José Mourinho returned to Real Madrid in August and told reporters at his first news conference that he does not dwell on the past, saying he is not one for regrets and does not spend time thinking about what he has left behind. His appointment ended a 13-year absence from LaLiga.
During his first spell at the Bernabéu from 2010-13, Mourinho met Barcelona 17 times across LaLiga, the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Supercopa and the UEFA Champions League. His record in those Clasicos was five wins, six draws and six defeats. For the first two seasons his opposite number was Pep Guardiola; in the third it was Guardiola’s assistant Tito Vilanova.
That era produced some of the most fevered encounters in club football: duels between Guardiola and Mourinho and between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo that pushed both clubs to exceptional seasons. Messi scored a LaLiga-record 50 goals in 2011-12, a total that still did not prevent Mourinho’s Madrid from winning the title. Both teams produced unprecedented 100-point seasons during that period.
The rivalry could be combustible. Mourinho called the 5-0 loss at Camp Nou on Nov. 29, 2010, “historically bad” after a game that followed a 12-match unbeaten start to the league campaign and marked the largest margin in a Clásico since 1995. Later that season the teams met four times in 18 days; former Madrid defender Marcelo told ESPN the scheduling was “really strange” and that he did not think it was good for football.
President Florentino Pérez reappointed Mourinho with the brief of returning Madrid to winning ways after two trophyless seasons and of steadying a dressing room described in the club’s context as temperamental for predecessors Xabi Alonso and Álvaro Arbeloa. On Sunday Mourinho will oversee his first Clásico in 13-and-a-half years, returning to a fixture he helped make must-see theatre.
