‘Jose to blame’ for bad blood in El Clasico duels

FORMER Barcelona star Andres Iniesta has blamed Jose Mourinho for the bad-blooded El Clasico encounters that took place during the Portuguese’s time in charge of Real Madrid.

There were numerous matches between Barcelona and Madrid that involved unsavoury scenes during Mourinho’s time in charge of Los Merengues – with his infamous eye-poking of the late Tito Vilanova just one of them.

And Iniesta has claims the hostilities between the clubs had a negative impact on the Spanish national team, which hasn’t gone beyond the last 16 of a major tournament since United boss Mourinho left the Bernabeu in 2013.

“You don’t have to be for Barcelona or Real Madrid to know that the situation was unpleasant,” Iniesta said. “And the key component in that story was Mourinho.

“Whoever doesn’t want to see that, is radical. You didn’t see the rivalry that always existed before, it went beyond that, you saw hate.

“That atmosphere developed and it was unbearable. The Barca-Madrid tension caused by Mourinho did much damage to the national team [Spain] and the team-mates.”

Iniesta is the latest former Barcelona and Spain midfielder to talk about Mourinho recently after Xavi said he will never set a team out in the style of a Mourinho side. “Mourinho is a very defensive manager and playing against his Inter [with Barcelona] hasn’t been easy,” Xavi said.

“That’s his football and he put it in practice with Chelsea and Real.”