I woke up early to tell you that Mourinho has achieved his first big victory since his return to the Real Madrid bench. And it was not by a stroke of luck or with a referee controversy, he won deservedly and with enough intervention so that he did not have to go to the press conference to vindicate his decisions, aware that the rest of us would do it for him.
The Portuguese insisted on Fede Valverde at right back, joined Arda Güler and Bernardo Silva in the midfield with Tchouaméni and Vini’s suspension once again opened the way for Diomande, talented in attack and disciplined in defence.
Mourinho had a plan and it worked. Add to that the great game of the centre-backs, that Cucurella stood out by drying out Lamine, that Bellingham was inspired and that Mbappé did not fail, and you will better explain why the whites returned from Barcelona with skyrocketing levels of optimism.
This Barça was so in tune at the start of the season that no one thought that two consecutive defeats would stop the euphoria, despite the strength of the rivals: PSG, which is the current champion of the Champions League, and Real Madrid, its historic rival in Spain.
Defeat cannot be explained by chance or bad luck. Flick knows that his team was not recognizable in the first half and that both Luis Enrique and Mourinho hit their most unprotected area: the defense. We insisted a lot that LaLiga could be decided in the middle of October and we didn’t even see it coming, possibly because there were no signs before, that Madrid could function as a team and that this Barça, being very good, is vulnerable against the big teams.
