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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has taken a swipe at Brendan Rodgers following the Liverpool FC boss’ criticism of Diego Costa.

Rodgers and Mourinho have a well-documented close relationship following Rodgers’ time at Stamford Bridge during Mourinho’s first reign at the London club, but the Ulsterman riled Mourinho with his comments, with the Chelsea boss accusing Rodgers of not speaking highly enough of his own players following the extra time defeat.

Tensions ran high throughout the game with Emre Can, Martin Skrtel and Steven Gerrard all involved in altercations with Costa, just a week after Jordan Henderson had clashed in the Anfield tunnel with the Brazilian-born striker.

Rodgers expressed his disappointment with Costa, calling the stamps “poor”.

When told of this, Mourinho said: “We worked at Chelsea for a few years, but we are very different people.

I could speak about Skrtel, I don’t. He goes to the television and speaks about Courtois, and forgets Mignolet – I speak about Courtois and Mignolet.

“He speaks about my goalkeeper, I speak about my goalkeeper and his goalkeeper.

“I don’t forget my goalkeeper because my goalkeeper helped us to the final.

“He is what he is, he is a fantastic manager but we are different people.”

Mourinho’s bizarre comments came just minutes after denying Costa had stamped on Can and Skrtel.

Television replays showed Costa had trodden on both Reds defenders, but Michael Oliver did not take action.

He added: “What you call ‘stamps’ and what Sky calls ‘crimes’, I have to say absolutely [they were] accidental. He goes to the ball, he chases the ball, the opponent is on the floor and they have contact. He puts his foot there, when he’s looking for the ball.”

Liverpool matched Chelsea for the majority of the second leg in West London, with the decisive goal coming from a set-piece four minutes into extra time.

The game also saw disagreements on the touchline between the dugouts during the game.

“Liverpool were very good, great work by Brendan, he changed completely the team from earlier in the season,” said Mourinho, who also thought Lucas and Jordan Henderson should have received red cards.

“Things were not going well, he was intelligent, he was right, he changed the team, the team is now again in the top level. Liverpool were very, very good.”