Category: Football (Soccer)

Keeping Ousmane Dembélé quiet will be tough but Mikel Arteta’s side have tools to disrupt defending champions

There is no better player to watch in world football right now than Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, who manages to blend an unorthodox style with the decisive certainty of a winner. At times he was unplayable over the two legs of the semi-final with Bayern Munich and he would have crowned his showreel if, after a dazzling spin and run late in the second leg, he had beaten Manuel Neuer. Arsenal need a plan to deal with the Georgian, who brutally exposed Konrad Laimer and Dayot Upamecano in Munich. He left them both floundering when setting up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal and Arsenal’s one-on-one defending must be immaculate.

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The state-owned football team it’s OK to like (and proof that sportswashing works), Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in Bigger Cup final courtesy of a draw against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. Like Shaun Murphy in Monday’s night’s thrilling denouement of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, the German champions didn’t do a great deal wrong and were similarly gracious in defeat despite their obvious disappointment. “The level of both teams was very, very high,” sighed Vincent Kompany as he ruminated on his team’s exit. “PSG have so much quality, they’ve probably been the best team in Europe in the last two years.” A team that is currently so good it was forced to replace deadweight no-marks such as Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar to finally shed their tag as Bigger Cup nearlymen and bottlers, the willingness of their replacements to do the dirty work of defending played no small part in helping PSG get over the line.

Doing some half-hearted/@rsed research of potential Bigger Vase finalists, Braga, I drifted into a section about the city’s famous old inhabitants. One of these was a 16th-century skeptic philosopher called Francisco Sanches, who claimed that nobody knows anything, particularly those who say they do. With a European campaign – that was helmed, briefly, by both Big Ange and Sean Dyche (et al) – potentially ending in an unlikely final, Forest seem to have proved old Fran-San’s point” – Andrew Boulton.

It’s interesting that Declan Rice thinks that Arsenal’s achievements can’t be underestimated (yesterday’s Football Daily). The only things that can’t be underestimated are things that are extremely small. Anything large can easily be underestimated” – Bob Cushion (and others).

Maybe Chester and Wrexham (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) could go down the Forest/Derby route and rename the A483 to ‘Phil Parkinson Way’?” – Jim Hearson.

Am I the only one who saw this fine picture of Pep Guardiola and Jordan Pickford at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night and thought: ‘All this really needs is the addition of an ‘I’ and an ‘S’ to be perfect?’” – Adam Sherlock.

The teams for the final in Budapest are set. We look at how they got there and the factors that could determine the champion

Destination Budapest, where Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to be the first club apart from Real Madrid to win two consecutive European Cups since Milan in 1990. Vincent Kompany’s promise of “more” from Bayern Munich after a nine-goal first leg did not materialise. PSG offered a different proposition in Wednesday’s second leg; they put on a performance of defensive discipline, with their attacking players committed to closing down their opponents. Luis Enrique’s team never allowed the tie to spin from their control even if there were 33 shots in Munich compared to 22 in Paris.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia plays like an old-style winger, and set up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, but he is also thoroughly modern in the way he presses hard and high. Bayern found space at a premium until Harry Kane’s late goal. Luis Enrique’s team is much the same as last season’s, sticking to the same formula. They are a year older but still flush with youth. The PSG project took many years and billions of euros to hit pay dirt but is now delivering the success that was dreamed of after the Qatari takeover in 2011.