Jose Mourinho and Diego Costa were embroiled in an angry exchange of words and gestures during Chelsea’s comfortable victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Mourinho, who sparked the row when he accused Costa of failing to make a run to support an attack by Eden Hazard, claimed that they kissed and made-up during the half-time interval.
Goals from Gary Cahill, Willian, Oscar and Kurt Zouma completed the win over the Israeli champions, who had Tal Ben Haim sent off in the first half.
It eased Chelsea to the top of their Champions League group, but any delight was muted by injuries to Ramires and John Terry – which Mourinho has blamed on a ‘dangerous’ pitch – and the unseemly row between manager and his centre forward.
‘I wanted him to do a certain movement that he didn’t,’ explained Mourinho. ‘I was disappointed and I reacted. He did too.
‘At half-time in the dressing room, a few kisses and a few cuddles. No problem.’
Mourinho had leapt into the air, waving his arms and yelling at Costa, who reacted by shouting and gesticulating in return.
There was a similar incident against Norwich on Saturday when the manager criticised his £32million striker for failing to get into the six-yard box.
When the whistle then went for half-time, Mourinho darted straight down the tunnel and Costa stormed after him, clearly fuming, pushing aside Oscar who attempted to calm him down.
Substitute Loic Remy was sent out to warm-up during the interval but Costa stayed on for the full 90 minutes. At the end, he was the first player off the pitch and the first on to the team bus.
Mourinho had more to say about the awful surface and Terry’s ankle injury, which means the captain is a major doubt for Sunday’s derby at Tottenham. Ramires injured a muscle in training on the eve of the game. DailyMail.