Barcelona, the reigning European champions, stand on the brink of elimination from the Champions League following a comprehensive semi-final first leg defeat in Italy on Tuesday night, but Mourinho believes Barca still set the benchmark that Inter should aspire to.

"Barcelona is a beautiful school of football," he said after goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito cancelled out Pedro's opener for Barcelona.

"You can go through the whole history of Barca - from the dream team with Cruyff, the team of (Louis) Van Gaal, (Frank) Rijkaard's Champions League winners, Pep's Champions League winners and then the person who comes after Pep.

"It's a football school, it's fantastic. This is a school that we are not at yet, but I hope that Inter can become this.

"Inter is a club which often changes its culture of game and coaches, or it used to change these. I hope Inter can find this stability in future, and they can do it with wins because wins are important for people to believe in a way of playing."

Mourinho, a great lover of pre-match mind games, is still eager to cast his side in the role of underdogs, despite their advantage going into the second leg at the Camp Nou on Wednesday, April 28.

"We are not playing a small team, we are playing Barcelona; a great team with a great coach and great fans," Mourinho said. "We go to Barcelona and we are ahead, and we want to go into the final, but we are not there yet.

At least for the home tie Barcelona will not have a 14-hour coach journey behind them, as the flight restrictions ensured they had this time, and they will be able to dictate the kind of conditions they want to play in.

"The pitch was not wet as we like it because they had chosen not to water it, and it is their right to do that," said Guardiola. "But it did not favour our game."

"We were only really concentrating for the last 20 minutes, but this is the way it went. The return leg should be a different story, though."

"We are an exemplary team in many, many ways," Guardiola said. "I am proud of how my team is and congratulate Inter in Milan and we'll see you again next Wednesday.

"The stadium will be full and we can do it."