Champions League Review - Competition better without the cheating and hubris of Barcelona

We should all enjoy Barcelona’s exit

There’s something about Barcelona. It is mainly the more than a club nonsense, the slogan that long ago stopped being about Catalan solidarity under fascism, and started to be away to apologise for human rights abuses in Qatar. Add to that Lionel Messi’s court case, and their absolutely delighted veneration of Luis Suarez despite his history of cowardly violence and racism, and then add to that their posturing over Jose Mourinho daring not to buy into their hot guff, and you have possible the most irritating team in the history of history. And that doesn’t even mention the existence of Sergio Busquets, one of the most egregious cheats in Spanish football, and that’s saying something.

Of course, Barcelona were turned down the chance for an injury time penalty because of an incorrect refereeing decision. The observing world might be sick into their own scorn with satisfaction at seeing a dodgy decision not going their way. Because if Atletico Madrid make their way into the final and succeed, then Atletico won’t say they’re more than a club, and nor will anyone on Twitter in Runcorn proclaim their expertise on the history of Atletico against Francoist oppression. They’ll just watch a brilliant side attempt to do something special, and leave the pseudish nonsense to the runts of the internet.

Barcelona are out of the Champions League, and they could well be in the process of bottling La Liga, and that is something that all of us should rejoice in.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a hero

Here are some things that Cristiano Ronaldo has done. He has scored more than 30 goals in six consecutive seasons in Spain. He is a man who has been Real Madrid’s best player in every year he has played for them. He has been the best player in the world for at least four seasons. He has won the Champions League with two separate teams, and he has at times single-handedly dragged both Manchester United and Real to victory. Against Wolfsburg, it was another of his solo attempts, scoring all three goals in a 3-0 victory to send them through to the Champions League semi-final despite Zinedine Zidane still green as a manager, and the squad still unbalanced by the president’s weird desires. In a season when Barcelona are again close to their peak, Ronaldo (with some assistance, admittedly) has kept his side within touching distance just as Barcelona go through a mini wobble.

Here are some things that Cristiano Ronaldo has not done. He has not been named in the Panama Papers for setting up an offshore account the day after he was charged with tax fraud. He has not been charged with tax fraud. He has also not been accused of calling Royston Drenthe, ‘negro.’ He also didn’t let himself go for half a season before the World Cup because he decided it was acceptable for him to be selfishly sullen.

Manchester City may suddenly find inspiration

This is the least that Manchester City’s players appear to have cared about playing for Manuel Pellegrini, but it is the furthest that they have ever got in the Champions League. Their league form is null, a barely there effort designed to keep fan opprobrium to its minimum while apparently keeping themselves fit for the Euro 2016 tournament. Yaya Toure is happy to be leaving, and you imagine that there will be plenty more ready to join him and enjoy a city that is not 90% rain.

And yet, here they are, in the semi-finals of the biggest competition in the world, with only two of x, x and x to beat to win the whole thing. At this point, except for being in a season when they actually cared, and actually wanted to win for the club and the manager, they might consider themselves to be in a pretty strong position. Their squad, perhaps due to a lack of effort, has hardly any injuries. They have nothing to focus on but this competition now that they’ve blown the Premier League. They have one last chance to achieve something as a team.

On the surface, there are few reports of tension amongst players, or between the manager. It is more than their is an absence of any kind of feeling. But, being presented with such a chance as winning this tournament might be the only thing to spark them into action before Pep Guardiola’s arrival.

Bayern Munich give their boss his last chance

For a brief moment, it looked as if Guardiola’s Bayern Munich had skirted too close to failure one too many times. Against Porto last year, and Juventus in the last round of this season’s competition, they had appeared in serious danger of going out of the competition. In both instances they came back astonishingly. Perhaps the expectation, then, should not be that Bayern risk everything with their fine margins so often, but the focus should be largely on the fact that their approach is so effective that near-failures are worth mentioning, as rare as they are.

There were a few minutes when it seemed that Benfica’s goal had put Bayern in peril, that they’d wasted their dominance of the first leg to establish an unassailable lead. There was, briefly, parity. And so Bayern decided that was enough of that, and stuck in a couple of goals in quick succession. With Bayern, there are fine margins, and there is a tightly wound side that might actually know exactly what they need to do, and be pacing themselves to achieve it. Guardiola has spent almost three seasons, and has spent three-seasons, drilling his side, telling them precisely where to stand and how to play his way, and they are again on the cusp of doing something.

Currently, they can play great football, and they very often do, but with the resources afforded to them, and the excellence of the side given to Guardiola to build on by Jupp Heynckes, they have to win the tournament itself to be considered a great team. Otherwise they will just be a footnote until he tries to do the same thing again at Manchester City.