BONKERS: CITY TOTTENHAM BRING DOWN THE HOUSE: WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S PLACE IN UCL HISTORY
Did we really just see that?
It's been nearly 48 hours since the 2nd leg between Manchester City and Tottenham and I'm just barely catching my breath....I think we all are just finally doing that.
What we saw was a turbulent range of emotions straight out of The O.C, the last few seasons of Dexter, or some other soap opera of grand proportions and heavy public interest...we were all captivated...we were all participating in this enjoyment, but the people who were there know what it really was about.
This 2nd leg had so many crazy dramatic twists and turns that our brain became a pile of mush dipped in the chocolate of an alternate reality, and more than enough moments of absolute triumph turning into overwhelming despair it was almost too much to take.
City fans have much to be angry about.
We could discuss the greatest Champions league drama since the 6-1 Barcelona comeback in 2017, but this felt like those topsy turvy European nights in the mid 2000s between Chelsea and Liverpool, endless amounts of goals and one knockout punch thrown after another. We could talk about how Kevin De Bruyne dropped a hat trick of assists without even trying (the 2nd assist, his outrageous ball to the back post for Sterling to wrestle the tie back being supernatural in its precision), or we could point out how one of the worst finishers has become one of the most clutch with his last second disallowed goal.
We could suggest how lucky Spurs were to get through, or how hard they worked to earn victory, both decent arguments that make the game more alive than ever....but....
Sure, Aymeric Laporte had the worst match in his entire career (he never played even close to this bad against Messi or Ronaldo in La Liga when he was still a teenager at Bilbao), but the City defense improved immeasurably in the second half, allowing Spurs almost nothing in attack and pinning Eriksen, Alli and Son deep, while shackling Lucas Moura's runs in behind.
The goal that broke the tie came from random play that Tottenham were (and are) extremely lucky to have earned the corner from, let alone to then score from the Trippier corner where the serendipitous cross missed three, maybe four heads of defending and attacking players (including Kompany and Alderweireld) but somehow the looping, quality corner from Kierian Trippier found its way through everyone and ricocheted off of three body parts in a split second and into the goal.
The entire sequence, no, the survival of that second half was pure luck from Tottenham. They earned their luck and earned their aggregate lead in a blistering first half performance, but we were robbed of the ending this match deserved.
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| Aguero is right in line with Alderweireld...can you really say he's off here, definitively? |
I have an issue with the Aguero offside as well, especially when Sadio Mane scored a goal on the same day with a carbon copy offside scenario, only Mane's was allowed and Aguero's run and assist that would've sent Manchester City through in legendary fashion was ruled offside.
I can't even explain to you all how harsh this is as an ending for any football fan to endure, but my my can I only imagine what sorrow, frustration, anger and righteous disgust pervades the blue side of Manchester. Don't you dare walk around Stockport in a Spurs kit for the next decade...It's not just a shame, it's not only taking away a finale worthy of a cinematic undertaking, it's the fact that VAR was introduced to get all of these details right: getting the biggest calls on the biggest nights right.
Instead, had we not even used VAR for this match, justice would've actually been served: the linesman didn't raise the flag on the Sterling goal, he was only feet away and they also would've given Spurs every benefit of the doubt and more of a chance to advance by allowing the hand ball goal.
I'm not arguing for the removal of VAR, I'm simply failing to understand how or why the referee didn't get every angle, especially the decisive one. It's like cutting out a shot in the Zapruder film that shows who blew Kennedy's head apart, before showing the footage to the FBI.
It was one of the greatest Champions league matches ever, with one of the most heartless endings you can imagine. City were composed enough to bury that goal, with everything on the line and a quarter of a millimeter decided this....look at the screen shot...when the ball deflects off of Bernardo, Aguero is in line...then the Llorente goal....ughhh all of this scrambles the brain....
