{"id":947410,"date":"2026-10-26T22:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T22:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T22:14:13","slug":"mourinhos-plan-comes-together-as-real-madrid-relaunch-with-clasico-statement-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947410\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho\u2019s plan comes together as Real Madrid relaunch with cl\u00e1sico statement | La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jos\u00e9 Mourinho had already done the por qu\u00e9?, the printout<\/a> and the press conference no-show in under 100 days. Now he\u2019s done a knee slide too, and in the perfect place: back where it all began and where it can all begin again. When Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 scored the first in the cl\u00e1sico on Sunday night, Real Madrid\u2019s manager hardly moved, sitting in the shadow of the bench \u2013 but when the striker got the second to win it with time running out, that was different. Mourinho leapt into the light, throwing himself to the grass, the knees of a 63-year-old\u2019s trousers muddy as a schoolboy\u2019s, stuck his tongue out and pumped his fists.<\/p>\n

He does so love it when a plan comes together. To the right of him, the bench was emptying, subs joining the players in sprinting towards the south-west corner. As they leapt about, dodging the bottles thrown towards them from the end, way, way up in the furthest corner and stuck inside a glass box like a bunch of David Blaines, the small group of Madrid fans who had come were going mad. In the main stand, a thousand phones were raised. And 600 kilometres west, back in Boadilla, Thibaut Courtois was watching his teammates from the sofa at home, presumably wrapped in a blanket and cradling a cup of Lemsip. On the morning of the biggest game there is, he awoke with flu, forced to miss out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best goalkeeper in the world, but none of us cried because Thibaut couldn\u2019t play,\u201d Mourinho said. Plenty might have felt like it, more reason to be fearful. But the coach called Andriy Lunin, the substitute goalkeeper so serious that he bought a roll of artificial turf and spent the pandemic diving round the living room of his flat, and told him this was his moment: \u201cYou train to play, not to sit on the bench, so go on.\u201d As for the rest of them, the manager told them nothing changes: the plan remains in place. By the time they headed back to the dressing room, \u201cFucking get in!\u201d echoing along the Camp Nou corridor, so it had proved.<\/p>\n

Thirteen years later, Mourinho was back in Barcelona for a cl\u00e1sico and he had guided Madrid to a 2-1 win. It wasn\u2019t supposed to be like this, or maybe it was. Barcelona, the team who had won nine in a row, banging in 4.3 goals per game<\/a>, had been beaten by Madrid, the team who had lost twice already and, truth be told, were mostly just not very good. The night it could have been all over, the title race done when it\u2019s not even in November, was instead the night it finally started. \u201cIf you leave here nine points behind, it\u2019s very heavy psychologically; if it\u2019s six, it\u2019s more balanced; if it\u2019s three, that\u2019s different,\u201d Mourinho said.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Mourinho returned to where it all began to continue his unbeaten streak against Barcelona. Photograph: Joan Monfort\/AP<\/p>\n

This was different, and so is the season now. Counting the cl\u00e1sicos all those years ago, Mourinho racked up his sixth consecutive meeting with Barcelona<\/a> without defeat, and there had been no parked bus, nor many lumps kicked. They didn\u2019t just desperately hang on, although there was a moment when Dean Huijsen saved a shot with his face. Nor had they just waited for a moment, resisting and then robbing it, even if Jo\u00e3o Cancelo did insist: \u201cThat\u2019s Madrid; they don\u2019t have many chances but they score them.\u201d The final shot count said 18-10 to Barcelona, and possession was 62% Barcelona\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we won is important: you can win luckily or by defending a lot. But we won with calmness and totally deservedly. We did it by being organised, concentrated and having the courage to come out from the back,\u201d Mourinho said. And if that might have been pushing it a little \u2013 and, let\u2019s face it, the analyses might be different had Lunin not made an astonishing save from Gerard Mart\u00edn or Lamine Yamal\u2019s second-half shot not faded just past\u00a0the post \u2013 he had a point.<\/p>\n

Barcelona were not at their best. They had been hurried and imprecise, Rodri telling his teammates to lower their \u201cpulse rate\u201d as they came out for the second half. Lamine Yamal somehow missed an extraordinary chance just before the break. And when they did tighten the screw in the second half, they couldn\u2019t break the wall. Xavi Espart was forced off, yet another injury at the back, the failure to sign a centre-back in the spotlight again. Yet this was still a faster, more aggressive, tighter Madrid than anyone expected. Asked to define it, Lunin went for \u201cdiscipline and attitude\u201d. And if that is partly about occasion, the least you can ask for, it\u2019s more than you sometimes get.<\/p>\n

