Good morning! Raw thumbs from the Champions League channel jump? We can help with that. Future :
🤯 Real 3 City 3. Crazy in the Membrane
🖊️ Harry Kane makes pens (and Arsenal)
🥩 Barcelona-PSG Beef
⭐ Eastern Europe and its emerging star
Did City lack control?
There is a theory – an evidence-based theory, to be honest – that Pep Guardiola is deliberately trying to keep the first legs of the Champions League last 16 close.
Especially far from home.
Well, not last night. Three goals in 12 minutes in the first half, three goals in 13 minutes in the second half – including Phil Foden’s absolute goal – and Real Madrid v Manchester City ended 3-3 at the Bernabeu.
PHIL FODEN. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 🚀
WHAT WAY TO LEVEL THE TIE. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/mJut91l1aY
– CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 9, 2024
PHIL FODEN 🎯
✨Star quality✨#UCL pic.twitter.com/D0ApSFLUTc
– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 9, 2024
It may not be Guardiola’s dream scenario, but neutrals love drug football and, to be frank, the Champions League needs more of that – high-risk actions in high-stakes games.
It’s supposed to be the best of the best.
City had no control over their brands. Guardiola said they “were not emotionally stable”. But you know what? On reflection, they will feel like the toughest quarter-final ever is on offer with the second leg coming up.
Madrid, after all, have horrible ghosts to contend with at the Etihad.
Did Arsenal sell it to Bayern?
Harry Kane. Back in London, back against Arsenal and reminding you that medals or no medals, he is the model footballer in many ways.
Kane has long been lethal with penalties, but the nonchalance of the one he kicked for Bayern Munich last night, with the Emirates abominable, was a joke.
We then doubled down on him saying he knew David Raya had a tendency to dive early and let the goalie commit first adding a little jump to his momentum. This is good territory for clearance merchants.
According to Thomas Tuchel, the referee admitted to awarding a penalty to Bayern Munich for this incident with Gabriel 👀
🎙 @julesbreach pic.twitter.com/nR2ENVASm2
– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 9, 2024
Mind you, speaking of clearance merchant territory, how about Gabriel gets away with the strangest handball you’ll see all season?
OK, the late challenge on Bukayo Saka should have been a penalty too, so we’re all in agreement in that regard, but the referee who passed to Gabriel based on a “childish mistake” ( the words of Thomas Tuchel) was a huge freedom.
Once the dust settles, it’s 2-2 and Arsenal are fully tied. They just know that Bayern still has lead in their pencil.
What was the best goal?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I found myself constantly jumping between the two quarter-finals (while keeping a close eye on my other job, Leeds United in the Championship). Our writer Tim Spiers does too.
There have been so many good goals, 10 in two matches, that we thought we’d ask Athleticism readers to vote for the best.
I feel a little guilty for not choosing Josko Gvardiol’s. He has never scored for City before and the finesse of his strike from 20 yards underlined just how much defenders like him offer technically now.
But the choice of finishes? Well, our subscribers opted for Federico Valverde, with 40 percent of the votes, followed closely by Foden with 30 percent, Saka in third place with 11 percent, and the remaining votes are distributed among the others. But for me it has to be the City striker’s effort. It’s top bins, it’s wonderfully clean and most of all, as soon as it landed, we knew.
Barça beef against PSG 🥩
You set out with the intention of buying Marco Verratti and end up selling Neymar. We all went there after a few drinks.
It was Barcelona in 2017 and it was also the genesis of a deep-rooted needle between them and Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG shocked the Camp Nou by refusing to sell Verratti and then activating Neymar’s huge €222 million (£190 million; $241 million) buyout clause, leading Barca to “bring its release clauses closer to the billion euro mark”. Since then:
✈️ Barça has withdrawn its sponsorship with Qatar Airways
🇫🇷 PSG pinched Lionel Messi and Ousmane Dembélé from Catalonia on the cheap
⚔️ Clubs crossed swords over the controversial European Super League
So there’s plenty to be passive-aggressive in the meeting room when they face each other in the Champions League this evening. And good job, Kylian Mbappe’s next destination is most likely Real Madrid.
📺 PSG v Barcelona, 8 p.m. (UK), 3 p.m. (ET); TNT Sports 1/Paramount+
📲Live blog
Euro division ➗
Little quiz question. Who won the European Cup in 1991?
Free Communist Party membership for those of you who said Red Star Belgrade, back when the former Yugoslavia a) existed as an entity and b) hovered on the fringes of the Iron Curtain.
Eastern Europe was once the domain of true footballing powers, but that is no longer the case.
Red Star are the last club from former Communist Europe (FCE) to win the European Cup and this season’s Champions League knockout round lineup (all clubs involved based west of the easternmost border of Germany) is indicative of an established trend. .
It’s been a quarter of a century since an FCE team has reached the semi-finals. It’s been almost a decade since we last managed a knockout. When you get to the heart of the matter, it’s not really difficult to understand. But it’s rather sad.
The fall of Ajax ⏬
“Right now, it’s a club on fire”
Some things are synonymous with Ajax. Johan Cruyff. Louis van Gaal’s team of the mid-1990s. In a broader Dutch sense, the concept of Total Football.
Consistently, Ajax exuded this aura of vision and skill via their style of play and their production of high quality players. It’s not that they are often the dominant force in Europe, but they give the impression of being comfortable in their own skin.
What they are now is a complete car crash. The collapse of the House of Ajax and the story behind it leaves me trying to decide what is most alarming about it.
What do you think of their worst defeat in 97 years at De Kassieker against Feyenoord last weekend? Or their CEO suspended on suspicion of insider trading after a few weeks in office? In reality, I’m only scratching the surface.
In short, if you’re wondering why Ajax is nowhere to be found, you won’t need Poirot to connect the dots. One of the coaches admitted: “Right now it’s a club on fire,” while Dutch journalist Sjoerd Mossou added: “It’s like a war with 20 enemies, everyone is fighting.”
Around Athletic FC 🌎
🇺🇸 Deaths, taxes, Alyssa Naeher bows on penalties. The USMNT are once again winners of the SheBelieves Cup.
🇪🇸 I hate sounding hipster, but if I lived in Madrid I would follow Atletico. Mainly because of Diego Simeone. You can’t beat a coach with the UFC vibe. Atletico Madrid vs. Borussia Dortmund, 8 p.m. (UK), 3 p.m. (ET), TNT Sports 2/Paramount +
🇮🇹 It’s great when a footballer gives a good insight into their own game. Especially if, like Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman, they have previously played in the English third division.
🔴 Yesterday we broke the news that Manchester United director of football John Murtough has resigned. This begs the question: who is overseeing their next transfer window?
Lucy Bronze is up to 121 caps for England Women. But is she still the answer at right-back?
(Top photo: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images)