I flew back from Madrid to watch the Champions League final on TV, but other travel plans went awry. See you next seasonI recently wrote an article explaining how I’d given up my Champions League final ticket to watch the game with my dad. He gave me a love of Spurs that meant it was the right thing to do. It was well received. Real journalists slid into my DMs to praise me. Ex- pros texted me (well, one ex-pro texted me). What an altruistic gesture. What a moving piece. You should write more they all said. I was a hero.A cynic might argue that writing an article about liking both your own father and football was likely to resonate...
The Spurs manager has some tough decision to make over the nature of his team following their defeat by Liverpool in the Champions League finalHindsight is of course always twenty-twenty. Did Mauricio Pochettino make a defining error in selecting Harry Kane to play from the start in the Wanda Metropolitana, Tottenham’s once-in-a-generation shot at European ultimacy?In outline the tone and texture of that oddly deathly Champions League final might suggest this was the case. Kane had not played for seven weeks, had not scored for Tottenham since early March. A half-fit Kane tends to be a ponderous Kane, with a tendency to spend much of the game grappling with his marker, arms stretched behind him, like a man feeling for...
The Champions League final carried echoes of the scrappy showpieces at which English teams triumphed in 70s and 80sFor Liverpool this has been a season of two extraordinary statistics: 11.7mm and 64%. It was the former that denied them a goal (albeit a freakish one via John Stones and Ederson) away to Manchester City in January, and it was with the latter they won the Champions League. Neither makes much sense. That games can be swayed by margins as fine as that defies comprehension. But it feels at least as incredible that Liverpool could win a Champions League final with only 64% pass accuracy.Liverpool are a team who worry about pass accuracy far less than many sides. Their pass completion...
Manager’s transformation of side over four years is sealed with first trophy after Champions League final defeat of TottenhamJürgen Klopp predicted one title within four years on his first full day as Liverpool manager in October 2015. He never promised it would be pretty but he has delivered on schedule. Just. From doubters to believers, nearly-men to champions of Europe; his transformation is complete.The architect of Liverpool’s sixth European Cup triumph was the only member of his technical area not to cavort in celebration when Divock Origi sealed Tottenham’s fate in the 87th minute and confirmed Old Big Ears was heading back to Anfield. He was not best pleased when Liverpool substitutes took off their tracksuit tops before the final...
Under their German manager the Anfield club are geared to connect with something other than simply success on the pitchAnd so, back into the red. In the end it seemed fitting that Liverpool should win this Champions League final through an effort of shared will. This was a night when the gears refused to click, the circuits rarely sparked, and when taking that last step was always likely to be matter of spirit and bloody-minded certainty.How do you make a champion team? At the final whistle in Madrid, as the air seemed to fizz and crackle and the red and white shapes melted into the green, Jürgen Klopp hugged Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson to his chest, his great beaming,...