THE GRAND BUDAPEST CARTEL
The state-owned football team it’s OK to like (and proof that sportswashing works), Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in Bigger Cup final courtesy of a draw against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. Like Shaun Murphy in Monday’s night’s thrilling denouement of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, the German champions didn’t do a great deal wrong and were similarly gracious in defeat despite their obvious disappointment. “The level of both teams was very, very high,” sighed Vincent Kompany as he ruminated on his team’s exit. “PSG have so much quality, they’ve probably been the best team in Europe in the last two years.” A team that is currently so good it was forced to replace deadweight no-marks such as Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar to finally shed their tag as Bigger Cup nearlymen and bottlers, the willingness of their replacements to do the dirty work of defending played no small part in helping PSG get over the line.
For all their graciousness in defeat, Bayern’s departure from the tournament wasn’t entirely unclouded by rancour. It was understandable considering that ultimately, they were diddled by a PSG penalty in the first leg that should never have been awarded. On Wednesday Bayern felt further aggrieved by two more handball decisions that didn’t go their way, one of which turned out to be entirely correct and an initial one that still doesn’t look entirely incorrect after multiple viewings. “It’s astonishing, to say the least, that a referee with only 15 [Bigger Cup] appearances is allowed to take charge of such a match,” parped Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen of Portuguese referee João Pinheiro’s performance. “And that perhaps also explains some of the decisions.”
While Mikel Arteta, his coaching staff and Ben White will spend the next couple of weeks lying awake wondering how best to solve a problem like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia without creating 99 others elsewhere, no end of Arsenal and PSG fans will endure similarly sleepless nights stressing over how they will get tickets for the final in Budapest. With just 16,824 general admission tickets going to each club, almost exactly half of the 67,215 capacity of the Puskas Arena will be reserved for “friends” of the dysfunctional “Uefa family”. While 10,000 fans from each club will get tickets for a reasonably priced €70, the next cheapest are twice that amount while the most expensive Category A admission slips are just shy of a grand. With airlines and Budapest boarding houses also shamelessly muscling in on the gouging act, many Arsenal fans will consider the small fortune begged, borrowed or stolen a small price to pay for the privilege of watching Arteta’s Fun Boat™ drop anchor in the Danube.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join John Brewin from 8pm BST for hot Bigger Vase semi-final updates from Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest (agg: 2-2 aet; 4-3 on pens), while Niall McVeigh will be at the wheel with full coverage of Crystal Palace 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk (agg: 5-2) in the last four of Tin Pot.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
10pm 6 May: “I’m excited by what the future holds for this amazing group of players” – Manchester City boss Andrée Jeglertz pays tribute to his team after they ended Chelsea’s run of six consecutive WSL titles, crowned champions after Arsenal could only draw 1-1 at Brighton.
10.30am 7 May: WSL top-scorer Bunny Shaw decides to leave Manchester City this summer at the end of her contract.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Doing some half-hearted/@rsed research of potential Bigger Vase finalists, Braga, I drifted into a section about the city’s famous old inhabitants. One of these was a 16th-century skeptic philosopher called Francisco Sanches, who claimed that nobody knows anything, particularly those who say they do. With a European campaign – that was helmed, briefly, by both Big Ange and Sean Dyche (et al) – potentially ending in an unlikely final, Forest seem to have proved old Fran-San’s point” – Andrew Boulton.
It’s interesting that Declan Rice thinks that Arsenal’s achievements can’t be underestimated (yesterday’s Football Daily). The only things that can’t be underestimated are things that are extremely small. Anything large can easily be underestimated” – Bob Cushion (and others).
Maybe Chester and Wrexham (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) could go down the Forest/Derby route and rename the A483 to ‘Phil Parkinson Way’?” – Jim Hearson.
Am I the only one who saw this fine picture of Pep Guardiola and Jordan Pickford at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night and thought: ‘All this really needs is the addition of an ‘I’ and an ‘S’ to be perfect?’” – Adam Sherlock.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Adam Sherlock, who gets a copy of Classic Football Shirts. It’s out now and the Guardian Bookshop is offering discounted copies here if you’re not successful. The are loads of other top reads on their website, too. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
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