Kenny Cunningham feels that a Jose Mourinho side might not have given Lionel Messi the space to work his magic as he did tonight against Bayern Munich.
The Barcelona attacker scored twice to help his club past his old mentor Pep Guardiola at the Nou Camp in the Champions League semi-final.
While acknowledging that Messi is extremely difficult to stop, he told Off The Ball that a Mourinho-style defensive game might have been able to prevent him from breaking through.
"A Jose Mourinho side wouldn't have opened themselves up to that degree. They would have sat into their shape, kept those distances between each other and nobody would have got isolated in one v one situations. I think it is possible [to stop him] as good as he is and it has been proven. Barcelona haven't won the Champions League every year for the past eight years that Messi has been at the football club. It is possible to nullify him to a small extent for 90 minutes," said Kenny.
He also feels that Guardiola surprised Barcelona with his tactics in the opening period by pressing high and going for a back three, and suggested it would be harsh to completely disregard the merits of the former Barcelona manager's game-plan.
"Going 3v3 at the back means when Barcelona try and play out, they're playing out 7v7 in their half of the pitch. That's a very difficult thing to do," he said.
"To me, there was an obvious logic to what he was doing."
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