Moataz Al Shami (Dubai)
The Champions League is the most difficult tournament to win, and the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have won several titles, does not necessarily mean repeating that, because this season’s version needs more than some stars.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Dusan Vlahovic watched their clubs exit the Champions League round of 16, in an “early farewell” that was not expected by the most pessimistic, among fans of Manchester United, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
With Ronaldo and Messi accustomed to winning the championship, it was expected that the star of Vlahovic would shine with Juve in the “Champions” and Erling Haaland with Borussia Dortmund in the “Europe League”, but experience proved that individual skill is not enough alone, especially if the club suffers in other aspects.
And the newspaper “Marca” singled out a report on the fall of the “quartet” and their failure to leave a mark, or contribute to placing their clubs in the Champions League quarter-finals, and indicated that Manchester United’s exit in the presence of Ronaldo “37 years” means that the Portuguese star is closer to the end of his career than The player himself imagines it.
And “Marca” indicated that the “Don” tried to change the defeat of “United” once morest Atletico Madrid, but he lacked energy and quality, and barely shot once once morest Jan Oblak, and stated that the team that eliminated the “old” Ronaldo is the same team that terrified him. When he was at the peak of giving.
The newspaper touched on Messi’s role with Saint-Germain, who was a candidate to win the championship in the presence of the Argentine legend, yet no one was surprised at all when he collapsed in a catastrophic way at the “Santiago Bernabeu” and Messi was “unknown” once morest “Real”, and became incensed by his club’s fans. the new.
While Juventus’ performance actually improved as the season continued, as the arrival of Vlahovic last January, he was unable to do anything to prevent the “old lady” from falling easily once morest Villarreal and Unai Emery, and he failed to score during the second leg.
As for Haaland, who is still a target for Europe’s biggest clubs, whether Real Madrid or Manchester City, he did not fully shine with Dortmund in the knockout stage of the “European League” once morest Glasgow Rangers.