Premier League side did not manage a shot on target in Madrid and, with Robert Huth banned and Wes Morgan injured, face a defensive crisis in the second legAs Leicester City’s players drifted out of Estadio Vicente Calderón shortly before midnight, a TV reporter mentioned to Danny Simpson that there was no need for such a long face after a narrow defeat against a team who have reached the Champions League final twice in the past three seasons, especially when there is still so much to play for in the second leg.It was a fair point to make after a 1-0 defeat that could have been worse, yet it also overlooked the fact that Simpson and his team-mates had just...
Thomas Tuchel was wrong to blame Uefa alone for the Monaco match going ahead a day after the bomb attacks but decision-makers must start to put people ahead of schedules, TV, sponsors, money and the likePerhaps the most sensible conclusion to draw from the sorry row about who decided to reschedule a Champions League quarter-final for the day after a triple bomb attack on one of the teams, is to step back and say football should deal more maturely with trauma. It is a lesson far too long in the learning.The Borussia Dortmund manager, Thomas Tuchel, looked ashen after the 3-2 defeat against a predictably professional Monaco, claiming Uefa had high-handedly insisted the match must be played. His players needed...
Foxes keep their Champions League dreams alive by restricting Atlético Madrid to narrow lead after official awards home side controversial penaltyBruges, Copenhagen, Porto, Seville and now Madrid. Leicester City’s European adventure has already exceeded all expectations but it will need something special under the floodlights at the King Power Stadium next Tuesday if Craig Shakespeare and his players are to extend their journey in the Champions League once more.The damage Atlético Madrid inflicted in the first leg is far from irretrievable as far as Leicester are concerned, yet in many ways they could not be playing catch-up against a worse team given the Spanish club’s fondness for letting opponents come on to them before breaking with alacrity. Related: Antoine Griezmann...
The Frenchman improved on his recent penalty record to keep his team’s hopes of Champions League redemption on track against the English championsAt first it was just a few but very soon everyone joined in, good news travelling fast around the Vicente Calderón, all the way from the Allianz Arena in Munich. The scoreboard was almost as swift: Bayern Munich 1-0 Real Madrid flashed up and this stadium, in its 50th and final year, erupted. The noise, loud from the start, rose a level. Then, moments later, it somehow rose again when Antoine Griezmann put Atlético ahead. They were enjoying this: it had been quite a minute.Their city rivals were trailing 1,500km away while they themselves led. Twice in three...
Arsenal’s manager may be admitting in the most roundabout of ways that his side will have a better excuse for falling short this season than most yearsArsène Wenger has just reached the doublethink stage. His pronouncements have been becoming more and more gnomic. He said we would know about his future “very soon”, for instance, yet we are still guessing more than a fortnight and an international break later, but his latest takes us into the verbal equivalent of a hall of mirrors.“It is a good challenge [to achieve a top-four finish] but I think it is perfectly possible,” the Arsenal manager said. “I have done it for 20 years and it looked always like nothing. Suddenly it becomes important,...