The clubs behind the proposed tournament must find competitive sport offensive, all the way from the grassroots game to the World CupPerhaps once all this has shaken out, once the imminent threat of a breakaway European super league has been resolved one way or the other, football will find the time for a little reflection.How we reached this point. How the game’s elite clubs managed to engineer a scenario in which a hostile takeover came to feel inevitable, even irresistible. How the world’s most popular sport managed to hand over so much of its power and wealth and influence to people who despise it. Related: Premier League condemns European super league after English clubs sign up Related: ‘Pure greed’: Gary...
Yet another defeat to pacy counterattackers raises tantalising questions over Manchester City’s European tie with PSGAnd so the quadruple remains out of reach for another season. Perhaps Pep Guardiola is right to banish talk of it: when goals are set so high, even an extraordinary season could feel like failure. And so it lingers, forever on the edge of perception, as the Double did for Liverpool for much of the 70s and 80s, something that feels often in their grasp and yet keeps on eluding them.For a long time, the Double was rare enough to be an almost mystical quest. Growing up in the 80s, the sides who had achieved it felt vaguely otherworldly, to be spoken of in hushed...
Champions League clash could be described as sportswashing derby with rich royal family owners going head to headSometimes sport can be a stage for the most beautiful dramas. It can thrill, it can inspire, it can move. It can offer the most plangent insights into life, showcase the full potential of the human brain, the human heart, the human body. Who does not feel the lump in the throat, the warm glow of shared experience, the great sense of human potential when they remember Bob Champion winning the National on Aldaniti, Dennis Taylor outlasting Steve Davis, or Ben Stokes at Headingley? Sport is a fairytale land where dreams can be made flesh.Once upon a time there was a football club...
Attempts to ruffle Manchester City feathers by home fans did not work and City then neutralised Erling HaalandThe explosions were so loud some hotel staff feared the building was shaking. Three times during the early hours of Wednesday morning Dortmund fans released industrial-strength fireworks outside the Radisson Blu, waking several of the Manchester City players inside.Pep Guardiola remained impervious. “I was sleeping like a baby, I didn’t hear a thing,” reported City’s manager before watching his defence come as near as any team’s to tranquilising Erling Haaland. Related: Foden thunderbolt puts Manchester City in semis after Dortmund scare Continue reading...
Liverpool were knocked out by a team of big personality players who do the right things at the right momentsOn a night of steadily deflating momentum, Jürgen Klopp’s marauding Liverpool did their best Jürgen Klopp’s marauding Liverpool impression. And for a while it was tempting to believe.Anfield looked splendid under open blue cold skies, one of those nights when the wind comes scudding in off the sea and the place seems to boil and throb with, well, what exactly? Related: Liverpool rue missed chances as Real Madrid end Champions League hopes Related: Liverpool 0-0 Real Madrid (agg 1-3): Champions League quarter-final – as it happened Continue reading...