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SCREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FASTER

While Arsenal were busy Arsenaling their way to a worthy but dull Bigger Cup quarter-final first leg win at Sporting on Tuesday, the players of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich released the collective handbrake and performed many high-speed donuts, wheel spins and Rockfords as a pleasing counterpoint to the careful mirror-signal-manoeuvring on display at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade. Like a couple of stolen supercars racing each other around a shopping mall in The Fast and the Furious: Bicester Village, these two European heavyweights massively committed to the bit, not unlike a daily football email bogged down in a laboured motoring metaphor. “When I see the chances we had, that has to give us confidence that we can score more goals,” whooped Vincent Kompany following a hi-octane Bernabéu white-knuckle ride from which his team emerged deserving winners, even if it was their 40-year-old goalkeeper who took home the gong for player of the match.

“They also had some good chances and let some go, so we’re glad about the win here first of all,” cheered Manuel ‘Old Sheldon’ Neuer, who pulled off nine saves of varying degrees of difficulty as Bayern saw off their hosts 2-1. On a night when the recipient of Fifa’s inaugural peace prize showcased his conciliatory credentials with a potentially apocalyptic threat to “a whole civilisation”, it seems glib to resort to military analogies [but you’re going to do it anyway? – Football Daily Ed]. However, few things provide a better distraction than watching Michael Olise spend 90 minutes mounting an unstoppable one-man insurgency against a hapless opposition left-back. One of several standout performers across both teams, the former Crystal Palace winger subjected the unfortunate Madrid defender Álvaro Carreras to a roasting so severe it felt like a gross violation of the Geneva conventions.

“Unfortunately we wasted a few chances, but we’re still in it,” parped Madrid boss Álvaro Arbeloa, after seeing Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé pass up a litany of good chances before the Frenchman finally scored with his easiest one of the night. “Manuel Neuer had a fantastic game. We came up against a very good side, the most consistent in Europe. It will be far from easy there.” With the Geopolitics World Cup looming and Thomas Tuchel in attendance, the onus was on the various English players involved to prove their worth. Jude Bellingham impressed off the bench, while the German’s eye will have been reassured by another excellent performance from the precocious young Bayern striker, Harry Kane. For Trent Alexander-Arnold, any faint hopes he had of impressing the England head coach enough to book his seat on The Plane to the GWC almost certainly evaporated as his full set of well-documented strengths and weaknesses were on show for all, including Tuchel, to see. A sublime assist for Mbappé’s goal was overshadowed by a couple of conspicuous defensive blunders that ultimately left him looking more Luton Transit than Lamborghini.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Rob Smyth at 8pm BST for Bigger Cup updates on PSG 3-1 Liverpool in the first leg of their quarter-final, while Luke McLaughlin will be on hand at the same time for Barcelona 2-1 Atlético Madrid.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“[He] was not just a coach, but a life teacher for entire generations of players. He was a man who loved this sport more than anything in life, and his impact on our football is immeasurable” – Romanian Football Federation president Razvan Burleanu pays tribute to legendary manager and former national team captain Mircea Lucescu, who has died aged 80, only days after resigning as head coach. RIP Mircea.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

A doff of the Romanian cap to the great Mircea Lucescu. As a player, he captained his national team against World Cup holders England and eventual World Cup winners Brazil at the tournament in 1970, after which Pelé wanted to exchange shirts with him. And, as a manager, apart from all his domestic success, he was the first manager to get Romania to qualify for the Euros in 1984 and nearly led a poor Romania team to the World Cup in 2026, a couple of weeks ago, while very sick. What a football man, what a tremendous football man …” – Noble Francis.

Interesting to see the report about Nike’s new Geopolitics World Cup kits bunching up ridiculously at the shoulder seams. You never got problems like that back in my day, principally because, on the massively oversized kits of the 90s, the shoulder seam was positioned halfway down the arm. The tendency of these kits to make even professional athletes look like Sunday pub league players is exemplified by the photo of Blackburn’s relegated 1999 team in today’s edition of The Knowledge – an effect amplified by the fact one of them seems to have been playing in tracksuit bottoms, and another in sliders” – Phil Taverner.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Noble Francis. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here. 

