Champions League win was a moment of Manchester City perfection with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé left in their wakeFrankly, this could have gone on all night. Did we have to stop? Did we really need to call an end to it? On a chilly, still night at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City produced a performance that was oddly hypnotic: a brilliantly fluid, delicately stitched, oddly gentle display of how to win a game by simply picking your opponent apart.For the opening 45 minutes they stuck those fine, sharp fingernails into the guts of PSG. It was melodic in the flesh, the ball passed with a thud and a fizz between the sky blue shirts, one of those periods where a...
A brilliant clearance from the 37-year-old was backed up by goals and the movement of Reece James and N’Golo KantéWith 28 minutes gone and Chelsea deservedly a goal to the good on a thrilling evening at Stamford Bridge, Thiago Silva could be seen racing back towards the Matthew Harding Stand, his eyes fixed on the ball as he prepared to pull off a piece of defending that would have left most men of his age vowing never to try anything so ridiculous again.It should not have been possible. For once Chelsea’s imperious defence had been caught out. Alvaro Morata must have thought he was about to silence the taunts from the home fans after reaching Manuel Locatelli’s pass a split...
Youngster’s goal sealed Manchester United’s Champions League victory in Villarreal and he can thrive under a top coachShortly after half-time the Villarreal fans broke into their customary rendition of Yellow Submarine, the song from which the club takes its nickname. Naturally, being English people abroad, the Manchester United fans at the north end of the ground decided to drown them out with their own version. “Number one is Georgie Best,” they sang. “Number two is Georgie Best.”How many other fanbases sing about a player who has not played for them in almost 50 years? It’s easy to ridicule United’s veneration of its past, the interminable appeals to nostalgia, the decision to appoint an episode of Premier League Years 97-98 as...
It is a painful time for the ‘big city club’ from Berlin, rubbed in by a comprehensive and clear derby defeatThe difference between Germany’s two sharply contrasting capital clubs has always been clear. Now it is even more so, just not in the manner that one ever expected. Beyond bragging rights, the fifth top-flight derby between Union and Hertha underlined that one is a professional, slick outfit that knows where it is going, that one has a plan and an identity – and neither of those, it seems, is the latter club.Hertha tried to find their poise, led by Kevin-Prince Boateng, who ushered the players to the away end for communion and dialogue with some unhappy travelling supporters, post-defeat at...
The last two unbeaten sides both lost as Serie A returned with subplots and shocks everywhereIf one image could sum up Serie A’s return from the international break then it was Luciano Spalletti, 62 years old, throwing himself face-first down on to the San Siro turf. The Napoli manager had nothing left, his emotions spent after seeing Dries Mertens flash a volley over the bar from six yards out in the 97th minute of his team’s game at Inter.Spalletti was floored, and so were the rest of us, on a weekend of dizzying drama. Two days in which the last two undefeated sides in Italy’s top league – in all of Europe’s top leagues – scored five goals between them...