7 hours ago
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IT’S ALL HAPPENING
Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it’s easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn’t regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU’D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT’S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We’re now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson’s Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough.
We’re struggling to recall 36 hours of football with such breadth and depth. Let’s start with the most important: the final day of the National League South, where as many as six teams can still win the title. Six! Elsewhere, Celtic should and Bayern Munich could become champions of their designated land. There are two cracking teatime FA Cup semi-finals: Crystal Palace v Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City. There are also two Women’s Big Cup semi-finals in which the English teams are probably doomed but you never know: Chelsea v Barcelona (first leg: 1-4) and Lyon v Arsenal (first leg: 2-1). Chelsea Men are one of five European hopefuls in action in the Premier League, where Ipswich are likely to be relegated. It’s the penultimate weekend in the Football League, the ailing Serie A leaders Inter face in-form Roma and, last but not least, there’s a Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Phew.
Yes, yes, we saved the best for last. At Anfield on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur will assume the position for a Liverpool title celebration that is both richly deserved – they’ll win the league with four games remaining if they avoid defeat – and long overdue. Liverpool’s astonishing performance in 2019-20, when at one point they had 79 points from 27 games, merited a month of open-top bus tours. The pandemic meant they had to celebrate alone. “We are aware that the last time this club won the league was during the Covid time,” said Arne Slot, who will become the first manager since Antonio Conte in 2017 to win the Premier League in his first season. “We know there’s still a job to do. It’s a nice game to look forward to but also a responsibility we have for Sunday.”
Assuming all goes to plan at Anfield (lads, it’s …), Liverpool fans will get to celebrate two titles under two brilliant and very different managers. Having only recently discovered the concept of empathy and wishing others well, Football Daily hopes Liverpool have lined up the departed linchpins of 2019-20 to be at Anfield on Sunday: Jürgen Klopp, Pep Lijnders, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, the throw-in coach and, for the encore, Divock Origi. Sod it, get the squad players too. But maybe not Neco Williams, given he’ll be at Wembley playing in Sunday’s FA Cup semi. Those games kick off simultaneously, so you’ll need two devices if you want to talk the talk at the watercooler on Monday morning. They also overlap with Lyon v Arsenal in Women’s Big Cup, Leicester v Manchester City in the WSL and – fair enough, we’re reaching a bit here – O’Higgins v Deportes Iquique in Chile’s Primera División. Even so, look at this weekend fixture list. The Ten-Eyed Man would struggle to keep up. Nurse, the screens!
QUOTE OF THE DAY
It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn’t continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It’s surreal here” – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side’s second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily’s 18th … minus the goal, of course.
Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women are taking part in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that’s the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?” – Derek McGee.
Following the preview of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final (yesterday’s Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better” – Chris Carter (and no others).
Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday’s Football Daily). According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it” – Mike Wilner.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Derek McGee, who wins our last copy of The Scouting Game, by Chris Robinson and courtesy of Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookshop here. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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