1 week Ago
The Champions League returns and only eight teams are left standing. Can Arsenal overcome Real Madrid and their silly European pedigree and does Bruno Fernandes have what it takes to keep carrying Manchester United. We are looking forward to a Big Midweek of football.
Game to watch: Arsenal v Real Madrid Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal came unstuck at the quarter-final stage of last season’s Champions League, falling to Bayern Munich and their European aura. They will have learned from the experience but that means absolutely nothing when you have to overcome Real Madrid. Their superpowers in Europe go beyond aura and it’s Arsenal’s turn to learn that the hard way.
The outcome of this fixture is pretty predictable; the Gunners will put in one of their best performances under Arteta but will be held to a home draw after a lucky Kylian Mbappe deflected shot in the 78th minute. We are sorry but the script has been written. The second leg will be more entertaining and Arsenal will ultimately go out to a debatable refereeing/VAR decision.
The fan reaction is going to be pure cinema. It is true that to be the best, you must beat the best. Real Madrid are by definition, the best.
They are the reigning European champions and improved the summer following their Wembley victory over Borussia Dortmund by signing Mbappe on a free transfer. There is no doubt that they have some vulnerabilities but for them to be exposed, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli are going to have to play out of their skin. Luck is necessary as well because as we will often reiterate, Madrid have some Champions League juju on their side.
Accepting an Arsenal injustice before a ball has been kicked is so Arsenal but let’s move away from that. This is going to be a brilliant football match, isn’t it? As there should be at this stage of Europe’s premier competition, there will be exciting match-ups all over the pitch. Aurelien Tchoumeni is suspended so we will probably have to make do with Eduardo Camavinga v Declan Rice, which is still pretty fun.
Then you have Jurrien Timber (if he plays right-back) against Vinicius Junior, William Saliba v Kylian Mbappe and Gabriel Martinelli v Federico Valverde (again, if he plays right-back). Then you also have the fact that this is a rare fixture. A new generation of Arsenal fans will get to see the Galacticos come to the Emirates for the first time.
Their only Champions League/European Cup meeting was in 2006 and Arsenal prevailed 1-0 on aggregate when Thierry Henry scored that goal at the Bernabeu. No adjudication is needed on the use of that , there are not many goals that deserve the italicised that more. Player to watch: Bruno Fernandes We have seen a few versions of Bruno Fernandes at Manchester United and we might be looking at the best one yet.
Following Ruben Amorim’s arrival and clear desire to play three at the back, we questioned where club captain Fernandes would fit in, but he has been bloody brilliant in a bloody poor team. He is playing like a captain, like a leader and is the heartbeat and spine of Amorim’s United, showing maturity that has often eluded him through sulkiness and moaning under previous managers. That is fantastic from a personal standpoint but such reliance means if Fernandes has an off day, the whole plan is thrown in the bin and the Red Devils are in deep trouble.
They travel to face Lyon in their Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday and the French side are In A Good Moment. Now managed by Paulo Fonseca, Lyon beat Lille in a crucial Ligue Un match on Saturday and comfortably dispatched FCSB 7-1 on aggregate in the previous round of the Europa. Fonseca’s side have some dangerous players like Rayan Cherki and Thiago Almada and some familiar faces in Alexandre Lacazette, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Nemanja Matic but Fernandes will be the best footballer on the pitch and will need to step up to help United take an advantage – or at least not be behind – for the second leg at Old Trafford next week.
The weight he holds in this fixture is a huge reason why Fernandes is our player to watch but the fact he is really fun to watch right now is even more important. He was the only player to show any quality in Sunday’s drab Manchester derby and the Portuguese has been crucial in United’s progression through the Europa League, netting a hat-trick in the previous round against Real Sociedad when we proclaimed this silly football club Bruno Fernandes FC . Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers are also in Europa League action this week and Ange Postecoglou and Barry Ferguson were both tempting for manager to watch, but we have looked abroad for that one.
Manager to watch: Vincent Kompany Bayern Munich are a very dangerous team but Inter and Simone Inzaghi are a throwback tough Italian nut to crack – we sense Vincent Kompany will be taught a lesson by the eventual winners of the Champions League (my personal prediction, for what it’s worth). Getting Burnley relegated after spending a fortune somehow earned Kompany the Bayern job, which Sean Dyche recently took exception to. It was quite the move and widely criticised but to be fair to the former Manchester City captain, he is on course to bring the Bundesliga plate back to Munich.
If he does he will become the guy manager who helped Harry Kane finally win a first career trophy , which is the real win here. Bayern v Inter is a rematch of the 2010 final that the latter won to complete a historic Treble under Jose Mourinho. Bayern will likely look to put the Italian champions to the sword but that is easier said than done against a team and manager who can win tactical battles in their sleep.
Kompany can learn a thing or two from Tuesday’s match at the Allianz Arena and the fact Inzaghi is much savvier means Kompany will surely be thankful the first leg is at home, which is quite unusual in knockout football. Hopefully the Belgian can show us and Inzaghi up with a tactical masterclass. Team to watch: Aston Villa Unai Emery has claimed a few lovely scalps over his previous employers Arsenal in the Premier League and he is now hoping to haunt another former club in the Champions League on Wednesday.
After overcoming Liverpool with some unusual European maturity, Paris Saint-Germain have been put up against the competition’s surprise package, who are more than capable of providing another upset in the last eight. The first leg between Villa and PSG is in France and it feels inevitable that the visitors will try and avoid a hammering. They will need some of the luck Liverpool rode in their smash-and-grab last month and if you were to back another goalkeeping masterclass at Parc des Princes, you would put money on Emiliano Martinez.
Emery has some know-how in this competition – even ignoring the fact he was the PSG boss for the Barcelona comeback in 2017 – having led Villarreal to the last four of the competition in 2021/22. This is going to be a very interesting match. Football League game to watch: Middlesbrough v Leeds United Leeds have gone full Leeds.
You should never, ever go full Leeds. They have a weird obsession with f**king their season up in the play-offs and after being in pole position to win the Championship, they are on the brink of doing it again as Sheffield United and Burnley refuse to get sucked into the ridiculousness. Daniel Farke’s side have dropped down to third in the table and face fifth-place Middlesbrough at Riverside Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The Yorkshire side dropped more points against Luton Town on Saturday after consecutive 2-2 draws against ten-man QPR and Swansea City at home as they continue to fall off a cliff after what seemed like a significant victory at Sheffield United on February 24. The unfortunate reality is that Leeds are big fat bottle merchants who refuse to do things the easy way. A trip to Boro is far from ideal given their current funk and you do fancy Michael Carrick’s men to kick Leeds while they are down.
Carrick’s side beat a Blackburn Rovers side still reeling off the departure of John Eustace to make it four league matches unbeaten. It is honestly very difficult to look beyond a home victory but as we all know, the Championship is extremely unpredictable – which is its charm really. What is for certain is that this match is a must-watch; whack it on your tablet or phone while Arsenal v Madrid is on the big screen.
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