If Jose Mourinho came in for a wave of criticism following his team’s defensively minded performance in the dour 1-1 draw with Barcelona earlier this week, then nobody was complaining after the Portuguese coach employed decidedly similar tactics to devastating effect as Real Madrid won their first Copa del Rey trophy in 18 years on Wednesday.
Club legend Alfredo Di Stefano criticised Mourinho’s pragmatic approach to the game, while Dutch icon and former Barcelona player Johan Cruyff suggested he was not a “football coach”, just a man interested in winning at all costs.
Mourinho came up with the most emphatic answer to his critics as this time finally got the better of a team being labelled as one of, if not the, greatest team of all time.
He will take any credit coming his way at the moment, and the style of the victory will be long forgotten while the scoreline will remain permanently etched on the base of the trophy flattened by a bus on the victory parade.
Barcelona have long been applauded for their swarming approach to regaining the ball once possession is lost but it was Real Madrid who hustled and bustled their way to an extra time victory. Christiano Ronaldo’s header may have been the defining moment of the match, but his team mates provided him with a platform to operate from unlike ever before.
The team in white were the ones pressing and harassing their opponents into mistakes. As soon as Barcelona stepped over the halfway line their pretty patterns were smothered and their attacking flair knocked into submission as they looked to assert themselves on the game despite not being particularly favoured by football bets.
Barcelona maintained the line share of the possession as ever but they were ground to a halt by a disciplined Madrid side. Sure, there was some of the same theatrics and imaginary card waving that left a bitter taste in the mouth, but this looked to a Madrid side transformed from the one-dimensional approach of the previous week.
Now the attention turns to the Champions League as the teams gear up for their third and fourth meeting in 18 days.
Mourinho was able to do a similar job with Inter last year and has the know-how, and perhaps crucially the inside line on Barca having got so up close and personal with them in recent weeks.
In truth, Mourinho will likely keep the same approach for the Champions League tie as he has done in the two recent encounters. There is of course a danger of playing by numbers as the players become so accustomed to one another.
Where he was lambasted for his approach in the game that effectively put paid to their title hopes, Mourinho will be praised for stopping the Barcelona machine. If that is the case he won’t mind being remembered as a man who won trophies instead of a football purist. If he can stop football betting favourites Barca in the Champions League, then there is little to stop him being remembered as the greatest coach of all time, and that is above and beyond any trophy he can win.
