Jose Mourinho: ‘We have to forget it’ – Tottenham boss parks League Cup final

Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho says they need to “forget” about the League Cup final for now, after beating Brentford 2-0 to reach the decider.

The showpiece event at Wembley would normally take place in February, but it’s been delayed until April 25 in the hope that some supporters will be able to attend if coronavirus restrictions are reduced.

Goals from Moussa Sissoko and Son Heung-Min saw off the Championship promotion contenders, and Spurs will find out their next opponents on Wednesday night when Manchester United host Manchester City.

Already the joint most successful manager in the League Cup’s history, Mourinho will be hoping to lift the trophy for the fifth time in his career, having previously won it with Chelsea and United.

“This is a game that takes us to a final. I hope not, but probably an empty Wembley final, but a final still. Of course we are very, very happy with this”, said Mourinho.

“We are going to try (to win). We don’t hide that the next match is always the one we want to win but now we have this final in our pocket for three months.

“We have to forget it, we have to focus on the FA Cup, the Premier League, the Europa League but we have a final in our pocket and on April 25 we have to be ready to fight for the trophy.”

Mourinho was full of praise for Brentford, who he predicts will be in the top flight next year, but said it wasn’t a perfect performance.

“We didn’t play brilliantly”, he said.

“I think we have to do better with the ball, sometimes (we made) wrong decisions, sometimes (we took) one more touch, but the game was always under control against a team that probably is coming here next year to play in the Premier League.”

Brentford had to play the closing stages with 10-men, after England under-21 international Josh Dasilva was sent off for a tackle on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, following a VAR review.

“I don’t think he’s ever got a yellow card before, I’ve never seen him go physical into a tackle”, said Bees boss Thomas Frank.

“He definitely didn’t do it on purpose, I think he slipped and caught him.

“For 65 minutes we competed against a world-class team. Many things to take away from this game, but also something we need to learn – if we would like to try this again, we need to learn from it”.