KNOCKOUT ACTION
As we all know, Big Cup is going to be utter rubbish after the suits at Uefa decided to shake things up and play more games for reasons that are not immediately cl€ar. It will become a random league system with each team playing eight matches – four home and four away – against different opposition. Everyone will become bored of it before Real Madrid beat Feyenoord 4-0 in mid-January. This means we have to hold on to the glorious notion of knockout football, which was served up in spades during the third qualifying round.
Rangers are already out though, losing 2-0 to Dynamo Kyiv. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg, the second, at Hampden Park, was goalless, until Italian referee Marco Guida decided that Rangers winger Jefté jumped too high to win a header against Oleksandr Karavayev, who fell to the floor like a drunk donkey. Already on a booking, the Brazilian’s impressive leap left Guida apparently flummoxed, so he decided to produce a second yellow. “It’s a very decisive moment and, in the end, it has killed the dream of a dressing room,” fumed Rangers gaffer Philippe Clement. “It has killed the dream of more than 50,000 fans [actual attendance 39,180 – Football Daily Ed] and you expect a better level in decision-making, because this is, for me, the worst decision I’ve seen in more than 30 years.” Dynamo Kyiv went on to score twice, meaning Rangers will have to do with Big Vase once more.
There was drama all over the shop. PAOK thought they were heading to the playoff round when pesky Malmö kid Nils Zätterström popped up with a 96th-minute equaliser, Anders Christiansen’s extra-time winner then giving the Swedes a 6-5 aggregate victory. PAOK will have to settle for Europe’s second tier, where they will be joined by … José Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. They too got to extra-time via an injury-time goal, this time courtesy of Lille’s Bafodé Diakité chesting the ball into his own net. When the visitors’ Aïssa Mandi was given his marching orders, Mourinho must have thought he was back in the Big Cup big time, only for Istanbul to be silenced by a 118th-minute Jonathan David penalty awarded after a VAR review.
“It’s better if I don’t talk about the penalty,” moaned Mourinho. “Only the referee knows why it was a penalty, and the VAR knows. I’m proud of my team. I am an honest person. I told my players that I was proud of them, they did everything to win. One team deserved to win but the other team advanced.” The drama wasn’t done there, mind. Spare a thought for Ludogorets, who were hopeful of getting to Big Cup proper after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Qarabag in Azerbaijan. They conceded early at home in Tuesday’s second leg but had turned things around by the 23-minute mark. Unfortunately, they managed to concede twice in first-half injury-time as the tie was levelled, but the most important thing was to still be in it … until they conceded four in extra-time to lose 8-4 on aggregate. God bless the qualifying rounds.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Erik shaped the early stages of my career, so he knows how to get the best out of me and I cannot wait to work with him again. I know what it takes to succeed at the highest level, and I’m determined to continue that record at this special club” – Matthijs de Ligt there, after joining Noussair Mazraoui at Manchester United and taking their total number of players who’ve played in the Netherlands or for Erik ten Hag up to 4,905.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
To continue the recent Memory Lane theme of mustachioed heroes (full email edition), here is my distant cousin, Jimmy Crabtree, sporting the classic look. Always nice to remember the players and the past while looking forward to the future” – Tom Crabtree.
Milk Cup is back, baby, and it brings to mind a glorious era in football. No, not the 1981-86 run of Milk Marketing Board sponsorship but the late-1970s and early-1980s era of post-cup final tunnel player interviews, where no self-respecting interviewee could possibly answer a question without first raising a glass bottle of milk to their lips. Yes folks, milk used to come in glass bottles and what more wholesome sight could there be than a professional sportsperson toasting their success or failure (treating both impostors just the same in a manner of which Kipling would have approved) than by drinking milk straight out of it. Would love to see our current players handed a glass bottle of milk in a post-match interview and watch them flounder as they question what they are expected to do with it. Mind you, these days it would probably be regarded as a performance-enhancing substance and lead to bans” – Charlie Ashmore.
I wouldn’t worry about Troy Deeney failing to provide amusement in his Premier League Team of the Week on the BBC (yesterday’s Party Off, Garth; full email edition). Judging by the colourful and uncensored opinions he had of his Forest Green charges during his short spell as manager, it could be he is about to show Garth Crooks a thing or two about re-positioning the egos of the man-babies he’ll be judging” – Colin Reed.
Yesterday’s Football Daily made at least two references to ‘the schools going back’ and the likelihood of a striker scoring 45 goals before then. While I appreciate the reasons for anglocentrism, could I point out that, in many areas of Scotland, pupils have returned to school. Chances of anybody scoring anything before then are not high” – Ken McKinlay.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is …. Colin Reed. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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