“This is football on another planet” shouted Gary Neville as Bayern squared up with Barcelona during the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, and as it was on paper, it was evens on the night, until Lionel Messi moved another gear up.
I felt sorry for Jerome Boateng: he was the guy who stood in the way, he was the guy sent to lock up Lionel and he was the sniper who led the kill squad on Messi.
Up until the last quarter of an hour, Bayern’s kill squad were a quartet around Messi, stopping him from getting the needed supply from midfield, and thwarting every move and running rings around him. For a moment I thought Guardiola had given us the antidote to the little genius; surely he had coached him from when he was little, surely he had managed him for years, and surely he had seen enough of him in training to know how to neutralise him. But when Messi steps us, there is no stopping him, and two goals and one assist in fifteen minutes, he once again displayed why he is the best in the world by mile.
What if Robben had played? Ribery? Yes Bayern would have had a chance but once Messi steps up, Neymar, Suarez, Busquets, Iniesta, Pique, Mascherano and Rakitic all take their game onto a different level, and they lit up the Camp Nou on Wednesday night.
I fear for Guardiola on his Bayern sojourn. Bayern Munich is the Hollywood of German football: Karl Heinz Rummenige, Franz Beckenbauer, Uli Hoeness, Mathias Sammer, Oliver Kahn and the others are part of the vocal cast, throw in THE BILD sports newspaper and add Muller, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and the pundits including Gunther Netzer, you get a complete cast in Hollywood.
Has Guardiola done enough to earn the respect of German analysts and players?
Will back to back Bundesligas and a DFB Pokal save him? I look at how he plays the game and it is genius at most times, but his methods require exceptional talents or a genius most times.
Without Ribery and Robben, and without Messi it is obvious he has no PLAN B or C (Although to be fair he quickly switched from a back three at the Nou Camp)
Tuesday’s game will go a long way to determine his future, perhaps, it is at Messi’s feet.
CAN THE OLD LADY SAVE MADRID’S SEASON?
Carlo Ancelloti is not new to Italian football, so he knows what to expect when Juventus visit the Bernabeu on Wednesday. They would defend, they would intimidate, they would provoke and they have Pirlo, Moratta and Tevez. Juventus FC has been a breath of fresh air in this Champions league season, with Massimo Allegrini and their clever buys: Paul Pogba, Moratta, and Patrice Evra, Italian football is back in the news again. Their first goal in the semi final first leg was a beauty, conjuring a multitude of passes together before Moratta tapped home from two yards out, Juventus could just be the surprise package of this year’s competition.
Real Madrid are in pole position by any rule of measure, especially as it looks like they’ve thrown away the La Liga to rivals Barcelona and have only the Champions League as a possibility of winning any honours this year. For Ancelloti, one year seems to be too long in football for him: last year he won the La Decimal and the Spanish Cup leaving Barcelona empty handed, but it looks like it’ll be Madrid’s turn this year to join the Manchester Citys’ of Europe unless they can conjure up a fantastic performance at the Bernabeu on Wednesday. Dumped out of the Copa Del Rey (Spanish Cup), all but lost the La Liga title, and ninety minutes away from the Champions League final, trailing by a goal, the old lady might just be what Ancelloti needs to save his blushes.
DRUMS ROLL IN HULL AND NEWCASTLE
I hear the drums rolling somewhere between Newcastle and the city of Hull, and its playing ‘the bye bye song’. It was really QPR, Burnley and Leicester all season long, but somehow Leicester has managed the great escape, and in swimming up onto the surface, they have dragged down Newcastle and Hull.
Two tough games for Hull mean that they are the obvious choice for the relegation sharks, but then in football you can never discount the impossible, so Newcastle might yet find them in the deep end if they fail to take points from their next game.
I still think Pardew’s departure was a mistake and I just hope that the Geordies don’t live to regret their chants for his dismissal.
Hull City just found them in deep sand and the more they struggled, the more they went deep in the sand. It is a shame that they may be the ones going as it is hard to see them come back from the defeat against Burnley last weekend. They have played poorly most of the season and have been the architects of their own downfall. Of all the teams swimming in relegation waters that are yet to drown, Sunderland and Hull City have been poorest so far, with Newcastle joining the ‘poor form United’ after Alan Pardew’s sack.
Whatever the case, the last two games promise to be exciting, unfortunately, someone has to join QPR and Burnley……………………….