"The only way to beat Pep's Barça team was to tackle them"

Although he didn't spend too many years in the Real Madrid shirt, Angel di Maria had time to play in 16 ‘Clasicos’. The games against Barca were always special, but with the passage of time the Argentine, in his chat with Juan Pablo Varsky on ‘Clank Media’, acknowledges that the methods were not the most ethical. But they were the only ones possible to bring down a golden generation of the Catalan team. A path that generated a lot of problems in the Spanish national team.

It all started with the arrival of José Mourinho to the Madrid bench. He has fond memories of the Portuguese coach. "Spectacular. He is an incredible person, he is with the player to death. If you give yourself to him, he gives you life. I got on very well during those three years. I have nothing bad to say about him, he's spectacular.

The question was forced to be asked: what happened so that many team-mates who won the World Cup with Spain kept up these episodes of tension in the matches between Barca and Real Madrid? "The truth is that it wasn't understood.

"In the national team they were all friends and they'd thrash anyone, but then when they played against each other they would kick and punch each other. It was one of the things that Mou had implemented in the heads of everyone at Madrid.

"The only way to beat Pep's Barça team was to tackle them. Fighting and running more than them. It increased the pressure and the friction on the pitch. I always thought about Messi, I didn't want to injure him, but we had no other choice to stop him!," he recalled.