SCHADENFREUDE AND PETROHUBRIS
The knockout stage of Big Cup begins this evening, and thoughts naturally turn to Barcelona. They’re not in it, of course, but that’s exactly why everyone’s thinking about them. Barça shipped three goals on three occasions in the groups, and so now they’ve got a battle on to make the last 16 of Big Vase instead. Looking on the bright side, at least the likes of Bayern Munich, Roma and Liverpool can’t get at them from where they are now – though let’s hang fire on confidently declaring this new environment a humiliation-free safe space until we see what Napoli do to them in that Vase play-off game.