GREATEST CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TIES / MOST UNDERRATED / CONTROVERSIAL / DRAMATIC (MY FAVORITES, DAMNIT):
-BARCA V PSG
2017 ROUND OF 16
(BARCA 6-5 on aggregate)
0-4
6-1
The greatest come back of all time, aided by Suarez, Messi, 2 brilliant and clutch goals from Neymar and the most last-second of last -second assists to Sergi Roberto (at the absolute death) to set the Camp Nou on fire.
Truly it was one of the greatest sporting privileges to watch the entirety live, as a die hard Barca fan.-REAL MADRID V BAYERN
2017 QUARTERFINALS
(REAL MADRID 6-3 on aggregate)
2-1
4-2 (AET)
Real Madrid may have won the 1st leg in Munich, but they found themselves in dire trouble as Bayern went level on aggregate thanks to a shocking Ramos own goal, sending the match to the epic scenario of extra time, of course after two legs of brilliantly played football.
Though Munich was in the ascendancy, referee called a foul on a lunging tackle from Bayern midfielder Arturo Vidal, a foul that was nothing more than a common foul, with even a yellow being a stretch.
Instead, out popped the shocking color of red, sending everyone and their brains to explode in complete "WTF-ing" as he sent Vidal to the dressing room with a straight red in the 84th minute, during a period of time where Bayern easily looked like scoring a late goal.
This set up an obvious finale, with Ronaldo sinking two goals in extra time, both poacher finishes, before Marco Asensio scored the 4th goal to put 10 men Bayern to the sword in a haunting, horrifying 2nd leg that still irks football fans in what was an era where Real Madrid received every call and every favorable draw.
-REAL MADRID V JUVENTUS
2018 QUARTERFINALS
(REAL MADRID 4-3 on aggregate)
3-0
1-3
This one makes even the most hardcore Madridista blush.
After destroying Juventus 3-0 in Turin to take a commanding 1st leg lead going into the Bernabeu, it seemed Juve were only showing up for pride and mostly damage limitation.
Instead, Juventus dominated proceedings from the first second, burying 3 goals on Real Madrid before the 90th minute, a stunning result that could've been amongst the greatest comebacks ever.
But we never remember it that way..
On the cusp of extra time, the most ridiculous penalty is awarded to Real Madrid, right at the last kick of the match. To voice his absolute disgust at UEFA's obvious match fixing / absolute obsession with Real Madrid, Gigi Buffon (in what many thought was his last UCL match) went off, freaking out at the referee and suddenly, in an act of immaturity and insecurity, the ref then dished out a straight red card to Buffon, all due to his protests of one of the softest penalties ever given of consequence in a football match.
If UEFA do match fix, then this went even better than planned: Not only did Real Madrid get a last second life line to protect their ravaged and out of form back line from 30 minutes of extra time and a potential penalty shootout, now they didn't have to even worry about Gigi Buffon being in goal to save the subsequent tie winning Ronaldo penalty with the last kick.
An epic 2nd leg ruined by pure insanity.
-CHELSEA V BARCA
2005 ROUND OF 16
(CHELSEA 5-4 on aggregate)
1-2
4-2
While Barcelona were the more attacking team over two legs, Mourinho's Chelsea scored 5 on Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol and Barcelona, exposing their average fullbacks at the time.
It was drama filled and intense, with Ronaldinho scoring an absolute miracle goal to wrestle the tie back at Stamford Bridge, but two late Chelsea goals including a John Terry header cleared the London club's path.
2004, 2005, 2006 group stage, 2009, 2012, 2018....Barca and Chelsea have quite the history and this one ranks up there.
-CHELSEA V LIVERPOOL
2008 SEMIFINALS
(CHELSEA 4-3 on aggregate)
1-1
3-2 (AET)
One of the truly underrated Champions League ties of all time, as it was a semifinal between two title hungry and experienced teams familiar with one another to the point the hatred coupled with the goals boiled over into a remarkable shootout in the 2nd leg, with extra time itself producing 3 goals.
It was finally Lampard who sank Liverpool's quest to return to the final for the third time in four years and sent Chelsea to their first ever.
