The Real Truth: Why Mourinho and Ronaldo will be leaving the Bernebeu

Real Madrid must surely begin the long farewell to coach Jose Mourinho and star man Cristiano Ronaldo – the world’s most expensive player – after their Champions League semi-final defeat against arch-rivals Barcelona.

The controversial couple can hardly stay at the Bernebeu after the saga of the infamous four frantic Clasicos wound to its inevitable conclusion at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night.

Even former Real owner Ramon Calderon accepts they have gone too far after the shenigans surrounding the four games between the two sides over the past fortnight. He told the BBC: “Talk like this is harmful for Real Madrid. Big clubs should not blame the referee for their mistakes or their defeats.

"We invested £400m in the last two years to be a very important and strong team so if you lose you cannot blame injuries, bad luck, referees or nothing. If you lose you have to congratulate the rival and that is all.

"What Mourinho did in terms of talking about UEFA and referees is not acceptable at all."

Just as he did at Chelsea and Inter Milan, the Special One has talked himself out of a job despite his surprise win in the Copa Del Rey against the old enemy a fortnight ago.

Quotes like these simply don’t make for a long-term retirement plan. Mourinho, who watched the second leg from his hotel room 400 yards down the road “for security reasons” fumed: “ It's clear that against Barcelona you have no chance.

"I don't know if it's the publicity of Unicef [the club's shirt sponsor], I don't know if it's because they are very nice, but they've got this power.

"I don't know if it's the friendship of [Spanish football federation president Angel Maria] Villar at Uefa, where he is vice-president."

And former Manchester United star Ronaldo wasn’t holding back after a relatively peaceful 1-1 second leg draw saw Barca progress to the final at Wembley on May 28 with a 3-1 aggregate win.

Real’s iconic top scorer, threatened by a Barca fan just after half-time on Tuesday night (see picture) said: "Next year they might as well give the cup directly to Barcelona."

"The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle.

"The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV. Once again it was the referee that didn't allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn't let us.

"Higuain's goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn't used to fall to the ground in England, but he's picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else.

"Those who know about football know Barca are very well protected. But you just have to live with all these injustices.""

It’s not as if Mourinho and Ronaldo don’t have a point. Higuain’s goal looked valid from where I sat and would have put the semi-final in the balance at 2-1.

Instead, the Belgian referee, surely a Waloon, judged Ronaldo to have fouled the gymnastic Mascherano as he fell under Gerard Pique’s push.

Decision after decision went the way of the diving, rolling, play-acting Catalans.

But they remain the best club side in the world – largely thanks to that little man Lionel Messi – and they are unlikely to slip up in the La Liga title race or the Champions League final as refereeing errs on the side of caution and ballet dancing.

Mourinho and Ronaldo have to accept modern football is no longer a man’s game. The tiny Messi is well protected – he had a record 12 fouls given against him on Tuesday night – and the dull Spanish World Cup winning ploy of possession and mincing is now simply the way of the softly-softly footballing world.

Given the passionate hatred between Catalan and Castillian – the Barcelona v Madrid split is a matter of historic nationalism and civil war not simply ball games – how can Mourinho or Ronaldo soldier on? How can they go through such perceived injustice against next season?

With Calderon joining the critique levelled by Alfredo di Stefano, what price on Mourinho returning to Chelsea with Ronaldo for a few billion Roman Abramovich roubles? Ronaldo needs another big money move before he hits middle age and Mourinho's defensive tactics, though they bring results, fail to live up to Madridista expectations.

At least in England’s Premier League the odd diver is booked. And nationalism counts for nothing when Manchester United face the Blues, as we will find out on Sunday.

Inter Milan see off Barcelona, and it's a triumph for football over dramatics. Finally.

BARCELONA plunged out of the Champions League last night in a dramatic, frantic clash at the Nou Camp, which saw Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho celebrate like a man possessed.

And little wonder. His side, 3-1 up after the first leg, had held Barcelona to a single goal despite going down to 10 men after less than half an hour. What a night. What an incredible night.

Inter's Wesley Sneijder said: "Yeah, Jose was screaming at the end, it was an emotional moment. We defended so well with 10 men for so long so a big compliment to the team.

"We were compact, we fought for every metre and gave everything and that's what we said to each other before the game. So we go to Madrid. The manager always has a tactic to destroy the opponent."

Inter's Thiago Motta was right all along. What was it he said in the build-up? "I am not worried about the referee, I am worried about the players who complicate the life of the referee. We're used to seeing Barcelona players diving a lot, so we want to help him."

Sadly, the Brazilian's fears proved founded. After 28 minutes of Barca domination Motta, who spent five years with the Catalan giants, was sent off by fussy Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere for pushing a hand into the face of Sergio Busquets (see picture above).

True to form, the Barca man went down like a sack of spuds. He'd fall over if a mouse sneezed, that one.

