Facing Liverpool was a quick-fire interrogation for the Spanish side, who suffered concussive red blows on a torrid nightVan Dijk to Konaté back to Van Dijk to Thiago and in a flash Thiago’s gone and he gives it to Fabinho Fabinho to Robertson and he’s running oh God he’s running and Díaz is making the run Henderson is making the run you see Salah out of the corner of your eye but Robertson is cutting inside and there’s a big space between Juan and Pau so you close it but now Mané is free and Robertson crosses Díaz goes for it plus some other red shirt is that Mané and the ball runs out for a goal-kick and breathe you...
Manchester City could have sent the visitors packing in the first hour but Karim Benzema’s Panenka sets up Bernabéu returnWith a quarter of an hour gone at the Etihad Stadium, on a night when this entire lighted stage seemed to ripple and shudder, Phil Foden did something lovely. Haring off in pursuit of a high, lost, floated pass destined for the bleachers, Foden scampered on, feet battering the turf, calibrating angles and arc, and pulled that floated pass out of the sky like a man charming down the moon with a stick.His first touch cushioned it, his second fizzed it the through the middle of the sea of lost souls previously known as the Real Madrid defence. A muddle of...
As this week’s semi-finals lineup shows, the Champions League is no longer a fair competition but in the grip of a few franchisesThe two best teams in Europe, the most successful club in the history of the competition, a gritty outsider – in some ways the lineup for this week’s Champions League semi-finals is perfect. Each offers in addition an intriguing subplot: Pep Guardiola fighting the curse of overthought, Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool chasing an implausible quadruple, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema raging against the dying of the light, the frankly hilarious prospect of Unai Emery returning to Paris for the final and making a point to Paris Saint-Germain, a club that never took him seriously (perhaps he could have...
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...
The manager made seven changes from the quarter-final first leg with Benfica but there was still enough quality on showThe dream is alive, the dream is still tantalisingly feasible yet agonisingly remote. Liverpool are in a third Champions League semi-final under Jürgen Klopp and if a fantasy for a plethora of reasons but mainly its sheer, basic difficulty, a historic quadruple remains on for the German’s band that blends artists and artisans.On Wednesday it was the turn of the latter coterie. Well, kind of. Klopp rested seven of the star turns who started last week’s 3-1 first leg win at Benfica. There was no Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Thiago Alcântara or Fabinho. And...