The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Hello!
Real Madrid are on for a 15th European Cup. By the skin of Joselu’s teeth.
Also today: Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Spanish FA, to stand trial on sexual assault and coercion charges. And news about a prominent Premier League figure granted anonymity in a historical sexual abuse case.
Final Flourish: Never. Rule. Out. Real Madrid. 🤯
For 88 minutes, German football was back on top.
Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final. Bayern Munich almost there. Bayer Leverkusen in perfect shape to make the final of the Europa League tonight.
It would have been no small feat. Since 2013, only one club from Germany have gone all the way in the Champions League — Bayern in 2020. But there’s no discounting Real Madrid. And the wilier he gets, no discounting their manager Carlo Ancelotti either.
Advertisement
Last night at the Bernabeu — Real looking beaten but bursting out of trouble with two late goals — was the extension of a fabulous knockout stage in which so many teams have been left with regrets.
Give us a barnstorming final at Wembley, where Dortmund meet Real on June 1, and this will not be far off the Champions League’s finest-ever year. It’s given us epic after epic.
Did Neuer drop Champions League trophy?
Bayern — or, perhaps, Manuel Neuer — threw it away. The catch he fumbled for Real’s 88th-minute equaliser was, as they say in cricket, a dolly. He claims those in his sleep — and probably did several times after going to bed.
JOSELU IS MADRID'S HERO! 🤩
A rare mistake from Manuel Neuer 😬
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/lcoUIfsyos
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 8, 2024
REAL MADRID ALWAYS FIND A WAY 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ZynoERYRV4
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 8, 2024
As for Real’s winner, it was a case study in both the offside law and UEFA’s method of managing it in comparison to the Premier League’s.
Joselu is clearly offside as the ball goes out wide to Antonio Rudiger but is deemed to be inactive. Bayern’s defence step up, Rudiger whips the ball in and that defence is nowhere as Joselu, now onside, taps it home.
THE SCENESSSS! 🤯
Joselu comes off the bench to turn the game around ⚽️⚽️
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/7w0BDseh7y
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 8, 2024
REAL MADRID TURN IT AROUND AT THE DEATH 😱 pic.twitter.com/gwWLFaknOC
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 8, 2024
UEFA uses semi-automated VAR for offside decisions, and the speed of the ruling last night was in striking contrast to the slow calls you see in the Premier League. Surely no bad thing that the semi-automated system is coming to England next season.
Not that anything is perfect. Bayern thought they had equalised in the 13th minute of added time, only for the finish to be disallowed on the basis of Matthijs de Ligt being offside. The assistant flagging early and the referee blowing his whistle immediately meant VAR could not rule on it. A hard one for Bayern to take.
Advertisement
Feels like destiny
There’s a name-on-trophy feel about this year’s tournament. Real scraped through on penalties away at Manchester City in the quarter-finals. They found Bayern incredibly difficult to shake off and were going out until the wheel spun again last light.
Joselu — useless at Stoke City and Newcastle United, a hero at the Bernabeu. Funny old world.
Will Thomas Tuchel rue taking Harry Kane off with Bayern ahead on aggregate and five minutes of the 90 remaining? It was a risk, definitely. It sounded the retreat and it staked everything on Bayern seeing out the tie in normal time.
All the same, it’s churlish to criticise Tuchel too much. He’s had a torrid year in Munich but in the Champions League, he was extremely close. That’s football, though, and that’s Europe. So very often, the house wins. And the safest house in Europe is Real Madrid’s. Plus ca change.
News round-up: Rubiales to face trial over Hermoso kiss
The lasting image of the 2023 Women’s World Cup final was that of Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), kissing striker Jenni Hermoso on the lips (above) after Spain’s win over England.
Rubiales has been facing criminal charges over that incident and it has been confirmed by Spain’s National Court he will stand trial for alleged sexual assault and coercion. A statement from the National Court described the kiss as “non-consensual”.
Other prominent figures in Spanish football are embroiled in this case. Jorge Vilda, Spain Women’s coach at the time, is to be tried for alleged coercion, along with two other men — Albert Luque and Ruben Rivera. Those three deny the charges against them.
Rubiales, who stepped down as RFEF president, insists the kiss was consensual. Hermoso refutes that and says she was put under pressure to agree that it was. Spanish prosecutors want Rubiales to receive a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Advertisement
EPL figure given anonymity in alleged sexual abuse case
On Tuesday, The Athletic’s Danny Taylor brought us the story of the ex-Chelsea coach who had been secretly issued with a lifetime ban by the Football Association.
Today, Danny has a report of a different, current, Premier League figure who has secured an anonymity order from the UK’s High Court after being accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl in the 1990s. The individual, a well-known name in football, has prevented his identity from being revealed in the civil case which has been brought against him.
As Danny explains, the complaint did not lead to criminal charges — but the woman involved is bringing a civil claim for aggravated damages.
Anonymity has been granted to “protect the interests of the defendant” and secure the administration of justice. The judge presiding over it said there was “no sufficient countervailing public interest in disclosure”.
Show Viz: What list of 50 most valuable clubs tells us 📈
In football, is incompetence good for business?
Obviously not. But at Manchester United, it’s doing no harm to their overall value. Sports business website Sportico has ranked the 50 most valuable football clubs in the world — with United top with an estimated price tag of almost £5billion ($6.2bn). Some other top lines:
MLS teams are shooting up in value. Five of them make the top 20, including Los Angeles FC and Inter Miami.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are second and third respectively, but England’s Premier League is dominant financially.
Outside of Real, Barca and Atletico Madrid, Spain has nobody else in the top 50.
Around The Athletic 🌎
Irish derby’s pyrotechnics and pig trotters
🇮🇪 Check out this derby in Ireland — Bohemians versus Shamrock Rovers, in which a pig’s head and trotters were once thrown at players. Find me a better headline than ‘Snout of Order’.
🇺🇸 Could Marco Reus be heading for MLS? Tom Bogert looks at that and all the other potential free-agent moves.
Catch A Match 📺
(Selected games)
Bayer Leverkusen vs Roma (Agg 2-0)
Europa League semi-final second leg, 3pm ET / 8pm UK. Paramount+, TNT Sports 2
Olympiacos vs Aston Villa (Agg 4-2)
Europa Conference League semi-final, second leg, 3pm ET / 8pm UK. Paramount +, TNT Sports 1
(Top photo: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
