"She gave her heart to the man in the long black coat," Bob Dylan once sang. The line seems to distill the essence of the relationship between Inter Milan's fans and José Mourinho, who drew a far louder cheer than any of his players when his name was announced at San Siro on Wednesday night. Resplendent in his signature trenchcoat, he could not help but translate the effect to the spectacle of Europe's grandest match as the sublime talents of Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic collided, combined, and ultimately cancelled each other out.
Mourinho had been strangely impassive in his emotions towards this fixture and, in retrospect, you could see his point: the group stage of the Champions League naturally breeds a caution that not even the dominant teams of Italy and Spain can reduce. Pragmatism ruled here, which suited the Portuguese down to the ground. It was in the knockout round, he said, where you expected the "salt and pepper" of competition, and, although this first serving was not unpalatable, it was far plainer fare than the banquet most had been hoping for.
"The game goes like that sometimes," Pep Guardiola, Barcelona head coach, admitted. "It is not easy to play against Italian teams." There was, however, a key difference in the Catalans' style, namely that they were using Ibrahimovic, who has cost the best part of £40 million (with Eto'o thrown in) to provide a more physical dimension up front. "We tried to move the ball as much as possible," Guardiola said. "We had a new challenge, new combinations."
Typically, Mourinho was trying to suggest, rather implausibly, that a dogged Inter side had matched Barcelona's own style. "I saw two excellent teams from a defensive point of view, with great organisation." he said. "These were teams with great respect for each other. There is practically nothing between them."
Inter were at times guilty of gifting Lionel Messi far too much space, and the pocket-sized Argentine almost gave Mourinho palpitations by dribbling past one challenge after another. The treatment by Inter's centre-backs of Ibrahimovic, their former fratello, was also surprisingly generous, and it was a glorious chance that the Swede spurned when he sliced wretchedly wide on an early volley.
With mounting dread, Inter's supporters waited for the first sparks of the 'Ibra' magic. 'Ibracadabra', it is called here, apparently. But such defensive stalwarts as Maicon and Christian Chivu knew what to expect, as well as how to neutralise it, and were concerned more with how to contain the marauding of Messi. The world's finest winger was cropping up everywhere: at the near post, the far post, on the overlap, and Chivu could do nothing but resort to the 'roadblock' method of last-ditch tackling.
The other crucial subtext to this match was in danger of being forgotten about. Yes, Samuel Eto'o looked incongruous as one of the nerazzurri, confronting the club that made him, and his experience proved as torrid as that of Ibrahimovic as Barcelona denied him any room. But the Cameroonian had glimpses on goal, with the Catalans betraying an uncharacteristic weakness in holding on to the ball.
Diego Milito has reinvigorated the Inter attack since his summer arrival from Genoa and he ruffled the human battering ram that is Carles Puyol, before testing Victor Valdés with a fine drive. Wesley Sneijder was equally impressive, the Dutchman's pace in the centre becoming a problem for Xavi, and his shot from the edge of the penalty area virtually off the paint of Valdes' bar.
Barcelona were unusually painstaking in their responses, increasingly relying on Henry and attack-loving full-back Daniel Alves to lead the line, but Inter's eventual goalless scoreline against the reigning champions of Europe showed how this was Mourinho's night.
Source: The Telegraph