Anfield antics leaves Spanish press shaken and stirred
Wednesday 09 April 2008 11:03
There was none so giddy and giggly as La Liga Loca's newspaper kiosk man on Wednesday morning. And it wasn't because the blog had finally paid the bill on those specialist import magazines.
Instead it was the footballing festival of Liverpool vs Arsenal the night before that had turned his habitual frown upside down.
"In 20 years, I've never seen anything like it," he exclaimed to La Liga Loca as it collected its daily dose of AS.
Kiosk man's admiration was in line with much of Wednesday's sporting press who have cast aside the titanic tedium of the Spanish title race to gorge themselves on the Champions League special like Maniche in a Las Vegas buffet.
"Comparing last night to every day in La Liga is like comparing the works of Dan Brown to a play by Shakespeare," opined El Mundo.
But AS were even more shaken and stirred by Tuesday's treat.
"It was a game without English players but English through and through," wrote Alfredo Relaño, the paper's director. "It was noble, open, attacking, passionate, enthusiastic, full of risk and nobility."
AS left in awe of Liverpool's quarter-final clash with Arsenal
Unfortunately, Marca couldn't give two hoots about the Champions League match as a) Real Madrid weren't in it and b) they are far to busy puckering up to those at Castle Greyskull to bother with any Anfield antics.
Instead the paper is imagining the type of things Bernd Schuster is saying to his players, at the moment.
Rather than "sort yourselves out you lazy-arsed bunch of feckless ****'s," the self-help book on legs is telling the squad that they "deserve to win the league."
Meanwhile Marca's columnist Roberto Gomez is up to no good again with his declaration that Getafe's Ruben de la Red "has become the most important player in Spain." And this follows recent boasts that de la Red was "the best player in Spain." There must be a free meal involved in this somewhere.
Barcelona are now expected to go old skool on Schalke's footballing ass and sweep the Germans aside in a manner matching Tuesday night's spectacle.
"Tonight we will see a serious, transcendental game where the result is more important that the performance," writes Josep Maria Casanovas in Sport - a paper whose headline screams "360 minutes to glory!" under the assumption that the club will beat both Schalke and Manchester United.
Barca: ready to go old skool on Schalke's footballing ass
Mexico are indulging in the football equivalent of Pedro Munitis and Zidane fighting over a comb by lining up either Real Madrid youth director Michel as their replacement for Hugo Sánchez or Atlético Madrid's Javier Aguirre.
Meanwhile rojiblanco winger Simao has spoken out against the booing and shooing offered up by the Calderón crowd to both Cléber Santana and José Antonio Reyes on Sunday afternoon.
"When I heard them booing Cleber when he came on, I felt a bit sad," admitted the Portugeuse primadonna, completely ignoring the reaction to Reyes. "The support is good...but it could be better," confessed the fans' new enemy number one.
And proof if further proof was needed that Rául will be a spectator for this summer's European Championships comes with the publication of a list of Spanish players who will be inoculated against a tick found mainly in central Europe that can kill you if the bite goes bad.
And Rául is not on that list, suggesting that Luis Aragonés either has no plans to bring the Real Madrid captain along for the ride or feels that he is not worth the cost of the medicine.
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About Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot
When he isn't fighting the evil forces of flamenco or attracting libel actions for La Liga Loca,
Tim Stannard is building his media empire in Madrid. As well as contributing to Football365 and doing odd jobs elsewhere, Tim also works in the glamorous world of television as a producer, script writer, news editor, coffee boy and stand-in fluffer.
Simon Talbot? Well, he's a man of mystery.