Real Madrid 2 Shakhtar Donetsk 3

Last night I had a serendipitous moment.

It was 6-30 pm. I was neither hungry nor fancied a sundowner.

It was one of those pandemic moments when it was necessary to while away the time. So I switched on the telly and the channel was BT Sport.

They were showing Real Madrid v Shakhtar Donetsk.

Given that the Ukrainian outfit had 19 players who had tested positive and Real Madrid were resting key players like Sergio Ramos it seemed a forgone conclusion.

Not a bit of it.

By half time mighty Real were three down, most of the damage done by young Mateus Tete.

Real mounted a comeback in the second half, scoring twice, and had an equaliser correctly scrubbed for offside.

This was not the Real that had won the Champions League three times under Zidane. Nonetheless come the business end of the Champions League I would expect Real to be there.

Shakhtar have in the past featured Willan and Fernandinho and unearthed a new star in Tete.

The other Madrid club – Atletico – took a drubbing at the hands of last year’s champions Bayern Munich who might well retain the trophy.

Their business model of ownership partly by fans and partly corporately is quite different from the sovereign wealth funds that own Paris St Germain or Manchester City or the Presidents of Real and Barcalona that curry favour with their  members by buying galacticos.

It seems to bring more continuity of success too.