By Rob Blanchette, Featured Columnist Feb 19, 2014

After a dominant display by Barcelona against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, Spanish international midfielder Cesc Fabregas aimed a dig at Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for his pre-match comments, per ESPN.

The Catalan giants beat City 2-0 playing in their classical style of dominating possession and squeezing their opponents' territory.

It was a complete Barcelona performance on Tuesday night—the team completed no less than 780 successful passes, compared to the Premier League side's 306, per Squawka.

After the game, ESPN quoted Fabregas' interview with ITV where he said:

<< We had a great result tonight. The fans put so much pressure on and that's what makes this so win special. We had a point to prove, and we did it very well. Some people were talking a bit too much before the game and now they have to shut up for a few days. You never know in football, but in three weeks we will have to play very, very well. >>

Even though Fabregas did not refer to Mourinho by name, it is easy to translate the meaning behind his words. The Portuguese manager's former affiliations with Real Madrid means his words still seem to warrant some comment from the Barcelona camp.

As reported by BBC Sport before the match, Mourinho had been quoted saying to ITV:

<< Of course by history Barcelona is the favourite, but this Barcelona, this season, is showing that it is not the same [as] in previous years. Of course, they have [Lionel] Messi - he is special - and they have more than him. But I think this is the worst Barcelona of many, many years. >>

Fabregas obviously felt the need to reply to this damning assessment by the "Special One." The Daily Telegraph's Ben Rumsby commented on Twitter about Fabregas' words:

Lol. Fabregas telling Mourinho to shut up. Jose really winds people up.

On Tuesday night, Barcelona proved Mourinho wrong with their systematic destruction of City. If this is a side in decline, then the majority of Europe are still nowhere near the performance levels they can reach.

Fabregas and company showed how to dominate an excellent team who freely score goals at home, without having to park the bus.

You can still play attractive football and keep a clean sheet.

City looked like an inexperienced European team during the tie, and they appear to have already given away their chances of progressing to the quarter-finals of a tournament they are desperate to do well in.

The Nou Camp will be an incredibly hostile environment for them to play their natural game in, but there is little doubt they will need to produce something special to have any chance of edging past their opponents.

Barcelona cannot be discarded in the Champions League this year, and they could exact revenge for last year's humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich in the semi-final. They are coming into form at just the right time, and their undoubted quality could easily see them once again reign as the kings of European football.

People should fear this Barcelona team. With Neymar on the bench, their depth is simply incredible.

Source Bleacherreport.com

Thank you Mourinho for motivating our players :).

Lmfao. Whether Mourinho speak or not "He is inside everyone's head". I think Mourinho is a specialist in playing with tiny mind people who will never get it.

Mourinho is talking too much, it would be funny if he ends up trophyless like the last year...

Karma would slap Jose so hard if he doesnt win any throphy at Chelsea for a couple of years :D

@alex L.M.A.O. jose is like some asshole poking you in the eye. There's nothing remarkable or admirable about that. No one can stand him except for chelsea fans and I wish he would just shut his craphole.

I personally dislike Mourinho for his moaning, crying, and football philosophy. But I gotta say the guy is hilarious, special, master mind, most entertaining, very talented and obviously successful. I am glad he flopped in RM otherwise his bull$hit will go over the top....

What he said about Barca being worst in many many year is so disrespectful toward Tata and players who are fighting hard. It's like saying: Tata and Barca su-ck and if MC wins by any mean it is not because MC/Pellegrini is that good. But Cesc would receive a lot of negative comment about he spoke in public to tell "they have to shut up"... Mou is playing his mind game again.

What a clown, what a manager... contradicting

Mourinho pisses off Barcelona even when he left La Liga . lol I just love this guy . He gets on everyone's nerves . I bet he just gets bored and decides to phuck around with everyone . LOL

@Tuan_jinn I bet you would not say this if he was managing United ! :D Because I know you never complained when Sir Alex called Newcastle a "wee wee " club . Ooh and so many insults to other managers , clubs and players over the years . He even published a book after his retirement with more insults . LOL Stop being hypocrite .

