So we meet again! - Sir Alex and Mourinho in Europe

Mutual respect among managers for each other in the game of football is a rare sight nowadays and it’s inspiring to watch two of the biggest gaffers of the game admiring each other publicly before the biggest encounter of this year. Undoubtedly Manchester United and Real Madrid are right up there when we describe fanaticism in Football. Their history in the domestic as well as European competitions speaks for itself and everyone agrees with the magnitude of tonight’s encounter. The managers at each end have earned their fare share of glory or may be even more, and are yearning for more with each passing game.

In the history of UEFA Champions League, the two living legends have exchanged blows on 2 occasions before tonight and came out with one punch a piece. While Mourinho, with his nomadic nature, was involved with two different clubs; Ferguson has been ever present with United on both of them.

Let us look at how those 4 games spanned out when two geniuses of the footballing world locked horns with each other…

Porto 2 -1 Man Utd (February 2004) First Leg

At that time, Sir Alex Ferguson was a proven master in his trade and he came across a passionate and young Jose Mourinho when his Manchester United went head on against Porto in the first knockout round of the Champions League.

Mourinho was starting to make an impact on world football after winning the Portuguese league in the previous season with a record points tally. Ferguson imagined it to be a relatively easy encounter but things turned out quite differently.

Their friendship makes headlines now, but in that encounter it ended in an ugly argument following the dismissal of Roy Keane late in the game. Ferguson, as always, thought that the opposition made a meal out of it.

United had led through a Quinton Fortune goal early on, but the South African’s goal was responded by a two strikes from Benni McCarthy strikes. The game ended 2-1 and United has a lot to do in the home leg of the encounter.

Manchester United: Tim Howard, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Wes Brown, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Quinton Fortune, Louis Saha, Ruud van Nistelrooy

Porto FC: Vítor Baía, Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Paulo Ferreira, Deco, Dmitriy Alenichev, Maniche, Carlos Alberto, Pedro Mendes, Benny McCarthy

Man Utd 1- 1 February (March 2004) Second Leg

This was the night when Jose Mourinho announced his arrival on the stage of world football, and with style! His sprint down the Old Trafford touchline to celebrate Costinha’s sensational equalizer almost launched him in air!

Ferguson’s men were on the brink of moving to the next round when Paul Scholes tied the aggregate scores and United were ahead on away goals margin. Refree disallowed Scholes’ second strike for offside on the stroke of half-time and United couldn’t kill the game.

Just when fans were looking to breathe a sigh of relief, Tim Howard made a mess of McCarthy’s free-kick and Costinha poached in to stun the whole of Old Trafford, along with the manager.

This dream win boosted Mourinho’s confidence and his Porto went on to win the tournament and created history.

Manchester United: Tim Howard, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Wes Brown, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher, Paul Scholes John O’Shea, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Porto FC: Vítor Baía, Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Paulo Ferreira, Deco, Dmitriy Alenichev, Maniche, Carlos Alberto, Costinha, Benny McCarthy

Inter Milan 0-0 Man Utd (February 2009) First Leg

The Ferguson-Mourinho rivalry was now spanned across the streets of Milan, surprisingly they never bumped into each other in Europe when Mourinho was at Chelsea. He had moved on to Inter and they were now standing in between the defending champion United’s desire to make it to the final in Rome. Mourinho had taken up the task to prove himself again and he wanted this opportunity badly as ever.

The first leg was largely dominated by United, but they couldn’t break Inter’s resilience and had to settle down for a lively draw. Cristiano Ronaldo had the best chance with a bullet header whereas Giggs missed an easy chance to grab an away advantage when he was clean through on goal.

Ferguson was not happy with this result and failed to get past through Jose’s defensive tactics again.

Manchester United: Van der Sar; O’Shea, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Cristiano Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Giggs, Park; Berbatov.

Inter Milan: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Rivas, Chivu, Santon; Zanetti, Cambiasso, Muntari, Stankovic; Ibrahimovic, Adriano.

Man Utd 2-0 Inter Milan ( February 2009) Second Leg

Man United, having missed crucial chances in the first leg, were determined to finish this up on their home soil. But Mourinho had reserved his special tactics for this game and wouldn’t allow them to get home for cheap. A entertaining evening at the Old Trafford saw United tussle through to the finals at Rome after a hard fought victory.

Nemanja Vidic openened the scoring from a Ryan Giggs corner after only four minutes, but that didn’t assure United of victory until Cristiano Ronaldo headed in a cross from Wayne Rooney.

Inter kept on giving goose bumps to Sir Alex by creating and missing a number of chances. Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck the crossbar with a header and Dejan Stankovic missed a good chance in between.

After Ronald scored the goal, Adriano hit the woodwork, but United had done enough to see off Mourinho’s challenge and extend their unbeaten European run to 21 matches. But eventually that will end in Rome as United would succumb to Barcelona and end up as runners up that year.

Manchester United: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov.

Inter Milan: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Cordoba, Samuel, Santon, Cambiasso, Zanetti, Stankovic, Vieira, Ibrahimovic, Balotelli.

In the build up to tonight’s encounter so much is expected to happen, Ronaldo is about to play against his old club for the first time and much spotlight will be on his performance against his alma mater.

At present, Mourinho is at Real and he is subject to lot of criticism for his attitude in recent months. Rumours are that he would replace Sir Alex eventually at Old Trafford. The man denies it and jokingly suggested that he and Sir Alex might retire at the same time, him at 70 and Sir Alex at 90. Even if there is any remote possibility of this happening, tonight might be a good chance for Jose to prove his worth by winning against his much beloved friend.