Mourinho's verdict on draw at Stoke City

The Reds saw the 100 per cent winning start to the Premier League season come to an end as Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku cancelled out two goals from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting for the Potters.

Mourinho gave his view on the result and here are the key points from the manager's post-match interviews with BT Sport and MUTV...

'A POINT IS A POINT'
"It was a difficult match for different reasons. My players, after the international break, are not the same. They weren't performing at their normal level but we were in the game, we fought hard and we were closer to winning than losing. Stoke are big, strong and powerful in the air. They fought hard and probably deserved a point. It is not what we came for but a point is a point. The performance was more than enough for the point and enough for the three points.”

EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL BREAK
"It was easy for me to feel that national teams leave a stamp on the players – they are not so fast, they are not so creative, they are not so sharp, they are not so strong, so ready, so focused from the mental point of view. Fifteen days away, playing two matches, travelling, some not playing, training, who knows why and how. It was easy to feel that some of the players were not in their best shape and the opponent is always a difficult opponent to play. The characteristics that the stadium gives to the football matches is always hard here. Could we win? Of course we could. We made a big mistake for the second goal and missed a couple of chances but it’s a result that I accept."

HAPPY WITH PLAYERS’ CHARACTER
"It's not easy to come from behind here, especially with the handicap of the players’ condition. [Nemanja] Matic played the game of his life for the national team, some of the boys played two consecutive matches in three days. Eric Bailly arrived yesterday to train and to travel. The national teams make it normally difficult for us, so I’m not disappointed. I’m not disappointed at all."

'WE TRIED TO WIN'
"We tried, we were the only team that tried to do it in the last 20 minutes. But they defended, they were lucky with some late rebounds in front of the goal. Maybe Romelu [Lukaku] could have had a better contact with the ball and score with the cross from the right but that’s the result and there’s nothing we can do now but try to be ready for Tuesday [against Basel]."

PLEASED WITH LUKAKU
"I'm happy with Lukaku with or without goals because his contribution is always good. With one more goal we win 3-2 but without the mistake at the corner then we win 2-1 and Lukaku's miss doesn't matter. That was a great save by David de Gea - the only one he did, because in the first half there was only a couple of slow shots by Xherdan Shaqiri. But we couldn't protect the corner and he was punished, we were punished."

STOKE BATTLED
"I'm not satisfied with a point because we were the team closer to winning. I have to say it is a result I accept though. One team tried to win, one team tried to get the point but they fought hard to get that point - they defended well, they counter-attacked and in set-pieces they are powerful."