Page 170 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

ahead of themselves and insisted that everybody remain respectful of exactly who his team was up
against: ‘A team that has won nine European Cups can never be written off. We are going to be
careful and recover both emotionally and mentally.’
Later that week, Pep made another announcement to the press: ‘Of course, the first bit of news is

that we are playing for the right to play in a Champions League final; but the second piece of news is
that Abidal is back with us. It is excellent to hear that a man who has fought a battle with cancer has
been given the all-clear. He will be on the bench for the match.’

3 May 2011 – Champions League Clásico. Second leg. Camp Nou stadium. Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 1

Iniesta returned to the Barcelona side after recovering from a muscle strain that kept him out of the
first leg at the Bernabéu.
With Mourinho confined to a Barcelona hotel because of his suspension, and without Ramos and
Pepe, Kakà made a surprise appearance in the Madrid starting eleven. His inclusion didn’t quite have
the desired impact in making Madrid more of an attacking threat, but with two midfield pivots and

four men in front of the ball, Mourinho had sent his side out to take the game to Barcelona. And, as
always, there was controversy. On fifty-two minutes, Real Madrid thought they had broken the
deadlock – but with the sides level, Higuaín had a goal disallowed for a foul committed moments
earlier by Ronaldo. Later on, Pedro gave Barcelona the lead. Madrid reacted by going for broke,
bringing on Adebayor in place of Higuaín and withdrawing Kakà. At 3-0 down on aggregate Real
finally found the net when Angel Di María’s shot struck the post and rebounded to Marcelo for the tap

in.
Barcelona had qualified for the 2011 final at Wembley with a 3-1 aggregate win.
Forty-five minutes later, Pep Guardiola took up his place in the press room of the Camp Nou.
Typically, he began by paying homage to his own players, and the opposition – while relishing the
moment: ‘This has been one of the most beautiful nights I have ever lived.
‘I would also like to praise Madrid for their courage this evening, because they wanted to go toe to
toe with us.

‘We feel that we have knocked out a superior team, a wealthier club, that can pay whatever release
clauses they want to sign a player, a team with seven strikers that anybody would love to have in their
squad; a heck of a team.’
Barcelona had emerged from a gruelling twenty-day period, having won their seventh European
Cup semi-final and getting a chance to win their fourth final.

Pep felt drained. The three-week period had been ‘tremendously hard, with a lot of tension; very
intense and very tiring’.

For Xavi, the wounds from those Clásicos are not yet fully healed; the memory of the emotion is not
diluted yet: ‘Yeah, it was hard. Those four Clásicos were hard. And when you’re on your own and
you get criticisms, mentally you have to be very strong. It happens to me too. There are days when you
think “I can’t take this any more. I’m not having a good time.” But at least Pep must have felt
protected surrounded by his people, he has Tito, Manel, people he has known for years. People who
have shared so many things with him, who helped him feel everything was under control.’
Mourinho was not about to give up the fight. He was down but not out and saw this as merely the

opening few rounds in the battle he’d come to Madrid to fight. At Inter Milan it took him until the