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Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich

Agg 2 - 2 | 20:00 BST | TNT Sports

There are only three things worth putting life on hold for:

• A wedding.

• A haircut.

• A big - big - Champions League game.

And I’ve got two planned tonight. Not the wedding, in case you were wondering.

I don’t know about you, but Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich has me excited. It’s one of those fixtures that has the group chat firing on all cylinders.

The Kings of Europe, Los Blancos, are the favourites to go through to the final:

• Madrid are unbeaten in their last eight Champions League meetings with Bayern…

• … and they’ve won six of their last seven against them at the Bernabéu.

The fact that the German giants haven’t kept a clean sheet in 16 Champions League meetings with Madrid is a damning picture. 

Oh - and another thing - Ancelotti has never lost in nine Champions League meetings with Bayern. 

So, what we’re trying to say is, that playing Real Madrid at the Bernabéu in the Champions League is tough… (duh!)

… even for a side like Bayern.

Still… only a fool would rule out the 6x Champions League winners. 

But, it’s usually Real Madrid that play well with their backs against the wall - let’s see if Bayern can do the same. 

• 💉 Real Madrid Quick-Hit: Los Blancos are unbeaten in their last 42 matches in all competitions excluding extra-time.

• 💉 Bayern Munich Quick-Hit: The Bavarian side have only won four of their last nine games, drawing two and losing three.

Plus…

The FA has secretly issued a lifetime ban to a former Chelsea coach in a bullying and racism scandal (More)

Nottingham Forest have lost an appeal against their points deduction (More)

The referee scheduled for Aston Villa’s Conference League semi-final served a six-month suspension for match-fixing in 2005 (More)

UCL Stats Zone

PSG 0 - 1 Borussia Dortmund | (0-2)

Champions League semi-final 2nd Leg

→ Mats Hummels scores his first Champions League goal for Borussia Dortmund in over 11 years.

→ PSG scored 0 goals from 5.36 xG in the Champions League semi-finals against Dortmund.

→ Since the Qatari takeover in the summer of 2011, PSG have spent €2.04 billion and have only reached the Champions League final once.

Game In Numbers

What the stats say about United’s season

It has been a tough week for Manchester United fans. Understandably so.

But have their performances been as bad as they’re made out to be?

You know… beyond losing the most games in the club’s Premier League history. We’ll just swiftly skip over that one. 

Let’s cut through the noise - especially Gary Neville’s ‘ooo’s and ‘ahh’s -  and look at what the stats say.

(If you want to save yourself 30 seconds, the short answer is: it’s been bad). 

The crux of their issues is in defence. United have faced 317 shots - the most of any other side - this season. To put that into perspective, that’s an average of 18 shots per game. 

The worst part… they’re actually overperforming in defence - by quite some distance: 

In other words, they’re conceding even less than they should be.

Ten Hag’s men have struggled to find a way to dominate possession, recording the lowest average possession (50.64%) since 2003/4. 

Their defence has been poor but - don’t worry - we haven’t forgotten about their attackers. 

Sky Sports has run the numbers and found that:

• United have scored 52 goals across 35 games in the Premier League, three more than their worst in 2015/16 under Louis van Gaal. 

• And Bruno Fernandes’ 10 goals is the lowest ‘top scorer’ for United in Premier League history…

So, it’s safe to say, it has been a poor season. 

It’s hard to know where to point the finger. The manager? The injuries? The players? The lack of players? The ownership?

Either way, United have a chance to patch over some wounds in the FA Cup final against City.

Route One End-Of-Yea-Award

Thank you to everyone who voted for the VAR-y Bad award yesterday.

Today’s vote is the… ⭐️ Router’s Player of the Season ⭐️

It’s time to have your say…

Remember: at the end of the season, we’ll reveal all the winners. So stay tuned.

Off The Pitch

😳 270,000 UK forces records thought to have been exposed to Chinese hackers (More)

🍗 A political party in Germany calls for kebabs ‘to be subsidised’ as the dish nearly surpasses €10 (More)

🔄 TikTok sues the US government to block a law seeking a sale or ban of the app (More)

🦷 Scientists are about to test new medicine to grow new teeth (More)

🚓 ‘Fake policeman’ attempted to pull over a woman by showing ID (More)

💀 Archaeologists have pieced together a skull of a woman who walked the earth 75,000 years ago (More)

🕺🏽Eurovision 2024 semi-finals kicked off in Sweden yesterday (More)

Around The Football World

🌎 Harry Kane is the second-fastest player to reach 400 career goals in the history of the sport - only behind Lionel Messi (More)

🇪🇸 Manchester City owner will need to sell shares in Girona (City Group own 47%) to comply with UEFA requirements (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hull City have sacked manager-of-the-year nominee Liam Rosenior after the Tigers missed out on a spot in the Championship Play-offs (More) 

🇩🇪 Joachim Löw said he had a hard time after leading Germany to World Cup glory in 2014, admitting to locking himself in a toilet because there were too many people in the dressing room (More) 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Partick Thistle and Airdirenonas drew 2-2 in the first leg of the Scottish Premiership Play-offs. They play the second leg at Firhill on Friday.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bolton Wanderers are through to the League One Play-off final, despite losing 3-2 to Barnsley in their semi-final second leg. Wanderers won the first leg 3-1.

Extra Time

Jorginho’s fiancé pulls a weird prank on the Arsenal midfielder.

Michael Olise predicted a big move but just not in the way you think he would have.

Jamie Carragher says Casemiro has three games left at the top level.

Hummel’s new Kellogg’s kits are… surprisingly really nice.

Kylian Mbappé creates a new meme after being asked if he will support Real Madrid vs Bayern tonight.

Rio Ferdinand has beef with Drake since he lied to him.

Game Face On

Question: Who did Thierry Henry make his Champions League debut for?

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Champions League: Real Madrid (2) vs (2) Bayern Munich (20:00 BST, TNT Sports)

UEFA Europa Conference League: Club Brugge (2) vs (3) Fiorentina (17:45 BST, TNT Sports 2)

League 1 Play-offs Semi-final: Peterborough United vs Oxford United (20:00 BST, Sky Sports Football)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer: Monaco

“He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle, and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s alright.”

-George Best on David Beckham