Serie Aaaaargh!… : Barcelona

A Special night for every Interista

Richard Whittle — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:44:00 GMT

“It is not me; it is us,” claimed the very Special One – and how right Jose Mourinho was in lauding his men at the end of a pulsating, drama-filled evening in the Nou Camp.

However, he couldn’t resist stealing the photo opportunity at the final whistle when he gave his conqueror salute to the away fans high in the gods, well aware that the Barcelona players were at his neck snarling the last breath of the vanquished.

NEWS Ten-man Inter reach final

It took water-sprinklers to get Mou’s players off a pitch they had already soaked with blood and sweat. They were down to 10 men for more than an hour after Thiago Motta's red card but they had been outnumbered and exposed for a long time beforehand.

Drowned but not out: Lucio celebrates MORE PICS HERE

A hostile atmosphere, constant noise and exploding firecrackers outside the team hotel the night before – it was back to the good old days of the 1970s and nightmare European Cup trips. And on foreign fields the locals can be quite sensitive when someone strokes their face, as Sergio Busquets can no doubt explain.

The Barcelona players had promised to play out of their skins, not jump out of them at the slightest contact, but being decimated so early on did little to change Inter's game-plan – which was efficiently designed to ensure that the home side created very little danger in and around the area.

FEATURE Master planner Mourinho ready to silence the Nou Camp

Inter condensed the play into the centre of the pitch, thanks in part to the late introduction of Christian Chivu for Goran Pandev. The Macedonian's muscle problem had been well-documented by Mourinho in the days leading up to the match, but it wasn't a massive surprise that it should “flare up” during the warm-up, after the Barça team-sheet had been handed in.

With Samuel Eto’o dropping back to cover the right flank and Chivu closing up the left, the balance was perfect for Wesley Sneijder and Motta to remain tucked in leaving Esteban Cambiasso to patrol the area just ahead of the backline where Leo Messi was waiting to wind up for those darting runs into the penalty-box.

So when Motta finally left the pitch (with a few choice words for one and all and a proper little nip at Busquets), all Cambiasso had to do was step out five metres or so – and of course double his work-rate. And as for expending every drop of energy, let us not forget the efforts of Diego Milito in chasing every pass – no matter how misplaced it was.

"Wherever you go, We Will Follow You" MORE PICS HERE

All this running and concentrating on opponents who are marvelled at for their quick movement and interchanging of positions is easier said than done but in reality Inter never looked under pressure – it was catenaccio without an Italian in sight and with little of the darker elements of the art.

Lucio and Walter Samuel were hardly drawn out of their fortress in the heart of the defence – and when they were their challenges were crisp and clean – while it is difficult to recall a time when Douglas Maicon or the peerless Javier Zanetti allowed an opponent to get to the by-line.

Julio Cesar was beaten once but followed up his first-leg heroics with another sterling performance, although Ivan Cordoba must have had flashbacks to 2003 – when he failed to close down Andriy Shevchenko for the decisive goal in the derby – when this time Gerard Pique turned inside his despairing challenge.

GALLERY Action and interest from the game

All over the pitch there were performances that merited a place in Madrid. For many it may well be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and as the contest wore on it was a prospect they seemed determined not to pass up.

But how could they fail when their coach was frequently almost encroaching onto the pitch to man the barricades? It was one of those nights where everyone was special.

Around 2,000 fans welcomed the weary warriors back home at 2.30am, and it seemed as if the majority of the Nerazzurri half of the city had taken over the cafes first thing in the morning - making it an extraordinarily festive start to the day in stuffy old Milan.

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Master planner Mourinho ready to silence the Nou Camp

Richard Whittle — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:16:00 GMT

Jose Mourinho could never be described as impulsive, planning as he does every move well ahead of its final execution.

He probably mulls over how to dress for each occasion, to shave or not to ahead of a Champions League press conference – usually sporting a few days stubble – and then immaculately turned on the day of the big game.

Nothing is ever left to chance, so that may explain why he has decided to boycott speaking to the Italian press unless forced to under UEFA orders - well aware that he has met his match in Machiavellian cunning when it comes to dissecting every word.

It is therefore no surprise that Inter’s build-up to the game of the season - or any other in the last seven years when they last made this far - at Barcelona should come shrouded in half-truths.

