Mourinho rules out revenge mission

Jose Mourinho insists he is not on a revenge mission to dump Barcelona out of Europe.

Chelsea need only a point in the Nou Camp on Tuesday to clinch a place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

A win for the Premiership champions, however, will plunge the European Cup holders into a fierce qualification battle with Germans Werder Bremen and Mourinho said: "I'm not trying to help Werder Bremen to knock Barcelona out. That's not my fight. It's not knockout. It's a group. We don't play to kick each other out of the competition. We play to progress."

He added: "Our target is to finish first in the group and it's not my problem if it's Barcelona or Werder Bremen who finish second. We have three matches to get what we need to qualify.

"We know our last game is at home against Levski Sofia but of course I would prefer to qualify before the last game."

Barcelona knocked Chelsea out of the competition last season and Mourinho stirred controversy before the latest showdown between the bitter rivals by claiming Eidur Gudjohnsen had learned to dive since he left Stamford Bridge for Spain in the summer.

Gudjohnsen tumbled to win a very dubious penalty for Barcelona in a league game against Recreativo Huelva on Saturday and the issue is one of Mourinho's pet hates.

The Chelsea boss believes referees are intimidated at the Nou Camp into giving the home team penalties and the away team red cards and he called on Italian ref Stefano Faria to be strong.

Mourinho is also onfident his new-look team are starting to fulfil their potential.

Mourinho said: "This season, we are a team with more experience. We can split our squad into two groups. One with high-level players with a lot of experience between 27 and 30, at a mature age who have adapted to the needs of big matches and big competitions."