Messi and Ronaldo will not qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals for the second year in a row after the Portuguese were eliminated, with Manchester United on Tuesday, and the Argentine last Wednesday with Paris Saint-Germain against Real Madrid.
Madrid no longer succeeds the two stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Argentine Paris Saint-Germain was unfortunately eliminated by Real on Wednesday 9 March, while Atlético took responsibility for leaving the Portuguese forward, a symbol of Manchester United’s impotence. The two whale legends who have reigned over the past decade in football, are denied the Champions League quarter-finals for the second year in a row. What confirms the diagnosis of the decline of the multiple winners of the Golden Ball.
Failing to increase in Manchester and Paris Saint-Germain
Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Juventus this summer, after being eliminated by Porto in the last 16 of C1 last year, was still full of ambition. His return to Manchester United, the club at which he exploded and his search, like him, for his lost glory, has given hope for a beautiful story in which the team and player regain the heights side by side.
A poor elimination against Atletico (1-1, 0-1) on Tuesday and the highly complex situation in the league in the hopes of bringing back C1 next year make that scenario obsolete.
The 37-year-old Portuguese is accustomed to attracting the light, and will also have to accept attracting criticism when he misses, like on Tuesday, even if he is quick to forget about tasteless, and even alarming, performances from other carriers such as Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho or Marcus Rashford And Paul Pogba on the bench.
For Messi, 34, too, seven months after arriving with great fanfare at the Parisian club, the story quickly turned sad, as the Seven Ballon d’Or collected its whistles on Sunday in Parc, his first post-elimination outing in Madrid.
“We all deserve the fans’ wrath, not just Messi and Neymar,” Mauricio Pochettino tried to defend, but the numbers are stubborn: his 10 passes in the French league do not hide… The one who finished “pichichi” in La Liga over the past five seasons.
In C1, it was a little better (5 goals), but it had no effect in the two matches against Real, a penalty was missed on the way out which greatly affected the end.
The Champions League is no longer their garden
For the second year in a row, the top eight European teams performed very well without the services of Ronaldo or Messi, and Porto and Paris Saint-Germain were executors of Juventus and Barcelona last year. This year, it was the intimate enemies, Atletico, that CR7 martyred a lot with Real or Juventus, and Real Madrid, for the former Barcelona, who shortened his course. It’s hard not to see the burden of the years there, even if the failures cannot be entirely blamed on them.
Three days after achieving a hat-trick in the league, Ronaldo was unable to score at any time against Atlético. But without his six goals in his first 5 group matches, the Red Devils would not have reached this level of competition.
For Messi, if the missed penalty in everyone’s mind remains in everyone’s mind, then the catastrophic scenario at the Santiago Bernabeu is a feature of Paris Saint-Germain more famous for its “plates” than for its exploits on the European scene, in the era of the Qataris.
Since winning the prestigious European Cup in 2015, Messi has also restricted exit through the back door with Barcelona on the back foot: it suffered “rebounds” against Roma in 2018 and Liverpool in 2019, a massive defeat against Bayern in 2020 (8-2) and another. Against Paris Saint-Germain the following year (1-4) …
For Messi, if the missed penalty in everyone’s mind remains in everyone’s mind, then the catastrophic scenario at the Santiago Bernabeu is a feature of Paris Saint-Germain more famous for its “plates” than for its exploits on the European scene, in the era of the Qataris.
Since winning the prestigious European Cup in 2015, Messi has also restricted exit through the back door with Barcelona on the back foot: it suffered “rebounds” against Roma in 2018 and Liverpool in 2019, a massive defeat against Bayern in 2020 (8-2) and another. Against Paris Saint-Germain the following year (1-4) …
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AFP/France24/MCP, via mediacongo.net
