After 14 contests in the three years they have been working in England, you might have thought that Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez and his Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho would have tired of what newspapers describe as “mind games”.

Far from it. In the run-up to and the aftermath of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg, the niggling between Benitez and Mourinho has gone on and on.

Among the taunts from Benitez is that Chelsea have got where they are only because of Roman Abramovich’s millions and among those from Mourinho that Liverpool are not good enough to fight for more than one trophy.

Mourinho’s complaint — and he has a good line in lost penalty complaints — about a handball not given at Stamford Bridge was met with the sarcastic retort, “If he says it’s a penalty then it MUST be a penalty,” from Benitez.

Spanish and Portuguese rivalry goes back hundreds of years and there was bound to be keen competition between two men arriving from the Iberian peninsula to make their mark in a foreign league.

Tabloid newspapers lap it up, of course, asking leading questions and often being extremely selective in their reporting to make the sniping appear even more keen.

But are the public really that interested? Two such obviously talented, sophisticated and intelligent football managers should surely be able to capture the imagination of the fans in more edifying and elegant ways.

Clare Lovell is a Reuters sports reporter based in London