No Hiding

And No Excuses

4 Teams left in this year’s tournament and you have to reckon that both Arsenal & Atletico (who play tomorrow) are very happy to have avoided both Bayern & PSG in the semi’s.

The luck (or bad luck) today pits PSG against Bayern at the Parc des Princes in the City of Lights. PSG I’d say clearly have their eyes on a repeat of the Champions League as they’ve fallen to a few iffy results domestically recently. But as spring thinks about turning to summer PSG at the elite level have looked every bit as impressive as they did last year (Don’t forget PSG taking Inter Milan to the woodshed in last year’s final and winning their maiden Champions League 5-0), now we’re not forecasting that happening tonight to Bayern (It still could) especially as Bayern seem to have a leaky back door and have immense trouble keeping clean sheets - with PSG’s firepower chances of Bayern conceding no goals has to be as close to 0% as possible.

Bayern just sealed their 13th League title in the last 14 years - so yeah, they’re pretty dominant & luckily for them the team is getting healthy at the money end of the season & the money is real. PSG bagged $170M from their winning run in the Champions League last year - a nice little earner indeed.
But Bayern are blooding back into form both Musiala & Davies (2 absolute superstars in their own right) Davies the Canadian talisman who’ll be leading the Canucks out at this summer’s World Cup a phenomenal left footed player who wreaks havoc going forward & Mr. Gumby himself Musiala (Could have played for England or Germany, but chose the Fatherland) who with his languid gait goes past far more players than you’d guess - making his way back from a terrible injury, same as Davies - good to see these 2 on the way back.

Then there’s ‘arry himself - England captain and leading the front line with aplomb for the Bavarian maestros - he currently sits on 49 goals this season an incredible tally as he’s not done yet. Very hard not to like this guy, a model professional and he’ll be marching the 3 lions into battle in a little over 6 weeks (Yes, Yes, Yes! - The 2026 Shakedown World Cup starts 6 weeks on Thursday in Mexico City - I think the golden goose is about to lay the biggest egg ever and then run fallow, FIFA certainly seem to be doing their exploitative best to ruin one of world sports premier events - more to come on this in the weeks ahead).

Will the supercharged Bavarian engine purr in Paris?

Unfortunately, across the halfway line sits the exciting youth strewn posse of PSG - these guys are just great to watch - D’Artagnan himself with the beard and the wavy hair (real name Vitinha of Portugal) - he’s like Itzak Perlman with the Philharmonic - knows who to glare at, who to hug and who to laugh with & all the while they’re picking your pocket and you’re saying merci - assisted by fellow Portuguese Neves, who’s more of the bulldog frame, but a touch like an Angel’s kiss.

And the boys up top (God France might be awesome this summer) - Ousmane Dembele - the hit man who finally found his range - out on the right either Barcola or Doue - each one incredible young French strikers / & then then! - the man who’s name I’m usually too lazy to type - Kvicha Kvaratskhelia (Glad I don’t work in a birthday cake shop in Tiblisi - imagine fitting Happy Birthday Kvicha Kvaratskhelia on there? - I wonder if they have Costco in Georgia? - it’s only one of their giant slab cakes that would work) - well, this guy is so so good it’s hard to describe - have mentioned him before, but he’s truly a throwback to some of the greatest wingers/dribblers football has produced in the last 50 years, A joy to watch - undersells him.

Bad news? - It’s not the final (coz it really should/could be)

Good news? - we get to see them play twice (this week and next)

If anyone has a cigarette lighter at work - take it to the cable on your monitor and the power cable from your computer - this is definitely a down tools moment for catching a match, what a match, maybe the match of this year’s tournament - In fact if there’s a game as good as this before the calendar turns to July this summer, I wouldn’t be surprised.

The fans (of both teams) will create a great atmosphere and watch early to see what Tifo goes up before the start.

We say this sometimes - this is good as football gets on planet earth - period / If you disagree I’ll see you in court.

Don’t really have to say enjoy the match as we all will.

2nd semi-final tomorrow

Respectfully Submitted

TC Soccerologist