JOSE MOURINHO was utterly obsessed with Lionel Messi, his former Real Madrid players revealed.
The Special One’s first stint at the Bernabeu lasted three years from 2010 to 2013.
Sami Khedira revealed just how much Jose Mourinho obsessed over Lionel Messi Credit: Getty
Real Madrid went to extreme lengths to try and stop the Barcelona superstar Credit: AFP
In the battle with arch-rivals Barcelona, Los Blancos won the 2011 Copa del Rey and LaLiga a year later, .
But whenever Real faced Barca, Mourinho spent most of his time totally fixated on somehow stopping Messi.
And in his self-titled Netflix documentary, admitted he suffered sleepless nights about that special man from Argentina.
Ex- midfielder Sami Khedira – now – said: “Preparing for the games was so funny because we spoke for two minutes about Barcelona.
“And then it was 40 minutes about .
“He prepared every single detail.
“He changed some players, sometimes Pepe played as a No6, then Sergio Ramos.
“The most important thing was, ‘How can we stop Lionel Messi?’”
Mourinho clashed with Iker Casillas over his phone call to Xavi to make peace Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Mourinho added: “I was having a nightmare. ‘What can we do to stop him?’
“From the first [El Clasico] game, I knew that we couldn’t be better than them doing the same as they do.
“To beat them, we had to be different both on and off the pitch.
“We were football enemies in the sense we fought for the same cup, the same league, the same Champions League. I think it was a good thing.”
won Mourinho’s first LaLiga El Clasico 5-0 at the Nou Camp. The feisty reverse fixture at the Bernabeu ended 1-1.
Barca came out on top in the Champions League semis, while it was Madrid who beat their bitter enemy in the Copa del Rey final.
Left-back Marcelo explained the mentality shift instilled by the boss.
He said: “Jose treated every game like it was a final.
“He got into our heads and changed our mindset.
“We started going into those games like it was life or death, like we had to win.”
And that saw him after the manager found out the goalkeeper had extended an olive branch to Barcelona midfielder Xavi to keep the peace between Spanish national team pals.
Spain won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 with one of the greatest generations ever.
But Mourinho did not care for niceties and wanted nothing short of full commitment from his Real Madrid warriors in the raging battle against Barcelona.
He at the time.
And Mourinho – who – told his documentary: “I always say, in every situation, when you want to make a point, when you want to go right to the heart, you don’t do it to the little ones, you go to the big ones.
“There are things that I don’t accept and will never accept.
“And when somebody doesn’t respect me, it’s a problem.
“I said, ‘This is Barcelona-Real Madrid. When you go to the national team, then you can kiss the guy. But not now. This is war.’”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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