Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
1. Bayern were simply brutal. You could make as many comments about typical German efficiency as you like but they were playing as if they had somewhere else to be for the 2nd half and wanted to get it wrapped up by half time. Then again they certainly did. A Footballing Blitzkrieg if ever there was one, they made Porto look like Gibraltar and this was a side without their so called key players Ribery and Robben. On last nights showing they certainly didn’t miss them.
2. Porto were playing as if they had been drinking Port, for all their first leg efforts were pretty much washed away after 35 minutes. The 5th goal just before Half Time was the death knell, although Jackson Martinez did get one back to give them a glimmer of hope and then that hope nearly flickered back into life when he spurned a chance to make it 5-2 on the night, but ultimately the sending off of Marcano and Xabi Alonso’s 6th late on made it an absolutely miserable night in Munich for the Portuguese side.
3. Barcelona eased their way into the Semi-Finals last night and never really looked particularly threatened (bar a Goal ruled out for offside for PSG in the first half). The talk of the town last night was Andres Iniesta whose sublime run and pass to set up Neymar for the opening goal had Twitter abuzz, people were making a point a few weeks ago that he hasn’t scored or provided an assist in nearly a year. When they are that good they really are worth the wait.
4. PSG once again fall short of the Semi Final stages, you wonder how far this team can go with the shackles of FFP around them. How can their Qatari owners take the team to the next level?, it’s all very well dominating Ligue 1 but when it comes to being at the pinnacle of European Football they still have some way to go.
5. David Luiz is an absolute bombs care of a Defender. “Now David, big game tonight. Don’t lose your head” Booked within 3 minutes. Clueless, absolutely clueless. Whoever engineered his move out of Chelsea has earned every penny of their wages that day.
6. The potential for a repeat of the Bayern Munich vs Barcelona 2013 Semi Finals looms large, Barcelona looked good but Bayern looked better last night and in the subtext of a returning Pep Guardiola to the Nou Camp plus Barcelona wanting to get revenge on their 7-0 aggregate scoreline drubbing and we could have two pulsating encounters next month. Then again the more I think about it, the more I’d like this to be the Final in June.
7. In the Championship a 2-0 win at home for Blackburn against Millwall puts the Londoners in quite a bit of peril with them being 4 points off safety with only two games of the season left. There only hope is Rotherham getting a points deduction due to fielding an ineligible player in their 1-0 win over Brighton over Easter. Conversely that win for Blackburn also means Brighton are safe from relegation although this will be a season they will want to forget.
8. Preston and MK Dons both won last night to keep the race for the 2nd promotion place out of League One going down to the wire. Only 1 point separates the two sides and Preston are currently in the box seat, will there be pressure on Karl Robinson if he doesn’t manage to get MK Dons out of League 1 this season?. This is now the Liverpudlian’s 5th season in charge, will Chairman Pete Winkleman give him a 6th if they are still playing League 1 football in August?.
9. Defeats for Notts County and Leyton Orient mean that both sides are going to have to win at least one of their last two league games to have any chance of beating the drop to League 2. It must be all the more worrying for Leyton Orient who this time last May were at Wembley and 90 minutes away from the Championship. Now they are only 180 minutes away from League 2.
10. A win for Southend over Bury enabled the Essex side to leapfrog their Greater Manchester rivals into 4th place in League 2 and take them level on points with Wycombe in the race for that final automatic promotion spot to League 1. Poignant scenes at Roots Hall as David Worrall dedicates the winning goal at Bury to the memory of his baby son, who died recently.
11. And finally there were now doubt some sore heads in Manchester Today as there was double promotion celebrations last night. FC United of Manchester got promoted to the Conference North for next season and Salford City also had reason to party after their promotion to the Evo-Stik Premier League. FC United sealing a fourth promotion in their 10 year history and Salford City who are part-owned by former Manchester United players Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes.
