Jose Mourinho says Stoke City's Bojan Krkic is "the only player that almost killed me", adding he still expresses relief over the forward's disallowed effort for Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League semi-final.
Mourinho's Inter Milan won the Champions League that season, but only after narrowly beating Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in which Bojan had a strike controversially ruled out in the last minute after Yaya Toure was adjudged to have handballed.
"Bojan is the only player that almost killed me with a heart attack because, in the last minute of Barcelona v Inter in the semi-final of the Champions League, he scored an amazing goal," Mourinho smiled.
But offside! And I looked to the other side and the linesman was saying 'offside'. He's the only one. Part of the joke... A very dangerous player, adapting well to the Premier League which is never easy for a striker. But every dangerous player.
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While Bojan's resurgence indicates Stoke's evolution as team, Mourinho still believes Chelsea will have to adapt to cope with the physical elements of their play when they travel to the Britannia Stadium on Monday.
"We have to go there and play our game, but we know well their qualities as a team, and their qualities individually. We also have to adapt to it. If we know we are going to play against Peter Crouch, against the kind of defenders they have.... if you don't adapt to that, you are in trouble. We can adapt to that because we have qualities that allow us to do that.
"I think they have everything. They have that important base that Tony Pulis gave them: physicality, set-pieces, aggressive, direct. They have this. This was the basis of their success since they came up into the Premier League.
"In the last couple of years, with Mark Hughes, without losing that identity he brought some of his own ideas and some players who can add more than that physicality. And they have also some players who bring their style in another direction. They are good and a difficult side.
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