Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola exploded with an uncharacteristic outburst at Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho ahead of their all-Spanish Champions League semi-final first leg.

Coach Pep Guardiola wants Barcelona to do their talking on the pitch after a dramatic war of words erupted between him and Real Madrid counterpart Jose Mourinho ahead of tonight’s UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg.

Mourinho, the ever mind-games player sparked an uncharacteristically angry response from Guardiola during his pre-match press conference last night with comments the Portuguese made about his counterpart number earlier in the day.

Mourinho branded Guardiola as being a unique coach who “criticises the right decisions made by referees”, referring to comments attributed to the Barcelona boss following last week’s Copa del Rey final regarding a disallowed Pedro Rodriguez goal for offside.

That brought about a biting response from Guardiola, who said his post-cup comments had been misinterpreted. Guardiola also sarcastically conceded that Mourinho was the undisputed king of the press room and had won the off-field battle, but looked ahead to tonight’s game for his side to make their response.

We will meet each other on the pitch. He’s won his games off the pitch.

“Tomorrow we will meet each other on the pitch. He’s won his games off the pitch and I’ll give him his personal Champions League for that,” said Guardiola. “In this room, he’s the f…g the person who knows everything about the world and I don’t want to compete with him at all.

“If you think that his allegation that I always complain about the referees is true after you’ve all heard from me over the last three years, well there’s nothing I can do. Off the pitch there’s nothing we can do to fight that. Off the pitch, he has already won, as he has done all year. On the pitch, we’ll see what happens.”

Guardiola is pretty busy heading into the semi-final first leg at the Bernabeu, the third ” el Clasico in 2 weeks ”, without having to worry about Mourinho’s comments. Already without Eric Abidal, Adriano, Maxwell and Bojan Krkic, he lost Spain international Andres Iniesta for tonight’s match due to a calf injury.

Madrid, who beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Copa del Rey final to end a three-year barren spell without any trophy, have less concerns. They are without the suspended Ricardo Carvalho and injured Sami Khedira and Fernando Gago, but with a supposed second-string side thrashing Valencia 6-3 at the weekend, Mourinho has an embarrassing array of riches at his disposal.

Taking all that into account, Guardiola said at the weekend that his side were underdogs heading into tonight’s game. However, Mourinho dismissed that suggestion, saying: “For me there are no favourites. It’s the Champions League semi-finals – two rival teams who know each other very well. Two teams with long traditions, two teams whose players know what it is to be successful, who know how to win things and play big matches.”

The pair have a history together at the club, Mourinho, was an assistant Barcelona coach when Guardiola was a player there in the 1990s.

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