The Warm-Up: The Champions League semi-final that has everything
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Updated 24/04/2018 at 07:25 GMT
Plus: another stupid idea from the halls of people who only care about one thing, then there's Sam Allardyce...
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has urged fans to behave ahead of Roma’s visit for a Champions League semi-final (Peter Byrne/PA).
Image credit: PA Sport
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Klopp: ‘We feel the opportunity’
Big ol’ game on tonight. Biiiiiiiiiiiiig ol’ game. Liverpool are in the Champions League semi-final for the first time since 2008, welcoming Roma to Anfield in one of those games dripping with both potential for present excitement and historical poignancy.
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Jürgen Klopp
Image credit: Eurosport
This is the sort of game that, if you can’t get excited about it, you’re probably watching the wrong sport. We’re excited. You’re probably excited. Jurgen Klopp is certainly excited.
Most people in the football world thought the last four would be Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid and City. Barcelona are not here because of Rome and City are not here because of us. We both deserve to be here. Maybe a lot of people think the real final should be Real Madrid v Bayern Munich but that will not happen because they are in the other semi, so one of us will go through. “That is a big chance for both of us but a big job to do. We are both in a good moment. Anyone who watched Roma in the last few weeks can see they are flying with different lineups. They made seven or eight changes in the last game and still won comfortably. “We really feel the opportunity. It is a big thing. We came here with not a lot of expectation. We only came here expecting to win the games. People ask me if I feel pressure. No. I only feel opportunity. I am really happy to be here and to have another big night at Anfield.”
See? Excited.
Everton trudge to another three points
Meanwhile, across town…things aren’t quite so exciting. Broadly because Sam Allardyce is Everton manager. That’s probably enormously unfair, because Everton beat Newcastle last night, 1-0 thanks to a Theo Walcott goal, but it’s also an indication of the joy that has been sucked out of the club that even victory – the ultimate point of all this, remember – feels like drudgery.
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Everton manager Sam Allardyce insists he is over his ‘hurtful’ dismissal from Newcastle a decade ago (Peter Byrne/PA).
Image credit: PA Sport
He really doesn’t help himself. Here’s what Allardyce had to say about Newcastle’s performance. There’s really no need to comment any further, really:
What was wrong with our style today? We completely dominated the game, outpassed the opposition and found it very difficult to break them down because of their negative tactics of dropping 10 players in their own half.
Anyway, should you – or more importantly any Everton fan – care, the win takes the Toffees into eighth place. Well done, Sam. Another cracking season in the books.
Souped-up Club World Cup on the horizon?
You might think that the last thing any of us needs is more football. Less is more, let’s all have a breather, allow ourselves to do something else with our time. Give everything a little air.
Not according to the relentless bods at Fifa, who seem to think that we all need another uber-global, super important, massively lucrative (there it is) tournament to distract us from the real world.
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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has plenty to ponder ahead of the Qatar World Cup (Nick Potts/PA)
Image credit: PA Sport
The short version is that Gianni Infantino is apparently set to hold talks about a new, $25bn Club World Cup tournament, to be held every four years and starting in 2021. This would replace the Confederations Cup, usually only used as a dry-run for the World Cup, and feature the best club teams from around the world. By which they mean the best teams from South America and Europe.
Sounds great. Let’s flog our greatest talent like they’re horses, insistent that if we wave enough money in front of their employers’ faces they will suddenly develop super-human powers of stamina and be able to produce the same level of performance until they keel over and we have to cover them with a tarp.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Jurgen Klopp
For the relentless positivity you can see on this, and many other pages.
Zero: Sam Allardyce
For the relentless negativity you can see on this, and many other pages.
RETRO CORNER
If ever a victory can feel futile, the knowledge that this ostensible superiority in the scoreline won’t do you any good in the long-term, it’s winning 3-2 at home in the first-leg of a semi-final against peak Kaka’s Milan, as Manchester United did on this day in 2007. Milan didn’t even need those two goals in the end – they breezed through the second leg 3-0 and beat Liverpool in the final.
HAT TIP
It is striking how, at Liverpool’s training ground, Klopp is also stimulated when discussing real life and tangled politics, Brexit and Angela Merkel. There are moments in a free-wheeling conversation when the hilarity feels unstoppable as Klopp considers a claim that he would win an election to become German chancellor because of his attention to detail, communication skills and empathy. But there are many more thoughtful moments – particularly when Klopp addresses the vexed issue of Brexit and his belief that British people should have the chance to vote again on their future in or outside the EU.
In this interview with the Guardian’s Don McRae, some more evidence is provided that Jurgen Klopp is a good egg.
COMING UP
It’s a shame that Derby v Cardiff probably won’t get the attention it deserves, because there’s some promising beef brewing between managers Neil Warnock and Gary Rowett. But there’s only one show in town tonight.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by the lovely Alex Chick.
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