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Hello! Pandemonium in Lisbon. Thank God for Raphinha.
Come:
? Barca bring the chaos
? Amorim furious destroys the television
? The first $1 million player
? Dortmund Limoge Sahin, your boss
January 21, 2025. Remember as the morning after Donald Trump’s second inauguration, but as the date of the most incompetent tie-up in Champions League history. And I mean that as a compliment because incompetence can be the godfather of natural entertainment.
It was last night when Benfica and Barcelona spent their life savings on the D-Day landing. I’m here for football in general, but I’m also up all night for an Omnishambles, and Lisbon gave us an instant harvest of the genre. Don’t ask me how Barca came out of Dodge with a 5-4 win.
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At various points, they were 1-0 down, 3-1 down and 4-2 down. Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis managed to score a hat-trick and lose. Barca were smoked — or so we thought, until Raphinha edged it spectacularly in the 96th minute (above). He’s irreproachable and he smells of the Ballon d’Or. Everything else in the (relative) warmth of Portugal smelled of glorious farce.
Wojciech Szczesny received the ball and gave Benfica his second goal with a sweeping action that Borderline killed his partner Alejandro Balde (above). Then he had time and granted a penalty, eliminating the Kerem Akturboglu end.
Barça uses what we call “economic levers” to maintain its finances on the right side of the league rules. Would it be good to humbly recommend that the next time they do one, spend money on a world -class goalkeeper?
Not to be outdone, Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin helped Barca out by driving an easy clearance in off the head of Raphinha (above). He couldn’t repeat the blunder if he tried. That was 3-2, until Barca’s Ronald Araujo sliced a cross into his own net. And then it went off.
Robert Lewandowski and Eric Garcia brought the scoring to 4-4. Raphinha not to be chuffed with a point. Benfica’s replacement, Arthur Cabral, won a red card without entering the box and many rags were lost at the ultimate whistle. Frame it.
The chances at Benfica made the rest of yesterday’s games decidedly pedestrian. Liverpool are moving on and are seven-seven after a 2-1 win over Lille. The arrival of Jonathan David may be an obstacle.
TAFC noticed Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin holding the bag. They lost 2-1 in Bologna and, a few hours later, he had said goodbye. And no one causes chaos like Diego Simeone, whose Atlético Madrid was down 1-0 with 10 men but found a way to turn Bayer Leverkusen around. Simeone wore a mustache twice to win the Champions League. This is the justice we need.
“Shoot from the lip” our way of describing Ruben Amorim after publicly criticizing his Manchester United team. We didn’t really know the part of it, because after his loss to Brighton on Sunday, he smashed a big-screen TV in the dressing room.
Amorim has no more shit to give. It’s her way or the highway and, as Laurie Whitwell’s very good exclusives demonstrate, Patience wears out. But that he brought small-scale violence to the table is telling because football has largely moved on from the days when coaches motivated a team by reading the Riot Law.
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It used to be the done thing and never more famously than when Amorim’s most renowned predecessor, Sir Alex Ferguson, drew blood from the face of David Beckham by kicking a boot in his direction in 2003. Whether any of this is appropriate is for you to judge, but if nothing else, Amorim is letting us know where his head is at.
An equally impressive exclusive from Meg Linehan of The Athletic. Women’s soccer is about to revel in its first million-dollar transfer, with USWNT defender Naomi Girma to leave the San Diego Wave for Chelsea. The agreed payment is $1. 1 million (£890,000).
This improved the last brand ($ 843,000) established through the transfer of Racheal Kundanji Al Bay FC last year and it is the third time that the World Women’s Soccer record has been damaged since the beginning of 2024.
No doubt, the money involved is a mile behind the men’s game still. The first male player to move for $1m or more was Italian Pietro Anastasi in 1968. Neymar holds the current record at $246m. But one thing we know for sure about women’s soccer: it’s expanding, fast.
(Selected games, times ET/UK)
Champions League (all sports Paramount /TNT and 3/8 p. m. unless otherwise stated): RB Leipzig vs Sporting CP, 12:45/5:45 p. m. – CBS, Paramount, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports; Milan vs. Milan Girona, 3 p. m. /8 p. m. – CBS, Paramount, Fubo/TNT Sports; Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb; Celtic v Jovenes; Paris Saint-Germain opposes Manchester City; Real Madrid vs. Red Bull Salzburg; Sparta Prague vs Inter.
Europa League: Besiktas vs Athletic Club, 10.30am/3.30pm — Paramount+/TNT Sports.
How furious is the Benfica coach Bruno Lage, with his players after the chaos last night in Lisbon? I wonder if he also broke a TV.
(Top photo: Eric Verhoeven/Socrates/Getty Images)