World Football's Champions League Hangover: United Juve Stand, Divided Real Fall
Welcome to world football's Thursday Morning Hangover, an homage to the NFL section's own Monday Morning Hangover, where we round up the key stories and important points from the most recent games in the Champions League—albeit in a more concise format.
The initial emotion, perhaps the instinctive reaction, was one of frustration. What might have been, but what ultimately wasn't.
After all, we were so close to what many would consider the absolute pinnacle of club football: a Clasico final to decide the Champions League.
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It is hard to believe such a match has never happened before, a cosmic quirk that would seem certain to be rectified at some point. It would be like if Federer and Nadal never contested a final at Wimbledon or Mayweather and Pacquiao never actually met in the ring. To miss out on such a seminal match, after it appearing to be so close, is a difficult pill to swallow.
On further reflection, however, perhaps we are wrong to be too disappointed. To rue what we missed out on is to do a disservice to Juventus, who surely warranted their place in the final—and in the process put up two fingers to the pundits (and there were a fair few of them) who said they had no chance of beating Real Madrid.
Many of those same pundits will say the same ahead of next month's final: While the Old Lady will certainly go into the game as underdogs against Barcelona, no one will be foolish enough to write them off entirely.
"It was a difficult match because Madrid have so much strength up front if you are not concentrated they will punish you," Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri said in a news conference after his side's 1-1 draw (and 3-2 aggregate win).
"We had a lot of chances in which we lacked the final pass. We deserved to be in the final because the boys grew as the game went on. We maintained a great balance throughout the game and stayed strong mentally."
It is also worth asking, just how good would a Clasico final have really been?
We have seen more than a few meetings between Barcelona and Real Madrid over the last few seasons, and almost without fail, they have surrendered nearly entirely to the darker side of the game: the diving, the off-the-ball confrontations, the theatrics for the benefit (or misdirection) of the referee and the constant, pernicious fouling of two sets of players too familiar, too afraid of each other to let them play for more than a few seconds at a time.
Barca-Real meetings have the potential to be the very best football has to offer, yet none of them in recent memory have lived up to the sheer quality we saw at times during Barca's semi-final with Bayern Munich. Pep Guardiola's fatal mistake may have been allowing Barca to play their game with such freedom (more on that later), but at times, the football both teams produced in their two-legged meeting was enough to take the breath away.
Clasico games have not been like that recently for many reasons. In missing out on that Champions League final, we missed out on plenty of pre-match speculation, excitement and anticipation—but in terms of the 90 (or 120) minutes we will eventually watch, Juventus might be a more suitable opponent.
The Italian champions certainly earned their place in the final. Real have scored 107 goals already in La Liga this season (almost exactly three goals a game), yet over two matches, they managed to notch just twice against a brilliantly drilled unit.
The best defence in the competition restricted Cristiano Ronaldo to just a header and a penalty, as Alvaro Morata ended up scoring twice against the club that raised him to send his new employers into the final.
It was hard to feel much sympathy for Real, even if the man most likely to pay the price for the defeat, Carlo Ancelotti, arguably had the least to do with the eventual capitulation. Just 24 hours after Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar had dovetailed to such beautiful effect that they looked like they had been playing together all their lives, Real's attack was so disjointed at times that it was almost laughable.
It is clear that Ronaldo does not see eye-to-eye with Gareth Bale, a rift that has alienated the Welshman from much of the rest of the squad (when in doubt, the pack tend to side with the alpha dog—and that is Ronaldo). The cause behind the rift may only be known to Ronaldo, but if, as some suspect, the Portuguese merely sees Bale as a threat to his supremacy at the Santiago Bernabeu, then it is hard to describe it as anything other than pathetic.
Not that Los Blancos were yet ready to acknowledge the rifts in their midst.
"We gave everything we could give in this game," Ancelotti said in the news conference afterward. "We fought, worked, played well, had many chances. I have nothing to reproach the team for tonight. Whether we deserved to go out or not depends on your opinion. We are sad, which is normal, to be leaving this competition."
The beleaguered Bale told Sky Sports, via ESPN:
"There have been some ups and downs but personally I think I've played well. I've maybe not scored as many important chances as I'd like but my general play has been good. My finishing is not as good and that's something to work on for next year.
What doesn't kill me makes me stronger and I'll learn from this season and take it on.
I was unlucky not to grab one. As long as I keep trying, usually one goes in. Unfortunately it didn't happen tonight and you move on.
"
Bale should not carry the can, however—at least he was getting in position to try to score. But the difference between the two Spanish sides over the two nights was stark.
Messi, once again the best in the world, has changed his game primarily to integrate Suarez and, to a lesser extent, Neymar, in the process reducing his goalscoring marginally but simultaneously creating an almost unstoppably efficient attacking machine.
Ronaldo, in contrast, has seemingly tried to divide and conquer inside the club's complex hierarchy, with the result that he and Bale, Real's most likely match-savers on Wednesday, never looked to be on the same page (did they even pass to each other once?).
Ronaldo should perhaps reflect on that, and how things could have been so different, when he sits down to watch Barca in the final in Berlin.
Champions League Semi-Final, Second-Leg Results
Tuesday
Bayern Munich 3-2 Barcelona
(Benatia, Lewandowski, Muller; Neymar [2])
Barcelona progress 5-3 on aggregate.
Wednesday
Real Madrid 1-1 Juventus
(Ronaldo; Morata)
Juventus progress 3-2 on aggregate.
