The pick of this week’s Champions League fixtures is a clash of two elite clubs too flawed to win but too rich to failThe clock was already showing 90. Diogo Dalot advanced on to the ball in space around 40 yards from the Paris Saint-Germain goal. His first touch was heavy and as three opponents closed in, he had little option but to shoot. Marco Verratti threw himself towards the full-back. Juan Bernat ducked away. And the middle of the three, Presnel Kimpembe, flinching, turned his back, his arm flicking away from his body. VAR showed Dalot’s wild effort had deflected off it. From nowhere, Manchester United had a penalty and an away-goals passage into the Champions League quarter-final. Related:...
Bayern Munich showed that a committed collective triumphs more often than an assortment of talented individualsAround 15 minutes into the Champions League final on Sunday night, Kylian Mbappé latched on to a delicious long ball from Leandro Paredes and cut in from the left channel. To his right, Ángel Di María spotted a pocket of space on the edge of the penalty area and made a sharp diagonal run towards it. With Di María totally unmarked 18 yards out and screaming for the ball, Mbappé’s low shot was blocked by Joshua Kimmich.Around 17 minutes from the end, with Paris Saint-Germain desperate for an equaliser, Neymar gathered the ball about 25 yards from goal. Once again Di María spotted the space,...
Bayern Munich prevented all-out victory for sportswashing but PSG, with the Qatari state behind them, are not going awayFootball, or that part of it that professes to have a conscience, breathed a huge sigh of relief but as it did so, some still small voice perhaps niggled. The only goal of the Champions League final was scored by Kingsley Coman, a player convicted in 2017 of twice assaulting the mother of his child.The game was won by Bayern Munich, the swaggering superclub whose eight straight league titles means they have won more Bundesligas than the rest of Germany put together. Since 2011, they have regularly trained in Qatar, an emirate with a highly questionable human rights record, and in 2018...
Whatever happens in the Champions League final, the 10-year plan of the French club’s super-rich Qatari owners has paid off“Football is not for sale,” Aleksander Ceferin pronounced, famously, at a Uefa conference two years ago, in the process exploring the depth, width and delicate inner workings of just how wrong one earnest-looking man at a podium can be.Cut back to the real world. In the current, rather improbable timeline, Uefa is preparing to stage a biosecure Champions League final with no other purpose than the effective retailing of TV rights. Related: PSG reaching Champions League final gives hope to flailing Manchester City | Eni Aluko Related: Robert Lewandowski: the nutty professor obsessed with finding his outer limits Continue reading...
The Argentinian has often been underappreciated but he is the man who makes PSG’s bigger names tick and will be crucial in Sunday’s Champions League finalThe critical moment of Lionel Messi’s international career, perhaps, came a little after 1.30pm on a Saturday afternoon in Brasília. Argentina led Belgium 1-0 in their 2014 World Cup quarter‑final. They were in control, playing well. The forward line, as usual, felt a mismatch of extremely talented but not particularly complementary players, but with a solid and well-balanced midfield, it didn’t really seem to matter. Then Ángel Di María pulled his hamstring.Di María had a vital role in Alejandro Sabella’s side. Javier Mascherano mopped up in front of the back four. Lucas Biglia scuttled around...