Mourinho reveals Madrid team to face Dortmund

The Blancos boss is hopeful Angel Di Maria will be able to play, despite the birth of his daughter and spoke of his respect for Jurgen Klopp

Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho has revealed the starting XI to face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-final clash on Wednesday.

Blancos captain Iker Casillas will remain out of the first team despite being fit to play following his recover from a hand injury but the Portuguese Bernabeu boss insists there is no bad blood between him and the Spain goalkeeper.

"You want to know who will be right-back, left-back and centre-back?" he asked reporters at a pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

 "The line-up will be Diego Lopez, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain.

"This will be the team to play. Hopefully Di Maria, who today had a new daughter, can play. He is obviously in a difficult emotional situation.

"My relationship with Casillas is professional and one of an educational relationships between people who are educated."

Mourinho insists that, although Madrid are considered favourites to make the Champions League final at Jurgen Klopp's side's expense, BVB are just as likely to win the Wembley showcase on May 25.

"I'm in the semi-finals for the sixth time. The thing is that everyone expects it from me.

"The four teams that are here, perhaps Juventus and Manchester United, are the best teams in Europe but we all have a chance. It's difficult to predict who will make it so there is 25 per cent chance for Borussia and for us to win this competition."

Tuesday's major news story has been Mario Gotze transfer to Bayern Munich in the summer but Mourinho declined to give his opinion on the move.

He said: "I don't know Gotze or the mentality of BVB fans so I don't really want to comment on this. I have no idea if the transfer will have positive or negative consequences on our matches."

Finally, the former Chelsea coach took time to congratulate his old Sir Alex Ferguson on United's latest title triumph following their 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday.

"What Ferguson did this season is what he has done all his life: winning," he added.

"Sometimes it's not consecutively, because that would be impossible, but his career has been that - to win. I want to congratulate him but it is not a surprise to me or to United fans that Ferguson is champion again."