Mourinho is the king of football !

He is so cocky...

Sir José Mourinho :)

@Marcus: lolllz ok you got me there. Ok, ok, I admit I would not say that if it was Sir Alex, I actually enjoyed when he defended our club and bash the others. So what.... But you have to agree Mou is one cocky guy (way worse than sir Alex), like I said clearly: he is one weird character, a master mind and successful, I acknowledge what he has achieved and admit he is one of the best out there, but I just can't stand him.

LOL. 'systematic destruction'?

City had 85% of the good attacking football. Barcelona scored a penalty, and a last-minute goal against ten men, while Valdes and his back line had to make last-gasp saves again and again. Hardly 'dominance'. ;)

Oh the bias of the gloating class...

Before you guys go off on Mourinho, where in this entire article does Fabregas say his name? Exactly.

Im not the writer of the article, but seems that the team that made 11-1 to Spurs is lacking maturity and experience.

With these words I think Mourinho only motivate other teams like @tiki already said.
I wish him a fall for all the bullshit he said in recent years, karma would be great.

@messi6511 it's a reaction to: Manchester City face 'worst Barcelona team in years', says Mourinho

@fabryi Yes we can all infer that this is infact a reaction to Mourinho. But how would you know that that is what it actually is? Nowadays the media can turn a few words in to a story. Something that goal.com loves to do just to make money and get readers.

@Tuan

You're an idiot if you say that Mourinho was a "flop" at Madrid. Any decent football fan knows that Mourinho took Madrid to heights that people didn't think was possible for a mediocre club. Mourinho also has the second highest winning percentage in Madrid, and is considered to be one of our greatest ever managers.

EDIT:: After looking at what people have said to me, I take back the "mediocre" part. I guess "mediocre" is not the correct word to use in this context. A better word might be..... "average". Madrid were "average" until Mourinho came.

Are you seriously calling Real Madrid "mediocore"? Have they ever been mediocore? I think not.

@Messi

Have you seen Real Madrid since Zidane left? They were well below mediocre. When Pellegrini was in charge, we lost 4-0 in the Copa to Alcorcon. That's right, a second-division team. 4 f**king 0.

We lost out to Lyon in the Champions League as well. Granted, Lyon was a great team back then, but really? We had Alonso, Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas, and Ramos, and we lose to Gourcuff, Lopez, and Bastos? That's not acceptable. Certainly not for Madrid. And in 2008-09, we went completely trophyless, and lost to Barcelona 6-2 at home. That's just pathetic. That is not Real Madrid. That is a mediocre team that couldn't make the quarter finals of the CL for 7 years in a row, and then Mourinho comes and takes us to the semis 3 years in a row. That, and the 3 trophies in 3 years, is unbelievable.

@Dynastian: be careful calling someone idiot, man especially when you are wrong. "Any decent football fan knows that Mourinho took Madrid to heights that people didn't think was possible for a mediocre club. Mourinho also has the second highest winning percentage in Madrid, and is considered to be one of our greatest ever managers" OMFG. I really thought you were a true football and RM's fan...... it looks like you are Mou's fan. Let's me tell you why I have that impression:

1. For an obvious reason: the best football club of 21 century is definitely NOT a mediocre club
2. The period Mou coached RM, they had the most expensive squad in the history of football including bought-in 2 most expensive and Ballon 'dOr-type players in the world (Ronaldo and Kaka). Coached by the one of the most expensive (if not the most) expensive coach - MOU.
3. It's true he won 2 cups and ended Barca's dominant, but again he lost and trophy-less again the season when he left.
4. Off the pitch RM was a mess, separate group in the changing room etc... Not to mention, publicity RM was one of the worst (eye poking, moaning, brutally kicking players around, negative football tactic again big teams, sometime counter attack against small teams).

Was that flop enough considering 2 times CL winner and a highest paid coach?

@Tuan

1. "For an obvious reason: the best football club of 21 century is definitely NOT a mediocre club"

They were the best club of the 20th century. Not the 21st. Get your facts straight. We've been average in the 21st century. I can name a whole host of teams that won more trophies than us since 2000. I bet you Barcelona have won literally double the trophies we have since 2000.

