In recent times, Bayern Munich has often been referred to as FC Barcelona’s great nemesis in the Champions League. However, Inter Milan has also been one of those rivals responsible for some of Barcelona’s worst nights in this competition. Especially in 2010, when they looked like an unstoppable team under Pep Guardiola after winning the treble the year before… and José Mourinho found the formula to stop them.

Crossed paths between Barcelona and Inter Milan in 2010

Interestingly, this story between Barcelona and Inter Milan also took place in the semifinals… with the difference that the first leg was played at the Giuseppe Meazza and the second leg at the Camp Nou. This time, the series opens tonight at Montjuïc, and everything will be decided next week at Inter Milan’s home in a fight for a ticket to the final of the current Champions League edition.

That 2009/2010 season, the paths of FC Barcelona and Inter Milan were closely linked. In the summer, Barcelona’s board decided to use Samuel Eto’o as a bargaining chip to reduce the cost of signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Additionally, both clubs faced off in the group stage of that year’s Champions League, with an overall result in Barcelona’s favor. However, what Pep Guardiola’s team experienced a few months later turned into a real nightmare.

Mourinho’s celebration that still stings in Barcelona

Mourinho had arrived at Inter Milan a season earlier and, although he gradually built a team of warriors featuring players like Júlio César, Zanetti, Maicon, Materazzi, Walter Samuel, Motta, Cambiasso, Sneijder, Milito, and Eto’o himself, they were far from being considered title favorites. Still, after finishing second in the now-defunct group stage behind Barcelona, they reached the semifinals by knocking out Chelsea and CSKA Moscow.

It was then that José Mourinho crafted a strategic plan that ended what had seemed to be FC Barcelona’s uncontrollable dominance. In the first leg at the Meazza, they bounced back from an early goal by Pedro to win 3–1. They held onto that lead in the second leg, performing a titanic act of survival that earned them a place in the final, which they later won against Bayern Munich. That night, Mourinho staged an epic celebration on the pitch at the Camp Nou, and above all, cemented his appeal to Real Madrid, presenting himself as the man who had found the formula to stop the best Barcelona in history.