Was a fantastic night all round for football as a whole. Yet again there were graphic demonstrations of how Mourinho and Chelsea are polluting our game, distorting the flow of what is right, cheating and thieving an advantage. This time though football prevailed.
I've waited all season for a team to come along who are good enough to expose the myth of how good this Chelsea team are. As the media sucked Mourino's bollocks only a couple of months back and talked about "the quadruple" and whether or not they could go the whole season unbeaten, I could barely keep down the bile which rose in my throat. As the same media who hounded Luis Suarez out of our game lauded Diego Costa as a "real winner" who "gives his absolute all" and who'd be "the first name on your team sheet" we all had to bide our time.
When redemption came in the form of PSG it was beautifully presented by the footballing gods. The starter was perfectly laid out and couldn't have been better prepared, one of the best players in the World wrongly sent off as a result of Oscars play acting and a clearly co-ordinated pincer movement on a poor referee by a desperate team. It did what all starters ought to do, it piqued our interest in whatever was coming next, made us impatient for the next installment.
The main ought to be the most important thing as the name would suggest, and here we weren't let down. This was "nouvelle cuisine" football, with less being more in a thrilling combination of ten versus eleven and the artistry in the diminutive form of the games conductor, Viratti. Here the myth of Hazard was once again exploded as he was only able to influence a proper game of football via a few trademark dives after self inflicted "contacts" with defenders. Meanwhile the tiny Italian midfielder took the ball repeatedly in knife edge situations before drawing gasps from the crowd with his high wire brilliance. The main course was PSG's utter dominance of the game with ten men, and it ate beautifully while still leaving room for dessert.
The dessert was superbly thought out and executed. Firstly, twice Chelsea seemingly had the game in their grasp as a result of predictably committed "keep it alive" set piece play. There was no art in this collective will inside the opposition box, but as we know only too well it is hard to stop and play against. Thrillingly though, Paris responded twice and even in set piece goals, they were far superior as they managed to delight and surprise with two wonderful headers.
So the Chavs were out, and seeing Mourinho crying about time wasting at the end was the liqueur on the house. His interview was gold too, moaning about "cheating" when his teams have set the standard worldwide over many years. The footballing gods served up a treat last night alright, and given many of us had waited a long time for it, there was a flavour we will remember for many a year. Thank you PSG, it was a truly beautiful evening.
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