José Mourinho has already done the “por qué?”, the printout, and the press conference no-show, and he’s only been here three months. The Real Madrid manager has played the classics without even playing a clásico. Not yet, anyway, but it’s time: on Sunday night he returns to the stadium where he first arrived 30 transformative years ago as Bobby Robson’s talented young translator, and last visited in 2013 as the most famous manager in football. The coach who once declared “today, tomorrow and always, Barcelona in my heart,” and claimed he would only ever go to Real Madrid to destroy them, has been entrusted with attempting to bring about the destruction of Barcelona. It is not the first time: if his return is about nostalgia, which it is, that’s wrapped up in their rivals too.
Is el clásico still the world’s biggest match? Three questions before Barcelona v Real Madrid
“The clásico is just another game in the championship, but to say it’s a game like any other would be to lie, totally unreal,” Mourinho said on Wednesday, and he knows. As for Barcelona’s latest star, he’s looking forward to seeing Mourinho again. “I love the needle,” Lamine Yamal says. “The Mourinho-Guardiola era, I loved all that. That’s football. Sport is serious but I want a show and we have more fun.”
There are bigger things, sure; life beyond Barcelona. Madrid’s astonishing Champions League record since Mourinho was last here – following up the elusive décima, the 10th title which had evaded them for 12 years, with the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th in 10 years – played out without Barcelona. There has not been a European clásico since the 2011 Champions League semi-final, when the man Pep Guardiola had just called the puto amo, the fucking master, produced his por qué speech, asking why Barcelona were favoured by the continent’s referees and accusing Uefa of fixing it for them.
Yet right now it doesn’t feel as if anything is bigger, this week’s Champions League matches framed around what they meant for the game that really matters, even with Barcelona going to Paris. The rivalry is always there; in Mourinho’s case it is at the heart of it. The day he got the Madrid job in 2010 was the day he won the Champions League with Inter, but its genesis lay in the semi-final, when he had sprinted across the Camp Nou pitch, finger raised, celebrating. Madrid were relieved and grateful, spared the sight of Barcelona lifting the European Cup in their stadium and shown how to stop a team that appeared unbeatable. Mourinho, leaving the Santiago Bernabéu in Florentino Pérez’s car while his joyful players returned to Milan, was asked to repeat that with Madrid.
Pérez, who had presided over the galácticos’ failure and walked away, had returned in 2009 but won nothing. Instead, Barcelona dominated. They had the core of Spain’s World Cup 2010 winners: six starters in the final. Madrid needed a culture shift, to go to war, a manager to rule over the dressing room. “This year’s galáctico is José Mourinho,” the president said.
José Mourinho (left) with Bobby Robson and Ronaldo after Barcelona defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1997. Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock
By the time Mourinho left, it had turned nasty, his enemies internal too. They had been, Mourinho later said, “three intense, almost violent years”. Yet Pérez had always felt drawn towards the only manager he has truly liked. Including when Mourinho was belligerent; especially when he was belligerent. Mourinho had, Pérez said, returned Madrid to their rightful place. After every subsequent success the president called to tell him he started this. And if Mourinho’s first clásico brought a 5-0 defeat, Barcelona going on to win the league and Champions League; if his final season had ended trophyless; and if Guardiola had won twice as many trophies, it was also trueOf the four competitions Guardiola failed to win at Barcelona, three were taken from him by Mourinho. Time has passed and things have changed, but the parallels are clear. Madrid have gone two years without a trophy. In the first of those, Barcelona won the league with two weeks to spare, completing a domestic treble. They had beaten Madrid four times, scoring 16 goals. Last season they wrapped it up with three weeks to spare through a clásico victory as incontestable as their superiority throughout a season in which Madrid’s splits played out in public. Then Spain won the World Cup with eight Barcelona players in the squad. Madrid’s only representative, Marc Cucurella, joined the club after the tournament had started.
If this was a crisis, it was time for Mourinho. A man whose flaws had been forgotten over time, with nostalgia eclipsing everything else. A man with the authority – a man given the authority – to impose himself on the dressing room. One with the personality to fight, to go to war again. With just about everyone, and Barcelona especially. When you listened to Pérez’s extraordinary rant in May, the quiet part said out loud, all campaigning and conspiracy, politics and paranoia, it made sense.
When it comes to the still unresolved Negreira case, in which Barcelona paid the vice-president of the referees’ committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, more than €7m between 2001 and 2018, there is substance to Madrid’s complaints. Barcelona have denied corruption, saying Negreira worked as an adviser, but that case has become the centrepiece of Madrid’s discourse, unlike when the two clubs were still holding out in the Super League. It doesn’t help when the league president likens your TV channel to Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda.
