Jose Mourinho is nearing the pinnacle of European football again.
The Special One outmaneuvered counterpart Pep Guardiola as Inter suffocated Barcelona in a 3-1 win in the opening leg of the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday.
Mourinho guided FC Porto to the European title in 2004, and he can sense he's close to duplicating the feat with Inter.
"If Inter doesn't win this year, it will win next year," Mourinho said. "This squad is no longer too small for Europe."
Only two coaches have won the European Cup with two different clubs: Ernst Happel with Feyenoord in 1970 and Hamburg in 1983, and Ottmar Hitzfeld with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern Munich in 2001.
Current Bayern manager Louis van Gaal, a winner with Ajax in 1995, is also attempting the feat this time around, with the German club facing Lyon in the other semifinal.
Wary of Barcelona's creative forwards and standout Lionel Messi, Mourinho designed an attacking game that involved three forwards - Goran Pandev, Diego Milito and Samuel Eto'o - and kept the pressure on from start to finish.
"Inter is a different squad from when I was playing here," said Barcelona forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who swapped places with Eto'o this season. "They're more confident now and they attack more. We didn't play like we normally do - except for the last 20-25 minutes."
After Pedro Rodriguez gave Barcelona the lead in the 19th minute, Inter hit back with goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Milito.
"They play spectacular football and they're all good technically, but we pressed a lot - like the coach wanted, and it worked," Pandev said. "Barca controlled the ball a lot but we were positioned well. We pressed and then began to counterattack and we had a lot of scoring chances."
The only negative note for Inter was the behavior of 19-year-old forward Mario Balotelli, who threw his jersey to the ground after being whistled at by fans and stormed angrily off the field while his teammates celebrated.
Inter extended its winning in streak in Europe to six games, stretching back to a 2-0 loss at Barcelona in the group stage in November. The same result in next Wednesday's return game would eliminate Inter, although a 1-0 loss or a draw would be enough to advance.
"You've got to always keep the pressure on Barcelona," Inter executive Ernesto Paolillo said. "We can't be too passive. We've got to think like it's starting over at 0-0, and if we have that mentality then we can win."
Reaching the final would put Inter president Massimo Moratti within reach of matching his father Angelo's two European Cup victories with Inter in the 1960s. Since the younger Moratti took over Inter in 1995, he's had to watch jealously as city rival AC Milan won three Champions League titles.
Inter has won Serie A the last four years, and Moratti's goal now is clearly the European title.
"I'm proud of Mourinho and the players' performance also filled me with pride," Moratti said. "The fans were extraordinary, too, because they supported the team the entire time and it turned out to be worth it."
