Two of England’s finest stepped into Champion’s League action for the first time this season. Tottenham Hotspur travelled to Milan where they met Inter and Liverpool travelled to Anfield where they were playing PSG.
The former seemed to be in control of their game and led 0-1 for most of it, thanks to a goal from Christian Eriksen.
Inter were decidedly average so quite how they managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat will be a source of disappointment for Mauricio Pochettino, particularly if Spurs fail to qualify from this group.
Liverpool were also decidedly average, unusually so in their finishing and were lucky that they were meeting a team who was even worse, but in all areas.
On this evidence the PSG manager’s job will be vacant again soon as Thomas Tuchel doesn’t seem to have any control over what his players do on the pitch, in particular Neymar, M’Bappe and Cavani. What they certainly DON’T do is track back obviously feeling that this is a job for a defender.
This allows the opposition to pour forward without many problems and, you would think, a team like Liverpool with Salah, Mane and, in this case, Sturridge, would score a hatful of goals.
They did get three but only scored the winner in the third minute of stoppage time and only then after bringing Roberto Fermino on as a substitute.
Liverpool will face much better teams than PSG and, if they play like this, they will lose.
Tomorrow we will look what happened with Manchester’s finest who were up against opposition they should both beat, but would they?
And finally…..
Guardiola probably doesn’t have to win the Champion’s League to stay at City, but it would certainly help his cause
Much has been said about Pep Guardiola and his need to win the Champion’s League with Manchester City.
Is it really a necessity though? Guardiola himself would like to win it, of course, but doesn’t seem to place as much importance on it as the media.
The players would love to win it because that is the reason they play the game, (except for Raheem Sterling who isn’t very good and is only out for as much money as he can get).
The fans seem unconcerned, preferring the Premier League title every time. This is probably due to the indifference they have as a result of UEFA’s treatment of their club in the early days of FFP when City supporters fell out with European football’s governing body.
The top brass would like to win it because they see it as adding prestige to the club. The teams they see themselves alongside including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Münich, have all won the competition more than once and City would like to be up there with them.
It is also quite prestigious for a manager to win the trophy with more than one club. José Mourinho, for example, is forever reminding anyone who will listen, (which is fewer and fewer people every time), how many times he has won it and with whom.
As we said, Guardiola probably privately wants to win it very much because he wants to win every competition he enters and hates losing despite appearing to be quite magnanimous in defeat.
Would the club sack Guardiola if he continues to miss out on the Champion’s League? At some stage yes, they would. That stage, however, providing he keeps winning other trophies and qualifying for Europe’s top competition, is a long way off just yet.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 