Champions League, football festival

I’m one of those Champions League fans, passionate, geek who prefers to enjoy with friends and family, at Sport Café or at home, but enjoy. You can feel the tension of the competition 500 kilometers from the meeting, and that is that it is the queen of the competition.

We looked forward to these first semi-final matches of the qualifiers with the desire for a show, goals and controversies.

The one on Tuesday did not disappoint, without a doubt one of those games where you realize that football is a physical game, that the ball is a tool to achieve the goal, but that individual duels are small Thermopylae. A game in which Rodri excelled above all, where the wingers had offensive weight and the forwards participated, but they left us wanting more goals. The result remains open for the Etihad Stadium. The best game of the year is coming. A meeting that we will see live, but repeated several times. Game.

He left Milan alive yesterday. At no point did I smell the derby. I long for those San Siro derbies dappled with artificial fog caused by flares, where Materazzi ended the game with more fouls on Shevchenko than accurate passes. Or when we watched a Milan of bricks and peacocks with broken toys take on the champions of the Champions League with Mourinho in charge and Balotelli without her. I would point out two things in the game: the one playing at home did not shoot between three sticks until the 92nd minute; and that Lukaku was a substitute in the visiting team and was not absent. Conclusions: how good and elegant Edin Džeko is and how much we miss Zlatan Ibrahimović.

In a week we will know the finalists in Istanbul. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that whoever wins in Manchester will have half the Champions League in their pocket. I insist on pointing out that Milan can come out strengthened by returning to enemy territory or Inter knowing what it’s like to win in the semi-finals of the Champions League without overworking.

Any of the four possible clashes is worth enjoying the grand final, but I would still miss listening to the national anthem at 8.45 pm.