What did Mourinho expect?

Jose Mourinho, has a problem. He has a problem with many things. He has a problem with referees. He has a problem with being second fiddle to Barcelona. He has a problem being second to Pep Guardiola.  He has no such problem with languages; fluent in five languages means he knows how to get his point across.

His moaning before the first leg about psyching out Barcelona and the need of physicality to disrupt their passing flow anticpated an all out attack from Madrid.  However, Mourinho did an about face and went all defensive employing a three man midfield to sit back and soak up pressure, also asking the front three of Ronaldo, Ozil and Di Maria to defend also, and instead of dictating the forward momentum, ask them to work only on the counter attack.

Ronaldo voiced his displeasure, Ozil came off at half time and Di Maria was ineffective; curious that considering they scored 6 goals at Valencia four days before, Benzema was only on the bench.

Coupled with the negative formation and tactics, Mourinho was asking for trouble when he brought up referring standards across Europe and his history of having a man sent off in four consecutive matches against the Catalan giants.  Pepe's reckless tackle led to him becoming the fifth. 

The suggestion before the game was that a Portugese official would have been appointed, now I do not know why UEFA would even let that story leak because appointed a countryman of Mourinho's would never occur to suffer the wrath of a biased view.  So the German, Wolfgang Stark was appropriate, though I did find it funny having a German going in to try and administer calm between two warring nations.  But both sets of players attempts to influence, Madrid upon Daniel Alves and Barcelona upon Pepe meant that the chance of impartiality was a long way away and put a bad taste in the mouth.

So what do UEFA do in appointing for the second leg but Franck de Bleeckere of Belgium; highly respected but the man who sent off Thiago Motta for Inter Milan at the Nou Camp at this stage last year, ultimately Motta's dismissal did not affect the result as Inter won the Champions Leauge.  Will lightning strike twice? Probably not as Barcelona hold a two nil advantage, whilst Madrid have Pepe and Sergio Ramos suspended.

But after his dismissal from the bench last week and being expelled from the touchline for the second leg, Mourinho has lost his power to influence but the appointment of the Belgian is a deliberate slap across the face from the European governing body.  I always think when you have two teams from the same country, maybe the solution should be a referee from that nation who has done these games before.  But Mourinho should not have expected any favours, Tuesday night should be a procession for Barcelona as they head to Wembley's final on 28th May.