Destiny rains on Mourinho

When José Mourinho took his Real Madrid side to Camp Nou last November there was broad expectation that the Portuguese schemer would break the Catalans' mesmeric passing game and with it the capital club's run of four consecutive league defeats against the eternal foe.

When the match was over, for the first time in a career staged on braggadocio and backed by a cacophonous chorus of victories, Mourinho was shellshocked. Barcelona had torn Real apart in a 5-0 win and for spells in the second half its players were left chasing scarlet-and-blue shadows.

It was the worst defeat of Mourinho's professional career, but the rhino-hided coach remained defiant in his post-match press conference. "The title race will be tight until the end of the season," he said. "We find ourselves two points behind and I can't see this changing. It could be two points, four points or one point but it's going to be a close race. We need a chance to gel, Barcelona is a finished article. The result is a fair reflection of the progress of the two sides; victory is the reward for the side that played well and defeat the punishment for the side that didn't."

After Real's loss to Sporting last weekend extended Barça's Liga lead to eight points, Mourinho said it would be "practically impossible" for Real to rein in the rampant champion. But fate is a cruel mistress with which Mourinho has had a frantic affair during the course of his calling. Having restored Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan to the heights of the game, his task at Real was seen as his greatest challenge, a defining moment in a managerial pilgrimage that began -as Barça fans delight in reminding Mourinho -in part with a translator's job at Camp Nou.

After Real's 4-0 schooling of Tottenham in Madrid and Barça's imperious 5-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk, only a miracle will now spare Mourinho from the onerous task of beating Real's arch-rival to bring a trophy to the Bernabéu in his debut season: an event that has not occured since 2007 and surely the yardstick club and coach set themselves when Mourinho became the highest-paid manager in the history of the sport.

That press conference, delivered in the bowels of Camp Nou after Real had had its own guts ripped out, was prescient. The Real Madrid of April is not the same as the Real Madrid of November.

Karim Benzema, an empty shirt in the first half of the season, has rediscovered the spark that made him one of Europe's most coveted strikers; Gonzalo Higuaín and Kaká have returned from injury, the latter demonstrating that majesty still remains in his boots with a sublime pass for Ronaldo's strike against Spurs. Emmanuel Adebayor has added an aerial threat while Ángel di María and Mesut Özil have blossomed into two of the finest attacking players in the league.

With nothing to lose, Mourinho will not err overly to his default caution as he did at Camp Nou, with a defensive midfield. The ploy worked when he took Inter into the Champions League final at Barça's expense, but the components of his team and the beatification of defense as an art form in Serie A allowed him to do so. Neither Mourinho nor his paymasters will allow another capitulation. Real has scored seven without reply in its last two Champions League games; Barça has conceded in each of its last three and has struggled to score in recent Liga fixtures. As Mourinho correctly surmised, the playing field has been leveled somewhat.

Real's final ember of hope in the league will expire if Barcelona wins the clásico, but four days later the teams meet in the King's Cup final, on neutral ground and in a competition where they have not met in the final for 20 years. Swiftly on the heels of that match is a likely two-legged Champions League semifinal.

The biggest challenge of Mourinho's career begins next Saturday.

If he guides Real to victory in the knock-out tournaments, another 5-0 Liga drubbing would be painless to absorb. If Real is defeated in each competition, Mourinho will have nothing in his verbal armory to counter the blow.