After Bobby Robson’s Barcelona beat Paris Saint-Germain in the 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup final, Pep Guardiola pointed at Jose Mourinho and embraced him with a big bear hug.
Guardiola was one of the finest players of his generation; Mourinho was a former school coach who had worked his way to the top. Their paths had crossed a decade and a half before they became sworn enemies, as colleagues and friends.
Six weeks after winning the Cup Winners’ Cup, Barcelona also claimed the Copa del Rey, and a 34-year-old Mourinho took to the microphone during the celebrations in the city, declaring to the fans: “Today, tomorrow, and always, I have Barcelona in my heart.”
The coach shared a strong relationship with Guardiola. They were like-minded, studious and analytical. The duo spent a lot of time together, talking things through and doing the sort of the nuts-and-bolts work that wasn’t exactly the forte of man-manager Robson.
Mourinho and Guardiola have since pitted their wits against one another as managers more often than against anyone else. In total, they’ve met in charge of eight different clubs – three for Guardiola, five for Mourinho – across four countries and seven different competitions.
But there hasn’t been anything like the period in which their conflict peaked in 2011, when the prestige fixture of European football – El Clasico – was played out four times in 18 unforgettable days, defining the three competitions that Real Madrid and Barcelona contested that season.
The post ‘We’re the best, f*ck you’: The story of four Clasicos in 18 days appeared first on Football365.