“It’s in the bag!”
As anyone who loves awards shows will tell you, there is such a thing as a foregone conclusion. That’s why actors and actresses tend to take to the stage, whimper something about how they “really weren’t expecting this”, before reciting an astonishingly detailed speech about their co-workers and loved ones.
It’s a trick known in the movie trade as “forced humility”, or “pretend shock”. Something that the gentlemen of Barcelona could do with practicing, should they make it to the Champions League final.
The big news today (as reported in Marca) is that Barcelona have already decided not to take the “home” dressing room at the Bernabeu on the 22nd May, much prefering the idea of sticking to the quarters that they usually use when visiting their Real Madrid rivals.
Presumably, this wasn’t really their decision to make. Plus, there is the small matter of a quarter and semi final to get out of the way first.
This will come as quite a shock to Arsenal, who have presumably spent the morning debating which players should go first to pick up those big shiny winners medals.
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3 responses so far
1 greg // Mar 19, 2010 at 6:30 pm
barca will win the champions league this season. arsenal play the exact style with lesser quality. inter got hammered 2-0 without messi ibra in group stages. man u are simply not good enough. it was only a month ago there was talk of united’s decline and weaknesses. one good month in which results flattered them and now they’re simply the best? no chance i’m afraid. and those rating rooney on the same level as messi need to be locked up in a mental hospital. villa, torres, drogba, ibra etc. are all better strikers. however united do have park and fletcher who in my opinion are the most criminally underated players on the planet. i can only see barca lifting this trophy. also i have a ginormous DICK
2 Scott // Mar 20, 2010 at 12:27 am
Much as I don’t wish to agree with the large cocked gentleman he does have a point as far as the eventual winners is concerned. The draw does seem to have played into Barcelonas’ hands. Forget Arsenal, any manger that rates Bendtner as world class (hat-trick or not) has clearly been lost in his own world of ‘winning.’ Yet ‘we did not see it!’ Inter will be tight but the edge gained from the group stages will prevail against the south central ambulance services’ special one. And so to ‘Sir Alex’ in the final. Park (token far east money spinner) and Fletcher, far from being underated appear to pick up plaudits for non-existant finishing and dubious contributions. However I do feel Rooney does now have an all round game to rival any striker in world football and his new found discipline makes him a genuine threat to Barcas’ ambitions but as he’ll be injured by then and England will be in mourning from his failure to make the world cup finals it should be a walk in the Bernabau for Barca.
3 L // Mar 20, 2010 at 4:56 am
errm, isn’t the barcelona side of the draw the ‘away’ team anyway if they get through to the final? (last thing determined in yesterday morning’s cl draw) so surely the utd/bayern/lyon/Bordeaux side of the draw is the ‘home’ team - which i think means that the ‘home’ team gets the home dressing room (the rm players room) or the home team gets 1st choice of dressing room and kits they wear on the night - someone correct me on this (if it is a 1st choice of rooms thing i’d advise the ‘home’ team to pick the away dressing room as the pics of the home dressing room looks like a nauseating shrine to the players/egos who play for madrid currently - it may be a little distracting for the cl team who uses it in may - esp barca).
i’d imagine this is marca making trouble for barca like sport (pro barca newspaper i think) make for madrid, but i’d advice barca and to an extent utd not the count your chickens before they’re hatched (you just need to look at madrid to learn your lesson on that one - not only did they they count the chickens but they in their heads had bought the seasonings, roasted the chickens and laminated the menus) - both arsenal and bayern are more than capable of springing a surprize as both are very good teams and they have less to lose than utd and barca by being knocked out at this stage by this opposition - mark my words there is at least one more shock left in this seasons champions league.