It began with a hug and ended with a handshake. When Federico Valverde’s pass went out, the cameras caught him stroking his beard. Kylian Mbappe’s ricochet that put Real Madrid ahead drew no reaction from the man returning to the Camp Nou after 13 years. Jose Mourinho has said he is older and calmer, and his comment after winning the Clasico on Sunday was in keeping with that. “I am not going to let them have their heads on the moon,” he said, after the 2-1 win.
But there were vignettes from a time more vintage. Mbappe’s second goal was greeted with a knee slide; hands-on-hips, Mourinho, 63, spoke with the referee, Juan Munuera, after he blew for a foul by Aurelien Tchouameni on Xavi Espart and before Munuera blew the final whistle, the Real Madrid head coach raised his right arm in triumph. Kylian Mbappe’s brace, his 100th goal for Real Madrid, had settled the issue after Barcelona had pulled one back through Raphinha. Job done, good night.
Good night, indeed. Against a team that had won a record-equalling nine La Liga matches and were champions in the last two seasons, one that had won six of the last seven Clasicos, Real Madrid had taken full points. Leaders Barcelona could have been nine points ahead. They are now three in front of Real who are third. After Real’s first Clasico win in one year, it can be said that the Madrid and Mourinho project is on course.
Mourinho began working in May, signed six players and used all of them on Sunday. Rodri didn’t join. Unfazed, Mourinho said he didn’t want anyone who had doubts about playing for Real Madrid. There has been greater emphasis on injury prevention and Mourinho has said this is the first time in a long time that Real have no major injuries in October.
{{/usCountry}}Mourinho began working in May, signed six players and used all of them on Sunday. Rodri didn’t join. Unfazed, Mourinho said he didn’t want anyone who had doubts about playing for Real Madrid. There has been greater emphasis on injury prevention and Mourinho has said this is the first time in a long time that Real have no major injuries in October.
{{/usCountry}}Without a trophy in two seasons and after the Xabi Alonso experiment failed, Mourinho was Real’s fourth appointment in one year. As Real slumped, Barcelona soared. Their players filled Spain’s World Cup winning roster; Real’s Marc Cucurella felt like an afterthought given that he joined during the tournament. Hansi Flick’s side played a risk-reward brand of football that fetched a treble in 2024-25 and the league title with plenty to spare one year later. Real needed a reset and they looked to a man who had fallen out of favour with elite clubs.
Pep Guardiola’s sophisticated football and those of coaches who had learnt from him was the present and future, it was said. With stints at Tottenham Hotspur, Roma, Fenerbahce and Benfica, Mourinho was in the next tier. The sport had moved on from his target-man, parking-the-bus style that had made him a serial winner. One whose Inter Milan beat Barcelona with a player short in 2010 leading to Mourinho going on a sprint at Camp Nou, finger pointing to the sky.
And yet, with a stunning win against Real when he was at Benfica and a Conference League title with Roma, Mourinho kept himself in the conversation. Real Madrid paid Benfica €15m as severance fee.
On Mourinho’s watch earlier, Real had found a way to deal with Guardiola’s Barcelona, win La Liga and make the Champions League semi-finals for three successive seasons. As Barcelona built again with a clutch of starlets and Rodri, who else but Mourinho to find a way? It was felt the dressing -room needed someone like him, a coach who had stamped on Real and Spain legend Iker Casillas’s toes. “I haven’t had any chance to be an aggressive leader – which I can be – because they have protected me from that version (of myself),” ESPN quoted him as saying in August.
The way Real Madrid ran, the way Valverde forgot his fitness worries to fly into a tackle, the way Jude Bellingham dropped deep and then sprinted to meet long balls, the way the midfield trio of Bernardo Silva, Tchouameni and Bellingham man-marked Rodri, Pedri and Fermin Lopez, the way Cucurella policed Lamine Yamal showed how Mourinho had won them over. Like Ayden Heaven, Dean Huijsen began shakily. Unlike the Manchester United defender, Huijsen grew into the game his block off Frenkie de Jong in the 79th minute being a key moment.
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With their organised off-the-ball game, Real Madrid cut Barcelona’s passing options. There was a moment when Gerard Martin found that though nine Barcelona players were in Real’s half, there was no one he could pass to. And another when Joan Garcia seeking to start a quick break following a corner-kick couldn’t because the passing routes were blocked. Yamal had said he enjoyed the needle in the such games. Cucurella left him needled and showed why he is the world’s best left back now.
Never a believer in the Barcelona emphasis on possession, Mourinho’s men showed they can also play pretty football. The first goal came after a spell of sustained possession and the second had Bellingham’s wizardry complemented by the skillful passing of Arda Guler and Eduardo Camavinga. Before Paris St-Germain and Real halted them, Barcelona were scoring for fun (50 goals in 12 games). Lest we forget, Real have also scored four goals in each of their last three games.