Category: Football (Soccer)

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While the first-leg shellacking Arsenal dished out to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands meant that Wednesday night’s return leg was predictably low on drama, there was at least one moment of highly performative nonsense for fans at the Emirates to enjoy. Handed a rare start by Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko repaid his manager by firing his side ahead with a terrific strike but very pointedly refused to celebrate his first ever Bigger Cup goal for reasons that initially seemed to baffle his own teammates, PSV’s players, both sets of supporters and anyone like Football Daily with so little going on in their life that they’d tuned in to watch this 90-minute long foregone conclusion unfold on TV.

The quarter-finals have been decided with a dash of controversy. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Real Madrid

Diego Simeone’s side lost to their city rivals yet again, in a fashion that was unbelievable and yet so very believable

One day, Diego Simeone said, in those quiet moments when they are alone with their thoughts and memories, Real Madrid’s players will think of Atlético Madrid and how they made them suffer. But the real trauma, he knows, will for ever be theirs. In the final moments before this latest European derby, the first at the Metropolitano, a huge mosaic had declared that following Atlético “kills me … and gives me life”. At the end of it, once fate had found another, still crueller way of twisting the knife, of delivering the inevitable, the coach pushed his footballers and his fans together, applauding so hard his hands hurt almost as much as their hearts.

“I am proud of them,” he said afterwards. “I am happy, honestly. I am happy. I am happy. Why? Because we competed in a way that was exemplary. We might not have been able to beat Real Madrid in the Champions League. Sure. Of course. We couldn’t. But they had a bad time of it, every time. They will remember us for a long time. While enjoying having beating us, but knowing and saying to themselves: ‘Facing that lot was messed up, look how hard they made it for us, always.’ Our people leave with the pain of having been knocked out, of course, but knowing that their team gave everything. I go in peace. Losing, but in peace.”

There were no problems for Aston Villa and Arsenal as they both progressed to the quarter finals

“You have to feel for Nathan Butler-Oyedeji,” writes Kieran McKintosh. “He’s 22, still not had a proper first-team appearance, not even scored on loan at Cheltenham or Accrington, and even in a game like this where it basically doesn’t matter who Arteta plays, a defender who is leaving at the end of the season gets a start up top before he does. Ouch.”

I have a feeling the young lad’s long-term future is not at Arsenal.

Atlético were the better side for the most part, but Real did what they always do, with a little help from the eagle-eyed VAR

4 min: … while on the touchline, Diego Simeone tries his level best to retain his supercool. Carlo chewing at his gum with a bit more vigour, though.

2 min: The roof of the Metropolitano, as you’d expect, is currently spinning off towards Catalonia. The poor clearance Griezmann intercepted was by Raúl Asencio. Everyone in Real white looking around at each other stunned!

Premier League almost won but contracts are ending and key players ageing, necessitating a summer of change

It’s the 94th minute at Estádio da Luz in October. Benfica are winning 4-0 and Atlético Madrid are in utter disarray. Zeki Amdouni runs the ball into an entirely unpatrolled Atlético area, gets a free shot from 14 yards and misses a glorious chance to make it 5-0. Nobody cares. Least of all Liverpool, even though this miss will in effect end up, five months later, knocking them out of the Champions League.

Of course, we’re in the realm of the absurd here, although when it comes to the new Champions League format this is a system with margins exactly, and absurdly, this fine. By virtue of this one goal not scored – and of course you could pick out many others – Benfica end up finishing 16th in the 36-team group phase rather than 15th: a position from which they, rather than Paris Saint-Germain, would probably have ended up facing Liverpool in the last 16.

Barcelona qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals in the name of Carles Miñarro, as a journey they began together continued in his absence.

On Tuesday morning a funeral was held for the club doctor who had died suddenly at the team hotel three days earlier; the same evening, the players he had cared for and who had spent the previous night at the chapel of rest paid homage the only way they really could.

Lamine Yamal and Raphinha put on an attacking masterclass in the first half to swat aside Benfica and make it to the quarter-finals

Barcelona get the ball rolling. The city so beautiful in the background. Ah, memories of the diving at the 1992 Olympics.

The teams are out. Barcelona are in their famous blaugrana, Benfica in third-choice white/silver/grey with neon yellow trim. A crackling atmosphere at the Olímpic Lluís Companys despite the place not yet totally full, as per Steve McManaman. We’ll be off once a poignant moment is taken to remember Carles Minarro Garcia.