“There is a first time for everything,” he said. “It never happened to me at Porto, or at Inter or at Chelsea. It does not bother me. it happened to Zidane, it happened to Cristiano Ronaldo and it happened to the other Ronaldo. If it happened to them then why not to me. They responded with their football and I will keep working hard.”

Madrid are five points clear at the top of La Liga after beating Athletic Bilbao 4-1 last night but yesterday morning details of a blazing row between the former Chelsea manager and Sergio Ramos were leaked to Madrid sports paper Marca.

Mourinho blamed Ramos for Barça’s first goal on Wednesday and a dispute over marking duties ended with the defender reportedly saying: “Sometimes it’s necessary to change. You have never been a player so you wouldn’t know.”

The Real coach was also accused of attacking the Spain internationals in his team.Mourinho is quoted as saying to Ramos: “Of course, as you Spanish are world champions, your friends in the press protect you … like the goalkeeper [Iker Casillas].”

During last night’s win at the Bernabeu, Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice from the penalty spot, when some supporters started chanting Mourinho’s name, others around the ground began whistling.

Lionel Messi scored a sublime hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-1 win at Malaga yesterday to keep pace with Real. A rare header was followed by two wonderful solo goals from Messi

In Germany, Borussia Dortmund joined Bayern Munich and Schalke at the top of the Bundesliga after a comprehensive 5-1 away victory at Hamburg.

Relegation-threatened Hamburg had been on a nine-game unbeaten run before the game, but it came to an abrupt end at the hands of last year’s champions with two goals each for Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Blaszczykowski.