The shining elephant in the room
Considering that the best part of his decade was spent with Tottenham Hotspur and more recently Bayern Munich, it’s no wonder Harry Kane lost to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the German side’s Grand Cup The final stage ended up getting injured. With 90 minutes remaining and the Spanish champions trailing by a goal on aggregate, even Carlo Ancelotti’s eyebrows at Wembley must have reached unprecedented heights as the England captain’s number rose and E Riek-Maximin Choupo-Moting slowly took his place as two underperforming former Stoke players emerged as the leading pair in a thrilling semi-final between two of the continent’s elite sides. One of the city’s forwards. The substitute also became one of two Erics to lose the game, as fellow Britannia Stadium alumnus Joselu, who was unlikely to be the headline thief when Real Madrid came from behind to stage a late grab, was…well Well, of course they did a very good job.
They have faced Manchester City, PSG and Chelsea in major cups before, although things were different this time around as Madrid were clearly the better side and didn’t pull off their usual stunts like the Dogs and Chelsea did. Then remember to hit the switch on the final click of the game. But when all available evidence suggested Madrid were likely to equalize and the game could go into extra time, Thomas Tuchel was forced to defend his personnel changes in his post-match press conference. “He can’t move on,” the Bayern boss said. “He was playing with back pain, he couldn’t continue playing, his back was stiff. We started with the top four and all four players had to be out [knack] Or cramps. The top four players all said they had to leave.
While the veracity of Tuchel’s claims that his star striker has a holding midfielder has been questioned in some quarters, Football Daily is prepared to take the German at his word, if only to attract a prolific goalscorer, Thoughts on a great defense. Furthermore, apart from Real Madrid’s T-1000-esque inability to give up anything resembling a failure, it is likely that Kim Min-jae’s early replacement of Leroy Sane caused Bayern to lose form and subsequently draw.
So what now for Kane? Do. While his big-box medal emptiness so far may be due to his insistence on playing in the two finals Spurs have reached during his one-legged stay, the odds are stacked against him at the start of the season for Bayern. Scored over 40 goals and somehow won them all. Fortunately, his next real-life opportunity will come in the country he has spent the past nine months in, unless Gareth Southgate decides the England captain is indeed the victim of something sinister. Leave him out of the team.
Live broadcast on big websites
Join Simon Burnton at 8pm BST for popular Big Vase minute-by-minute coverage of the Big Vase semi-final 1-1 Roma (3-1 aggregate), while Will Unwin will be on hand at the same time for the latest updates from the Big Vase Olympiakos 1-2 Aston Villa in Tin Pot semi-final (5-4 overall).
Quote of the day
“They dropped like flies in the second half and the referee allowed that to happen without adding any extra time. He was terrible. His officiating was really, really bad and it wasn’t the first time. But you have to congratulate him. The opponents, they were very lucky at Wembley but they were there” – Darren Ferguson tries to remain magnanimous after Peterborough narrowly lost to Oxford in the league play-off semi-finals. Failed.
Re: Jim Ratcliffe cracks down on working from home (Yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email version). I think the first people to be taken to the office will be the Manchester United players and the manager, rather than being called into the office.
It’s always painful when you’re stationed where others think you shouldn’t be” – Claire Kittrish.
As we were coming to the end of the Messi vs. Ronaldo rivalry and wondering what the post-Messi and Ronaldo future would look like, I thought Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe would be frustratingly acquired Ridiculous numbers, and yet nation-states have the top tier. Could anyone afford the guy who couldn’t score for Stoke but scored twice for Real Madrid to make sure Eric Dier didn’t reach a second major cup final? —Noble Francis.
Write to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s award-less letter winner is…Claire Kittrish.
