Barcelona and Lionel Messi will be facing a Real Madrid side without José Mourinho at the helm from next season after the Portuguese manager left the Spanish club for Premier league outfit Chelsea.
This is his second spell at the English club where he enjoyed a lot of success from 2004 to 2007. Mourinho was the major nemesis for Barcelona after he managed to bring them into the dominance in the league enjoyed by the Catalan club. However, Messi feels that Real Madrid will not be any weaker as a result of losing Mourinho.
He also feels that the 50-year-old will be able to replicate the success at Chelsea. Messi has enjoyed scoring a lot of goals against almost every team in the world, but Chelsea remains as probably the one big team he is yet to score against. After having played eight matches against Chelsea, the Argentine is yet to get off the mark. Messi has said that Real Madrid will once again be challenging for the title along with Barcelona.
The Spanish club recently brought in Carlo Ancelotti to replace Mourinho. Messi has praised Ancelotti by saying that he is a proven winner who will be capable of getting more success to Real Madrid.
“I think the Spanish league is difficult anyway and will continue being difficult. We’ll be fighting against strong teams with great players like Real Madrid. Mourinho was a great coach but we know that Ancelotti is equally great. I think Mourinho will also succeed back at Chelsea because he’s a great manager. You talk of Germany dominating football recently – I don’t know what is going to happen in the future,” said Messi.
The Argentine is expected to face stiff competition from Neymar, who the club recently signed for close to £ 50 million.