The final takes place in Berlin on June 6.
Messi Shows Great Players Beat Great Managers
Perhaps now Pep Guardiola has the situation he really hoped to inherit at Bayern Munich, instead of the near-perfect machine he was expected to maintain and keep on a winning path when he joined back in 2013.
After successive (and emphatic) semi-final defeats, this is now a team in need of some serious summer modifications, and perhaps Guardiola's enduring reputation depends on how well he oversees them.
Guardiola might feel a certain frustration over that situation, considering that perhaps if Bayern's semi-final with Barcelona proved one thing, it was that players, not managers, have the decisive impact.
Over both legs, Lionel Messi was a shining light, the Argentinian bewitching Bayern's over-matched defenders time and time again to create the time and space for Luis Suarez and, on Tuesday, Neymar to provide the winning touches. Swap Messi onto the other team, and perhaps the result goes a different way.
"He is the best player of all time, I compare him with Pele," Guardiola said after the loss, per BBC Sport. "I hope Barca win their fifth Champions League final.
"He is back, he is there where I had the privilege to train him. He is definitely back at his best."
The game at the Allianz Arena was a similarly enjoyable spectacle to the first leg, albeit without quite the same level of tension. Barcelona's comfortable advantage was briefly in doubt when Mehdi Benatia opened the scoring after barely five minutes, but once Neymar had grabbed his side an away goal, Bayern's slim hopes were effectively extinguished.
That gave the game, and its players, a certain freedom of expression, resulting in a series of sublime moments of individual skill, even if the final 10 minutes lacked the requisite stakes to make the game any sort of classic.
Ultimately, Barcelona were just too good and too vibrant in attack for a Bayern team crucially deprived of some key players to contend with.
For what it's worth, since the 2011-12 Champions League, the team that has knocked out Bayern Munich has gone on to win the competition (except in 2013, when no one managed it). That is not the only reason Barcelona will enter this year's final as favourites, but it is another compelling one.
Random Asides
- Another week, another goal, another non-celebration from Alvaro Morata. Real perhaps knew the risk they were taking in letting the youngster leave last summer, but similarly, both player and club knew that he was probably not going to get the playing time he needed to reach his full potential if he remained with his boyhood club. Real retain a buy-back option on the player, and it will be interesting to see if, or perhaps when, they activate it. Morata may not be as good as Karim Benzema, even now, but he certainly knows how to score big goals in big moments.
- Iker Casillas gets plenty of stick these days, but it is worth noting he made two fantastic saves to keep his side in the game at pivotal moments in the match. First of all, he made a brilliant sprawling stop down to his left to deny Claudio Marchisio after the midfielder had slipped clean through on goal. Then, Casillas made another fine stop late on to palm away Paul Pogba's rasping effort. Unfortunately, for once, his team-mates could not bail him out.
- Robert Lewandowski's goal. Wow. For a combination of technique and finishing, has there been a better meaningless strike in recent seasons?
- On that note, Barcelona's evening at the Allianz Arena would have been a lot more stressful were it not for the third goal that Bayern so pathetically gave away in the dying moments at the Nou Camp. Guardiola has many things to reflect on as his team head into the summer, but the lack of pragmatism he and his side showed at times in their semi-final should surely be given real consideration. He may hate Jose Mourinho, but there is certainly a time and a place where his methods are most effective.
- UEFA might be disappointed to miss out on the excitement of a Clasico final, but perhaps the city of Berlin is slightly relieved that the archrival fans will not be descending on the city.
- We know Ronaldo won't be the fall guy for Real's exit, and we are told Bale will not be, either. That just about only leaves Ancelotti. "It is not up to me to talk about my future," he said, per ESPN FC. "I have decided I would like to stay here. But I know very well how football is. A club has the right to end things if they are not happy with the coach. We must finish the season well, then talk."
- It is worth keeping in mind the quality on show in both semi-finals this summer, when the papers are full of speculation on the spending sprees the top four (five? six?) Premier League clubs are going to go on. Chelsea apart (perhaps), surely there is no sum the big English clubs could spend that would bring them up to the level we have seen in just one summer. Not unless they buy very, very astutely, of course.
- Compare and contrast the support Bayern Munich and Real Madrid fans gave their respective sides over the two second legs. Despite knowing their team had almost no chance of overturning their deficit, Bayern's supporters cheered from the first whistle to the last, exhorting their team to push forward and give the best account of themselves—which they did, even if it ended up being too little in the end. Real's fans, in contrast, booed and whistled every missed opportunity from Bale—yes, it has become frustrating, but still, he was about the only player who looked like scoring. There are times to express your anger, and there are times to cheer your team. Perhaps Real's fans got it wrong on this occasion.
Good Week, Bad Week
Good Week
Alvaro Morata: The only man about to play in his second successive Champions League final.
Max Allegri: His arrival at Juventus was greeted with scepticism. Who is laughing now?
Bayern Munich fans: A credit to themselves, even as their team went out.
Neymar: He keeps on scoring goals, and Barcelona look in scintillating form at the best possible time.
Bad Week
Carlo Ancelotti: Is his departure from Real Madrid now almost assured?
Cristiano Ronaldo: Three shots, one goal. Hardly a great contribution in a huge game.
Mehdi Benatia: Scored a hope-giving goal, then produced one of the worst pieces of defending of the season. D'oh!
Neutral fans: No Clasico final! So close yet so far!
