Bayern Munich and Real Madrid reunited: some things don’t change
Carlo Ancelotti doing his best Carlo Ancelotti. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
DECADES AND DECADES
Ten years is a long time in football. At Southampton, Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez, Gastón Ramírez and Adam Lallana formed possibly the most Streets Won’t Forget forward line since Sam Allardyce’s Bolton side. Victor Anichebe’s infamous “can you tweet something like” tweet didn’t even exist yet. Steven Gerrard had just slipped. Heady days.
If your interests extend beyond Social Media Disgrace retro b@nter accounts – and Football Daily refuses to confirm or deny if this is the case – then there was also some football going on. Real Madrid, the so-called Kings of Europe, hadn’t reached a Big Cup final since 2002, and 10 years ago this week, faced a daunting semi-final second leg at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena. La Décima, the holy grail for Madridistas, was on the line. Having won 1-0 at the Bernabéu, Madrid destroyed Pep Guardiola’s Bayern 4-0, with some blokes called Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos scoring twice each to book their final date in Lisbon.
Some obvious similarities, then, to Tuesday’s Big Cup semi-final in Munich between, yep, Bayern and Real Madrid. Despite a decade passing, the 4-0 will be at the forefront of the minds of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal, all of whom played a part that night. The world is a very different place to the one we lived in in 2014 – Pepe had a perm! – but some things don’t change. Carlo Ancelotti is still manager of Los Blancos, albeit in a second stint. And Toni Kroos will again strap up his boots, albeit this time, it won’t be for Bayern.
The decade since 2014 may have been kinder to Madrid, at least in terms of Big Cups, but that’s all in the past now. Madrid’s present and future, Jude Bellingham, facing Bayern’s present and future, Jamal Musiala. Both born in 2003, the duo are former England youth teammates and roommates. “He’s one of my best mates in football,” remarked Bellingham after pipping Musiala to the Kopa Trophy at last year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, about a year after the England international two-footed his old pal in the Bundesliga while playing for Dortmund. From the England U-15s, to Der Klassiker, to Big Cup’s semi-finals, it’s been a meteoric rise for Bellingham and Musiala. Tuesday’s game is not going to be very friendly, but it should be a decent watch.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for hot minute-by-minute Big Cup semi-final, first-leg coverage of Bayern Munich 2-2 Real Madrid.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“My feeling is he is going to stay. If it was my decision he will stay. Jamie Vardy is Leicester, Jamie Vardy has always scored goals and even when he is 45 years old he will score goals. Goals are in his blood” – Enzo Maresca hopes the former England forward hangs around when his contract runs out this summer after scoring twice in their Championship title-confirming win at Preston. By the sound of it, though, perhaps Vardy should be seeking a medical opinion first.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Sean Dyche and Blossoms, you say (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). Aye, well, bonny lads, worraboot Alan Shearer in Wor Bella at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, eh? This is the fantastic play/one-woman show about Bella Reay, who played 30 games for Blyth Spartans Ladies for a short spell from 1917 (in green and white stripes rather than black and white) and scored 133 goals in 30 appearances, some at St James’ Park and at least one in front of 23,000 at Ayresome Park. Not only that, but she developed a right arm up, index-finger-pointing goal celebration. Just as we were all thinking, ‘Now who does that remind us of?’ up pops St Alan on a back-of-stage screen, filmed in appropriately grainy black and white, to suggest that ‘others may copy that in the future’. The play is by Ed Waugh so it’s brilliant and moving and funny, with Catherine Dryden carrying it off wonderfully well. If the Toon sell Alexander Isak they may find her available for £60m. The real Bella died in 1979, not long after Blyth Spartans famously reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1977-78. And if you haven’t seen Hadaway Harry or The Cramlington Train Wreckers – more Waugh brilliance about, respectively, Harry Clasper and some strikers in 1926, do” – Pete Welsh.
