It’s probably as well, considering the to-do of the last few days, that Peter Collins didn’t announce to his audience that Real Madrid v Manchester City would only be available on ChampionsLeagueGo, while RTÉ2 would be bringing us live coverage of Tuesday night’s promotion play-off between Partick Thistle and Queen’s Park.
As it proved, the Champions League semi-final that the world and its mother has been billing as the Champions League final (all of Milan: “Hello?”) was free to air, leaving, say, the Cork and Tipperary hurling faithful saying “well for bloody some”.
It was free to air too on BT Sport, so long as you paid them a monthly fee, and for that you get Jake Humphrey and the lads whose tendency is always to assume (insert non-English team’s name) haven’t a snowball’s chance of beating (insert English team’s name).
We’re especially looking at Owen Hargreaves, off-duty last night, and Rio Ferdinand here, although in fairness to Rio he did acknowledge that Madrid, who’ve won five of the last nine Champions Leagues, are quite good, so might just make City work for their victory.
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BT’s Des Kelly tried to temper this giddiness by reminding anyone who would listen that “City are returning to the scene of an accident here,” in reference to their too-giddy-for-words semi-final defeat at the hands of the same opponents a year ago.
And while it is true to say that City didn’t have an actual striker back then, and have since acquired a half decent one, Des pointed out that Erling Haaland’s marker Antonio Rüdiger “can stick to you like chewing gum on the sole of your shoe”.
[ Kevin De Bruyne rocks the Bernabéu to give Manchester City a draw in first legOpens in new window ]
Back on RTÉ, Liam Brady professed himself to be befuddled by Haaland. Having watched him up close, he’d only give him seven out of 10 for technical ability, in the ha’penny place next to Marco van Basten, but 10 out of 10 for everything else, most notably the art of net-busting.
“He’s the final piece of the jigsaw,” said Shay Given, who was confident the blondie lad would lead them to glory.
Not as confident, mind, as Wayne Rooney who used his London Times column to suggest that City wouldn’t just beat Madrid, they’d “blow them away”. Unkind people might say that level of insight is why he’s manager of DC United, rather than being given a chance to cut his managerial teeth at a loftier level.
Off we went.
Wayne wasn’t wrong, City were, largely, blowing Madrid away. Possession wise, not actually on the scoreboard. And then the right foot of Vinícius Jr put the wind right up City when it whipped the ball past Ederson to put Madrid a goal up.
Against the run of play? Certainly. As Darragh Maloney pointed out, “that’s only the fifth time Madrid have mounted an attack – in comparison, Manchester City have had 28 of them”. May the usefulness of football stats rest in peace.
“This is a team of killers, they just smell the blood,” Rio sighed at the break, heroically pretending to be gutted about City’s treble-seeking quest being under threat. Once a red, always a red, like.
But very early doors.
Second half.
Madrid enjoyed roughly the same amount of possession as Leeds did in Manchester last weekend, a sight with which the Bernabeu regulars are not overly familiar.
And then Kevin De Bruyne did Kevin De Bruyne things, blowing Thibaut Courtois away with so gorgeous a strike it should be – what’s it they say? – hung in the Louvre.
Even by then, just seeing Kevin De Bruyne and Luka Modric on the same pitch again left us spoilt, RTÉ possibly regretting not charging us for the pleasure.
All square, then, at full-time, no one blowing any one away. The thrill of it, as Ronnie Whelan pointed out, in an uncharacteristically chirpy moment, was that every player on the pitch looked silky smooth on the ball, all of them demanding possession, rather than hiding from it, and doing silky things once they received it. These, it might be fair to conclude, are two useful teams.
The second leg? Ah here, drooling.
“The smart money says the winner of this competition will come from this tie,” said BT’s Jake.
Possibly. But, all of Milan: “Hello?”
