FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.04.2010 19:17

“For Inter, Madrid is a dream, for Barca it’s an obsession”

Roger Bogunyà

José Mourinho reckons his Inter team have a different take on tomorrow’s game than their Catalan opponents: “for Inter, getting to Madrid is a dream, for Barca it’s an obsession”.

The Portuguese coach explained: “a dream is more pure than an obsession. The players will just be proud of reaching a final, wherever it is played. For them the dream was getting to Paris or Rome. Now, it’s an obsession to get to the Bernabeu”. Mourinho worked as Bobby Robson’s translator during his time at Barca and explained that he had won a cup with the club in Madrid: “it was as if we’d won the World Cup! It’s not a criticism I’m making of them – if the final was in Turin, then I’m sure we’d be just as obsessed”.

Sneijder will play

Mourinho also revealed that Sneijder will start: “he’s okay and he will play. He’s got a slight problem, but he will play. He’s not had a completely positive reaction to the injury, but he’s very keen to play”. Mourinho also named 8 more of his team: Julio César, Maicon, Samuel, Lúcio, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Sneijder, Eto’o and Milito, leaving just two places open for speculation.

No worries about the ref

The Portuguese coach refused to answer any questions in Spanish, claiming he spoke the language “horribly”, but he did make clear that he had confidence in the ref: “I’m not worried about him. I worry more if the players don’t want to support him, which I’ve told my players to do and if Barca do the same, it’ll be easy for him”. Mourinho also confirmed that Figo will be on the bench alongside him, as he was for the game in Milan last week.

3-1no problem for “best team in the world”

Mourinho also had words of praise for Barca as a club and the many people he worked here with, as well as the actual team, claiming that the efforts being made to mobilise support in eth city for the game: “have surprised me. For the best team in the world it shouldn’t be a problem to come back from losing 3-1. How many times have they done that? Just the other day they scored three against Arsenal”.