Was Wesley Sniejder really so badly injured that he may be out for the rest of the season and not only the clash at the Nou Camp as was initially reported on Italian radio?

"Tell them I'm not talking to them..."

It seems that the 'Calculating One' has been taking a leaf out of the old master of spin Sir Alex Ferguson’s handbook on leading the opposition down a blind alley - and as with Wayne Rooney turning up on the team-sheet against Bayern Munich, so the dashing little Dutchman was always going to be fit and ready.

It is one of those subplots that the Portuguese schemer throws out there now to make for even greater drama when we get back to the main story, which is of course Inter attempting to emerge victorious and finally sate their own obsession which has been going on since 1965.

Even the fact that Barcelona’s players have had to turn cheerleaders to encourage their own fans to believe they can overcome a 3-1 deficit will be used as evidence that the opposition are running scared in their own back-yard.

Barca not only has to find at least two goals, but also unravel the Mourinho maze when it comes to which formation he will field.

Against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge it was daring in the extreme as he employed three players in more advanced positions but only Diego Milito in the out-and-out front-man role as Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev employed pace and alertness to cover back along the flanks.

Sniejder was free to roam, with Esteban Cambiasso and Thiago Motta forming the solid base in front of the back-four.

There was less surprise when the formula was repeated in the first leg against the defending champions, but while guile outdid the English and speed caught the Catalans out, it will probably need a more traditional Ital-Argentine approach this time around.

Cambiasso will be looking to kick Lionel Messi into touch...

The Italian Cup semi-final second leg at Fiorentina may have offered a better indication of how Inter will go about defending their lead regardless of declarations about taking the game to the home side.

In the domestic Cup tie, Inter were defending a slender one-goal lead but a striker – Milito - was sacrificed for a defender – Ivan Cordoba – and Douglas Maicon was pushed on to the right side of a four-man midfield.

The Brazilian revelled at the opportunity to surge forward but without neglecting to cover Cordoba at full-back.

Tellingly, Mario Balotelli was employed on the left of midfield but Javier Zanetti was sweeping in front of the backline with Sulley Muntari just in front alongside Motta for added protection.

Eto’o was left to keep the opposition defence occupied and was rewarded with the only goal of the game.

A slight tinkering of personnel could produce a similar outcome: with Zanetti at left-back; Cambiasso anchoring the midfield behind Motta and Sneijder further ahead and Pandev on the left.

That would leave either Eto’o or Milito to start in attack, but then what about the former handed the role of keeping Dani Alves on the back-foot along the left flank and at the same adding support to the Argentine?

No doubt the master planner has it all worked out in his head. And like his dress sense on European nights, it should be spot on.

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A special night for the Special One as Inter brush off Messi and co

Richard Whittle — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:24:00 GMT

Having experienced those final twenty minutes or so of intense Barcelona pressure should come in handy for Inter at the Nou Camp next week, as it is exactly the kind of bombardment they are likely to endure in the second leg.

Jose Mourinho’s well-moulded men now stand on the cusp of history-making and will go into the return leg of their Champions League semi-final with an aim of doing what they do best: grinding out a result but now with a newly acquired fluency.

The two-goal cushion fits perfectly with Mourinho’s approach where the air will be suffocated out of the Barca attack, much as it was at the San Siro, but at the same time as we saw at Stamford Bridge and then in Moscow the opportunity to attack quickly will not be spurned.

The Italian press had been certain that Mou would play a lone striker and flood the midfield but once again the Portuguese confounded those supposedly in the know and although he went with one up front support arrived from a fast-breaking midfield and full-backs with winged feet.

We all know their names, but Diego Milito, Samuel Eto’o, Goran Pandev and Wesley Sneijder stretched the much-vaunted visitors to breaking point while Douglas Maicon and the ageless Javier Zanetti were tireless in their impulse to get forward.

Tucked in behind, Esteban Cambiasso and Thiago Motta were uncompromising whenever Leo Messi and co. ventured anywhere near the penalty area, and when they did manage to breach the first line of defence, Lucio and Walter Samuel were all flailing boots when it was needed while Julio Cesar was back to his imperious best.

There was only once that this compact group was drawn out of position on Mou’s chessboard and they paid for it with a goal.

However, taking the game to the road travellers was the perfect riposte and even a goal down there was a belief that opportunities would be created at the other end.

There was no need to chase down Messi as the little Argentine drifted out of the game more times than he drifted inside from the left wing.

