I'm really irritated because a team I was supporting, Italian team Juventus from Turin, got eliminated by French team Olympique Lyonnais from Lyon, based on the Away Goal rule. First leg, Lyon won 1-0 at home and with their crowd attending the game and with the full benefit of the pressure their fans exerted over the visitors, before the season was frozen due to COVID-19. Second leg, played today IN AN EMPTY STADIUM, the Bianconeri from Turin won 2-1. Still, La Vecchia Signora got eliminated from the tournament, from the fact that Lyon scored an away goal. Uh, really? The away goal is supposed to be more difficult because of the visiting team scoring despite facing the pressure against them from the home crowd. But come again, what crowd??? What exactly is the superior merit in scoring a goal in an empty stadium??? Once UEFA decided to resume the tournament in empty stadiums, they should have cancelled the away goal rule, and should have allowed this 2-2 aggregate score to be decided in 30 minutes overtime or kicks from the mark if the tie persisted. Now, brace for this: the match was played in Lisbon, Portugal!! Not even in Turin!!! So what exactly was the "away" goal scored by Lyon? Juventus was also away, in Portugal!!! Lyon didn't demonstrate any superiority whatsoever by scoring a goal in an empty stadium in a neutral city... and conceding two. Still, they will advance while Juve won't. If anything, Juve lost a game by the minimum score truly away, facing all the pressure of the home crowd, and was able to beat Lyon in a neutral field without the benefit of their home crowd. If anything, Juventus did better... but was still kicked out of the tournament. This is so unfair! (OK, first world problem)
You should be lucky you don't watch rugby union. I watched the first half of London Irish vs Northants yesterday (only 40 mins thank god) and 17 penalties later it was 3-3 (that's one kick at goal each). Purgatory would be better.
It was a good final, yesterday, with a lively game despite the low score: Bayern prevailed over PSG 1-0.
The Best Team won, 11 games without a loss in the Championship. The first time a Team won all of its games and on top of it the Triple. Neuer was a wall, best goal keeper in the world.
