Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: Jose Mourinho Got It All Wrong When It Mattered Most

You never set up your team to defend a home leg Champions League semifinal. Not if you are Real Madrid.

Especially if you are Real Madrid. 

What was Jose Mourinho thinking, fielding eight defensive players against Barcelona? 

Was he lost in transition, assuming he was still in charge of Inter Milan—a team he built to protect even a goalless tie?

We are talking about Real Madrid, the nine-time European Champions.

The Special One got it all wrong on this occasion, something he rarely does at this stage of this particular tournament. 

The Bernabeu faithful were buzzing before kickoff, but they must have been taken aback by the sight of three defensive midfielders in the form of Pepe, Lassana Diara and Xabi Alonso.

No one was more surprised than opposing coach Pep Guardiola, who certainly did not expect Real Madrid’s negative approach—even by Mourinho’s standards.

It was clear that the Madrid coach had set his team up to play as if they were the away team. That is, to sit back and hit Barcelona on the counter. 

Only God knows what possessed him to play such a negative formation and leave out the likes of Kaka, or a recognized striker, when Gonzalo Higuain, Karim Benzema and Emmanuel Adebayor have performed admirably in recent games.

Perhaps he was encouraged by the fact that a similar looking lineup triumphed over their rivals just a few days ago and delivered him his first trophy in the form of the King's Cup.

The Real Madrid team that won the Cup was buzzing—this line-up, however, was left stung.

Lassana Diarra, a replacement for the injured Sami Khedira, failed to impede Barcelona's tiki-taka style.

The Catalans strangled Real Madrid with their possession—the only way the Whites were able to get the ball was through a more physical approach, which ended up in flurry of yellow cards and one sending-off for Pepe, thanks to an Oscar-worthy performance from Dani Alves and Pedro. 

Victor Valdes was called into action just once, beating away Ronaldo’s long range effort.

Apart from that, he only exercised his reflexes by celebrating Messi’s brace.  

There was so much time for Mourinho to change his approach by bringing on the in-from Kaka or Higuain. Instead, he chose to channel his energy into behaving sarcastically towards the fourth official in an incident which saw him sent to the stands. 

There is no doubt that Barcelona were deserving winners on the night, but it could have been all to play for if Mourinho had chosen to use his head instead of his mouth. He has since conceded the tie altogether, even though accepting defeat has never been his style.

Of course, he could just be playing a psychological mind game. After all, Mourinho is the master in that field. However, no one can actually see Real Madrid overturning a two-goal advantage in the Nou Camp—especially with Pepe and Sergio Ramos suspended.

Real Madrid's defeat was the architect of Mourinho's arrogance and obduracy. He should take it on the chin and learn from this mistake—playing negative football is never a way to win a competition.

His accusations that Pep Guardiola has never won a Champions League cleanly is the talk of a loser—we can only hope that Mourinho doesn’t now turn into an Arsene Wenger clone and blame everyone else but himself.