Manchester City should have done better than the quarters but without star turns, like those of Neymar and Ángel Di María, it is an uphill battleFinally, for the first time in their history, Paris Saint-Germain are one victory away from glory in Europe’s top club competition and from realising the great ambition of their Qatari state-owned benefactors, Qatar Sports Investments. They have won 18 major domestic trophies since QSI bought the club in 2011, but the Champions League is the hardest trophy to buy. Just ask Manchester City.When Neymar moved to PSG from Barcelona for £200m three years ago he was seen as the final piece of their Champions League jigsaw, and I am sure he would have expected to...
Only one French club has been European champions but after Lyon beat Juventus no country has more teams in the last eightIf Euro 2020 had not been postponed, then as world champions France would have fancied their chances of embellishing the country’s roll of honour this summer. But when it transpired that the only competitions to take place would be the eight-team Champions League and Europa League mini-tournaments that kick-off next week, hopes of French glory faded.Only once has a French club lifted one of Europe’s top two competitions and that victory was tainted, as Marseille’s 1993 Champions League triumph came in the year in which they were stripped of their domestic title for match-fixing. This year, by contrast, events...
French clubs are still unsure when they will play again, though next season may see 22 in the top flightAs the football lamps flicker back on across Europe, France remains in the dark. A glimmer of clarity came on Tuesday as the country’s highest administrative court upheld the decision made in April to terminate the Ligue 1 and 2 seasons but, with Germany, Italy and Spain having already returned to action and the Premier League due to restart on Wednesday, French football clubs are still not sure when and how they will play again.Three clubs – Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse – had been so angered by the cancellation of the season and the “arbitrary and unfair” decision to determine the...
Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Juve and others have become short-termist as domestic success has bred complacencyJust wait for the knockout phase of the Champions League. That’s when the season really gets going, that’s when the real football begins. That’s when you get the festival that justifies the tedium of the group stage, the greatest football ever played, the glorious pay-off for the grotesque iniquities of the game’s financial structure.Ah. Related: Pep Guardiola expects 'incredibly aggressive' Manchester United in derby Atalanta’s story is romantic but this is the first season in which the last 16 all come from the richest five leagues Continue reading...
A half-a-billion pound project to bring their talents together and the Champions League to Paris has failed thus far but with both strikers now fit can they deliver at the last?“Le grand Paris reste une idée, un fantasme qui tourne dans nos rêves mais ne se traduit pas vraiment dans les matchs.”Some things just sound better in French. See for example the above, taken from a report in Le Parisien of Paris Saint-Germain’s 2-0 home win against Nantes in midweek. This is definitely best read in the original, ideally in the sad, sonorous tones of Uncle Monty from the film Withnail and I staring wistfully out of a scullery window with a firm young carrot in one hand and a...