Mourinho meets his master in Champions League final (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Apr 29, 2010, 12:46 GMT

Hamburg - Jose Mourinho knows all about outwitting Bayern Munich. As Chelsea manager he had been banned from the touchline but there were suspicions he was still managing somehow to get messages through to his team as they put Bayern out of the Champions League.

Five years later he will come up against the Germans in the final in Madrid, taking his place this time on the Inter Milan coaching bench not far from Bayern's Louis van Gaal.

Mourinho never managed to take Chelsea to a Champions League final, but now - like van Gaal - he could become only the third manager to win European football's most coveted prize with two different clubs.

Van Gaal did so with Ajax in 1995 and Mourinho nine years later with Porto, and now either of the two will join Ernst Happel (Feyenoord and SV Hamburg) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich) as just the third coach to do so in charge of two different clubs.

For both Mourinho and van Gaal the meeting at the Bernabeu on May 22 will be one of former pupil and master. Mourinho was van Gaal's translator and then assistant when the Dutchman followed Bobby Robson as Barcelona manager in 1997.

'It is the opportunity to see a friend. Perhaps we will give a joint news conference,' said the Bayern boss who has now seen his hopes of a meeting with Inter rather than Barcelona fulfilled.

'Barcelona is the best team in the world I think. We have better chances against Inter who are not such an attacking side,' he had said before Inter's 3-2 aggregate victory over the Spaniards.

Van Gaal has been the architect of Bayern's resurgence in his first season at the club who are - as are Inter - seeking a treble of league, cup and Champions League titles.

Meanwhile Mourinho, who took over at Inter in the summer of 2008 and is believed to be the world's highest paid coach with a salary of 9.5 million euros, is being hailed in Italy for steering Inter into their first European Cup or Champions League final since 1972.

The last of Inter's two European Cup triumphs came in 1965, and before Mourinho's appointment 28 coaches had tried in vain since Helenio Herrera to lead Inter to European glory.

Inter's lack of success on the European stage contrasted sorely with that of city rivals and seven-time European champions AC Milan, to the dismay of long-serving Inter president Massimo Moratti.

Following Inter's success over Barcelona, Moratti, who was 20 when Inter won their second cup, praised Mourinho as 'a phenomenon', comparing the Portuguese coach to the late Argentinian Herrero.

Mourinho will have every reason to be wary of Bayern in a final in which neither side will start as favourite.

'Bayern have a great team and great coach,' said Mourinho bemoaning the fact that Inter midfielder Thiago Motta and Bayern star Franck Ribery will both be suspended after their dismissals in the semi-finals.

The final in Madrid will also be something extra special for Inter's former Bayern defender Lucio and three former Real Madrid players at Inter - Esteban Cambiasso, Walter Samuel and Wesley Sneijder.

Bayern's Arjen Robben, who like Sneijder was off-loaded last August by Real and who also played for three seasons under Mourinho at Chelsea, is likewise returning to the Bernabeu.

'I want to play Inter, definitely,' he said after Bayern had secured their place in the final.

'It's better for us as a team. We can have difficulties against Barca. But it's also because I want to play against Mourinho and Sneijder.'