Hello friends, good vibes to all.

Fuente.

The title may sound a bit exaggerated but for me it is the perfect summary of what we lived in this first round of the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Before this edition started, there was a lot of talk about a couple of things: firstly that it would be the first Champions League without Messi and CR7 after a few years and secondly that Mbappé and Haaland would be in charge of filling the gaps left by those monsters of the sport. The thing is that I feel that the latter is not being fully fulfilled. And it is bold of me to say this considering that the Frenchman is a world champion and the Norwegian won a hat-trick last season but the current reality cannot be covered with a finger.

On Tuesday, an anticipated final took place at the Santiago Bernabeu where the two best clubs in the world faced each other in a match that I don't think disappointed anyone, or maybe a little bit. On one side we had the current champions and defenders of the crown with almost all their squad in full, except De Bruyne who was out at the last minute, and in his place would enter Foden while on the other side we had the Merengues with what for me is a stellar lineup, with the exception of Lunin of course. The match began, one that for me was one of stages as at times the protagonism was Madrid's and at others it was City's, the latter being the first to score.

Fuente.

Sí, fue un partido de seis goles para todos los gustos, vimos algunos grandes goles, pero ninguno de ellos por parte del Manchester fue marcado por Haaland. Es más, el androide apenas tocó el balón, disparó una sola vez a puerta, cero regates, cero intentos, cero asistencias, completamente anulado por un gran Rudiger. Esto no es ninguna sorpresa, la temporada actual de Erling está siendo bastante discreta, lleva 6 goles en Champions y sólo uno en lo que va de año, quizás estoy siendo duro y exagerando pero es más habitual verle perdido en el campo que marcando goles. El tema con este jugador es que cuando se decide a meter goles mete 2 o 3 goles y luego vuelve un poco el equilibrio.

The reality is that it was not a good game for the Norwegian, he was not differential in any stage of the game even though Pep's team had more of the ball, completed more passes and shot more at goal. It is clear the size of this crack but it is the same as always, being a pure nine, he does not play as a pivot or go down to look for balls, hence it is easier to get lost in the area and more if you are being marked by a beast like Rudiger. It is also clear that this City does not need his goals as they have Foden, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne and Julian Alvarez himself who are the ones who pull out the stops when Haaland's gunpowder gets wet. Will City's pass be in danger if this "apathy" in front of goal continues? - Nobody knows. A 3-3 is a wide open result for the second leg; anything can happen, for me it is impossible to predict a final result after seeing what happened on Tuesday night.

Fuente.

The other who had a bad night was the one who for many is the best player in the world today, Kylian Mbappé. But here there is an abysmal difference and that is that PSG is not City, the French team is nothing, it is the great lie of Europe, a team inflated with millionaire signings, almost 300 million, so that in the end all these players were on the bench at the starting whistle. Barcelona was far superior in the first half, line by line, player by player, the blaugranas outplayed a PSG that found little in those first 45 minutes. Something very similar happened here and Kylian was double-marked by Araujo and Koundé who were in charge of pigeonholing him and leaving him relegated to his corner on the left side.

Mbappé plays but with the ball at his feet, without it he looked lost, disconnected, there was no syntony with his teammates, the game never flowed so that he could be more effective and thus make some difference. There is a statistic I read out there and that is that he lost the ball 13 times not to mention that, like Haaland, he did not kick at goal or assist or have anything to do with the couple of goals they managed to concede. Nobody doubts the potential of the Frenchman, it is very likely that in the second leg he will grow in Spain, but the image he gave yesterday at home in front of probably the last Champions League game in Paris was very opaque and sad. This PSG for me has nothing to offer, it is true that in the second half they improved a bit their performance but still it was insufficient to beat a Barcelona that surprisingly has been playing quite well. Donnarumma is another whose level is deplorable, it's not the first time he's seen failures like that.

Fuente.

In the end these two teams will have to hope that their top stars can achieve a better performance both at the Etihad and at the Lluís Companys in Barcelona. It won't be easy, as I commented I don't see a clear winner between City and Madrid but if I can see a slight edge towards Barcelona against PSG, it would have to be a near perfect game from Mbappé and company to be able to overcome Barcelona. We have heart attacks coming next week.

Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
¡Hugs to all, see you next time!