Really enjoyed last night\’s second legs.
Borussia Dortmund had to score two goals in stoppage time to beat Malaga.
The Istanbul second leg was also very dramatic, as Real Madrid eventually beat Galatasaray 5-3 on aggregate.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored in 8 and 90+2 but the game almost turned on a chance that the most super of superstars scuffed wide from six yards.
That unscored goal would have made it 5-0 on aggregate.
Receiving in the box from Di Maria\’s short forward pass, CR7 inexplicably scuffed the ball off his right shin against his left shin and the ball went past the post. He couldn\’t believe what he’d done.
And neither could anybody else. Your reaction to any other striker doing this have been: He couldn\’t quite sort his feet out.
With Cristiano, both his feet always know exactly what they’re doing. But not that time.
Wesley Sneijder, having missed a sitter by shooting weakly wide, redeemed himself by deftly guiding the ball between the legs of centreback Varane in the D, then gliding past him to score with a right-foot shot low into the corner, as accurate and professional as the coolest snooker shot.
The Dutchman\’s low cross from the right then allowed Drogba to backheel into the net to make it 3-1 in 72 minutes.
There was plenty of time left for further drama and the substitutions told a compelling story.
In 80, striker Elmander came on for Eboue.
In 81, centreback Albiol replaced Ozil.
In 90, right back Arbeloa, on for Essien, deserved his red card, and it looked as if Madrid might blow it.
The battle was still in the balance until, two miunutes into stoppage time, Ronaldo buried a Benzema cutback in precisely the manner we have seen for the last two years.
He killed the game like a charismatic matador, with a gesture which contained finality.
Some kicks of a football have THE END stamped on them
That was Ronaldo\’s 11th goal in 10 Champions League games this season.
And his 20th in his last 17 CL games.
For the Special One, after some dodgy moments, all was well that ended well.
Getting Ramos and Alonso deliberately sent off in the first leg had been praised as “attention to detail†last week.
But when Galatasaray were 3-1 up on the night, and Varane was defending like a teenager, that cleverness started to look like self-defeating folly.
Earlier, when I was watching Malaga leading 1-0 in Dortmund, I was thinking that Jurgen Kopp\’s trademark style is brisk passing, energetic support running, and plenty of crosses and balls into the box.
The style of the team reflects the crazed enthusiasm of the manager but after 39 minutes I\’d begun to believe that Dortmund\’s style was so predictable that Malaga were reading them like an open book.
Then a swift move down the right reached Marco Reus when he was facing the wrong way. Reus was able to flick the ball into Lewandowski\’s run and the prolific Pole skipped adroitly over the keeper\’s dive and slotted.
Malaga\’s Eliseu tapped in a dubious goal that would have put them in the semi-final in their debut season in the Champions League but Reus scored a fair goal to level it at 2-2.
Then Scottish referee Craig Thomson allowed the winner after four players were offside when the first ball came in, and after defender Santana tapped in after a scramble which had left him clearly offside.
Football can be very cruel.
Lionel Messi has been on the training pitch but looks unlikely to start at the Nou Camp, after pulling his hamstring in Paris last week.
I don’t think he’ll be needed tonight but I’d also say this : Messi doesn\’t need a hamstring to score a goal, just his left foot.
However, Carlo Ancelotti\’s PSG might do what Malaga did last night: score first and give Barcelona a fright.
April is a thrilling month for clubs who are still involved in the business end of the season and can still lift silverware.
Trophies are what it\’s all about.
The battle for trophies is what makes football exciting.
Without that,without meaningful games in April, football becomes a routine, a social activity which gives you a few small comforts and something to chatter about.
Juventus v Bayern might be the kind of battle I\’m talking about, even though Munich start 2-0 up.
Juve are a different proposition at home and they certainly can’t be worse than they were in the first leg.
But I’ll be amazed if Bayern don’t go through.
Last night I\’d backed BTS and Marco Reus, thinking that Reus owed me money because he didn\’t score in the 0-0 first leg.
How illogical was that?