The Fiver | That point of the season where every Big Cup match really matters
Following 96 group video games performed ostensibly to get rid of Manchester United, Inter and Ajax, in addition to the 13 different also-rans no one gave a snowball’s likelihood in hell of qualifying for the knockout phases, hurrah for that point of the season where every Big Cup match really matters and watching is invariably a pleasure reasonably than an typically dreary ordeal.
Despite hypothesis that jeopardy could be elevated by lowering knockout ties to probably riotous one-legged white-knuckle rides for causes pertaining to Covid, Uefa have determined to crack on with the standard format with just a few minor however mandatory and probably controversial tweaks. The faintly ludicrous upshot? Travel restrictions in sure European nations imply Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City may all conceivably sneak into the final eight on away objectives, regardless of enjoying opponents who’re being pressured to play their residence legs in opposition to English opponents in impartial venues distant from their precise properties.
Having made the 400-mile journey to Budapest to “host” Liverpool tonight, RB Leipzig may be moderately assured of getting a consequence in opposition to a group whose home title defence has spectacularly hit the skids. Managed by the assured younger German garments horse Julian Nagelsmann, whose controversial trousers had been the discuss of final season’s Big Cup, Leipzig are hoping to emulate their semi-final look of a yr in the past. “He’s a big, big coaching talent,” mentioned Nagelsmann’s compatriot and fellow gegenpressing fanatic Jürgen Klopp. “We don’t know each other very well but I’ve followed his way because I like good football. He’s not the only one but he’s a good example of a lot of really good young managers in Germany.”
Meanwhile in Barcelona, mischievous locals spent the night time setting off fireworks exterior the Paris Saint-Germain group lodge in a bid to forestall their facet’s opponents from getting a great night time’s kip forward of their potential firecracker of an encounter. “It’s our clear objective to win [Big Cup] and we understand the responsibility and the excitement,” yawned Mauricio Pochettino, as a Big Bomb Sky Rocket screamed previous his ear.
If PSG are to avenge their well-known 2017 Big Cup bottle-job in Barcelona, they’ll have to take action with out Neymar, who seems sure to overlook each legs in opposition to his former membership with knack. “The sadness is huge, the pain is immense, and the weeping is constant,” wrote the tearful Brazilian in a melodramatic FaceSpace submit. “For a while, I will once again have to stop doing the thing I most love in life, which is playing football. I dribble and I get hit constantly. It makes me very sad. It makes me very sad to have to listen to a player, a coach, a commentator or whoever the hell it is say ‘they have to kick him’, ‘he dives’, ‘cry-baby’ ‘spoilt kid’, etc. It saddens me and I don’t know how much longer I can take it. I just want to be happy playing football. NOTHING ELSE.” Here’s hoping his temper has improved by the finish of the second leg, or his sister’s newest birthday, which falls the following day, might be fairly the damp squib.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I decided after this season [I want] to do something new, to leave the club . It was no easy decision because I have been here for 13 years and this club is close to my heart” – David Alaba places Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool on pink alert. Well, maybe just Real Madrid.
FIVER LETTERS
“Carlo doesn’t need to buy a big new safe [yesterday’s Fiver]. What he needs is a lifesize cardboard picture of his assistant Big D next to a sign saying: ‘I live here.’ Back in the day burglars broke into Big D’s house, apparently he heard a noise and went downstairs. The word was that it was the burglars who called the Feds” – Steve Roberts.
“I am less than impressed that players from The Pope’s Newc O’Rangers might have been caught at a Glasgow house party after the Saturday match. In the 1960s my father – a detective in the Glasgow Polis – busted a tenement brothel in the Maryhill area and found one of the more famous players from said team drunk in the kitchen (and in his underpants) at three o’clock on the Saturday morning. He was playing 12 hours later and nothing in the match reports (my father checked!) suggested any deterioration in his performance – at Ibrox” – Roger Sigrist.
Send your letters to [email protected]. And you’ll be able to at all times tweet The Fiver through @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day prize is … Roger Sigrist.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
David Squires dons his wetsuit and plunges into the cyber cesspool of social media.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Arsenal will remind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of his obligations after Insta footage revealed he had received some new ink from tattooist Alejandro Nicolas “Painless” Bernal.
James McClean has been provided assist by the Football Association of Ireland after he and his spouse Erin revealed the extent of sectarian abuse he has been receiving on social media.
It’s Atlético Madrid for Chelsea and Fiorentina for Manchester City in the last-16 draw of the Women’s Champions League.
Mason Greenwood has signed a brand new four-year contract to remain at Manchester’s Big Red till 2025. “There is so much that I want to achieve in the game and I know that this is the perfect environment to play my football,” he chirruped.
STILL WANT MORE?
Marco van Basten, Falcão and Kev Nolan characteristic in the latest edition of the Joy of Six – half a dozen objectives where the co-creator actually didn’t have a kick.
Get your Big Cup last-16 previews and predictions for this week’s ties right here.
One of the 5 RB Leipzig gamers Nick Ames suggests Liverpool should beware in the Big Cup is Peter Gulásci, a goalkeeper delivered to Anfield underneath Rafa Benítez, who sat on the bench underneath Mr Roy and Brendan, however by no means performed a sport for the membership.
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