Jose Mourinho faces two major challenges with Real Madrid before deciding his future Not least because, significantly, unlike the German club's experienced coach, Jupp Heynckes, Mourinho cannot rest players in advance. He has to field his strongest team against Barcelona while Heynckes, with the German league title lost to Borussia Dortmund, will rest a number of key players against Werder Bremen this weekend just as he did before the first leg when his team played out a goalless draw against Mainz last Friday. Fatigue will be a factor, as Mourinho, and the Real defender Sergio Ramos, acknowledged and there was shock at Mario Gomez's late winning goal for Bayern on Tuesday which ended the Spaniards 20-match unbeaten run. "The 2-1 scoreline is bitter for us to take but I am convinced that we will win at home," Özil said. We believe in our strength and I am convinced that we will progress to the final. We will be in Munich. Munich is where the final - against Barcelona or Chelsea - will be played on May 19 with Mourinho attempting to become the first coach to win the trophy with three different clubs. He can almost taste the history being made. He can certainly sense it. If he also topples Barcelona as Spanish champions he may well have achieved everything he wants to in Spain and look for the right opportunity to return to the Premier League. Even so, Mourinho is said to be calmer than he was in January, when he let it be known that he was looking to leave Spain and return to England at the end of this campaign. But, as ever with Mourinho, it is a fluid situation and he is taking a close interest in events at Chelsea and, more relevantly perhaps, Manchester City even though the only current vacancy is at his former club. The €15 million (£12.3 million) needed to buy him out of his contract at Real would not pose a problem to potential suitors. If that chance does not arise, then Mourinho will probably stay for one more year although if he fails to win either prize that could also severely affects his chances of remaining in Spain, given the power struggles he has inevitably gone through and the fractious nature of his relationship with the Spanish media, who he holds in a barely concealed contempt. That contempt appears to be reciprocated. There has been dark talk of an anti-Portuguese feeling around the club - which has pricked the ears of the Chelsea hierarchy who have been considering a move for Cristiano Ronaldo - and Mourinho will have noticed the criticism heaped on his compatriot, Fabio Coentrao, who had a dreadful match in Munich and who has become a focus of any failings in the regime having cost 30m euros from Benfica. Such is the ridicule surrounding Coentrao, who was pilloried recently for being caught smoking in public, that it was even speculated that the Portuguese club's fans had erected a statue in honour of their president for managing to secure such a huge fee for the 24 year-old. More damagingly, there is also growing scepticism over Mourinho's tactics and substitutions with constant questions - often totally unjustifiable - over why he overlooks Kaka while the substitution of the influential Özil was met with astonishment, as did Real's inability to deal with set-pieces, especially corners. There is another factor, also, which was highlighted by the Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. "It would be wrong to say we've got one foot in the final," Neuer said before adding: "They scored early in the second half, but then they flattened out." The fear that Real have "flattened out" has been voiced to Mourinho, who has reacted with predictable irritation, making it clear on the eve of the match that he only attended a press conference under duress. His post-match thoughts were also brief, flat and showed a man on the cusp and arming himself with reasons why it may soon be time to find a new club. How, with his sense of drama, he would love to do that with another Champions League winners" medal - to add to the ones from 2004 and 2010 - swinging round his neck, even if he ripped it immediately from his neck as he did when at Porto before walking into Chelsea's arms. But he faces two big challenges to overcome in the next few days which will go some way to finding out where Mourinho will be working next season.