Chelsea v Benfica: Frank Lampard insists 'we still have unfinished business with European champions Barcelona'

Mourinho has complained about how Barcelona have benefited from a series of refereeing controversies in the Champions League.

His team knocked out Apoel Nicocia 5-2 on the night and 8-2 on aggregate to set up a semi-final clash with Bayern Munich and on Wednesday night, he made another provocative intervention.

“I just don’t think it will be Real Madrid v Chelsea and we know why,” he said.

After Barcelona eliminated Real Madrid in last year’s semi-final, Mourinho referred back to Chelsea’s defeat against Pep Guardiola’s team in 2009.

“I would have been embarrassed to win that title [in 2009] because it was won with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and this one will be won with the scandal of the Bernabéu,” said Mourinho.

“I hope one day Josep Guardiola wins a Champions League title as it should be – perfect, spotless, without any scandal.

“I don’t know if it’s to give publicity to Unicef or their power at Uefa. Where does all this power come from? Why don’t they let other teams play against them?

"If I say what I think my career ends today. Sometimes I feel disgusted living and earning my living in this world.”

Roberto Di Matteo, the Chelsea manager, confirmed that he is waiting on an assessment to John Terry’s rib injury and said that he would devise a strategy to counter Barcelona.

“We have to play to our own strengths,” he said. “We’ve faced them a lot of times and a lot of our players have some history against Barcelona. Certainly they felt a bit hard done by when we played them the last time.”

In truth, Chelsea will need a huge improvement on Wednesday night’s performance to have any chance of defeating Barcelona.

Jorge Jesus, the Benfica coach, was dismissive of Chelsea’s chances: “We’ve knocked out better teams than this Chelsea – that’s what leaves me with a certain sense of revolt,” he said. “I believe Chelsea have no chance against Barcelona.”