Defensive masterclass enough for Inter

Barcelona 1 Inter Milan 0 (Agg 2-3)THE ONLY Real Madrid-supporting taxi driver in Barcelona gave a deep sigh as he turned off the Avenida Diagonal last night, reluctantly accepting directions to the stadium.

“If those cabrones get through to the final in the Bernabeu,” he said, putting his index finger to his temple in a gesture of suicidal despair and letting the thought hang in the air like a bad smell. He need not worry now.

The Catalan flag will not be flying in Castille on May 22nd. The big comeback came too late, in the shape of an 84th-minute goal by Gerard Pique, so Jose Mourinho will get his chance to show the Bernabeu what he can do when he takes Internazionale to meet Bayern Munich in the European Cup final.

Josep Guardiola coped with the suspension of Carles Puyol, his inspirational captain, and the failure of Eric Abidal to pass a fitness test by bringing Yaya Toure into the centre of the defence and posting Gabriel Milito, the younger brother of Inter’s Diego, at left back, perhaps in the knowledge that when the two had played against each other in Argentina and in European competition, Gabriel had never lost a match against his sibling.

For Inter, Mourinho showed that he had not been kidding when he suggested on the eve of the match Goran Pandev’s place was in doubt, leading to the assumption that he would bring in an extra defender in place of the Macedonian forward.

The team issued half an hour before the match showed Mourinho remaining faithful to the starting line-up that established the 3-1 advantage over Barcelona at San Siro last week, with Pandev on the left flank, but five minutes before the arrival of the teams on the pitch the coach took Cristian Chivu out on to the pitch and enacted a very public pantomime of gesturing his tactical instructions to the Romanian defender.

And sure enough, there was Chivu on the pitch for the start, on the left of midfield, joining Esteban Cambiasso and Thiago Motta in a reinforced three-man defensive shield.

Barcelona started in the way they were hoping to spend the evening, fizzing the ball across the turf and carrying the match to their opponents. In Inter’s back four, however, the two Argentinians and two Brazilians were in less of a mood than usual to stand on ceremony when the Catalan attackers came bearing down.

There had been hardly any football worth noting when, with 10 minutes gone, Motta received the first yellow card of the night for a crude foul on Daniel Alves.

A minute later Lucio went unpunished for smothering Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose ability to make his considerable size as well as his skill count near the Inter goal must have figured in Guardiola’s pre-match prayers.

The yellow card count was briefly evened up when Pedro was cautioned for chasing back to foul the fast-breaking Samuel Eto’o, but in the 26th minute the odds tilted against Inter when Sergio Busquets went down with too much alacrity and looked up with a smile to see a red card being shown to the Brazilian midfielder.

Inter’s players raged while Mourinho prowled his technical area, staying clear of the animated huddle around the referee.

From the start Inter had been slowing the pace of the game at every opportunity, and goalkeeper Julio Cesar was booked for wasting time over taking a free kick ten minutes before half-time.

Two minutes before the interval Chivu earned another yellow card for the Italian team when he slid through Messi 25 yards from the Inter goal. Ibrahimovic drove the free kick wide.

With Maxwell on for the second half to provide a greater attacking threat down the left than Gabriel Milito had been able to offer, Guardiola’s team returned to the offensive, banking on Xavi’s prompting and Eto’o’s energy.

But with Pedro looking lightweight and Ibrahimovic failing to make an impression, Inter’s 10 men went about their spoiling business with a conviction and authority that was communicating itself to the home crowd.

The big Swede in Barcelona’s No 9 shirt was having a night as unproductive as one he endured at San Siro. When Pique made a fine break across the halfway line, Ibrahomovic’s failure to read his clever pass exasperated the young centre back. Soon he would be replaced by the young Bojan Krkic.

Messi, too, was having another frustrating night, again crowded out by a rearguard tuned to near perfection: a typically asphyxiating Italian defence without a single Italian on the field.

BARCELONA: Valdes, Dani Alves, Pique, Milito (Maxwell 46), Keita, Xavi, Toure Yaya, Busquets (Jeffren 63), Pedro, Ibrahimovic (Bojan 63), Messi. Subs not used: Pinto, Marquez, Henry, Thiago. Booked: Pedro.

INTER MILAN: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Motta, Eto’o (Mariga 86), Chivu, Sneijder (Muntari 66), Milito (Cordoba 81). Subs not used: Toldo, Materazzi, Balotelli, Arnautovic. Sent Off: Motta (28). Booked: Motta, Julio Cesar, Chivu, Lucio, Muntari.

Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).

Mourinho hails victory as 'better than winning Champion's League

INTER MILAN coach Jose Mourinho, a former assistant trainer at Barca, ran on to the pitch to celebrate with his players at the final whistle and clashed with Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes as a hail of objects rained down from the stands.

“Its an incredible joy, I’ve won the Champions League (with Porto in 2004) but I must say today was better than winning the Champions League,” said Mourinho.

Milan midfielder Wesley Sneijder revealed Mourinho had been “screaming” after the Italians’ 3-2 aggregate win. Barca won 1-0 thanks to a late goal by Gerard Pique, but the Serie A leaders held on despite having to play for more than an hour with 10 men following the dismissal of Thiago Motta.

Inter will face Bayern Munich at the Bernabeu next month and Sneijder said: “He (Mourinho) was screaming. It was an emotional moment. I think we defended very well with 10 men for so long, it was a big compliment to the team.”

Inter effectively nullified Lionel Messi over the two games and Sneijder said their plan worked.

“You could see it tonight. We were very compact and we fight for every metre and give everything.

“ That is what we said to each other before the game. I said before the game he (Mourinho) always had a tactic to destroy the opponent. We did it in Milan and we did it tonight. It will be a great final.”