There was something of the street urchin about him as Zanetti and Cambiasso brushed him off like busy businessmen on their way to an important meeting [Madrid anyone] although he did demonstrate his street-fighting instincts when he laid Maicon out with a clattering shoulder charge, accidental or not.

It was dazzling evening for Inter and the only one casting dark looks and muttered curses was the unfortunate Mario Balotelli whose error-ridden appearance as a late substitute after Milito cramped up was greeted with a chorus of whistles.

The teenager’s huffy reaction shows how far he has to go to develop in the world of football and how little he seemed to understand the significance of the occasion for the Inter fans who were last in the final of Europe’s premier competition before a good number of the crowd were born – 1972 by the way - and eighteen years before the player saw the light of day.

There is little doubt that the poor mite will be looking on from the outside come next week if not for the rest of the season – in the ongoing struggle to win over the Nerazzurri masses there is now only one clear victor – and it was Jose’s name that was being chanted well into the night.

However, Balotelli’s moody moment was a mere sub-plot in what now will be a return leg where Barca will be hoping that the referee is a little more eagle-eyed when it comes to their players going down under challenges inside the area as was the case with Sneijder’s tackle on Dani Alves.

No doubt Mourinho will be putting equal pressure on the official not to be influenced by the surroundings just as he will be cajoling his players towards taking that final step on the road to achieving legendary status.

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Mourinho ready-made to cut Messi down to size

Richard Whittle — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:30:00 GMT

Inter could have played with a plastic ball on that plastic pitch and would have still strolled to victory in Moscow.

It fact, the way Wesley Sneijder’s free-kick swerved in the opposite direction to the way the Dutchman struck the sphere suggested that it was in fact a larger version of a table tennis ball.

Six minutes had gone on the clock and the pre-dinner crowd in one of Milan’s city centre watering-holes returned to their cocktails and chit-chat on how they had spent the Easter break.

Jose Mourinho had obviously spent the same period over the long weekend further cementing the Inter team building exercise: in London it was a stroll around the streets near the hotel, in Moscow a visit to the Red Square.

Taking a leaf out of the KGB handbook on discrediting the enemy, he then cast doubts over the home side’s claims that they had to postpone their weekend fixture due to a shortage of security personnel.

It even gave the snide one a chance to have a little dig at those back home when he compared the situation to a stunt Adriano Galliani had pulled when AC Milan had an Italian Cup tie re-arranged early in the year.

It may have been in poor taste considering the events that only recently occurred in Moscow, but then Mourinho’s world never seems to orbit far from the put-down and the “them against us” paranoia - such as his latest assertion that Inter will have to defeat opponents off as well as on the pitch to reclaim the title.

How he will relish getting his claws into Barcelona once again just as he did against Chelsea.

The last time the sides met was back in November when the Catalans dominated sans Lionel Messi, even though Mourinho was defiant after the 2-0 defeat in the Nou Camp.

He may have been full of praise for the opposition, but at the same time questioned why his side could not defeat the defending champions later in the competition.

He now has the chance and no doubt there will be flattery aplenty, but it will come wrapped in the knowledge that there is nothing the mischievous one would like more than to defeat his old employer in their own backyard.

There is no getting away from it; this will be the Mou-Messi match-up.

There is no reason why Inter cannot cheer the whole of Spain if not Italy and make it a Madrid date in May, especially if they can come away from the first leg at the San Siro on level terms – goalless would do nicely although of course that may be asking too much.

Everyone knows how Barca play, it is just trying to stop them that becomes the difficult part – and this is where Inter in Mourinho’s image are now masters of pressure and organisation.

The two holding midfielders – be it Esteban Cambassio or one from Dejan Stankovic and Thiago Motta – are the key to breaking up moves and launching quick counter-attacks for any one of four players breaking forward.

They will not have to keep hold of the ball for too long, but instead force the opposition on to the back foot and thinking about Diego Milito and Samuel Eto’o lurking over their shoulder.

The midfielders, including Sneijder, will also play their part in attempting to shackle Messi by closing down the supply routes to the cheeky-faced little fella and then closing down the space in and around the area where the opposition thrive on playing the quick one-twos.

It has all the making of an absolutely enthralling semi-final between two schools of the game - and no doubt Europe’s most well-known tour guide is already planning his route down Las Ramblas.

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