Whether those complaints have validity now is a different question; whether the discourse of conspiracy does is another step again, even when decisions go against you. Every mistake – and decisions that are not even mistakes – is framed as a Machiavellian plan, with constant insinuations – when they are not said outright.
When Mourinho arrived he said he was older, calmer, but here he is. In defeat, perhaps he was always likely to be. After losing to Betis, he asked por que? (Why? Because that’s the rule, the decision correct.) After losing to Atlético, he turned up with a printout. And then he didn’t turn up to the press conference after he had run on to the pitch to embrace Vinícius Júnior after the Brazilian scored against Villarreal only for the goal to be ruled out and Vinícius sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair. That led to a four-game suspension, with the forward ruled out of the clásico.
The reason for the no-show was that Mourinho didn’t want to risk saying something that would earn him a suspension for the clásico, the game. And he is happier now, if only for a little while, something shifting. When last Saturday Barcelona made it 11 wins from 11, averaging more than four goals a game, most agreed they would win the clásico and the title would be done: they were flying, led by Lamine Yamal, while Madrid, beaten twice, hadn’t taken off. Mourinho’s team had not been very good, familiar problems still there. In short, there was not much football.
The previous Wednesday Madrid had delivered another of their seemingly inexplicable comebacks, from 3-1 down at Roma, to win 4-3 in the final seven minutes, but was there really anything to build on? It turned out there was something of an explanation. In those minutes Arda Güler played, Yan Diomande played, Fede Valverde played at right-back, and Vinícius didn’t play.
It seemed so obvious to everyone, including the manager. So he did it again, and Madrid scored four against Sevilla – three of them glorious – last Sunday.Diomande scored four more against Leipzig on Wednesday, firing in a superb volley after Vinícius had been substituted. The night before, Barcelona conceded four at the Parc des Princes.
Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts
1 | Barcelona | 9 | 30 | 27
2 | Atletico Madrid | 9 | 11 | 22
3 | Real Madrid | 9 | 14 | 21
4 | Real Betis | 9 | 2 | 19
5 | Real Sociedad | 9 | 0 | 16
Hansi Flick admitted he prioritised the clásico over PSG, leaving out Rodri and withdrawing Pedri and Raphinha early to keep them fresh for a game that could be decisive and tends to shape a season. But he has injury concerns in defence and warned his players that conceding 15 goals is too many. Mourinho couldn’t resist complaining that Madrid have one day less rest for the clásico – something perhaps offset, as any analysis might be, by playing at home against Leipzig rather than away at Paris Saint-Germain – which got the excuse in early, more evidence of how “they” have it in for his side.
“We need to close the gap and we can only do that by winning,” said Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois of the six-point deficit. “We’re going with confidence.” Yet things do feel a little better now: defeat for Madrid is not inevitable, a title is still there to play for, and something like a team is taking shape. “I had to get to know them,” Mourinho said on Wednesday night. “I’ve only been here 105 days; it’s not long.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Heres a set of FAQs about the MourinhoMadrid El Clásico storyline
1 What does older calmer Mourinho mean here
It refers to José Mourinho returning to a big matchlikely with Real Madridas a more experienced less confrontational figure than the fiery coach of his earlier years while his team still plays to win with its best attacking game
2 Is Mourinho back at Real Madrid
That depends on the specific story youre reading The phrase suggests Mourinho is involved with Madrid again and preparing for El Clásico Check the articles date and details to confirm his exact role
3 What is El Clásico
Its the match between Real Madrid and FC BarcelonaSpains biggest rivalry and one of the mostwatched games in world football
4 Why is it called playing the hits
Its a music metaphor like a band that sticks to its famous songs the team keeps using its proven crowdpleasing tacticsattacking football and key star playersinstead of experimenting
5 Has Mourinho really become calmer
Hes widely seen as more measured in recent yearsfewer explosive press conferences and touchline clashesthough he remains intense and competitive Calmer is relative
6 Why does a calmer Mourinho matter for a big match
Less drama off the pitch can mean more focus on it A composed coach often helps players stay disciplined and avoid unnecessary distractions or cards in highpressure games
7 What are the benefits of playing the hits in El Clásico
Predictable strengths are reliable under pressure Players know their roles the team creates chances with familiar patterns and fans see the style they love
8 Whats the downside of sticking to the hits
Opponents can prepare for it If the usual plan isnt working a team that never varies can struggle to adaptespecially against a rival that knows them well
9 What are common problems in El Clásico preparation
Injuries to key players fatigue from a busy schedule media hype distracting the squad and the tactical challenge of stopping the opponents best attackers
10 What practical tips help a team in a match like this
Keep emotions in check press together as a unit
