Champions League & regrettable comment on TMS

I am getting used to the new normal of crowdless football and looked forward to the business end of the Champions League being televised from Benfica’s stadium.

The competition has already thrown up a few surprises with the elimination of Real Madrid and Juventus.

Thursday we saw a thoroughly entertaining game between the last Italian team left in the competition – Atalanta – and Paris St Germain.

The expensively assembled Parisian outfit were a goal down with minutes left and scored two late goals to win and make the semis.

Last night’s game between Red Bull Leipzig and Atlético did not achieve such heights.

Some of you may not heard of Leipzig’s manager Julian Nagelsmann and our parochial football media will not enlighten you.

Nagelsmann is arguably the best young coach in Europe.

He studied business administration and sport science at university, coached under Thomas Tuchel the PSG coach before he cut his teeth at Hoffeneheim, a club that consistently out-punched its weight.

At Leipzig he is continuing to grow his reputation.

Leipzig eliminated Spurs but looked to have a much tougher task against Diego Simeone’s Atletico, one of the most pragmatically successful sides in recent years in Euro competition.

To make matters more difficult for Nagelsmann he could not play his best forward Timo Werner who has made a £45m move to Chelsea.

He found another gem in the young French defender Upamecano who was man of the match and totally bossed Diego Costa.

Leipzig upset the odds with a 2-1 win with a goal in the 89th minute just when Simeone in typical fashion was holding out for extra time.

Tonight we have Barcelona v Bayern Munich to savour.

I was listening to TMS during the day to follow the Test match.

At one stage  the two commentators were Isa Gura and Ebony Rainsford Smith. Pakistani batter  Fawad Alam has recovered his Test place after 11 years.

This prompted a where -were- you-then discussion.

Ebony Rainsford Smith sneered in an attempt at humour that dropped like a lead balloon  to statistician Anthony Salzmann “You must have been at a school for the aged”.

Will she be reproached for the ageist remark?  Don’t hold your breathe .