1. "The period Mou coached RM, they had the most expensive squad in the history of football including bought-in 2 most expensive and Ballon 'dOr-type players in the world (Ronaldo and Kaka). Coached by the one of the most expensive (if not the most) expensive coach - MOU"

Indeed, you are correct there, but what do you expect when we have so many giant egos shuffled together into one team. It's not easy to manage all of them at the same time. That's why Mourinho was so brilliant. He may have screwed the dressing room over in the last season, but for the first two seasons, he did brilliantly. Moreover, our squad was constantly changing. We never had a fixed starting XI over the course of the three seasons Mou was there. It always changed at least 2-3 players. That's extremely problematic for the players' team chemistry.

1. "It's true he won 2 cups and ended Barca's dominant, but again he lost and trophy-less again the season when he left."

He won the Supercopa de Espana in his last season there. It is a trophy, regardless of the fact whether you consider it one or not. And he did really well considering our entire starting defensive lineup was injured for 2 months. That's Marcelo (broken bone), Ramos (5 match ban, then some stupidity kept him out of the lineup as well), Pepe (injury), and Arbeloa (injury).

1. "Off the pitch RM was a mess, separate group in the changing room etc... Not to mention, publicity RM was one of the worst (eye poking, moaning, brutally kicking players around..."

Lol, Mourinho himself did the eye-poking. No one blamed Madrid for it. "Brutally kicking players around", sounds like something your beloved Roy Keane and Eric Cantona would do, doesn't it? ;)

Pepe had his moments of controversy, and so did Ramos, but controversy doesn't get in the way of the managers success. Mou worked his way around all that, and had a successful time there.

"... negative football tactic again big teams, sometime counter attack against small teams)."

Lol, as far as I'm concerned, counter-attacking is a way to play football. Nothing illegal about it, so what's wrong with playing counter-attacking football? Mourinho also played fantastically against big teams, as he beat Barcelona multiple times in their golden era, beat both Manchester teams, beat AC Milan, beat Atletico and Athletic multiple times, and barely lost to Dortmund and Bayern on both occasions. If you're going to criticize Mourinho's success at Madrid, criticize him properly. I haven't had any difficulty at all in swatting away your points.

@Dynasty: I understand your point of view and my apology for some typo or mis-info but I am sure you got my point. However, I have to disagree with your arguments.

• Barca won a lot more trophies in the mentioned period, or RM couldn't make through the 16 rounds for couple of years straight DOES NOT make RM a mediocre club. Barca was in their prime time and considered best of all time club in that time. Its understandable if RM was shadowed by Barca
• Do you think any other big team in this business dont have big-ego players? it's up to the manager to sort them out properly, of course that manager is not entirely to blame, but it's to the highest possible extend. Doesnt matter if the SQUAD is changing constantly, it's the manager job to coordinate things on and off the pitch, that's what the word MANAGER means. No excuse
• I agree about the kicking though, every team has some sh-it moments. But in recent football, dont you agree RM was off the page for such a high-class club?
• I didn't say counter attacking is bad, NOT AT ALL I mentioned he does it to some small clubs and at a time we were all like: REALLY?
• Beating some big clubs are COMPLETELY NORMAL for any of the big teams, they beat each other occasionally from time to time, you made if sound like RM did the mission impossible. NO, its expected! look at Man City, they were sh-t before, a lousy mediocre neighbor. After they bought good players they beat the sh-t out of everyone in EPL.

I said he was a flop in RM because if I have to sum-up 1 word for his campaign there in those years, that's the best word after add up all the factors. I didn't mean to discredit his points record or ended Barca dominant (even though some would argue, by the time he ended it, Barca was a bit on their way down - didn't win ANY game of the last 16 CL).

As for you saying I need to criticize him properly: If you read my comment carefully from the beginning of this thread, I GAVE ALL MY RESPECT and credit to Mourinho and knowledge him as one of the best, most entertaining, the true master mind and success. I personally dislike his tactic and personality, that's all.