Barstool’s Champions League Preview – The “Real vs Bayern – The Climax” Edition

Sam's Army5/01/2018 4:30 PM

Sam’s Soccer Safe Space For Stoolies

Hi haters,

Real Madrid heading home with a lead. Roma facing an unsurmountable three-goal deficit. Welp, guess these games are gonna be pretty boring. No chance we’re in for any drama. Probably not even worth watching. Yawn.

Or, you know, maybe not.

This blog is gonna be extra brief because I’m heading into jury duty as we speak… so pray for the poor schmuck who I have no choice but to convict after 30 seconds of deliberations in order to get my happy ass home for 1:45pm CT kickoff…. LET’S GOOOOOOOO!

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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Scores from last week and schedule for this week:

TUESDAY’S PICK

Real Madrid [+115]
Bayern Munich [+190]
Draw [+295]

Suffice to say I’m pot committed at this point.

I have chosen the hill I plan to die on, and am now simply awaiting judgment from the Soccer Almighties.

Let’s be honest, it’s hard to love Bayern today. Things were looking pretty swell for Ze Germans in the first leg as they went up an early goal and were controlling play… but losing Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng to injury not only killed their momentum, but – the extended absence of Boateng in particular – is going to be a HUGE loss in today’s game. And that’s before taking into account the longer term injury spells of Manuel Neuer, Kingsley Coman and Arturo Vidal.

In contrast, Madrid comes into today’s game remarkably healthy all things considered, with the only real question marks being whether Raphael Varane and Isco are ready to go.

Banged up Bayern losing to a rather “fortunate” Real Madrid squad has almost become an annual tradition at this point, and a lot of people would say that this year – in what would be a carbon copy of 2016-17 – is shaping up to be no different. (To the credit of the Madridistas, “luck” does not explain their ability to come up big time and time again when it truly matters. Some players and/or teams just know how to perform in key moments – nobody more so than Ronny – and Real Madrid is the posterchild for this phenomenon. The anti-Tottenham, if you will.)

When the going gets tough, the Hotspur go home and hang a banner and watch it on TV

Somebody asked me last week why I have been so down on Madrid this season. It isn’t because they have “lost a step”, though this is the case for some key guys (eg, Sergio Ramos and Ronny). It is instead primarily because of how disjointed they have looked on defense for much of the season, including inexplicably consistent mistakes by Keylor Navas. Look no further than Kimmich’s goal last week where he broke the first rule of goalkeeping and dove away from the near post. To their credit, Madrid have tightened things up at the back quite a bit in recent months, but even so the first leg against Bayern (and second leg against Juventus last round) showed that they are still shockingly prone to huge errors. Ze Germans simply didn’t capitalize on them last time out, but are you really willing to bet that Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller can be held similarly silent this time around?

I’m going with a goal apiece from those two and an equalizer (of sorts) from Ronny, who can’t be stopped in front of net at the moment – especially mano-y-mano with the keeper from precisely 12 yards out. Call it coincidence or call it fate, but whatever you do don’t you dare call it a biased pick [wink]… Bayern to win 2-1, with Die (Other) Mannschaft then casting off the yoke of recent history and advancing after extra time.

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As if that is not enough we’ve got another big, big, biggggggggggggggggg day tomorrow.

Stay pumped, kiddos… and please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease send your T’s and P’s my way in the hopes that the judge dismisses tf out of me ASAP so I don’t miss today’s gloriousness.