive
midfielder. The former France
international was so effective
in his position ahead of the
defence at Chelsea that the
position was named after him. Although not gifted
technically, his tireless work-
rate, ball-winning abilities and
simple distribution to those
around him make him a must
in this side. In a dream Mourinho XI, the 'Makelele
role' could only be filled by
the man himself. So Sami Khedira , Thiago Motta and Costinha , the excellent defensive midfielders at
Madrid, Inter and Porto,
respectively, all miss out. Happy times | Drogba and Mourinho share a joke during their Chelsea days With Makelele dropping deep, Frank Lampard would provide the goals in midfield.
At Chelsea, Mourinho
described the England
midfielder as "the best in the
world" and considered
bringing him to Madrid early on in his tenure. Xabi Alonso is unfortunate to miss out
here, while Inter's Esteban Cambiasso and Porto's Maniche were other solid candidates, but Lampard's
greater goal rate - an aspect of
his game he improved
dramatically under Mourinho,
hitting 15, 19 and 20 in his
three full seasons with the Portuguese after managing
just eight the year before -
wins him a starting spot. In the playmaker position, the
options are sublime. Wesley Sneijder was so important for Inter in 2009-10, and
terribly unlucky to miss out
on the 2010 Ballon d'Or after
also leading Netherlands to the
World Cup final in South
Africa. The Dutchman has since faded and struggled with
injury, but under Mourinho
for those two terms at Inter,
he was the world's best in his
position. Deco employed a similar role at Porto and just
misses out, along with Mesut Ozil and Kaka , whose best years came before his
association with Madrid and
his current coach. And then there are the
forwards. Cristiano Ronaldo is included of course, having taken his game and his
goalscoring to new levels
under his compatriot. And the
Portuguese is joined in attack
by two more central strikers, Diego Milito and Didier Drogba . The Ivorian is the archetypal Mourinho centre-
forward and a player who
became synonymous with the
Portuguese's Chelsea side.
Milito played an astonishing
role in Inter's treble of 2009-10, scoring both goals in
the Champions League final
victory over Bayern Munich,
as well as netting crucial
strikes in the knockout
rounds, hitting the winner in the Coppa Italia and the goal
which clinched Serie A as well.
On the back of all of that,
Milito must be in this side. Arjen Robben and Joe Cole both miss out despite good
form at Chelsea, along with
the not-always-convincing
Madrid trio Karim Benzema , Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria , the great Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Mourinho's first year at Inter, Samuel Eto'o (used in a more sacrificial role by the
Portuguese in Italy, on the left
flank in his second season) and Luis Figo (whose association with the coach came right at
the end of a wonderful
playing career). What do you think or our XI
(below)? Too many Blues?
Not enough Madrid players?
Should Porto have more
representatives? Who should
be in it?