With his loan spell over and unwanted by Atlético, the £113m prodigy dealing in cameos is still looking for his masterpieceJoão Félix took Mykhaylo Mudryk’s volleyed pass in the centre circle and ran at the Manchester United defence. Raphaël Varane, unprotected by a central midfielder, backed off. With a slight feint, Félix had Varane shift his weight right when it needed to go left, glided into the space that opened up as a result and then drove his finish low from the edge of the box past David de Gea.At a different time, in another context, it might have been regarded as a stunning goal, an intervention of the highest quality. Everything about it was precise and direct. But it...
Having dragged themselves away from danger, a chaotic 6-1 loss to Atlético sucked Jorge Sampaoli’s side back inThe first to leave was a kitman carrying a bag of equipment and a haunted look. At the top of the stairs, Sevilla dressing room to the right, Atlético’s to the left, a familiar face from better times was waiting to give him a hug. There were a few quiet words but no comfort. One by one the rest followed: Sevilla’s players entered the tunnel alone, lost in dark thoughts, each more broken than the last. The coach moved faster than any of them, just wanting out. Directors appeared who could do nothing. The captain’s jaw clenched so hard teeth could have crumbled....
Real’s failure to beat 10-man Atlético gave the leaders the chance to go 10 points clear – but Almería spoiled the party“This is not goodbye to the league,” Carlo Ancelotti said but no one was really listening and even he didn’t sound sure, not yet. Saturday evening at the Santiago Bernabéu and it was done. Real Madrid had just drawn 1-1 with Atlético, leaving Barcelona to slip out of sight at the top, the only winners those watching in a city 600km away. If this was Diego Simeone’s final derby in the capital, the underwhelming final chapter in a rivalry he revived and suffered like no one else, a once epic series slowing to a close, he could at least...
In obsessing over the minutiae of refereeing, the game has sacrificed its spontaneity, narrative coherence and sense of funConfusion reigned on Wednesday night. In the white-hot heat of the moment, players, pundits and fans at Tottenham filming reaction videos on phones failed to grasp the intricacies of the offside law. Even the person helming the Guardian’s Champions League clockwatch – me – was very far from sure.Could Harry Kane be adjudged offside if Emerson Royal nodded Ivan Perisic’s excellent deep cross backwards? Could Kane be offside if the ball flicked off a Sporting defender before being tucked into the net, seemingly earning Tottenham a stirring comeback victory and a place in the last 16? Continue reading...
Manchester City’s bandaged-up academy star got into the Atlético Madrid manager’s head on a tense and fractious nightAnd so it came to pass, with 92 minutes on the clock. A match that had simmered, all smouldering, corseted restraint, finally broke down into the nasty, snarky, theatrically overblown free‑for‑all that everyone at the Wanda Metropolitano always felt was on its way.By the end there was talk of a fist fight involving at least two players and the sight of helmeted police sprinting for the tunnel. There was genuine bad blood on the pitch, words and pointed fingers. And above all the spectacle of Atlético’s players shaking their heads in utter confusion, lost in red mist that felt like someone else’s red...