City And OL live to fight another day

The League of Champions is back and it came bearing gifts. Well gifts to Manchester City and Olympique Lyonnais and coal for Real and Juve. 

The most important competition in club football came back with a bang and reminding us why this league is so loved. Between Ronaldo's screamer and Varane being haunted by the ghost of David Luiz where should I even begin.

Let's start with Manchester City vs Real Madrid. Coming into the game, City was leading 2-1 on aggregate, having scored 2 away goals. All City needed was to either draw or at most 1-0 defeat. However, Varane surely made it easy for them. I am not going to be one of those people who will change their opinion on a player based on one game. Varane is an exceptional defender and a world cup winner for a reason. But last night was not his night. It showed how important Ramos's leadership was to that team and how he is an anchor defensively. Also, HOW GREAT HAS GABRIEL JESUS BEEN? It's so unfortunate that he is the backup for the one of the greatest strikers of all time. On his own he could probably be a competitor for a Golden Boot any of the top 5 leagues in the world. Also, congratulations to Raheem Sterling for scoring his 100th goal. On the side of Real Madrid's offence, Benzema as always was amazing but he can't do it alone, he needs help. Hazard is an amazing player in his day but injuries are not letting him achieve his greatness with the side. Also, with all the Gareth Bale drama, he could have probably helped the attack. Hopefully they don't have injury issues next season because they, at the full strength, are a real competitor. For Manchester City, Pep and his team really need this champions league trophy.

Now onto the second fixture of the day, Juventus vs OL. Juventus, regardless of being 1-0 down on aggregate they were the favorites and the next game was in their backyard. But if you've been watching Serie A after it has been restarted you'll see the struggles Juve has been facing. Couple that with Dybala being injured, its not an ideal situation. Ronaldo did everything he could to try and win that game but the both the controversial penalties and so many shots not making a difference. OL weren't bad at all but Juve could've done more as a team rather than rely on one man. Sometimes the aggregate rule does seem to stump me. Because it means if you have one bad game it will not only affect you on that day but for the next game as well, even if you do play well. And OL won because of the away goal, but what makes a stadium a home or away game is the fans, which there weren't any. 

Maybe they should try a format where they play a best of 3 game format in an unbiased environment like a different stadium all together and because its best of 3, aggregate goals don't matter. This way the best team will always win regardless of a bad game. I hope someone could take this into consideration because I think it would make the games more fair and ensure there is parity in the league. 

Anyway, we move on and hope for more entertainment like last night for today's fixtures.