Galatasaray’s skills impressed me in previous rounds.
Enough to suggest that they could give Real Madrid a game.
On the night, despite a couple of penalty shouts for the Turks, it was really no contest.
Jan had gone to the Tricycle Cinema with her friend Halyna and, soon after kick-off, my mind had wandered into a daydream about the components of stylish power football, and I was about to construct a brief list of the components of SPF when Ozil placed a tidy little pass into a dangerous area and Ronaldo dinked it sweetly past the advancing keeper.
The superstar’s casual authority in these moments is something special, something I may not see again on this scale.
The whole team plays for him and Real Madrid today have a lot of automatic, so that crucial early goal, scored by a master footballer, was made to looked very casual.
In the big games, Mourinho always plays Di Maria, Ozil and Benzema because they play for Ronaldo,with Ronaldo, always looking to find him, play him in, or take defenders away to give him space.
Cristiano’s ninth goal in nine Champions League games this season had arrived in the ninth minute.
On this evidence, Didier Drogba should do what Eric Cantona did: retire.
When an attack breaks down on him, Drogba falls over and takes a long time to get up.
Frankly, I’d rather remember Drogba as an awesome and reliable blue-shirted gladiator who always scored in finals.
In 12, he evaded Varane and hit a shot over the bar.
In 26, his thunderous dipper was parried by Diego Lopez.
In 29, Essien\’s big cross was too high for Ronaldo and Eboue didn\’t know that Benzema was behind him. The right back reacted very slowly and Benzema slotted easily for 2-0, grinning like a teenager when Xabi Alonso hugged him.
It was 2-0 at half-time.
Coach Fatih Terim took the lazy Wesley Sneijder off at half-time and brought defender Gokhan Zan into midfield to prevent a rout and that consolidation seemed to work for the next half hour or so.
Then the Norwegian referee gave a harsh free-kick against Drogba, who was caught by the high boot of Ramos.
Xabi Alonso took the kick from the left side of centrefield and put plenty of pace on a curling ball into the box. That was a set-piece that the Galatasaray defence should have gobbled up. Instead, it found the head of Higuain, who softened his chunky legs slightly and measured a slick power-header from a standing position.
In a powerful team of accomplished pro athletes who do their jobs well, Higuain\’s job is to come on as a sub and score another goal, which he expertly did.
So it was 3-0 in 73 minutes.
Ozil departed on 80, as he does so often, replaced by Modric.
Ozil had run 9.59 kilometres and his 40 passes were 7% accurate.
His assist for the first goal,although not eye-catching, was the best pass of the 40.
The class of the Kurdish-German anglemeister is important to Real Madrid. He\’s improved a helluva lot since World Cup 2010 and I just love to see good players improve
Then Jan came home and said, â€F***ing brilliant- Danny Boyle is my hero. We loved it.â€
Jan never swears, even when she\’s buzzing.
Being married to me might improve your vocabulary, I thought, but it won\’t improve your language.
Trance must have been a good film.
PS. I was invited.
But she said last night that I wouldn’t have understood it- and I’m sure that’s right.