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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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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Serie Aaaaargh!… : Barcelona, Maicon

A Special night for every Interista

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