Will Mourinho´s Inter be able to dethrone Barcelona? (Yahoo)

“Remember San Mamés”, said Josep Guardiola, Barcelona´s coach to his colleague of Inter, José Mourinho, looking into his eyes, when the first match of the semifinals in the Stadium of San Siro ended, forgetting that some days ago the Catalonian put the Portuguese as “the best in the World” in his profession.

All the previous flattery of the series of semifinal remained in the way when Guardiola could study the panorama for the match on next Wednesday in the Camp Nou, that without doubt will mark in fire his team should it pass to the expected final in the Santiago Bernabeu, and this push him spiritually to win the league as well, or he will be destroyed for both and it may happen that he will not support the pressure that already started to put the Real Madrid, situated one point behind in the Spanish championship when few imagined similar scenery.

Guardiola knows too well the group he conduces and the mentality of the world of Barcelona and that is why he prefers to hide his feelings declaring that “this week defines everything” and he even gives the match against the last, the Xerez, for the Spanish League the importance it deserves: he knows that in another moment it would not be a rival of consideration. But he understands that his team will go out to the stadium thinking in the Inter. This could bring some nightmares of passed leagues as the one his club lost incredibly against the Real Madrid of Favio Capello.

When at the final of the match in San Siro Guardiola shouted to a surprised Mourinho, who qualified that this move (and other claims of Barcelona to the arbitral sentences such as the doubtful penalty to the Brazilian Daniel Alves not marked, or the evident forwarded position of Diego Milito in the third goal of the Italians) as “ few concerning the behavior of Barcelona”, the Catalonian recalled what happened on November 24, 1996, when the Athletic of Bilbao, conduced by the French Luis Fernández, received Barcelona in a heavy climate formed against the Catalonian.

It was then when Guardiola, still player, came near the bench of the substitutes to claim Fernandez not to make fun of the technical body of the Barcelona composed by the already dead Bobby Robson and his assistant in that time, José Mourinho. “Mister, these things should not be done”, Guardiola told Fernández. When that match ended winning the Vasques 2-1, Mourinho said in the lockers-room: ”Luis Fernandez made of this match a war of dogs. I talk about men, not bad mannered kids”.

For those who like hot matches, seldom will find so many reasons. For the first time in a long period, the Barcelona is in a real danger to be eliminated, what besides, would burry the Golden dream to raise the fourth European Cup in the enemy ground of Bernabeu meanwhile there was definitively installed the duel of coaches Guardiola-Mourinho.

In its turn, the Inter comes to the Camp Nou with their historical opportunity because not only they did not win a Champions since the times of the hard Argentine Helenio Herrera (1964-65) with that mythical team of Sarti, Facchetti, Jair, Mazzola or Luis Suárez, but they lived from defeat to defeat. That is why though with so many titles of consecutive leagues Roberto Mancini had to leave because it is not sufficient with the scudettos and for that reason, Mourinho had not much credit if in this season he does not obtain to go as far as possible in the great European competition.

But he Portuguese showed his value again, as it occurred with the Porto in 2004, when nobody imagined such development and the fans of Inter, and their players know very well that they are ninety minutes from the glory and it is an occasion not to be wasted. Even with a defeat by one goal, the Italians will be at the final and against a rival that seems easy, be it the Bayern Munich (with more tradition) as the Olympique de Lyon.

Meanwhile this happens, and the world press also plays with the strange and possible confronting of Champions between the brothers Milito (Diego, forwarder of the Inter who maybe should be marked in his sector by Gabriel, defender of the Barcelona in the absence of Carles Puyol due to the accumulation of yellow cards), the Barcelona full of doubts discarded also Andrés Iniesta due to another injury, something that angered him a lot, neither Lionel Messi seems to be in his best moment. After different exhibitions with successive hat-tricks, he experience a pronounced drop in his play to the point that almost he disappeared in the last matches vs the Espanyol for the league (something understandable if it was thought to give all to the Champions) as specially vs the Inter in Milan

Can the Inter support the blockade that he will surely undergo in the Camp Nou on next Wednesday? Experience and players they surely have for this, added as it is evident that Mourinho did not lie when in the previous to the first semifinal he said that this Italian team “is much more than the one that played in the first phase”, when the Barcelona imposed clearly by 2-0, after the tie 0-0 in Milan

From the security of Julio César and his two centrals Lucio and Samuel, the potency of Maicon and the ductility of Zanetti in the laterals, the excellent mark of Cambiasso and Motta in the middle, accompanied by Pandev and a delicate midfielder with the great shot as Snaijder, and the fearness Milito and Etoo, that would be able to go back and counter attack as they please, the Inter seems to have a good formula to oblige the Barcelona for the maximum effort if they want to return to a great final, as in Roma in 2009.

The table is laid.