Mourinho: Camp Nou is a ´Mission Impossible´

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said winning at Cap Nou was virtually impossible.

Speaking after Real’s Copa del Rey elimination to Barcelona, Mourinho

said his players thought they were on a hiding to nothing in the Catalan

homeland before the match.

Mourinho’s men came back from a two-goal deficit at Camp Nou to draw 2-2

on the night, but were eliminated courtesy of their 2-1 defeat at the

Bernabeu in the first leg.

Mourinho hinted that his team went into the game expecting to go out of

the competition, likely alluding to refereeing decisions.

“I heard in the changing room that it is impossible to win here,” he

told the media after the match, and when pressed for a reason why the

players had thought in such a way, he added: “Just ask them.”

Sergio Ramos had a goal chalked off for a push on Dani Alves and went on

to pick up a second booking in the dying minutes of the tie, but

Mourinho refused to be drawn into criticising the match officials.

“I will not speak about the referee. We came with the hope of getting

through. We knew it was very difficult, but we came with the hope of

achieving it.” he said.

Mourinho said he had become used to suffering similar blows during clashes against Barcelona in his career.

“I played here with Chelsea, with Inter, and with Real Madrid in the Champions League. This is a familiar situation to me.”

Meanwhile, Barca coach Pep Guardiola downplayed Real Madrid’s spirited

performance saying his side was the better side over 180 minutes.

“Madrid only did what we would have done in their situation,” Guardiola said.

“The (Barcelona) players showed great strength and I congratulate them.”

“Madrid are a great team and therefore this merits our victory, Madrid

played a good game, but we were the victors over the 180 minutes,” he

said.

The 41-year-old also played down claims that it was his most stressful

game in charge of Barcelona, with the coach looking back to a Primera

Division encounter against Sevilla in 2010.

“I suffered more in Seville. We were winning 3-0 but then they pulled it

back to 3-2 and if we had conceded again, we could have lost the

league,” he said.

Barcelona will face the winner of Thursday’s clash between Valencia and Levante in the semi-finals.

They return to La Liga action this weekend with a trip to out-of-form Villarreal.