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Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid

Semi-final | Leg 1 of 2 | 20:00 BST

The two giants of the competition meet again. 

Think: Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield. Captain America vs Iron Man. Michael Jordon vs Magic Johnson.

That’s no exaggeration. This is the most played fixture in the history of the European Cup/Champions League.

In recent years, Real Madrid have come out on top:

• They are unbeaten in their last seven against Bayern, winning six…

• … and they’ve won their last three away games against the German giants.

But, out of their 26 meetings, the Bavarian side have the edge with 12 wins - and Madrid one less with 11 wins.

Bayern are also unbeaten in their last 24 home games in the Champions League.

That’s the bigger picture.

On the pitch, the narrative is around two England internationals: Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham…

• Kane has been involved in 10 goals in 10 games in this Champions League campaign.

• Bellingham has 4 goals and 4 assists in the campaign - and he recorded a season record of 146 high-intensity pressures against City.

… the difference-makers for their sides and both in their debut season.

But, in short, this fixture is harder to predict than the price of Bitcoin in 2021.

• 💉Bayern Munich Quick-Hit: If Kane scores, he surpasses David Beckham and Steven Gerrard’s record goal involvements (10) for an English player in a single UCL campaign.

• 💉 Real Madrid Quick-Hit: Rodrygo is Madrid’s top scorer in the competition this season with 5 goals.

Plus…

Football agent Saif Alrubie has been cleared of sending an intimidating email to former Chelsea director of football Marina Granovskaia (More)

Leicester City have been promoted back to the Premier League in first attempt (More)

Erik ten Hag asks fans for ‘patience’ after it was confirmed that Manchester United have missed out on a place in the Champions League (More)

Thiago Silva will leave Chelsea at the end of the season after four years (More)

Premier League Bitesize Updates

Spending cap incoming

Yesterday, Premier League clubs voted in principle to introduce a spending cap…

… from the 2025/26 season.

What does that mean? It’s simple. Promise…

Club’s spending on transfers, wages and agents’ fees are “anchored” to the amount the league’s bottom clubs receive in broadcast revenue.

This means that… excessive sponsorship deals (and we’ve seen lots of those, ey) will not increase the richest club’s spending power.

Voilá. An attempt to stop the financial gap widening in the league.

For a vote to go through, 14 of the 20 clubs must vote in favour of the change. Only Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa voted against the spending cap… and Chelsea abstained from voting. 

Anyway, it’s hard to say how much the spending cap will be, but we can speculate by looking at last season’s broadcast revenue… 

(Sorry. It’s not the prettiest graph.)

The “anchor” will likely be a multiple of the lowest club’s broadcast revenue - around 4.5x.

So… let’s take Southampton’s broadcast revenue - £108m - and multiply that by 4.5…

…*calculator in hand*…

That’s around £486 million to spend on transfers, wages and agents’ fees.

I know what you’re thinking… £486m?! That’s hardly a spending cap?

And… you’d be right.

As Kieran Maguire points out, if the multiple is 4.5x then only two clubs would have to reduce spending - Chelsea and Manchester City.

But the good news is… PSR rules are being fazed out. Woohoo!

Record at the wrong end

Some records are great…

• Lifting the heaviest deadlift in history.

• Running the first 4-minute mile. 

• Or even the largest gathering of people dressed as penguins (my personal favourite). 

But, some records - well - aren’t so good.

After the four own goals scored this weekend, we’ve seen another record broken: the most own-goals scored per game in Premier League history.

To be exact… this season has seen an own goal every 7.4 games. 

This season we’ve been on repeat about records broken for X and records broken for Y.

But this isn’t exactly what the English top-flight wants to be known for.

Here’s a fun fact for you: the last time the rate of own goals was higher than this season was in 1888. Eeesh.

Off The Pitch

🛳️ Titanic’s wealthiest passenger’s gold pocket watch sells for €1.4 million (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Humza Yousaf resigns as Scotland’s First Minister. The SNP leader faced two no-confidence votes this week after Yousaf kicked the Scottish Greens out of government (More) 

👟 New Balance Loafers are the latest ugly shoe to go viral (More) 

💍 William and Kate release unseen photos to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary (More)

🇪🇸 Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will not resign after allegations against his wife (More)

🚊 Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have had two new Welsh trains named after their home cities (More)

Around The Football World

🇺🇸 Lionel Messi scores twice and breaks two Major League Soccer records - his 16 goal contributions are the most by any player in their first seven matches of the season and he became the first player to make multiple goal contributions in five consecutive matches (More)

🇹🇷 Southampton’s sister club in Turkey, Göztepe, have been promoted to the Turkish Super Lig after a 2-0 win over Genclerbirligi (More)

🇩🇪 Harry Kane’s brace over Eintracht Frankfurt took his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions. With 35 goals in the league, he’s six short of Lewandowski’s 41 in the 2020-21 season with three games remaining (More)

🇪🇸 La Liga’s Technical Committee for Referees (CTA) have recognised that mistakes have been made while using the VAR to make offside calls this season (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 PFA Scotland Player of the Year award shortlist has been announced, with Jack Butland, Matt O’Riley, Lawrence Shankland and James Tavernier in the running (More)

Extra Time

Arsenal’s home and away kit for next season kit has been leaked. 

Does Peter Schmeichel know something we don’t about the Manchester United manager?

Jamie Vary scores and celebrates like a mad man in front of the Preston fans.

Jamie Redknapp played a bigger role in Robbie Williams leaving Take That than you think.

Leandro Trossard and Anne Hathaway might be the weirdest cross-over this season. 

How to fix the Premier League Hall of Fame.

How each of the traditional ‘big six’ press.

Football karma in full swing for Bukayo Saka’s corner.

Game Face On

Question: Which of these players has played for seven Champions League clubs, but has never won the competition?

Hint: Bicycle kick.

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Champions League: Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid (20:00 BST, TNT Sports 1)

Championship: Coventry vs Ipswich Town (20:00 BST, Sky Sports Football)

MLS: Philadelphia Union vs Seattle Sounders FC (00:30 BST, Apple TV)

CONCACAF Cup: Pachuca vs Club America (2:15 BST, YouTube)

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

Answer: Zlatan Ibrahimovic

“Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end, the Germans always win.”

-Gary Lineker