The Catalan could hold back no longer and responded to the Portuguese, a week after losing the cup to him.
THE CLASSIC
The rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid Between the end of 2010 and the first months of 2012, he reached unexpected heights on and off the pitch, before Guardiola announced his departure from the culé bench. During that period, José Mourinho, who knew Guardiola from having worked with him during his playing days as Bobby Robson’s assistant, coached the white team.
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Despite this shared experience, however, it didn’t take long for sparks to fly between the two, infecting their respective teams in a maelstrom of exciting, aggressive and story-packed classics.
The first to face both, in November 2010, ended 5–0 in favor of Barcelona, who regained the lead in LaLiga that evening against the deranged Real Madrid; Mourinho accepted the defeat, although that match already left some wounds that are difficult to heal, such as the gestures of Piqué or Valdés celebrating the heavy defeat against teammates who may have felt offended.
The second round match at the Bernabéu had no special flavor: 1-1 with both goals coming from penalties – the whistle in favor of Real Madrid, also with ten, is questionable – and it would be the end of April 2011 when the tension rose. would explode unresolved between the two technicians.
Everything about FC Barcelona
It was with the first official victory for Mourinho’s Real Madrid: Barcelona, not used to losing and still enjoying the memory of handball months ago, fell in extra time of the Copa del Rey final in Valencia. The match again left numerous clashes between teammates, extreme tackles and above all some lamentations from Culés at the end that Mourinho would collect for his later joy.
Just a week later, on April 26, Mourinho and Guardiola spoke to the media on the occasion of the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, which they would both face. First came the Portuguese: “With Guardiola’s statements we enter a new era, in a new group in which only he is in: criticizing the referee’s success. I had never seen it before”.
Guardiola’s response was powerful and will go down in history as the day he finally lost his cool against Mourinho: “Tomorrow we will face each other on the pitch at 8.45pm; off the pitch he has already beaten me. I give him his .” Champions League.” off the pitch, enjoy it and take it home with you. In this room he is the fucking boss, the fucking master and I don’t want to compete at any point”.
“I remind him that we have been together for four years. He knows me and I know him. If he wants to stay with the friends of Florentino Pérez and the dairy, fine, but I have worked with him for four years,” he added to it. .
Guardiola added: “I congratulated Real Madrid on the victory and the cup they won. The referee of the cup final was very attentive and ready. The offside goes by centimeter.” Curiously, at that same press conference he predicted that Madrid would “still finish ten” and spoke of the referee, Wolfgang Stark, as someone “of great prestige”. And Stark left Real Madrid with 10 at the start of the second half by sending off Pepe for a straight red card.
From that day onwards the relationship deteriorated: Mourinho strongly criticized the referee’s performance in the first and second legs of those semi-finals, Barcelona fans rejoiced at their elimination and celebrated the Spanish Super Cup won in two games in August . A final that soiled Mourinho’s unjustified aggression towards Tito Vilanova, who responded with a slap on the Portuguese’s back.
Real Madrid and Barcelona met eleven times in just two seasons, a frequency that undoubtedly encouraged to highlight the differences between both teams that their coaches perfectly embodied at the time. In 2012, Guardiola parted ways with Barcelona and watched Mourinho win the last Clásico at Camp Nou, setting the league record (100 points and 121 goals) in what would ultimately be the Portuguese’s penultimate title at the white club..
Source: Goal