Our people will say ‘How are the mighty fallen’.
Indeed, the mighty fell last night in the UEFA Champions League. The harder fall could be Juventus’ loss to Ajax Amsterdam, because no real soccer pundit would have expected Manchester United to go to the Camp Nou and beat Barcelona. No club has ever done that in the Chapmpions League but the regular ManU fanatic referred us to the fact that their team performed the same feat against PSG of France in the previous round.
As it turned out, it was a mismatch by a bunch of ManU misfits. Or how did you see Ashley Young on the left back and Phil Jones as right back? Everyone knew that the match would be a supremacy of who controlled the midfield and had possession in the main areas.
3-0 was the score on the night, with Messi scoring a brace but it could have been worse than the aggregate 4-0 victory after the one-nil loss to Barca at Old Trafford last week.
Attaching 4 ManU players to police Lionel Messi wasn’t going to prevent the rout but give kudos to our friends for supporting their red Manchester team to the end. It may be their last Champions league for a while because with the way the Premiership is going, it doesn’t look like they will qualify for Champions League next season.
Ajax’s 2-1 defeat of Juventus of Turin was even more of a fairy tale. Coming from Amsterdam with an away goal after the one-one draw last week, the Old Lady, as Juve is called were in pole position to dispatch the minnows from The Netherlands. With Cristiano Ronaldo’s text book header of a goal to spur them on, everyone thought the Italians were going to provide Ajax the beating of their life.
Instead, the young guns from Amsterdam ran rings round the Old Lady(ies) and were first to the ball most times with their speed and deft touches. 2-1 in ended and 3-2 on aggregate. So the huge transfer fee of 100 Euros to bring in CR7 has not worked the Champions League magic for Juve. Instead, the club’s shares plunged more than 20% this morning.
However, unlike their English colleagues ManU, all is not lost for Juve. They have practically wrapped up the Serie A league title with several matches to spare so Champions League is on next season. There’s no doubt the will need to shed some of their aging players before then.
Image Credit: manutd.com Juventus.com
Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.
