I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Mourinho once again mocked the phenomenon of Barcelona avoiding punishment despite accumulating yellow cards, "We are honest, we didn’t deliberately collect yellow cards, and now we have four players close to suspension. Cavaleiro can’t play tomorrow, and we’re missing the best central defender in the world." Regarding the secret to defeating Barcelona, Mourinho said, "I don’t have the secret to beating Barcelona."

The "dagger" Mourinho threw out at the press conference obviously made Guardiola unable to tolerate it. As the media put it, Mourinho’s words made Guardiola jump up angrily.

Guardiola decided to respond to Mourinho’s attack, marking the first time since he took office.

Guardiola issued a direct challenge to Mourinho by name: "Since Mr. Mourinho referred to me as ’Pep’, I will also call him ’Jose’. Jose, tomorrow, 8:45 PM, see you on the field. We play football, win or lose, usually, he wins because his resume guarantees it. For us, as long as we can achieve a small victory that evokes admiration, we are very satisfied."

In response to Mourinho’s claim that Barcelona benefits from favorable refereeing, Guardiola countered, "He talked about the Stanford Bridge incident. I could cite 2,500 injustices against Barcelona, but we are not such a large club. We don’t have secretaries, former referees, and general managers to guide me on these matters. Therefore, we can only do our best to pursue victory."

Guardiola also mocked Mourinho’s ability to create havoc at press conferences: "In the press room, he is the terrible big brother, the terrible expert, the magician, he is the most talented person in the world in this regard. I don’t want to compete with him at all. I just want to remind him that we worked together in Barcelona for four years. He knows me, and I know him; that’s enough for me. He said Real Madrid beat us because of a detail, because of the linesman’s good eyesight, which is true."

Guardiola challenged Mourinho again: "Jose, I don’t know where your camera is, but see you on the field!" Regarding Mourinho’s sarcastic remarks about Barcelona players being skilled performers, Guardiola said this is Mourinho’s old tactic: "Jose said this six years ago. He made Chelsea players believe his words, and now he makes Real Madrid players believe what he says. Of course, he may also improve and look for new tactics." Guardiola again reminded Mourinho not to forget Barcelona’s nurturing grace, "He learned coaching at Barcelona. Barcelona helped him become a head coach, just like they nurtured me."

"I will learn some things from Mourinho on the field, but I won’t learn from his off-field actions. In this regard, Barcelona people do better," Guardiola said, adding that Barcelona is a very small team representing a very small country. Finally, he concluded his "counterattack" with a song lyric: "We’ve fallen countless times, but we always bounce back."

Some also focused their attention on Stark.

The German Wolfgang Stark will be the main referee for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

This Wednesday evening, Real Madrid will host Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Stark was born on November 20, 1969, in Landshut, Germany.

This season, he officiated Real Madrid’s away match against Lyon in the Champions League Round of 16.

In that match, Stark failed to call an obvious handball by Lyon player Gourcuff, which made Real Madrid coach Mourinho very angry.

At the post-match press conference, Mourinho said, "I am very angry; the referee should have seen that penalty because the incident happened only 5 meters away from the referee and assistant referee. We all saw the handball, except for the two referees who did not see it."

So far, Stark has officiated six matches for Real Madrid, with Real Madrid achieving 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses.

Five of these six matches were Champions League group stage matches, including Real Madrid’s victories over Marseille, Rosenborg, and Juventus, with losses to Juventus and Lyon. The only draw was against Lyon in this season’s Round of 16.

Last season, Stark officiated Inter Milan’s away match against Chelsea in the Champions League Round of 16, where Inter Milan’s coach was Mourinho at the time.

In that match, Chelsea claimed for penalties twice without success, with Samuel’s foul on Drogba being particularly obvious.

Subsequently, Drogba was sent off for fouling Motta, but Chelsea’s request to send off Stankovic was not granted.

On the other hand, Stark has officiated five matches for Barcelona, with Barcelona achieving 1 win, 3 draws, and 1 loss in these matches.

Last season, Stark officiated the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Barcelona and Arsenal, in which Barcelona won 4:1 at home.

The group stage match between Barcelona and Inter Milan, which ended 0:0, was also officiated by Stark.

In the 2008-2009 season, Stark was the main referee for the first leg of the semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea (0:0), having previously officiated the Round of 16 match where Barcelona drew 1:1 away with Lyon. Barcelona eventually won the Champions League that season.

In the 2003-2004 season, Stark officiated the match where Celtic defeated Barcelona 1:0 at home. In that match, the German sent off Celtic’s Douglas as well as Barcelona’s Motta and Saviola.

In 2007, Stark officiated the match between Valencia and Inter Milan (0:0). Valencia’s David Navarro punching Inter Milan’s Burdisso was the focal point of that match.

Clearly, in the matches officiated by this referee, Real Madrid’s win rate is slightly higher, which is also a topic of discussion for many.

However, some also noticed the referee’s second identity as a Messi fan.

In the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, UEFA did not assign a Portuguese referee to officiate the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, which relieved Guardiola as Barcelona suffered from unfavorable Portuguese refereeing against Inter last season.

However, UEFA’s decision to assign German referee Stark to officiate the match still sparked controversy. Tuesday’s headline in Marca was "Messi Worshipper to Officiate Real Madrid vs Barcelona Match."

Stark once claimed to be a fan of Messi: "I hope Messi can give me a jersey. He is one of the best players in the world, and watching him play is a pleasure."

At the World Cup in South Africa, Stark even advocated for referees to unanimously protect genius players like Messi.

Madrid media are also concerned about Stark’s past conflict with Mourinho. In this season’s Champions League Round of 16 match between Real Madrid and Lyon, Stark ignored Gourcuff’s handball in the penalty area, and Mourinho criticized: "This is unacceptable; four eyes couldn’t see what happened 5 meters away, while I saw it clearly from 50 meters away."

Stark officiated six matches for Real Madrid, with Real Madrid recording 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses. However, Catalonia media countered that, although Stark claims to be a fan of Messi, he hasn’t given Barcelona any benefits during his officiating. In fact, Barcelona suffered more in the matches he officiated.

In Guardiola’s first season in charge, during the Champions League semi-final at home against Chelsea, which ended 0-0, Guardiola complained post-match: "We had the ball, had possession, but the referee gave both sides the same cards.

Iniesta committed his first foul, which wasn’t serious, but received a yellow card." Stark used to be a jinx for Barcelona, having officiated four matches where the Red and Blue Army achieved only 3 draws and 1 loss, but last season, Stark became Barcelona’s lucky charm. In the match he officiated between Barcelona and Arsenal at home during the Champions League quarter-final, Guardiola’s team won a big victory.

After the match, Messi asked Stark for the match ball, and Stark asked Messi for his jersey.

In January this year, Kicker magazine surveyed 286 jerseys in the Bundesliga, and Stark was rated as the worst referee.

Regarding UEFA’s decision to select Stark to officiate the match, Real Madrid stated that they do not believe this results from Barcelona exerting influence, but this is merely a polite statement. In private, the Real Madrid executives are still somewhat concerned.