Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is already in midseason from and has he picked up where he left off last season by calling Barcelona “a small team” after losing in last night’s Supercopa second leg at the Nou Camp.
For 88 minutes last night’s match was a fantastic footballing spectacle between arguably the best two sides in Europe. All that was overshadowed by the melee and red cards that in the closing minutes of the match.
Mourinho was unhappy that the ball-boys appeared to disappear after half-time with the home side 2-1 up on the night and 4-3 ahead on aggregate. He said:
“We came here to play. What I’m about to say is not a criticism, I’m just stating a fact: there were no ball-boys in the second half, which is something typical of small teams when experiencing difficulties.” He added “I’m not going to say we’re happy because we didn’t win the Spanish Super Cup, that would be hypocritical of me. But we intended to play like men and not fall on the ground at the slightest touch.”
Messi’s second goal four minutes from time won a pulsating match for Barcelona and Madrid’s frustration at losing then spilled over when Marcelo was given a straight red for a bad tackle on Cesc Fabregas. That tackle sparked a bust-up which saw Mourinho’s clash with Barca assistant Tito Vilanova and red cards for substituted players David Villa and Mesut Ozil.