Poor old Cristiano.
Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 but it wasn\’t enough.
Two Germans clubs at Wembley on Saturday May 25? Not yet.
Ronaldo wasn\’t himself last night, so it took Real Madrid 82 minutes to score after astonishing missed chances by both teams.
In the end Real were lucky to win by two goals.
On another night they could have scored six goals and conceded five.
Eventually, Kaka and Benzema came on and those two turned the game but not the tie, despite a pulsating finish .
On Saturday, Messi looked fit against Bilbao, scored a fine goal after a zigzag wriggle past four defenders, and then headed the ball to Alexis Sanchez, who put Barca 2-1 up.
The game finished 2-2 but La Liga was won long ago.
I’m now convinced that Bayern Munich will win the cup with big ears at Wembley.
I said that the Final would be Real Madrid v A.N.Other but I was stupidly wrong.
Bayern were awesome last week: rugged, balanced, very organised, fiery,super-competitive,and extremely motivated.
Have you ever seen Arjen Robben chase back 60 yards to defend like that?
There are two lessons in these Champions League semi-finals.
Firstly, you can only play as well as you\’re allowed to play.
That was the first thing I learned as a sixteen-year old writing youth match reports for the Herts Express & Stevenage Gazette. And that much is still true in football.
Secondly, the Bundesliga is a more honest model for league football.
Bayern Munich are German-owned and Borussia Dortmund are German-owned. Eleven of the 20 Premier League clubs have rich foreign owners, most of whom want profits from the huge global TV deals that the EPL can command.
Billionaire arseholes like Stan Kroenke can never take £30,000 a week out of Borussia Dortmund or Bayern Munich.
Lots more needs to be said about last night\’s game but I don\’t know yet where I will be this morning.
Please check back to ANR at noon.
Thanks for all your emails, which I’ve read but not edited.
Haven\’t written about Arsenal recently because I didn\’t have anything to say.
But now I do have something to say, so watch out for that one.