Milan won at Juve for the first time in 10 years and the consequences for both teams could be wide-rangingIf a single image could capture how far Juventus’s sights have fallen in this catastrophic campaign, it might be the anguish on Paulo Dybala’s face after he fired wide at the end of their defeat to Milan. There were seconds left to play at Allianz Stadium, too few to believe his team had any chance of rescuing a positive result from a game they were losing 3-0. Dybala was desperate not because he thought Juventus might pinch a draw but because, on the night they dropped out of the top four, one goal would at least prevent them from giving up...
Real Madrid were unable to cope with Chelsea’s power but Thomas Tuchel’s side need to be more ruthless in the finalHow do you kill that which cannot be killed? How do you stop the white-shirted spectre from rising once again as a Champions League semi-final reaches its decisive final moments? Just a thought. But sticking the ball in the net might be a start.On a glorious, occasionally excruciating night at Stamford Bridge Chelsea simply ran right through Real Madrid, with N’Golo Kanté a commanding, decisive presence. Frankly they should have won this game 6-0. Madrid looked gone after 20 minutes, an ageless team grown old, unable to cope with Chelsea’s power and spring. Related: Chelsea power past Real Madrid to...
Inter’s manager ended Juve’s 3,283-day reign after persevering for two years to elevate good players into winning onesIt was Sassuolo who applied the final lick of paint to Antonio Conte’s masterpiece. The Internazionale manager had warned for weeks against presumption, insisting his team were not champions yet even as they pulled away at the top of Serie A. “We hope to finish what we started this season,” he said. “That would truly be a work of art.”A 2-0 win at Crotone on Saturday moved Inter to within a point of the Scudetto. The scenes in the changing room felt like a title celebration, as players bounced on benches and sang terrace chants about the league leaders pulling away. Mathematically, though,...
Serial Bundesliga champions will judge their new manager not by titles but rather a handful of European knockout matches Julian Nagelsmann is 33. This summer, he will fulfil what always seemed his destiny and become manager of Bayern Munich, the club he supported as a boy growing up in Landsberg am Lech, the Bavarian town where a young Johnny Cash was stationed with the US air force. It is a story with an almost mythic quality: the young professional suffering serious knee injuries and committing himself to coaching, emerging as the brightest talent of the dominant German school. But this is where it gets real; this is where he has to win.Nagelsmann will face the problem common to all managers...
At Bayern, we learned so much from Guardiola – he knows big matches are decided by big playersI remember a lot from Pep Guardiola. “In important matches,” he said to me, “I just pick my best XI.” You have to listen carefully, the sentence contains the core of what football is about: individual quality. Guardiola is a top coach. He loves the skills and talent of his players.Some coaches seek to reduce the complexity of football. Guardiola, though, wants to master it. One can compare his task with a chess grandmaster or with an orchestra director who gets the best out of each instrument. The only thing is that a football ensemble does not play according to given musical notes,...