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Apologies for being a couple hours late on this—still have some sick kids and crashed while putting one of them to bed.
So today may mark the end of England’s involvement in this year’s Champions League. We’re set for the second leg of the quarterfinal matches between Real Madrid and Bayern as well as Leicester City and Atletico. Atletico leads 1-0 after last week’s first leg at the Calderon and you have to think a single goal today would be enough to take them through. If Atletico scores one goal, that would give them an away goal and the advantage in the case of a tie. In other words, if Leicester concede today they will also need to score three in order to advance. And it’s hard to see them doing that against a defense as stout as that of Atletico Madrid.
We haven’t talked Champions League much in here. Who do you like for the semifinals? I’m guessing that we see both Madrid clubs joined by Juventus and Monaco. If that happens, it would be the first time since 2008-09 that we have had a Champions League semifinal without at least two of Bayern, Barça, or Real Madrid competing. It would also be the first time we’ve had a French team in the semifinals since Lyon, captained by Hugo Lloris, advanced to the 2009-10 semifinals (where they were thrashed by Bayern Munich).