Mourinho: I will never coach Barca

Jose Mourinho has admitted he could never coach Barcelona after ending the Catalan club's Champions League dreams on Wednesday night. Inter boss Mourinho oversaw a 3-2 aggregate win following a 1-0 second-leg defeat at the Camp Nou after being almost constantly jeered by the home crowd. "It is clear that I will end my career without having coached Barca," he said. Mourinho is disparagingly known among some Barca fans as "the translator", having begun his journey in football management in that role alongside Bobby Robson at the Nou Camp in the 1990s, before working as a coach under Louis van Gaal for three seasons.

The Portuguese maestro, who will now face his old mentor Van Gaal as Inter prepare to take on Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid on May 22, knows the chances of him ever landing the top job with the Catalan giants are now virtually non-existent. Mourinho, who also crossed swords with Barca while in charge at Chelsea, did little to endear himself again to the club yesterday by claiming they were "obsessed" with reaching the Champions League final on the home turf of their bitter rivals Real Madrid. The crowd also reacted badly when he raced onto the pitch to celebrate Inter's aggregate success at the final whistle. "I'm not stupid enough to think that this hate can be turned into love," he added. "I respect Barca and and I'll never forget what the club gave me in the four years I was here, but something has been created around me that is hard to make positive." * PA Sport