Andriy Lunin stepped up for Real Madrid in the absence of the ill Thibaut Courtois. Photograph: Jose Breton\/AP<\/p>\n

Besides, it was also more than that. More than Marc Cucurella getting under Lamine Yamal\u2019s skin, although he certainly succeeded. They went for the space beyond Barcelona\u2019s full-backs: superb in his first cl\u00e1sico, aged 19, Yan Diomand\u00e9 \u2013 the left winger \u2013 got more touches than any Madrid player, and protected his full-back as well. But it was more than that, too. More than the wonderful winning goal, a flash of inspiration with Jude Bellingham going all Nureyev, the ball flitting between his feet and Gabriel Jesus\u2019s legs, pirouetting to release Eduardo Camavinga. This was a team with an idea and a victory that vindicated their manager, some kind of resurrection.<\/p>\n

Before the game, Rodri said that one of Madrid\u2019s tricks is to convince you that they\u2019re not that good, but insisted he wouldn\u2019t fall into that trap. Still he felt that plan particularly. Pedri did too. Bellingham dealt with Rodri, Bernardo Silva with Pedri. Pressed and tired too, according to Hansi Flick, neither truly took control. The inclusion of Arda G\u00fcler and Silva \u2013 the surprise in the middle, starting his first league game in six\u00a0weeks \u2013 underlined an intention for Madrid to keep the ball when they could. They actually had a midfield, which was new. From the back they tried to build, draw Barcelona in. And if a time came when they had to wait, to put bodies in before the ball, well, they would do that too. Six times Barcelona shots were blocked. At least twice more, shots were taken from their toes. At the other end, meanwhile, Madrid attacked with an intent and an incision that probably drew the clearer chances: the xG showed 1.19 v 1.94.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideLa Liga resultsShow<\/p>\n

Alaves 1-1 Malaga, Rayo Vallecano 0-3 Elche, Racing Santander 2-1 Espanyol, Valencia 1-2 Villarreal, Atl\u00e9tico 1-0 Deportiva A Coruna, A Bilbao 4-0 Getafe, Celta Vigo 0-0 Real Betis, Real Sociedad 2-1 Levante, Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monday: Sevilla v Osasuna<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Victory puts Madrid three points behind Barcelona and, Federico Valverde claimed, \u201cwill give us a kickstart\u201d. It has taken 10 weeks but it\u2019s game on. Hay\u00a0liga, as they like to say. There is league. There is Madrid, too. Something has shifted, starting in Rome<\/a>, where 70 dreadful minutes gave way to 20 pretty good ones, another inexplicable comeback actually having something of an explanation, too. The changes were impossible to ignore. Valverde and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni no longer the partnership in the middle, Valverde going to right-back instead. G\u00fcler playing. Diomand\u00e9 playing. And, yes, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior not playing. \u201cI\u2019m not stubborn; I can change,\u201d Mourinho said. Madrid have won five in succession now; something was seen that night, a way ahead. They\u2019ve won every game since Vin\u00edcius was suspended, facile and perhaps even cruel though that may be to say. And since Mourinho grew a beard, if you believe in that kind of thing.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 celebrates the goal that leaves Real Madrid only three points behind Barcelona in the league. Photograph: Albert Gea\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Before the cl\u00e1sico, Mourinho had said it wasn\u2019t fair to compare his team, a side in construction and a long way from the finished product, to Barcelona. He insisted that he was still getting to know his players; he hadn\u2019t been there long, after all. After the cl\u00e1sico, he admitted: \u201cWe have improved, we can\u2019t hide that.\u201d The idea has shifted, almost like it was an epiphany: \u201cI\u2019ve learned something about the middle of the pitch; I have learned that a mixture is better, that it is better to have a combination of qualities than two players of similar characteristics.\u201d In short, Tchouam\u00e9ni and Valverde doesn\u2019t work. There needs to be some football in there somewhere, and so a shift started. Sunday came as a kind of confirmation, a hope, an identity emerging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best Madrid is born at the Camp Nou,\u201d ran the headline in El\u00a0Pa\u00eds. \u201cMadrid are here now,\u201d AS\u2019s cover said. \u201cI won\u2019t let them have their heads on the moon; if we win this and then don\u2019t win at the Sardinero, it won\u2019t mean much,\u201d Mourinho said, but this was a start, not just an end in itself. At full\u00a0time, Mourinho headed on to the pitch and shook Lunin\u2019s hand as all around players embraced. High in the north-east corner, Madrid\u2019s fans stayed and sang. Back home, Courtois was watching. He had \u201ca horrible night\u201d on Saturday, they said, but now he was feeling a little better. They all were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Mourinho had already done the por qu\u00e9?, the printout and the press conference no-show in under 100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-947410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}