Football news - The Champions League is Bayern Munich’s already

We've got it all wrong.

As Liverpool sacrifice it all for a title no one else wants, Manchester City pretend they never liked Europe anyway, Juventus prepare to be barred from leaving the country, Real Madrid and Barcelona squabble over being unavoidably average, and PSG continue to squander money on players who would rather be anywhere else… an obvious contender for the Champions League has been overlooked.

We all stand accused of only paying attention to Germany when Jadon Sancho or, more recently, that gangly blonde kid from Norway does something. But no more.

Bayern Munich, under soon-to-be-permanent-but-currently-interim boss Hansi Flick, are FLYING. Lewandowski is banging them in. Muller has reverted to the 2014 model. Neuer hasn’t made a mistake since last week. Gnabry, once unable to get a game for West Brom, is scoring for fun (more on that later). Throw in a bunch of youngsters spearheaded by Alphonso Davies, who appears to be grabbing headlines for being fast and going AWOL, and they’ve got a serious shot at European glory.

They’re already in the Champions League quarter-finals and, crucially, don’t have the Bundesliga sewn up by spring. That competitive edge will carry them all the way to the trophy in May. 100%.

Antoine Griezmann may be toasting a crucial equaliser after Barcelona fought back to take a 1-1 draw from Napoli, but a stark statistic suggests their journey will not have a happy ending:

It got us thinking. Given Lionel Messi is the only one capable of stepping up on the road, surely, suuuurely, this will jolt him and make him realise it’s time for a new adventure. After all, any team that signs a Middlesbrough reject in an 'emergency' is unlikely to take down Europe.

And anyway, can we really declare Messi the GOAT if the only evidence of that greatness comes at a club built around him? Why let Ronaldo (what, you thought we wouldn’t mention him?!) have all the fun outside Spain? Lionel, if you're reading (he is), it's time to go.

Welcome back to Manchester City’s final Champions League campaign until… next season when their European ban is inevitably suspended/reduced/cancelled.

Raheem Sterling has miraculously recovered in time for the clash with Real Madrid, coincidentally the team whose shirt he draped over his shoulder in that interview.

Pep Guardiola has brushed that aside, publicly at least, and is hoping for a nice clean game where VAR correctly rules out a 95th-minute winner for his side at the Bernabeu:

William the Conqueror. Samuel Pepys. Charles Dickens. Welcome your newest inductee into the London Hall of Fame.

The German further cemented himself in capital folklore with two goals against Chelsea on Tuesday, adding to the four he struck against Spurs. Arsenal's greatest ever player? Definitely.

For 'forgetting' to turn up to the Cairo derby against Al Ahly.

[Insert 'tasty' joke about left/right foot]

We've never hat-tipped a statistic before, but this analysis from Opta on winning and losing positions in the Premier League is actually pretty interesting.

VAR derails Manchester City's European quest again at the Bernabeu, while Juventus travel to Lyon.