Copa Del Rey shame game piles pressure on Jose Mourinho

Published on Friday 20 January 2012 02:04

ANOTHER loss to Barcelona has piled pressure on Jose Mourinho, with support for the Real Madrid coach ebbing after another ill-tempered and ineffective display against their biggest rivals – summed up by Pepe’s stamp on Lionel Messi’s hand.

Barcelona came from behind to win the Copa del Rey quarter-final first-leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, their tenth win in 13 games and sixth against Madrid since Mourinho’s arrival in 2010.

The Portuguese coach’s defensive tactics and use of central defender Pepe in midfield did little to blunt the Barcelona attack, while his aggressive approach and lack of offensive inspiration drew jeers from the home fans. Even daily sports paper Marca, normally staunchly behind Real, labelled Madrid’s performance “woeful” and Pepe’s stamp on Messi “repugnant”.

“Madrid has thrown its entire history overboard by electing this woeful style, which did not produce a single benefit,” Marca columnist Santi Segurola wrote. “[Pepe’s] presence in midfield represented a minuscule, almost nothing, Madrid that disappointed because Spanish football remembers a lot of [Madrid] teams with less talent that made it more difficult for Barcelona.

“This team has bought the best players the market has to offer – what for? To play like an insignificant, distasteful team.”

Mourinho stuck with a defensive gameplan despite its previous failure against Barca, with Ricardo Carvalho and Hamit Altintop in defence and a focus on disrupting Barcelona’s midfield creativity, led by Pepe, who came under heavy criticism from the Spanish press, with Marca calling his stamp “unacceptable”.

Pepe was previously red carded for a tackle on Barcelona’s Daniel Alves in their Champions League semi-final in April and was also banned for ten games in April 2009 after lashing out at two Getafe players in a skirmish that included him stamping on the back of Javier Casquero after pushing the player to the ground, unprovoked.

Last night the Portugal international apologised to Messi but insisted the act, which was missed at the time by the referee, was “unintentional”.

In a statement on Madrid’s official website, Pepe said: “I wish to say yesterday’s incident with Leo Messi was unintentional, but I nevertheless want to apologise to him if he was offended because all I do is defend my team and this institution.

“I give my heart and soul, and the thought of hurting a colleague has never entered my mind.”

While Mourinho had earlier said that Pepe could be punished for the stamp, there is no certainty over whether there will be any consequences to his actions after another Barcelona performance eclipsed by Madrid’s transgressions.

Barca defender Gerard Pique said: “There are people whose job is just that, to review the play. Let’s see what they do.

“People just want to watch football, good games, good football.

“We don’t want to talk about bad things like this, because it is bad for Spanish football and we don’t really want this.”

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Damo Lennon

Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 11:41 AM

A poor analogy. There are no bigger clubs in Scotland or England than Celtic and Man Utd.

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victor is back

Friday, January 20, 2012 at 05:59 PM

Agree with both the previous posts apart from the bit about us not getting pens for Scotland and the guy from Norway getting one...(theirs was a pen and ours wasn't...simple as that. Levein should go asap as he is miles out of his depth). Aside from that i would also point out that Barca are the Spanish equivalent of man utd in england and celtic in scotland. They all claim their bigger rival is the establishment club and therefore get all the preferantial treatment but closer inspection of the facts reveal that it is in fact them who get ALL the decisions on an on-going constant basis from every possible source.

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A Jambo come rain or shine

Friday, January 20, 2012 at 02:14 PM

#1 Totally agree. If Mourinho adopts an attacking philosophy then they'll get slaughtered by Barca. I'm not sure what else he can do. I'd be interested to know how Madrid fans would feel about winning the league without beating Barca? As for Pepe - total lie. One replay showed him clearly looking down at Messi on the ground and then stepping on his hand. He is a despicable player, emphasised by his dive on the touchline and a strong FA would punish him heavily for his antics. 2 games for the dive and 2 more for the stamp. Unfortunately it only really seems to be us who try to discourage diving, which will have an adverse effect on the national team when we refuse to go down and don't get penaltiesfree kicks and then there is uproar when someone else does it (The guy from Normay) which costs us 3 points. We need a worldwide clampdown on diving.

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Burning Sky

Friday, January 20, 2012 at 07:05 AM

Pepe hand stamp was deliberate and disgusting. Barca dominated this game again for most parts. JM managed to do the defensive trick well once against Barca (at Inter) but the only 'solution' for RM and the rest of the world is the ageing process. This is the greatest club side we have ever seen and in Messi, Iniesta and Xavi a triumvirate where 'world class' belittles them

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