When Inter won the Treble: How Jose Mourinho transformed the Italian giants into the kings of Europe and outclassed Pep Guardiola and Louis van Gaal

In the summer of 2009, the Italians pulled off a masterstroke transfer. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, coming off a 29-goal campaign, had become the number one transfer target for Barcelona president Joan Laporta, and Inter saw the opportunity for an audacious deal. In exchange for Ibrahimovic, Inter convinced the Catalan club to give them €46 million plus two-time Champions League-winning forward Samuel Eto’o.  

The Italians then bought 30-year-old striker Diego Milito and midfielder Thiago Motta from Genoa, while playmaker Wesley Sneijder was signed from Real Madrid and experienced centre-back Lucio joined from Bayern. 

Mourinho had dabbled with a 4-3-3 formation for much of his first season, but scrapped it entirely to let creative machine Sneijder pull the strings behind strike partners Milito and Eto’o. 

Instantly it looked like Inter would be runaway champions again, making a clear statement by trouncing rivals AC Milan in their second Serie A game. Their Champions League campaign had a stumbling start, though, with three straight group stage draws. 

One of those was against Barcelona and despite also losing the away fixture to Guardiola’s men – with Ibrahimovic an unused substitute – they progressed as runners-up, setting up a knockout tie against another of Mourinho’s previous employers.

By the time the last-16 tie against Chelsea came about, the coach was under pressure. Their lead in Serie A had slipped after drawing three games in a row. After two players were sent off against Sampdoria four days before they faced Chelsea, Mourinho crossed his wrists as he walked down the tunnel in a gesture he later explained through a spokesman as meaning: “You can take me away, arrest me, but my team is strong and will win anyway, even if we are reduced to nine men.” 

He was banned for three games and fined €40,000 for that and insulting the referee and linesmen in the tunnel. “Well done, well done, remember your family is watching you on TV,” Mourinho told the referee, according to La Repubblica.

He exchanged jibes with Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti before the first leg at San Siro. Ancelotti had arguably started it a year before, when was still in charge of AC Milan, declaring: “If Mourinho is Jesus, then I am certainly not one of his apostles.”

Before the first leg in San Siro, he told Il Giornale: “The whole of Italy, Inter fans excluded, will be supporting Chelsea… He is good at charging up the atmosphere and the team, but it’s ground I would never go on.”

Always looking to bolster the siege mentality in his team, Mourinho said in response to the claim he was disliked in Italy: “If [Ancelotti] says that, it’s because he knows and because somebody told him or because he belongs to the clan. I do my job as always.”

Inter withstood Chelsea’s pressure to see out a 2-1 win at San Siro, with Eto’o, Sneijder and Milito combining to break the deadlock three minutes in and Lucio leading the resistance in the second half.

The 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge in mid-March was a tremendous step forward for the Nerazzurri. Eto’o’s winning goal in the 79th minute win saw Mourinho conquer his former side – including Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard – in their own stadium against one of Italy’s coaching masters, plus ended Inter’s miserable run of premature exits in Europe.

While their domestic struggles only worsened, a 2-0 aggregate win against CSKA Moscow in the quarter-finals set them up for a tense semi-final showdown against Barcelona. 

The Portuguese had worked at Camp Nou in the 1990s as a translator for English manager Bobby Robson and eventually became assistant coach to the Englishman and subsequently Van Gaal himself before leaving to pursue his own coaching career. He was in for the Barca job years later but they opted to hire Guardiola instead. Now, his title of “the translator” was being thrown back at him by the Barcelona faithful, despite his immense pedigree in the game.

Barca were the reigning European champions and looked capable of becoming the first to be crowned twice in a row in the Champions League era.

Although Guardiola’s side took the lead through Pedro in the first 20 minutes in Italy, Inter pulled off a stunning comeback with Diego Milito setting up Sneijder and Maicon before sealing a 3-1 win with a goal of his own. Inter, burdened with a reputation for defensive solidity, had beaten Barca in a manner Guardiola would have been proud of.

Inter were nowhere near as domineering and adventurous in the second leg at Camp Nou, instead returning to the defensive approach that helped make him famous. To stop Lionel Messi, the Portuguese placed experienced Argentine right-back Javier Zanetti on the left side of defence. 

“I knew Messi from the Argentina team and he was the best player in the world. I followed Messi around and in every zone he went into, two of my team-mates came to pressure him to deny him space to make a difference,” he said later. 

Messi was in tremendous form that season and Guardiola’s side were seen as revolutionary, but found themselves battering into an impenetrable wall as Inter barely attempted to attack and simply booted whatever came their way away. 

In the 28th minute, Inter were dealt a brutal blow when Thiago Motta was sent off with his second yellow card. Then goalkeeper Julio Cesar was booked for time wasting – it was the 34th minute of the game.

When Gerard Pique finally put Barcelona ahead in the 84th minute, the home crowd went wild and Mourinho’s men grew nervous. Shortly afterwards, Barca thought they’d pulled it off when Bojan Krkic put the ball in the net, but the goal was disallowed and time ran out.

The reigning champions were out, and Inter were in their first European Cup final in 38 years.

Mourinho bolted across the pitch in pure delight, saluting the Inter supporters tucked away in the top tier. Barcelona goalkeeper Víctor Valdes tried to physically restrain him, but there was no stopping the theatrical Portuguese.

Even when the Camp Nou crew turned on the sprinklers as Inter celebrated, Mourinho simply soaked in the water and the rage of those who had disrespected ‘The Translator’. He had engineered the ultimate defensive masterclass, dethroned Guardiola and sent Inter to the Santiago Bernabeu.