• Mourinho. "If we talk about talent, neither Messi nor Cristiano surpass Ronaldo"

José Mourinho arrived at the Camp Nou surrounded by bodyguards. A handful of stevedores who, beyond fulfilling their duties embedded in burial suits, pushed photographers out of the media pulpit with their hands wide open. "But for the record, I don't need them," the coach bragged.

It was the afternoon of April 27, 2010, the eve of the return of the Champions League semi-finals in which Inter had to defend against Barcelona the 3-1 obtained at the Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. The technician took the conscious word that his good fortune was also going to depend on what he said there. "What is anti-Madrid for Barcelona is a dream for us. His obsession is called Real Madrid and Bernabéu . " "He is a shoddy psychologist," replied President Laporta. Then the Portuguese made his way to the exit. He got into a van. A group of exalted ones waited at the exit to hit the sheet metal of the vehicle. Mourinho did not flinch.

Emulating Helenio Herrera

He did not do it the next day either, when, before the game started (1-0), he went for a walk in the vastness of the stadium so that the fans unleashed their anger against him . For fans to start a strange path to frustration that they didn't even intuit. A trick that Helenio Herrera had used in his day, the coach who 45 years ago had led Le Grande Inter to conquer Europe. The award was the same. The what defeated the how. Or, as Pep Guardiola admitted after an endless night: "In football, whoever wins is right."

José Mourinho achieved the first triple crown in Inter's history. Thanks to two goals from his gunner and end point, Diego Milito, he beat (2-0) in the Bernabéu Champions League final against Bayern by Louis van Gaal, another ill-fated coach at the Camp Nou . He took the Scudetto after concluding the championship as the highest scoring team (75) and least scored (34). His great rival that season, Roma, also succumbed to the Nerazzurri in the Coppa final (1-0).

"The most beautiful defeat of my life"

Although there is no greater success than lasting in memory. Mourinho did it that night on April 28, 2010 at the Camp Nou. "It was the most beautiful defeat of my life . "

The first step in understanding something is to look back. Mourinho, ridiculed as the translator shouted during his time as Bobby Robson's assistant in Barcelona, ​​had already starred in duels at the edge of sanity against Frank Rikaard's team. He even experienced the birth of Leo Messi in Europe on the front line , the night the Argentine, then an 18-year-old boy, was hunted by Asier del Horno at Stamford Bridge. The Portuguese described the action as "theater of the good". Four years after that, he decided to carry out his feat of singing against Barcelona of the six Cups of Pep Guardiola.

The volcano and Benquerença

This journalist still remembers the armrest of the coach seat nailed to the rib after touring at night, and at a stretch, the 981 kilometers that separate Barcelona from Milan. The same road trip that the Barca expedition had to make - albeit with a stop in Cannes - after a cloud of dust and ash ejected by the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano collapsed air traffic. "They are still going to say that I have a friend in the volcano and it was I who caused its eruption," said Mourinho.

Barcelona, ​​despite the fact that in that first leg at San Siro it threatened to be immune to all kinds of setbacks, despite advancing thanks to a goal from Pedro, it ended up breaking down. Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito caused a seismic movement in the Lombard stadium with their goals. The Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerença, noted both for his performance and for his alleged personal friendship with Mourinho , was forever embedded in the black history of Barcelona.

But while it was Benquerença who was attracting attention, while the Catalan club made advertising campaigns appealing to the epic, not football, while fans gathered at night in front of the Inter hotel to hit the pan, and while Piqué led a visceral speech that he never brought anything good to Barcelona - "Inter footballers are going to hate their profession for 90 minutes" - , Mourinho was able to focus on what would eventually become his masterpiece as a coach.

A defensive line of six

The name of Pandev, a footballer with an offensive cut, was erased from the lineup at the last minute so that Chivu, Messi's jailer, could take his place. In the world of Mourinho, nothing happens by chance. The cement factory had to operate at full capacity. Thiago Motta, spent laps, and who had spent the week accusing his former colleagues of "fishmen", was expelled within half an hour after slapping Sergio Busquets . The Barça midfielder, from the ground, opened his fingers and looked askance with satisfaction. Mourinho stormed Guardiola's technical area. He gave him his ear without the Barca coach paying any attention to him. Just in case, José Manuel Pinto, braid the wind, acted as guardian angel.

The result of all that led to an extreme defensive exercise. Lúcio and Walter Samuel did not have to go out to defend beyond their area to the glory of goalkeeper Julio César, who only had to work hard on an isolated shot by Messi. Esteban Cambiasso was embedded among the central despite the fact that he should be the one to order the game. Samuel Eto'o, whom Barcelona had sent to Inter for Ibrahimovic in one of the most ruinous operations in the Barça club's history, ended up doubling Zanetti on the side and with his face disjointed by the effort . Sneijder, so many times accused of being more fond of wine than roses, covered all waterways in the interior lanes. While Diego Milito could not help but run in search of a ball that, in reality, had to be rejected. The ball to the band, to the rostrum, to nothing, was art.

Only 14 minutes with the ball

Inter held the ball for 14 minutes and 44 seconds throughout the night. He did not fire a single shot between the three sticks . He lived with a line of six in front of the balcony of the area. He conceded a goal from Piqué in 84 after the center-back, who seemed to start from an offside position, outwitted Iván Córdoba, another defender who had recruited Mourinho ten minutes from time to replace his only striker.

Muntari and Mariga were also part of the montonera del ocaso. When Barcelona, ​​with the same front that had played against Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey -Bojan, Pedro and Jeffren-, saw their hopes fade.

Bojan always thought that his career, and his life, would have changed if the Belgian Frank de Bleeckere had not canceled the 2-0 after a formidable slam that brought redemption. The referee cut his hopes by understanding that Yaya Touré had touched the ball with his hand.

Flare and sprinklers

The chaos came next. Also misfortune. Sofia Bessayah, a security guard who was commissioned to control the area of ​​the Italian fans from one of the stairs, dropped a flare from the area of ​​the Tifosi . It exploded and smashed his foot. He had to go through the operating room 12 times and was never able to walk normally again. A judge set a compensation of 100,000 euros.

The referee signaled the end of the match, and the fifty Camp Nou sprinklers began to expel water. Barcelona argued that it activated irrigation to prevent fans from assaulting the lawn. The water ended up falling on the Inter footballers. And about José Mourinho, who ran like a man possessed by the grass with his fingers raised. And enduring the onslaught of Víctor Valdés , who tried to push him away from there.

"Wall of Glory"

Xavi Hernández, who for once saw football through a pinhole, without any possibility of straining the ball there, replied in his own way: "We dominated. We had Inter hanging on the crossbar. They will be proud of having reached the final but I don't know what it will feel like. We don't like playing like that. We like people to have fun . " "Wall of glory", titled the next day La Gazzetta dello Sport . The British Times had no mercy on The Special One and accused him of employing "dirty tricks" for the sole purpose of victory.

Did the Camp Nou experience the perfect materialization of the catenaccio that night ? The staging of total anti-football? Or the sublimation of a rudimentary and countercultural ideology just at a time when football proclaimed the importance of aesthetics and sought the category of art?

Mourinho had his epic. It was enough for him.

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  • Pep Guardiola
  • Barcelona
  • Jose Mourinho
  • Europe
  • Sergio Busquets
  • Leo Messi
  • Real Madrid
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