Here we go again. After having "delighted" the Italian fans with handcuffs and "zero tituli" and the Spanish fans with "porquè?" and verbal and physical assaults on colleagues (see finger in the eye of Guardiola Villanova's deputy), Jose Mourinho is once again on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Nothing new, just that paradoxically this umpteenth coup de théatre given away by the Special One he arrives at perhaps the quietest moment since he has been on the Real Madrid bench, about a year and a half now: before last night's crime, the merengues had in fact a comfortable advantage of 8 points in the league against Barcelona, and are fully in the running for the Champions League, where in the quarter-finals they drew the weaker opponent (Apoel Nicosia) and thanks to the draw of the pairings they are sure to avoid the Blaugrana nightmare at least until the eventual final.
Blaugrana nightmare which, however, unexpectedly manifested itself last night on the Villarreal field. Real had to win to put 8 points between themselves and the victorious Barça in advance on Tuesday: a not impossible mission, against a team that is fighting not to relegate and has been without Giuseppe Rossi for several months. And in fact, up to 10 minutes from the end, everything seemed to go smoothly: Cristiano Ronaldo's goal on a beautiful choral action, and 3 points in the safe.
Then, at the 82nd, pandemonium, in full Mou style: free-kick disputed from the edge for Villarreal, equalizer by Marcos Senna with the obvious contribution of a non-impeccable Iker Casillas, and from there the show of the Portuguese coach who in his conspiratorial fury drags half the team, causing – in addition to his own – the expulsion of the deputy Rui Faria, of Ozil and Sergio Ramos. Who will obviously all be disqualified, together with Diarra for the sum of yellow cards and almost certainly Pepe, also the author of yet another folly: at the end of the match he would have heavily addressed the referee's mother.
Nervousness can also be understood, given that within three days Real cut their lead over Barcelona from 10 to 6 points (even on Sunday he was stopped, at home by Malaga, with a free-kick from Cazorla with almost expired time), but this time not even the traditionally friendly press defended Mourinho. "It was not the fault of Paradas Romero (the referee, ed)," writes As, who rather takes it out on the serious mistake of the Madrid goalkeeper: "Casillas' mistake makes Madrid lose their temper". “The leader loses his mind,” headlines Marca, who adds: “Madrid fails to react coldly to Senna's goal and goes into self-combustion: with or without reason, the Real bench made the players go mad and finished by paying very dearly for it”. “Mourinho makes Madrid hysterical”, writes El Paìs again.
But the most merciless judgment comes again from Marca, who analyzing the episodes in slow motion sentences: there were even two penalties for Villarreal (with two yellow cards for Arbeloa) in the first half. In short, as usual, much ado about nothing.
