Key occasions
Preamble
The sashaying, swaggering, record-breaking champions of Europe tackle the winners of final yr’s distinctly underwhelming Europa League ultimate. That being the case, Paris-Saint Germain, the primary facet to win a European Cup / Champions League ultimate by 5 clear targets, are scorching favourites in Udine tonight to swat apart a seriously-below-par Tottenham Hotspur who nearly bought the higher of a Manchester United choice plumbing depths adjoining to rock-bottom.
However! Nevertheless! And but! PSG may need seen off Manchester Metropolis, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal en path to Champions League glory final season, however they didn’t have all of it their very own manner towards the English, and had their shorts freshly laundered, neatly pressed and handed again to them within the Membership World Cup ultimate by Chelsea. That can give them pause. In the meantime no one ever made good cash predicting which Spurs would flip up on any given day, and whereas they’re coming off the again of a 4-0 humbling by Bayern Munich, they’ve additionally lately overwhelmed their arch-rivals Arsenal. So pooh-pooh the scattergun irrelevance of pre-season if you happen to should, however that is technically pre-season too, so good luck calling it.
PSG wish to add a primary Tremendous Cup to their fast-expanding resumé. They’ve solely contested it as soon as earlier than, in 1996, and can hope to do considerably higher this time spherical, having misplaced that two-legged tie 9-2 on mixture to Juventus. Spurs in the meantime are of their very first Tremendous Cup; their earlier European wins in the course of the competitors’s existence, the Uefa Cups of 1972 and 1984, got here throughout a interval the place the holders of the Cup Winners’ Cup bought to play as a substitute. So we’re breaking new floor tonight by hook or by crook.
Crystal Palace have simply proved that trophies are like proverbial London buses: you wait lengthy sufficient for one, then one other arrives swiftly after. Can Spurs, who slaked their 41-year European thirst simply three months in the past, do the identical? Kick-off on the dwelling of Udinese Calcio is at 8pm UK time, 9pm in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It’s on!
