Eden Hazard stars as Real Madrid loom
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Updated 09/04/2019 at 07:07 GMT
Plus: Pep gets greedy, Leonid Slutsky's flow and we might be taking football just a bit too seriously
Eden Hazard of Chelsea looks on during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on April 08, 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Enjoy Eden Hazard while you can
Eden Hazard has been at Chelsea since 2012. He is, we are told, broadly happy with his lot in London, which is absolutely smashing for those of us in England who have enjoyed watching him every week. He’s had his off years, but in that time he’s largely been glorious, all while speculation about him moving elsewhere swirls.
Now it really does sound like that speculation has some substance to it, and a move to Real Madrid is said to be likely for the coming summer. So let’s enjoy Hazard in England while we can, and drink in moments like the absurd goal he scored against West Ham last night. Hazard nabbed a second just to cap off the 2-0 win, but it’s the first that will be in the YouTube compilations of his best moments at Chelsea.
When asked about his potential departure after the game, Hazard did his usual thing of saying he’s concentrating on Chelsea for now, but afterwards “we’ll see”. This of course has happened before, with a transfer strongly mooted, and in the past he’s always stayed. There’s also the complicating factor of Chelsea’s transfer embargo and Callum Hudson-Odoi’s future: can they actually afford to let him go as things now stand?
Maurizio Sarri said afterwards that Hazard is basically irreplaceable, and that any mooted transfer fee would have to be one thick wedge of dollar. “£100m? Too cheap. But if he wants another experience it is very difficult to keep him ”
Keep him or not, it’s been a pleasure to watch him every week.
Actually Manchester City are going for a quintuple…
Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho don’t agree on a huge amount, but apparently one of the things is that the Community Shield is a proper trophy.
He said, for some reason, as Manchester City prepared to face Tottenham in the Champions League on Tuesday night:
Why does nobody count it? Why? The people say we’ve won one title so the Community Shield? Maybe it counts for last season but when we went on holidays, it was not in our pocket. In Spain, in Germany – where I have been – the Super Cup is an important trophy. Always, we’ve had the feeling we’ve won two titles and have three to play. But the people say: ‘Just one title, one title.’
Fair enough. Thus, should they beat Tottenham it will be a further step towards a quintuple, rather than a mere quadruple. Greedy Pep.
But will they? It does feel odd to suggest a manager who has won the thing twice has a blindspot when it comes to the Champions League, but he didn’t reach the final with his otherwise all-conquering Bayern Munich side and City have soiled the bed in the last couple of seasons in Europe. Tottenham are the underdogs, but can they cause a shock?
Mauricio Pochettino said on Monday:
We need to make sure we match City’s motivation and desire. The first strength of City is not their quality. It’s their will to fight for every single ball. De Bruyne, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Sterling, Jesus, Agüero – before they start to play, they run and press and are aggressive. And then, because they have unbelievable quality, they can win more games than they lose.
Champions League games between two clubs from the same country is always theoretically not the most desirable, but you’ll forget all that if this turns out to be a humdinger. Tune in.
How easy is this tie for Liverpool?
Naturally it’s easy for people to think Liverpool have got a virtual bye to the Champions League semi-finals after drawing Porto. And naturally it’s almost as easy for people to say “Oh, well, no easy games, Liverpool can’t assume they’ll just turn up, Porto are a good side too” etc and so on.
So how easy or otherwise will this tie be for Liverpool? Jurgen Klopp had a nice line on this, when he said yesterday:
Everybody wanted Porto [in the draw] until you have Porto.
In theory this shouldn’t be close. Liverpool beat Porto 5-0 in last season’s competition, and relatively speaking the Portuguese side have enjoyed a not too taxing run to this stage. But the Champions League has a nasty habit of biting hubristic teams in the behind: Liverpool will be wary.
IN OTHER NEWS
Leonid Slutsky, now Vitesse Arnhem manager dontcha know, combines complaining about the referee with, quite frankly, getting his groove on. Check out those shoulders. Lovely to see.
IN THE CHANNELS
Here at Warm-Up Corp, we are all for innovations. New technological thinking drives the world around us. Our lives are enhanced by these developments. Progress is good.
But when you have a pundit analysing aspects of a football game using virtual reality goggles, you have to ask the question: are we taking football just a little bit too seriously?
HAT TIP
The last time Manchester United and Barcelona met it ended with a plea for mercy. There were 10 minutes left in the 2011 European Cup final when Wayne Rooney approached Xavi Hernández and, the way the Catalan recalls it, said something like: “That’s enough, you’ve won. You can stop playing the ball around now.” Sergio Busquets, who was alongside him that day, smiles at the memory, laughing a little.
Sid Lowe talks to Barcelona’s midfield ballast Sergio Busquets about a life at the Nou Camp.
RETRO CORNER
Liverpool and Porto have played each other a fair few times in Europe over recent years, but none of them have Barry Davies commentating on them so enjoy this one from the run to the UEFA Cup final in 2001. Interesting goalkeeping.
COMING UP
Big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big. Big. It’s big. Big games. Big Champions League games. Big Champions League games involving English teams. Big Champions League game between English sides. Big. Also, slightly less big, but still big, is the first half of a full round of Championship fixtures, featuring cuddly old Leeds United and Derby County, both doing their darndest to get out of the division.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Ben Snowball, who is also very cuddly. In a personality sense. Not trying to call him fat.
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