[MARCA] Q and A with José Mourinho:
Q) Let's talk about your time as Real Madrid coach. It's eight years to the day that you won LaLiga. The 2011/12 season was incredible because you beat the record for points and goals in Spain. Do you consider that as the high point of your coaching career?
A) It's very difficult for me to say if that was the high point or not. But since then, I'm sure that it was a very important moment because it came in a special period of dominance for Barcelona.
Ending that Barcelona dominance and doing it by achieving a record points tally and a record goals tally like that makes it even more interesting and important because we did it in the best way possible. It wasn't only that we won LaLiga, it's that we did it in a way that made history.
Q) However, you had the big disappointment of not being able to beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the Champions League semi-final.
A) That's right. That season, Real Madrid were the best team in Spain and also the best in Europe. That's why it was so hard for us to deal with going out to Bayern in the Champions League.
Q) In Spain, you came up against the best Barcelona team in history with Lionel Messi, Xavi and Iniesta on the pitch and Pep Guardiola in the dugout. What was the key to that title?
A) I think it was fundamental that we were able to find a way of playing that we were the best at. We built a playing identity that was very suited to the conditions and the quality of the players.
Of course, the enormous talent of all those great players and the understanding between them in every game was key, that is the most important thing for me. Everyone was very unified and connected by a great ambition of being champions.
Q) I don't know if you remember but you had quite a tricky spell at the start of the season with a defeat to Levante and a draw against Racing Santander. How did you get over that difficult moment right at the start of the season?
A) With the strength of the group, for sure. We felt that we were the best, the best team and, with this mentality, we went to play at Valencia, Sevilla, the [Estadio Vicente] Calderon, San Mames or the Camp Nou. That enormous motivation towards those games at those grounds didn't entail a factor of pressure.
Q) It was often said that, above everything else in that squad, there was a team, a solid block without any rifts.
A) Yes. The sum of a group of great footballing quality combined with maximum motivation can only result in a great team. That's what we were.
Q) What memories do you have of the Clasico at the Camp Nou on Matchday 26 where you beat Barcelona 2-1 to ultimately decide LaLiga?
A) They are good memories. We played against Barcelona in search of two results because a win was good to us, but so was a draw. We prepared that game at the Camp Nou well. I repeatedly said to my players: 'We're going to win this game, we're going to win it'. They had the emotion and, above all, the pressure.
They were playing at home and we were going to kill them in the transition. When they equalised, that was what happened. In the end, emotion lost in favour of reason.
Q) It's often said that that Real Madrid team were 'rock and roll' because of its high rhythm and lethal counter attacks. On the tactical side, what were the keys to be able to win that league title?
A) Yes, I remember that expression well. We had a very clearly defined playing identity. We were always very well organised defensively above anything else on the pitch and everyone knew exactly what they had to do.
There was also lots of discipline and organisation behind that team's game. And we were capable of making transitions that were very explosive, quick and direct towards the objective, always looking towards the goal with connections that were almost unstoppable.
They were great players who played like a true team. In the end, that was the key to everything.
Q) Everyone remembers Cristiano Ronaldo as the most decisive player in that
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