Mourinho’s Barcelona feud reignites as Real Madrid return adds extra edge

Barcelona will host traditional rivals Real Madrid at Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday, with Jose Mourinho once again at the centre of a rivalry that has produced some of European football’s most bitter confrontations.

The match is the 10th round of La Liga and comes 13 years after Mourinho’s first spell in charge of Real Madrid ended. According to Mundo Deportivo, the Portuguese manager has been raising the temperature in the weeks before the fixture in a manner familiar from his previous time at the club.

Mourinho won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup during that first spell. Barcelona, however, collected two league titles, the Champions League, two Spanish Super Cups, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup during the same period.

The current circumstances bear similarities. Real Madrid have gone two years without winning a trophy, while Hansi Flick’s Barcelona have claimed two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey and two Spanish Super Cups.

Mourinho has already begun presenting himself as the wronged party before the season’s first Clasico. But the relationship between the manager and Barcelona had become hostile long before he took charge of Real Madrid, beginning with his meetings with the Catalan club while managing Chelsea and Inter Milan.

Early clashes with Chelsea and Inter

The first major confrontation came in the last 16 of the 2004-05 Champions League. Barcelona won the first leg 2-1 after recovering from a deficit, with Didier Drogba sent off after receiving two yellow cards.

At the press conference afterwards, Mourinho accused Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard of going to referee Anders Frisk’s dressing room to intimidate him. Chelsea progressed in the return leg through a John Terry goal, although Ricardo Carvalho committed an obvious foul on Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

Several months later, threats from Chelsea supporters led Frisk to retire from refereeing.

The following season, after a series of forceful challenges by Asier del Horno on Lionel Messi ended with the Basque defender being sent off, Mourinho accused the Argentina forward of putting on an outstanding performance.

Mourinho’s spell at Inter Milan was similarly contentious. The report says the first leg was marked by serious refereeing errors from his compatriot Olegario Benquerenca. Mourinho then celebrated excessively after the second leg, prompting Barcelona to turn on the sprinklers at Camp Nou.

The most bitter period

Nothing, however, matched the tension and occasional violence of Mourinho’s first Real Madrid tenure between 2010 and 2013.

His actions included reading out a list of referees alleged to have favoured Barcelona and saying: “I would feel ashamed if I won in the way Guardiola wins.” That comment followed a press conference in which Pep Guardiola had challenged him before their Champions League semi-final in 2010-11.

Mourinho was also seen waiting for the referee in the Camp Nou tunnel. The most infamous incident came when he put a finger into the eye of Tito Vilanova.

Several Real Madrid players were involved in aggressive incidents, particularly against Messi, with referees accused of showing leniency. Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Ricardo Carvalho, Alvaro Arbeloa, Marcelo and Pepe were among those associated with the episodes.

Mourinho repeatedly sought to construct explanations for the events. This time, he has already begun doing so by speaking about “the cat” and the scheduling of matches, leaving Flick with the additional task of maintaining discipline and avoiding provocation.