-CHELSEA V LIVERPOOL
2009 QUARTERFINALS
(CHELSEA 7-5 on aggregate)
3-1
4-4
This one was outrageous.
Goals galore as Chelsea barely pulled ahead in the final minutes to bring us one of the greatest battles between English sides in modern football.
Liverpool and Chelsea were always playing in the knockout stages in the mid 2000s and they were always great.
-SPURS V CITY
2019 QUARTERFINALS
(SPURS 4-4 on away goals)
1-0
3-4
Probably not the greatest ending if we're talking purity, and though the 1st leg was more tactical, the two legs were fantastic.
And the 2nd leg was surely one of the most well played knockout round legs of all time.....just not defensively...
But as for pure unbridled drama?
This may be it.
-CHELSEA V BARCA
2012 SEMIFINALS
(CHELSEA 3-2 on aggregate)
1-0
2-2
This is a pair of matches I remember well....a pair of matches that still annoy the hell out of me as a die hard Barcelona fan since 2004.
This was the year that most stung when success went to the wayside in the Champions League after such a dominant tournament so far...in the time of Messi dropping 5 vs Leverkeusen, Pedro burying anything he touched, Xavi and Iniesta contributing assists, goals and passing panache that made them unstoppable all with Busquets' aid.
It should've been Barca vs Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in 2012, I feel...but things happen for these reasons...Barca didn't deserve to beat Chelsea...it was the worst match of that season for Guardiola's team (Guardiola's "one foot out the door" public ranting didn't help.
First you had Chelsea holding Barca, clad in cursed black away kits, to a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. This was insane, considering just how loaded Barcelona were with Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Alexis Sanchez, Thiago Alcantara and the familiar core of Messi, Busquets, Pique and Dani Alves.
But the leg break of David Villa that December in the Club World Cup spelled Barca's doom out long before the events in May at Camp Nou.
The 2nd leg in Barcelona was to be a wonderful scene: Messi, having an 80 goal & 30 assist season for Barcelona, couldn't be stopped, could he? A
Once Iniesta and Leo combined, with the World Cup winning goalscorer blasting another important goal home to even the tie and after, another Barcelona goal forced Chelsea to come from behind.
But even before that task could come, Alexis Sanchez was kneed in the butt by John Terry, the English center back pummeling into him from the back, earning a soft red card that created a huge stir of emotions, everyone remembering the soft red card on Thiago Motta in the 2010 semifinals at the Camp Nou, and the "UEFALONA" chants and cries were being generated on impulse.
Then, out of completely nowhere (and with Chelsea's team in pieces from the previous leg's yellow card suspensions and injuries and playing under an interim manager, Roberto Di Matteo), Ramires latched on to a Frank Lampard ball over the top and chipped Valdez like he was eating breakfast in bed, evening the tie at halftime.
The 2nd half got especially crazy, as Messi hit the post on a penalty and every Barcelona attack was repelled violently by 10 men Chelsea, defending for their lives.
It all ended in iconic fashion as a Barca corner was knocked back to a streaking Fernando Torres, clear into open space. And in the worst season of his career, the much criticized Torres buried Barcelona in the final seconds.
Intensity, drama, great goals, history made and controversy....
It's the best the Champions League offers...
-BAYERN V JUVENTUS
2016 ROUND OF 16
2-2
4-2 (AET)
Guardiola's Bayern were screwed: down 2 goals and with the 90 minutes nearly finished, Thomas Muller somehow pulled them level right before the whistle, beckoning extra time.
And once Guardiola finally introduced long overdue sub Thiago Alcantara, the match was won quickly by a goal from Thiago, finishing Juventus off in style.
-DEPORTIVO V A.C. MILAN
2004 QUARTERFINALS
(Deportivo 5-4 on aggregate)
1-4
4-0
One of the most remarkable scores ever to gaze at, let alone a 2nd leg match to watch.....
This result isn't just amazing for turning around a 3 goal home defeat, but doing it against the greatest team on planet earth at the time and the defending Champions league winners?
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