The Daily Bee (April 6th, 2021): All Eyes on the Champions League

Good Morning Fear The Wall!

The Bundesliga is rubbish anyway. We’re all about playing in the Champions League, not like the rabble fighting to qualify for it. How gauche. We only lost to Frankfurt because we are focusing on tonight’s big game against Manchester City.

Borussia Dortmund face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final. BVB are clear underdogs in tonight’s game, and their chances of progressing seem pretty slim. FiveThirtyEight give Borussia Dortmund an 11% probability of winning tonight, compared with Man City’s 71% probability.

In anticipation of a big game between two teams donning Puma kits, Puma shared a tweet with the following very weird image:

Puma

I don’t understand what is going on here. What is with the ships? Why are Aguero and Reus wearing these trousers? Why is Reus pointing at Aguero but not shouting? Are BVB supposed to be from another planet? What is this nonsense?

Elsewhere, Real Madrid and Liverpool will be facing off in the first leg of their tie. I really don’t understand why UEFA insist on these games being played at the same time. Surely they’d be better off with staggered kick-off times? Then we could watch both games!

Analyzing Erling Haaland

At this point there is probably three or four different stories about Erling Haaland published every day. Most of them are just a new spin on the discussion about his future, with a new club being linked to him, or BVB claiming that they have no plans to let him go. Personally I try to avoid paying much attention to it, because it’s pretty circular, and we’re unlikely to see much of significance being reported at least until the end of the season.

However, Tom Worville has recently put together a long read for The Athletic that I would highly recommend. He has taken the time to analyze Haaland to get some perspective on just how good he is.

The Athletic

It turns out that he is very, very good, but he is also incredibly well-rounded, offering an offensive threat aerially, in behind the defense, and in link-up. It’s difficult to overstate how impressive Haaland is already.

The Athletic

But if you want a little more than that, give it a read. Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall, but for anyone that does have a subscription to The Athletic, it is well worth a look.

The Daily Buzz

What is your tipple of choice for watching Borussia Dortmund lose in big games?