Reckon you’re right with Blossoms holding off their crossover release until Everton were safe. With safety secured, borrowing from that catchy-as-heck debut single from the band, ‘and the river always flows, so if you go, I will know, by the rain, Dyche shall remain’. Someone will need to tell Ashley Young that this will not work on his gramophone. Sorry” – Antony Train.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Pete Welsh.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The latest Women’s Football Weekly podcast is fresh out the edit suite.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
Struggling to know who to blame when your striker misses a sitter from six yards out? Then David Squires is here just for you with a handy referee grudge tracker. And a reminder that you can get copies of his cartoon in the print shop.
YOU’VE JUST GOT TO RIDE IT
At 213ft high, 5,479ft long and with a top speed of 74mph, Football Daily used to think that The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was the most thrilling rollercoaster in Britain. But it turns out it’s not even the most thrilling in the north-west of England. Nope, because the high-speed ups and downs at Everton FC in recent years have made tickets at Goodison Park an absolute must for adrenaline-junkies. In the past couple of years alone, fans of the grand old club have been taken on a terrifying ride towards the abyss (on the pitch and off it) on more than one occasion. White-knuckled Toffees have enjoyed the whoooooooosh of whizzing clear of relegation … wheeeeeeeee! … before dipping back into a speedy descent towards the Championship when hit with points deductions … whaaaaaaaaaah! … and subsequently winning some points back on appeal … whooooooo! … and with some good and bad performances on the pitch in between. The latest buzz came after roaring up to top-speed in a three-match winning streak that secured survival. But just when Evertonians thought the 2023-24 ride was over, it emerged that the club has called in insolvency advisers amid fresh doubt over the proposed takeover by 777 partners. Yes, that’s the sound of wheels whirring again. And in a sign of how terrifying the latest drop downhill could be, 777 Partners’ airline has just entered administration. Time to buckle up again, Blues.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Sixteen Premier League clubs have backed plans to push on with trying to put a cap on player spending – with three opposing the measures (the Manchester pair, plus Aston Villa) and Chelsea abstaining.
Vicente del Bosque has been parachuted in by the Spanish government on a top-secret mission as head of a committee supervising the scandal-ridden RFEF.
Zambia’s women could miss out on playing at the Paris Olympics after Fifa threatened the country’s FA with suspension amid accusations of money-laundering offences against its president and “undue influence by third parties”.
The winning bid for the next Women’s World Cup in 2027 will come from either Brazil or the combined efforts of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, after USA USA USA and Mexico pulled out of the running to focus instead on 2031.
WSL clubs will be the subject of a three-year research initiative – Project ACL – designed to find ways of reducing the knack. “What makes this project stand out is it focuses on professional women’s football and benefits from the collaboration of a wide range of stakeholders,” cheered Fifpro’s Dr Alex Culvin.
Grassroots clubs in England believe the ongoing cost of living crisis, insufficient funding and the relentless state of the weather present grave threats to their existence, according to a new survey.
And in nerd news: Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has become a playable character – “Barbarian King” – in mobile video game Clash of Clans. “It’s been tough to keep this one quiet, but I’m excited to finally be able to talk about this epic partnership,” he whooped.
MOVING THE GOALPOSTS
The latest edition of our sister email is out and you can read an extract, focusing on Bristol City’s relegation and why it hammers home the stark realities of the WSL. Subscribe to get the full newsletter every Tuesday and Thursday.
STILL WANT MORE?
Jonathan Liew tees up Kane v Bellingham Bayern Munich v Real Madrid.
Sid Lowe has all the latest news from Spain, where a third-tier goalkeeper stole headlines over the weekend.
And get the lowdown on Arne Slot, Jürgen Klopp’s expected successor at Liverpool, via the medium of video.
MEMORY LANE
A proper slice of the decade from July 1985 at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, where a host of Ajax players (you’ll spot the current Dutch national manager among them, second from the right) are having a photoshoot with members of pop group Mai Tai, as you do.