Motta, already booked, was shown a straight red and looked stunned. Rightly. Then he grabbed Busquets by the neck before being dragged away. Rightly. And Barca coach Jose Mourinho, loudly abused by the Catalan hordes on his arrival at the stadium yesterday, applauded the Barca fans, suggesting they might have had something to do with it. Rightly.

On twitter, Derby County's former Wales international Robbie Savage—who knows a thing or two about red cards—raged, "Shocking decision by the ref, come on Inter!" and even Britain's No. 1 tennis player Andy Murray described it as "maybe the worst decision I have seen in sport this year."

Sadly, incidents like that reduced this clash of the titans to a battle of the divers in typical over-fussy European style, with plenty of handbags being thrown. But fortunately, football triumphed over dramatics and Inter got the result they needed to make it to the final.

At halftime, when Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was having a word with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mourinho came up and let his feelings be known—with some gusto. In some parts of the world, we'd call that a pep talk. In East London, it would be labelled a right telling off.

But somehow, Inter, 3-1 up after the first-leg, had got to the break at 0-0 with 10 men. Oh, and they also suffered two yellow cards. Goalkeeper Julio Cesar—who made a great first-half save from Lionel Messi—was cautioned for time-wasting after just 34 minutes. Then Christian Chivu joined him in the book for a tackle on Messi—though he clearly got the ball with his sliding challenge.

Mourinho took off striker Gabriel Millito for full-back Maxwell, making his intentions clear as he attempted to end what he called the "obsession" Barca have about reaching the final against Bayern Munich on May 22 at the Bernebeu, home of their arch-rivals, Real Madrid.

But in the BBC commentary box, prophetic former England international Chris Waddle observed: "There's no zip about Barca. Messi looks tired, Xavi hasn't got that bit extra, Ibrahimovic hasn't given anything so far. They've got to go and have a go, get the ball wide, raise the tempo - because they're comfortably going out as it stands."

With two goals needed in the final half-hour, Guardiola did as Waddle had suggested and took off the 6'6" Ibrahimovic, the Inter striker swapped with Samuel Eto'o last season, and brought on Jeffren. Left on the bench? A certain Thierry Henry.

There goes his World Cup then. And deservedly so after "that" handball in the play-off for France against the Irish in Paris.

With Barca's players—Messi prominent among them—diving in the box like it was an 18-yard swimming pool, Inter held on grimly.

And a note for Arsenal fans. Yaya Toure, brother of Kolo, the man who should have signed for the Gunners four years ago, was having a stinker. Every touch was elephantine, and two of his shots hit the corner flag.

But still, Barca had the upper hand, as they had all game. Referee De Bleeckere needed a chat with Mourinho, who responded by taking off Wesley Sneijder—the Dutchman twisted a knee in the first half—and bringing on the temperamental Sulley Muntari, who got out of Portsmouth before it all went belly-up.

Not since AC Milan 20 years ago has a side successfully defended the European Cup. And holders Barcelona could see their chances going up in smoke as the clock hit 70 minutes with no sign of a breakthrough.

They resorted to throwing the ball in for Messi, 5'5", to win the headers. Never going to happen. The side that dismantled Arsenal looked clueless, even when confronted with 10 men. How does Mourinho do it? Psychology? Presence? A little black magic?

There was still time for teenager Bojan Krkic to miss a glorious chance with his head after a delightful cross from the otherwise formless Messi.

Then, with seven minutes to play, centre-back Gerard Piquet produced the moment of the match. Narrowly onside from Xavi's pass, he took the ball down and delayed his shot, preferring to turn like a giant-sized Messi. He coolly beat the veteran Colombian Ivan Cordoba and planted the ball into the net. Not bad for a big defender.

With 100,00 Catalans roaring, we finally had an atmosphere. And still the Barca stars dived. Daniel Alves tried a full-length effort with half-pike after 88 minutes. The ref, mercifully, waved his pleas for a penalty away.

Then, with 90 minutes played, a dubious corner. Defended. Four minutes of injury time. Bojan, in a desperate attempt to make up for his earlier miss, latched on to a chance and slammed in what looked like the winner. Deafening noise. But referee De Bleeckere had spotted a hand from Toure—a slightly unfortunate ball-to-hand, but a hand nevertheless. No goal. Phew.

Seconds left, the referee gives a bizarre bounce-ball to Barca. One final corner. Fluffed. Full-time. Oh how Mourinho loved it! A special triumph for the Special One.

Victor Valdez tried to spoil his finest moment, but Jose was gone. A nutter in the Nou Camp. Incredible. Screaming, hugging, finger-pointing. And then somebody turned the sprinklers on in an effort to spoil the celebration. But it couldn't dampen Jose's joy. He said: "We were a team of heroes. We sweated blood. That defeat was the best result of my life. This was even better than winning the Champions Leagues."

Come back Jose, we miss you.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk.