MADRID, April 26 -- FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola on Tuesday returned the criticism he had received earlier in the day to raise the temperature ahead of Wednesday's Champions League semifinal showdown between his side and Real Madrid to almost boiling point.
Earlier in the day, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho had criticized Guardiola, misinterpreting comments about a refereeing decision in last Wednesday's Copa del Rey final, to imply Guardiola had tried to pressure UEFA over the designation of the referee for Wednesday's game.
"We have seen the start of a new era. In the past there were two groups of coaches -- one small group that never talked about referees and a larger group, in which I am included, which talked about them when they made important mistakes. Now there is a third group in which Guardiola is the only member, who criticize the referee for a correct decision. I have never seen that before," said Mourinho.
Guardiola is normally diplomatic in his press conferences, refusing to cause controversy, but Tuesday's appearance in the press room at the Bernabeu was different.
"Mr Mourinho has used my first name, so I will use his. Tomorrow at 20:45 we will face each other on the pitch. I'm willing to make a gift of his personal Champions League off the pitch, but we will play the other on the pitch. We could win, lose or draw, but we are proud of what we do," said Guardiola.
"In this press room, he (Mourinho) could be the star, be all and the end all. Tomorrow we will do our talking on the pitch," added the Barcelona coach.
"The intention of my words about the Cup final, which provoked that marvellous comment from the Real Madrid coach, is not that which he has tried to give it. He can believe me or he can believe what he reads, but it's true that it's in his interest to believe what he has read before he believes me," continued Guardiola.
In regards to the match, he confirmed that Andres Iniesta will be out with a calf problem and added that it would be down to the referee to stop any over aggressive play.
Earlier in the evening, midfielder Javier Mascherano spoke of his irritation that Real Madrid had tried to cause controversy in the run up to the game.
"It is easy to take things out of context, all of us know what the coach meant to say and it nothing to do with what some had made it out to be. It hurts, when there is a big game, every word should be measured."
"Our coach never tried to criticize a referee, but to show how close we were to winning the Cup. What annoys me is that all the time it seems that we talk less and less about football, we are on the verge of an historic semifinal and we are talking about other things," commented the midfielder.