RECOMMENDED DONATING

Barry is running the London Landmarks Half-Marathon on Sunday to raise money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. He’s already more than quadrupled his original target of £13,100 but would be grateful for any more donations in the last few days before the race because, well, it’s a brilliant cause and here at Football Daily Towers we think he needs every bit of motivation he can get. Here’s Big Website’s running man on his challenge:

After being emotionally blackmailed into running the LLHM by my friend and broadcasting colleague Max Rushden, I began training in late October. Having done little or no exercise beyond nimbly climbing on and off bar stools for almost 30 years, I was heroically unfit and literally couldn’t jog 100 metres without stopping to catch my breath. Reader – I had bitten off more than I could chew. At the start line I will be 53 years old and I remain overweight despite all my training. I still drink too much and have resigned myself to the fact that I won’t win the race, but I plan to enjoy a unique day. If you’d like to add to the already huge sum raised, every little helps. It would be absolutely magic to hit the £60,000 mark before race day. With that in mind, please give anything you can, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be enduring a world of pain to try to alleviate that of that experienced by so many wonderful and brave kids.” Donate here.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

And here’s Max, Barry and the rest of the Football Weekly pod squad with a look back at Tuesday night’s Bigger Cup action.

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

Fifa has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Spanish FA after “Islamophobic and xenophobic” chants during a Spain friendly against Egypt in Barcelona.

In news brought to you in the letters section above, Nike tech bods are investigating “a minor issue” with national team kits after unsightly bulges along the shoulder seam caught the eye in the international break.

Plans to include four WSL academy sides in the Women’s National League from 2027 have been criticised as an idea based around “repackaged B teams” and received a decidely mixed reception from club staff and supporters.

Mikel Arteta is well chuffed with his Arsenal players after their 1-0 Bigger Cup win at Sporting. “I think we had a point to prove,” he cooed. “They were a big opponent … they haven’t lost for a long time. We really had to earn it.”

Arne Slot has found a positive from Liverpool’s 4-0 hammering by Manchester City and wants to run with it into the PSG quarter-final, first leg later. “The first 35 minutes [at Manchester City] gives me a lot of confidence that we can go toe-to-toe with PSG,” he honked. “It is a challenge for us to be [at it] from the first to the last second … if not, it is going to be really hard.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool and Chelsea suits will be leading three cheers for the coefficient after England secured a fifth place in Bigger Cup for the second season running.

Southampton are on a Hollywood run of their own at the moment, with their latest eyecatching win being a 5-1 hammering of Wrexham that took them above the Welsh club into the last Championship playoff spot.

And Hearts boss Derek McInnes says he’d be happy to play title-defining matches “in a car park” after complaints from some fans about fixtures for the final five league games. “I don’t really care from our point of view where we play and the times and all the rest of it,” he blathered. “We’re just delighted to be part of the whole conversation … It’s not great for the fans that they don’t get Saturday three o’clock, but I think, having three away games, it was probably difficult to fit everything in.”

RECOMMENDED SUBSCRIBING

Want a newsletter that highlights the very best that Big Website has to offer, aside from this tea-timely treat? Then look no further than The Recap, delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 8am. You can subscribe here, but please do still stick with your faithful Football Daily too.

RECOMMENDED ORDERING

We’ll be giving away copies of the Classic Football Shirts book soon. To get you in the mood, here’s a clip of Big Website’s visit to the shop in Manchester and some chat about Jorge Campos. You’ve got to love that retro polyester. And if you want to pre-order a copy from the Guardian Bookshop, you can do so here.

STILL WANT MORE?

Jacob Steinberg was at Estádio José Alvalade as David Raya made his mark with crucial saves to ease Arsenal’s angst against Sporting.

The world of football presents many questions that Graham Ruthven endeavours to answer, including whether Harry Kane can win the Ballon d’Or gong and if Roberto De Zerbi has the toolbox to fix Spurs?

And which team has gone furthest in Europe while being relegated in the same season? The Knowledge knows.

MEMORY LANE

26 May 1993: Marseille boss Raymond Goethals, cigarette in hand, soaks in the wonder of winning the Bigger Cup in 1992-93, the first season in which the competition became known as the Champions League. For further reading on the colourful character that was Goethals, read this excellent piece by Paul Doyle.

MORE OF THIS SUNSHINE, PLEASE!