Angel Di Maria has revealed the instructions Jose Mourinho gave Real Madrid players as they attempted to contain Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, recalling the intense rivalry between the two clubs during the Portuguese manager’s first spell in charge at the Bernabeu.
Speaking in comments reported by Sport, the Argentina winger said Mourinho convinced his squad that physicality was the only way to overcome Barcelona.
“Mourinho implanted in every Real Madrid player’s mind that the only way to beat Barcelona was to hit them,” Di Maria said.
Barcelona’s dominance with the ball made life particularly difficult for Real Madrid during that period. Di Maria pointed to the 5-0 defeat at Camp Nou as an example of how effectively Guardiola’s side controlled matches and forced their opponents to chase possession.
“I don’t think I have played in a match where I touched the ball so little as in that 5-0 at Camp Nou,” he said.
“I was trying to press, but the ball was never where I was going. It was unbelievable.”
The Argentine also recalled the hostility surrounding a sequence of matches between the clubs played over a period of no more than 20 days. The fixtures included the Copa del Rey final and a Champions League semi-final, with the rivalry reaching a particularly tense point.
Di Maria contrasted the scenes in those matches with the relationships between many of the same players when they met while representing Spain.
“With the national team, everyone was friends and they would overcome any team they faced with ease,” he said. “But when they played against each other, they were exchanging punches.”
He also remembered a challenge on Lionel Messi during the 2011 Copa del Rey final. Di Maria said he had kicked Messi while trying to stop a Barcelona counter-attack, but believed there was little alternative if Real Madrid were to prevent the move from ending in a goal.
“I apologised to him, but if you don’t bring him down, you can’t stop them from scoring,” he said.
Di Maria’s comments have resurfaced ahead of another meeting between Real Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday evening in the 10th round of La Liga.
The fixture will be played with Mourinho back in the Real Madrid dugout after returning to the club at the beginning of the current season, reviving memories of the fiercely contested Clasico encounters from his first spell in charge.
