It is quite funny that PSG felt like the good guys at the Etihad Stadium but if we briefly detach ourselves from the notion that the European champions’ own sportswashing and cashsplashing has also done immeasurable damage to the beautiful game, then their 4-2 Bigger Cup shellacking of Manchester City was pure cinema, baby! Not just because Désiré Doué was unplayable or that Vitinha put on an absolute clinic or that Luis Enrique was more forward-thinking than Magnus Carlsen reading a horoscope in playing his right-back as a striker, but also because the camera kept cutting – deliciously – to the faces of glum City fans as they watched their expensively assembled squad spin into such a dizzy mess that £125m Enzo Fernández and £116m Elliott Anderson appeared in Manchester to be auditioning as a double act for next year’s Strictly. Although PSG eased off in the second half as City rallied to a brave 4-2 home defeat, it was a miserable outing for all of those dressed in sky blue or trendy flatcaps sitting in the stands.
Pep Guardiola was – we think – not one of the City fans that had spent the weekend chanting “we’re Man City, we’ll cheat when we want” at Anfield – but the former manager returned to Manchester for a well-timed visit on Wednesday to support City’s beleaguered owners, backing up last month’s statement that he remains “behind my club”. While we did not hear from Pep on the night as he sloped off from his heated seat back to his sabbatical – with British TV viewers instead treated to the valuable and impartial TNT Sports pundit and literal on-the-payroll City ambassador Joleon Lescott, who “broke his silence on the guilty verdicts” in predictable fashion – we did also enjoy some relatively stain-free football on Wednesday. Aston Villa romped to a 6-0 thrashing of Fenerbahce, Bradley Barcola notched his first Liverpool goals (a hatty) in the 6-3 win at Lask and Real Madrid secured a last-gasp 4-3 win at Roma.
In a fast-changing world, it was heartening to feel the warm embrace of familiarity with Madrid manager José Mourinho using his post-match press conference to speak, not of his side’s remarkable comeback (three corners in the final 10 minutes, naturally) or even of his emotional return to the Italian capital after his Tin Pot triumph with Roma in 2022, but as an opportunity to deliver a monologue against Spain’s football authorities. Join Michael Butler from 5.45pm for red-hot Bigger Vase updates from the early kick-offs, including Torreense 1-3 Sunderland and Lyon 2-1 Crystal Palace before Simon Burnton takes you through the 8pm starts, including Benfica 2-1 Celtic and Bournemouth 4-1 Sturm Graz. Do we have to come by bus and almost arrive at the stadium when we find out Vinícius has a four-match suspension?
They do things shamelessly now. The cat is out of the bag. A Spanish team that has earned three points for Spanish football, for the rankings, for the prestige of Spanish football.
You want to kill a player two hours before the match? It doesn’t seem normal to me.” – José Mourinho laments the timing of the Spanish Football Federation’s announcement that Vinícius Júnior will receive a four-match ban, including El Clásico, after being sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair against Villarreal last Saturday. The announcement came hours before Mourinho’s Real Madrid side – featuring Vinícius – faced Roma in the Big Cup last night, coming from behind to earn a 4-3 win.
I was stunned at reading the comments in support of Manchester City keeping their trophies, coming out of the mouth of their Bigger Cup rivals at PSG (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). Given the example of the organisers of the Tour de Lance … sorry, the Tour de France, this kind of ‘keep the awards you won’ stuff might get him sent to the Bastille. They’ve got all kinds of rules about driver behaviour on the racetrack, and additional rules about what the crew can and cannot do to your car.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
