In 2010, Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho was having a great time. At that time Barcelona-Inter Milan met four times in the 2009-10 Champions League. The two teams played to a goalless draw in the first of two group stage matches. In the second match, Barcelona won 2-0 with the goals of Gerard Pique and Pedro. Although he played in the first match, Lionel Messi did not play in the second match.
Then these two teams faced each other in the semi-finals of the service. Inter Milan coach Mourinho had several plans to defeat Barca in the two legs of the battle to reach the final. All of his plans had one thing in common—lock up Messi! Don't let the ball reach the Argentine star, and if he somehow gets the ball, don't give it to anyone!
Everyone knows what happened to Mourinho's plan. Inter defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg. Barcelona won 1-0 in the second leg at Camp Nou with Gerard Pique scoring the only goal. Messi couldn't do anything in either of those two matches.
Mourinho has recently spoken about that strategy to keep Messi at bay. His explanation is, 'There was a combination of many plans. But at the root of all of them was not letting Messi play. In Italy the word is Gabbia. I think the real meaning of that would be — lock Messi up!'
Mourinho then added, 'In the end we didn't play by marking all the players. But Zanetti, Motta, Cambiasso—everyone had a responsibility to be where Messi was, to be there.'
How useful this strategy of Mourinho is, the result of the match and the fact that Messi was ineffective in that match proves it. Mourinho's Inter Milan won the Champions League title after beating Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final.
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