'Messi has harmed me very much, Xavi provoked and Leo crushed us'

Xabi Alonso was Real Madrid's balance in midfield during his time at the club. He enjoyed playing under Mourinho and was also tormented on a biyearly basis by Guardiola's unplayable Barcelona, led by the imposing figure of Lionel Messi.

"Messi has harmed me very much, I haver suffered him a lot. He made us rack our brains. Behind Messi, was Xavi. And he provoked. Xavi showed me the ball, I would go, Messi ran in behind and crushed us," the former Madrid and Bayern midfielder recalled.

Real's problem stemmed from Alonso's need to cover his Spain teammate in midfield. "Sergio Ramos had to go and mark Messi." That is where Barcelona found the gap to repeatedly punish their arch-rivals.

In order to determine a plan to finally stop Messi, meetings where staged between the players and the coaching staff: "Mourinho, Sergio Ramos and I talked about him a lot," Alonso added. "How was he hurting us? How could we control it?".

Finally, they came up with a way to successfully nullify the Argentine. "We only started to control Messi when I was marking him," Xabi concluded. "We sacrificed positions for me to mark him, but once we controlled Messi the matches were even."