The first legs of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 are now complete, and three clubs are all but guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals, Bayern Munich having repeated the feat of Manchester City and Liverpool a week earlier by blowing away their opponents to such an extent that their second leg is virtually academic.
While Beşiktaş – ten-man Beşiktaş from the 16th minute onwards – were being taken to the cleaners in Munich, Chelsea needlessly allowed Barcelona back into the game of the week at Stamford Bridge, Andreas Christensen and (uncharacteristically) César Azpilicueta combining to gift an equaliser to Lionel Messi, who thus gleefully laid to rest that well-documented ‘can’t score against Chelsea’ jinx.
The 1-1 draw in London clearly favours Barcelona, who always boss the opposition at Camp Nou, but I’m not so sure that Manchester United will be all that happy with their 0-0 draw in Seville. You can’t, of course, score an away goal at home, and while United are overdue a big Champions League night at Old Trafford, the crowd will be edgy for as long as they are not two goals ahead, which might play into the visitors’ hands. As for the Shakhtar Donetsk-Roma tie, at 2-1 that couldn’t be any tighter going into the return at the Stadio Olimpico.
Here are a few reflections on this week’s matches:
What constitutes a ‘great save’?
When David de Gea leapt athletically to keep out a header from Luis Muriel with his right hand just before half-time in the Sevilla-Manchester United tie, commentators, presenters and pundits alike were all in agreement that the United keeper had pulled off a ‘great save’.
My own view is that it was certainly an important save, pivotal to the outcome and made at an important time in an otherwise fairly featureless, substandard encounter, but great? Hardly. The ball was headed virtually straight at him. Muriel had all the goal to aim at and no one around him, yet he projected the ball into an area where De Gea’s admittedly excellent reaction speed allowed him to move his arm and stop it from entering the net.
Now, I know that De Gea is a wonderful goalkeeper, possibly the most accomplished in circulation at present. And he has certainly made plenty of ‘great saves’ in the past. But this wasn’t one of them. It was just a terrible miss.
Boring Barcelona?
Barcelona don’t really do it for me. All that possession – 67% at Stamford Bridge – and next to no penetration – one shot on target (albeit a goal) – makes for dull football in my opinion.
Of course Barça have inherited this style from Pep Guardiola’s highly successful days at the club – and Spain also bought into it to win three major trophies in a row – but while it is a modus operandi that clearly works, and merits a certain admiration for the way in which it is applied, I find the endless, harmless circulation of the football from player to player anything but exciting.
Chelsea and Antonio Conte, to their credit, knew full well that Barcelona would play that way and they geared themselves up to stifle and frustrate them, forming a ‘thou shalt not pass’ barrier around the edge of the penalty area that the Catalans seldom threatened to break down. Furthermore, when Chelsea managed to escape Barça’s tight pressing (which, as ever, was superb), they attacked with pace and flair through Eden Hazard and the excellent Willian – which provided a far greater level of excitement than the visitors’ patient, monotonous build-up.
If ever there was a ‘third time lucky’ moment it was Willian’s goal – a beautifully placed shot from the edge of the area after two first-half efforts from similar distance had struck each post. Such a shame for Chelsea that one careless error – perhaps provoked moments earlier by Luis Suárez’s distracting protestations for a non-existent penalty (yes, surprise surprise, he dived) – should undo all their good work.
Brutal Bayern
Their task made significantly easier by Domagoj Vida’s silly 16th-minute trip on a goalbound Robert Lewandowski that earned Beşiktaş’s newly-arrived Croatian defender a red card, Bayern Munich gave another ruthless demonstration of attacking power at the Allianz-Arena.
Germany’s finest have now scored three or more goals in all but two of their last nine home games in the Champions League. Furthermore, their last four home fixtures in the round of 16 have brought them 21 goals – seven against Shakhtar, four against Juventus, five against Arsenal and now five more against the champions of Turkey.
Already 99.99% sure of competing in a seventh successive quarter-final, Bayern are clearly the major threat to the big teams from Spain and England for outright victory. They last won the Champions League in 2013. Then, as now, their head coach was Jupp Heynckes. Ominous.
Alisson or Ederson?
Who will keep goal for Brazil at the World Cup in Russia?
Ederson has enjoyed a tremendous debut season at Manchester City following his summer move from Benfica. But, for all the 24-year-old’s brilliance with hands and feet (correction: foot – he does everything with his left), the man in possession of the Seleção jersey – he started 16 of their 18 World Cup qualifiers – is Roma’s equally impressive Alisson.
One year older than Ederson, his second season in the Italian capital – he was understudy to Wojciech Szcęzsny in Serie A during his first – has featured a catalogue of top-class displays, the latest of which came against Shakhtar in Kharkiv this week. A couple of formidable (great?) saves, from Marlos and Taison, kept Roma level until he was finally beaten by a wonderful free-kick from another of his compatriots, Fred.
Liverpool, so desperate for a top-class keeper, are said to be very keen to take him to Anfield. If Alisson keeps performing like he has done of late, Roma will feel entitled to use the £75m the Merseysiders paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk as a starting point of reference before they are
willing to do business.
Okey!