Barcelona host their traditional rivals Real Madrid the day after tomorrow, Sunday, in the tenth round of the Spanish league, at the Spotify Camp Nou stadium.
In a report, the newspaper Mundo Deportivo stated that Real Madrid coach José Mourinho stands once again in Barcelona's path, 13 years after the end of his previous spell with the Spanish giants.
Over the weeks leading up to Sunday's match, the Portuguese raised the tone of his rhetoric, much as he used to in the past.
Thirteen years have passed since Mourinho's first spell with Real Madrid ended. During that time the Spanish club won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup.
Barcelona, by contrast, enjoyed a far richer haul in those same years: two Spanish league titles, a UEFA Champions League, two Spanish Super Cups, a Copa del Rey, a UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup.
That period sowed more hostility than it offered football. Now Mourinho returns in similar circumstances, his club two years without a trophy, while Flick's team have won two Spanish league titles, a Copa del Rey and two Spanish Super Cups.
Even before the first Clásico of the season, Mourinho had begun stirring up the atmosphere, crafting a narrative that cast him as the victim.
His peak of tension with Barcelona came when he took charge of Real Madrid, no doubt about it. Yet the first spark flew earlier, during the knockout ties between Barcelona and Chelsea, then in the UEFA Champions League semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona. The Portuguese lit both, having always treated beating the Catalan club as a personal challenge.
