With the 2024-25 season in Uefa-land drawing to its glamorous close, is there a better time to assess how the whole thing went down with everything considered in the round? Yes! But Football Daily doesn’t publish on Sunday morning, so let’s make the best of a bad lot. And it’s been a good year for English football all right. Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United went to the artistic and creative mecca of Bilbao and staged what can only be described as a dirty protest, a Chelsea squad worth £1,400,000,000 struggled against (though eventually steamrollered) a team collectively priced at 0.96% of a Mykhailo Mudryk, and it’s fair to say the rest of the continent will be extremely glad to see the back of us.
It was a close-run thing that there’s no English representation in Saturday’s Bigger Cup final, mind you. Paris Saint-Germain may have reached tomorrow’s mega-game by beating all four Premier League contenders, but it wouldn’t have taken too much for matters to pan out in a very different way altogether. Perhaps if Manchester City hadn’t, for a couple of John Bondian months, reverted to their 1977-2009 norm? Perhaps if Willian Pacho hadn’t been able to clear Ian Maatsen’s fine volley off the line during the last knockings at Villa Park? What if Liverpool’s analytics department had told Jürgen Klopp to cool his boots over Darwin Núñez? And how about a world in which Mikel Arteta didn’t spend his life obsessing over WWE-style corner routines and turned the attackers loose instead? Give the old open play a quick go? See what happens? Eh? The slim margins. And so it’s fair to say the rest of the continent will be extremely glad to see the back of us.
And yet, having said all that, Internazionale aren’t necessarily guaranteed to bring big smiles to the big event either. Anyone who speaks fondly of their 1964 and 1965 champions, Helenio Herrera, catenaccio, liberos and all, are trying way too hard, lying both to you and themselves. There’s a reason even some Rangers fans were cock-a-hoop when Celtic’s Lisbon Lions did their thing. Inter’s 2010 winners, meanwhile, are solely remembered these days for driving Barcelona up the wall and round the bend, the final that year almost an afterthought for José Mourinho, his main goal of breaking Po’ Pep’s noggin already achieved. Although to be scrupulously fair, Romelu Lukaku provided some primetime Saturday-night light entertainment two years ago when keeping goal for Manchester City. So it’s swings and roundabouts.
This year Inter could finally feature in a showpiece to remember, as anyone who watched their latest iteration’s gloriously batty defenestration of Barcelona in the semi-finals can attest. Admittedly their 7-6 aggregate win denied everyone the dream final showdown of Lamine Yamal and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but it’d be churlish to deny Inter their destiny after their role in that instant classic, two matches that scraped the sky before finally breaking into heaven when Francesco Acerbi, 83½, celebrated his campaign-saving stunner with a joyous Fred-Astaire-style mid-air heel-click. Anything similarly thrilling and life-affirming tomorrow – e.g. Davide Frattesi pulling off exactly the same celebration but backwards and in high heels – and it’ll be an occasion to remember. We’re not there for a start, so have fun, Europe!
FollowEngland 4-2 Portugalin the Women’s Nations League with Xaymaca Awoyungbo tonight (7.45pm BST). And don’t forget to join us for Bigger Cup buildup on Saturday, beforePSG 1-2 Inter (aet)live with Scott Murray (8pm BST).
“It doesn’t take a genius to work out that every attacking stat for Arsenal is down from what it was last year when they finished second. Then they finished second again. Whether it was the manager, or whether it was the top brass whose decision was it to go into the season without having a striker, it’s cost them dearly because they never really put up a serious fight to Liverpool” – Alan Shearergets his chat on with Alexander Abnos, and appears to fancy a gig with AFTV.
“How do Chelsea fans feel about a £1bn+ investment yielding the Conference League trophy? To paraphrase Tina Turner,Wroclaw Got To Do With It?” – Peter Oh.
Sign up toFootball Daily
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
after newsletter promotion
“Re: Thursday’s Football Daily main story – “I would rather defecate in [my] own hands and clap” will be my new method of refusal to various people for sundry suggestions from now on” – Simon McMenamin.
“Can we say Chelsea have Delap in their hands now?” – Krishna Moorthy.
Send letters tothe.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Rollover. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewedhere.
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version,just visit this page and follow the instructions.