More than a decade has passed, but every football fan remembers, with more or less precision, the rivalry between Guardiola’s Barça and Mourinho’s Real Madrid. The Blaugranas emerged victorious in most of their duels against a white team that used the media war and, above all, harshness on the field to try to overthrow their eternal rival, as Ángel Di María has recognized.
“The only way to beat that Barça was by hitting, scoring, running more than them. And that started to make them shit (hit each other) on the field,” the Argentine explained in an interview for a media outlet in his country. After winning the Champions League with Inter, eliminating Barça in the semifinals, Moutinho was chosen to stop a triumphant Blaugrana team.
The Portuguese, who was at the Bernabéu between 2010 and 2013, received his first blow when his team was beaten at the Camp Nou, the famous 5-0. From that moment on, Mourinho turned the classics into a hive of tension and aggressiveness, with his players always pushing the limits of the regulations, sometimes exceeding them.
“At times I was afraid that they would injure the dwarf (Messi). I was more worried that nothing would happen to him than about anything else,” recalled Di María, a friend and teammate in the Albiceleste of the Rosario star. The current Benfica player, who played for Madrid between 2010 and 2014, won a Super Cup and a League during that journey, but above all he remembers the Cup final in Valencia that they won against the Barcelona fans.
The Mestalla final was kick and kick. At times I was afraid that the dwarf (Messi) would be injured.”
“The Mestalla match. That final was kick and kick,” he explained about a match that was decided in extra time with a single goal from Cristiano Ronaldo from Di María himself. The man from Rosario also rescues an incident with Messi from that duel. “He kicked Leo, who was going against him. I kicked him and then I went to pick him up and told him: sorry, little guy, but if I didn’t get you down they could score a goal for us. I had no other option. There was no other option, it was to play that way. It was impossible to stop,” he concluded.
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