Mourinho reveals how he stopped Guardiola and Messi at Inter
In a recent interview with the Coaches Voice, Mourinho gave an insight into how his Inter side knocked Barca out in the semi-finals of the competition.
He said: "Obviously, the key to our strategy to beat them was mainly when we recovered the ball and in the following transition. We were very compact on the defensive stage, putting the position of Pandev and Eto'o very back, countering their descents on the Maxwell and Dani Alves belts.
"The key was to attack the spaces that their exteriors left uncovered when they went offensive. Maicon was really phenomenal in doing that job in that game and committing Maxwell,one who is very strong in possession of the ball but not as strong when he is called to defend. On the other side there was Dani Alves, one who always went deep to attack the space left by our exterior, concerned to double more centrally on Messi.
"Our aim was to put Puyol and Piqué in a difficult position, even though they were very exposed. In the Spanish league they were not used to having to recover in the defensive spaces, and we were very quick to hit them right there. It was essential to defend as a single block, and then attack with 4-5 men. It seems absurd to say this when we had 30% of possession against 70% of our opponents, but after the 3-1 we were in total control of the game and even went many times close to the fourth goal.
"They were very well trained in immediately trying to regain the ball once lost, but we had the right mentality to counterattack quickly. I knew that Maicon would arrive in the opposing area many times, but like him also Pandev, Sneijder and Eto'o. "