All in the Game: Paul Merson’s Lewandowski gaffe

Champions League aficionados are unlikely to ever forget Bayern Munich’s performance in the 2019-20 competition when they became the first team to win every one of their matches en route to winning a European competition.

Along the way, they racked up some whoppers of results, including a 7-2 win away to Spurs, a 7-1 aggregate defeat of Chelsea in the round of 16 and an 8-2 annihilation of Barcelona in their quarter-final meeting in Lisbon (a one-off game due to Covid).

Need it be said, their top scorer was Robert Lewandowski who helped himself to 15 goals in the 10 games he played, a tally only ever topped by Cristiano Ronaldo. The only game he didn’t score in was the final, when Bayern beat Paris Saint Germain.

Why are we mentioning all of this? Oh, a chat between Paul Merson and Jeff Stelling last week, about the possibility of Harry Kane joining Bayern, brought it to mind.

Inter fans celebrate Serie A title win in front of Milan's Duomo

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Three Irish women rise with Crystal Palace, but two fall with Bristol City

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Ken Early: Postecoglou’s gung-ho principles come at a cost for Spurs

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Barcelona is the bad habitat that Xavi just can’t kick

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Merse: “I don’t know if that would rock his boat. What would you go there for? To win the Bundesliga?”

Jeff: “They’re Champions League contenders year in, year out.”

Merse: “Ah, you’re raving on that — they won’t win the Champions League.”

Jeff: “They might do with Harry Kane in the side.”

Merse: “They didn’t win it with Lewandowski in it!”

Oh Merse.

QUOTE

“If she wants to win the World Cup, she better put me on the plane.”

Amber Barrett with a gentle nudge for her gaffer.

NUMBER: 28

That’s how many players were used in Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign — but only 23 can be taken to the finals. Sport? Cruel.

WORD OF MOUTH

“It was unbelievable, I hadn’t seen that in a long while. It reminded me of Romario, he had that toe-poke finish too.”

Damien Duff with the ultimate salute for Amber Barrett.

“Apart from his lack of quality on the ball, he is above all very rash. Calvin Bassey playing football hurts my eyes.”

Former Dutch international and now pundit Wim Kieft being quite rude about the Ajax defender, wondering how on earth he cost them €23m from Rangers.

“Does Aubameyang consider himself a champion? But he doesn’t know how to trap the ball.”

Speaking of rudeness — former Italy international Antonio Cassano on Pierre-Emerick.

Hand of God auction unpopular in England

Safe to say, news that Ali Bin Nasser is selling the ‘Hand of God’ ball from the Argentina v England game he refereed at the 1986 World Cup finals hasn’t gone down tremendously well across the water, the reaction much like ours might be if the ‘Hand of Thierry’ ball was flogged too.

“The gall of the referee to keep the ball all this time and will now cash in on the biggest mistake in refereeing history,” said a decidedly irate Gary Lineker when he spoke to talkSPORT, asking, not unreasonably, “how the hell did he end up with the ball?” .

It will be auctioned in London next month, with people who know about these things reckoning it could fetch around the €3 million mark.

The Sun went to the lengths of door-stepping the now 78-year-old Bin Nasser in his “shabby flat” in Tunisia, describing him as a “rubbish ref”, “shameless” and, worse, “a muppet”.

Bin Nasser is, though, unrepentant. “This ball is part of international football history,” he said. “It feels like the right time to be sharing it with the world.” Generous, that lad.

Erling’s heart and liver

It’s not uncommon for aspiring young footballers to copy the diets of the game’s mega stars in the hope that they too will reach peak physical condition.

In the case of Erling Haaland’s diet, though, you’d be thinking their thoughts would be along the lines of, ‘na, you’re grand thanks’.

What does he eat?

“People say meat is bad for you but which? The meat you get at McDonald’s? Or the local cow eating grass right over there? I eat the heart and the liver.”

A Big Mac, please.