Champions League | José Mourinho's best defeat
Will José Mourinho be sitting in front of the TV on Wednesday? There isn't that much to do in Istanbul, where he and Fenerbahce were knocked out in the round of 16 of the Europa League by Glasgow Rangers and where they only have a modest chance of winning the domestic Super League. That doesn't reflect Mourinho's self-image. The Portuguese has shaped European football like few others, but his last Champions League victory has acquired a bit of a patina. It dates back to spring 2010, and the road to it, as coach of Inter Milan, took him via a memorable game at FC Barcelona . This game will be played again on Wednesday, once again in the semi-finals of the biggest and best annual football competition in the world.
The story goes back to the summer of 2008, when Barcelona, after parting ways with Frank Rijkaard, was looking for a new coach and negotiated with Mourinho. Mourinho had very specific ideas, even appointing an assistant coach. Mourinho favored Josep Guardiola, who was then in charge of Barça's second team. In the end, however, things turned out as they seemed only logical in retrospect. Mourinho took over the Catenaccio traditionalists from Inter, and Barcelona entrusted the renaissance of the blue-and-red poetry to the club's saint, Guardiola.
Two years later, the two met in the Champions League semifinals. Barça had to travel the 1,000-kilometer journey to the first leg by bus because a volcano had erupted in faraway Iceland, disrupting European air traffic. Inter won 3-1 and, in the second leg, focused on a tactic that Mourinho's teams have always favored. For an entire evening of football, Inter parked the team bus in front of the penalty area, so that Messi, Xavi, Busquets, and co. barely had a chance to capitalize on the beauty of their game.
It didn't help them much that Inter's Thiago Motta was sent off early. Only shortly before the final whistle did Gerard Piqué score, and Mourinho endured it as stoically as he did the four minutes of stoppage time. But when the game finally ended, he sprinted across the pitch with outstretched arms, chased in vain by Barcelona goalkeeper Víctor Valdés. Only the spontaneously activated sprinklers brought the Inter coach's private party in Barça's stadium to an end.
He later spoke of the "most beautiful defeat of my career; my players sweated blood," and the Gazzetta dello Sport celebrated him for the "Muro di Gloria," the wall of glory erected on the pitch. A few weeks later, after winning the final against FC Bayern, Mourinho moved on to Real Madrid. Since then, club and coach have been waiting for a da capo in the Champions League. Mourinho failed with Real, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, and Roma, but Inter did reach the final two years ago. And now he's making another attempt at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.
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