BIG ON CUP, LOW ON DRAMA
Real Madrid turned up for work on Tuesday night, had a cup of tea, yawned, scratched their arse, and that was the end of Qatar FC. Meanwhile at Anfield, Iker Casillas, 63, made a couple of regulation saves and Liverpool fans patronised him to within an inch of his life. And that was that for another memorable evening of Big Cup entertainment. More, please, world’s most prestigious club football tournament! And sure enough, there will be more of it this very evening, as Manchester City welcome Basel/Basle/Baarrrrlll/Barzuhl to their home for a textbook display of antiseptic game management and academic form completion. Or maybe City will run in another four goals without reply. Thanks, world’s most prestigious, etc. More, more, more.
To be scrupulously fair to Big Cup, it is at least a tournament still in the balance. Unlike the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, the German Bundesliga, the Austrian Bundesliga, the Scottish Premiership, the Primeira Liga in Portugal, the Russian Premier League, the Swiss Super League, the Belgian First Division and the Dutch Eredivisie, we have no clear idea who is going to win it. Two potential champions face each other on Wednesday at Wembley, in fact, with Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus in serious danger of giving the viewing public across the continent something interesting and unpredictable to sink their teeth into. It’ll never catch on.
Spurs go into this last-16 second leg having won the first meeting in Turin, if the celebratory mood in the British media was anything to go by. Hmm. They are leading the tie on away goals, though, so Harry Kane can continue his recent clodhopping habit of shanking simple chances miles wide from the edge of the six-yard box all evening long if he so desires, as long as the lads at the back let nothing in. The absence of Toby Alderweireld doesn’t help, admittedly, but on the other hand Serge Aurier is suspended, so it should be easier for Spurs to clear their lines now that keeping hold of possession at throw-ins is no longer a wild pipe dream.
Juve obviously carry a mighty threat: they’ve won 14 of their last 15 matches, and would have won the other had Gonzalo Higuaín’s hat-trick penalty in the first leg flown in three weeks ago. They’ve also reached two of the last three Big Cup finals. But Spurs are unbeaten at home in seven matches against Italian opposition, while Juve have lost their last five European knockout ties against English clubs. Continue those trends, and Tottenham will have made it to the quarter-finals for just the third time in their otherwise storied history. Perhaps more importantly, it’d be one stage further than Arsenal managed last year. And the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that. Much to play for in Big Cup, then. No, this’ll surely never catch on.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Ref booked Sanchez Watt for kicking the ball away. Asked him three times what his name was, replied three times: ‘What.’ Booked him for dissent, then sent him off. Called the captain over who explained his name was actually Watt, then reversed the decision. Unbelievable scenes” – Thurrock councillor Jack Duffin reports on referee Dean Hulme’s confusion over the name of former Arsenal trainee Sanchez Watt, who was mistakenly sent off for dissent then reprieved, as Hemel Hempstead beat East Thurrock 2-0.
Only nine years ago. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
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THE RECAP
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NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Uefa has dropped its investigation into claims Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster suffered racist abuse from Spartak Moscow’s Leonid Mironov after accepting he made the claim in good faith, but failing to find any evidence to corroborate it.
Bad news for West Ham: Winston Reid is set to miss the rest of the season with knee-knack and James Collins is expected to be fit to face Burnley.
PSG sub Julian Draxler took Unai Emery’s decision to delay bringing him on during the Big Cup defeat to Real Madrid well. “I do not know what happened, I was surprised and a bit annoyed,” he sniffed.
A tad miffed. Photograph: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Nightclub Patrick’s son Justin has received a first call-up to Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands squad for this month’s friendlies against England and Portugal.
And in a big day for Nightclub Patrick, the man himself is being linked with Oxford United’s managerial vacancy.
STILL WANT MORE?
“Bof, zut alors and ‘ow much” was more or less the reaction in France to PSG’s latest Euro-gah! reports Eric Devin.
Which player racked up a 42tn transfer fee? Who was worth 150bn? Find out in The Knowledge.
Plymouth Argyle were 5,000-1 to gain promotion at the end of 2017. Not any more, cheers Ben Fisher.
Rob Smyth and chums hark back to when football was better in the Nessun Dorma podcast.
Such bravery, earlier. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA
Chelsea should unleash their inner harrumph on Barcelona, reckons Paul Wilson.
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