THE Champions League is known for its reunions but Barcelona managers Pep Guardiola might have wished for an easier trip to meet up with a former colleague.
It is 985 kilometres from Barcelona to Milan and two coaches set out at 2.15pm on Sunday afternoon with an overnight stop in Cannes. A luxury coach, for the team of course – six plasma screens, 2 DVD players, wifi, lounge area, etc – followed by a rather less luxurious vehicle for Guardiola and other staff.
Barcelona airport was among those closed by the volcanic dust cloud on Sunday, and although flights restarted shortly after the team departed, all air traffic across northern Italy remained suspended yesterday.
They might have travelled by train, but French railway workers were on strike.
"For a Champions League semi-final, I’d be prepared to walk," declared Victor Valdes, who will be making his 75th European appearance in goal tonight, and this has become an even bigger match for both clubs and their managers after the weekend’s league results.
Barcelona still top La Liga, although only by one point from Real Madrid, while in Serie A, Inter trail Roma, also by one point. Both clubs could conceivably end up with nothing.
Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola might seem to be complete opposites, certainly in terms of football philosophy. But they were colleagues at Barcelona during four years, first when Bobby Robson was in charge and then when Mourinho became assistant to Louis van Gaal.
Mourinho learned his trade at Camp Nou, as he acknowledged when he returned there for Inter’s group stage match in November. It was his first time working outside Portugal, and typically he took the trouble to learn Catalan, which allowed him to become closer to the local players than the more autocratic van Gaal.
Both Mourinho and Guardiola are volatile characters.
Everyone knows about Mourinho’s temperament, and he’s been sent to the stands another four times this season in Italy.
But Guardiola, too, is famous for losing it under pressure.
Earlier this season, he was the proud holder of six trophies, from the Spanish Cup to the World Club Championship, but he also set a new record of 13 red cards received in a turbulent career as player and manager.
Tomorrow night, on the other side of the Alps, the third man of that Barcelona trio will be in the hot seat in the Allianz Arena. In his time, van Gaal clashed with almost everyone in Dutch football, with the media, and most famously with Barcelona players and directors during his second stint at the club, when he was sacked after eight months.
Unlike both Guardiola and Mourinho. he has experienced lean times as a manager, as well as European triumph with Ajax. After he went back to Ajax as technical director in 2004 he soon resigned because of internal conflicts.
At his last club, AZ, he was set to depart in 2008 but was persuaded to stay on and eventually led them to the title last season.
Van Gaal’s opposite number at Lyon is Claude Puel. No Barca connection in this case – but Puel is another character who knows his mind and is not afraid to speak it. A one-club man for more than 20 years with Monaco, as both player and manager, he was then hired by Lille, and earned fame – or notoriety, depending on your loyalty – when Lille played Manchester United in the knockout stage.
There was crowd trouble, but also trouble on the pitch after Ryan Giggs scored a crucial goal from a quick free kick. The Lille players surrounded the officials, encouraged by the manager, who then appeared to be urging them to walk off and stop the game. Lille were fined by UEFA, but the French players and management insisted that under French regulations they had the right to make an immediate protest in this way.
Semi-finals are well-known for being tense affairs. We could be in for two classic encounters. But given the personalities involved, don’t be surprised if there is the odd eruption from the sidelines.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, April 20, 2010
