Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals of the Champions League, a rather poor FC Barcelona team was ousted by Juventus, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored two offside goals to nudge Real Madrid past Bayern Munich. Real’s patsy, Atlético, also made it through, defending fiercely against Leicester.

Of the victors, only the Monacans don’t seem stale. They’ve scored, what, three goals in each of their last four knockout games? (They dispatched Dortmund in their quarterfinal.) They played in the final as recently as 2004, but in 2011–2013 they languished in Ligue 2. An influx of Russian cash restored their loftier standing.

I didn’t watch any of these games.

A regrettable law

Wed. afternoon I watched Bayern Munich vs. Juventus. Their prior encounter, in Turin, had ended 2–2. So in Munich all that Bayern needed to do was to keep from getting scored upon.

But Juve quickly went up 2–0. Juan Cuadrado made a golazo, assisted brilliantly by Álvaro Morata. The quality of that goal had me cheering for Juve.

Bayern clawed their way back into the contest. They got the tying goal around minute 90.

Extra time suddenly immanent, Guardiola spoke some encouraging words to his players.

However, to my mind, that wasn’t what made the difference. Once the score was leveled, it always looked pretty grim for Juventus.

The game would unfold according to “John-Paul’s Law,” which says that when a team plays to win in 90 minutes, as it should, and then has the misfortune at the end to let in the tying goal, the other team, which has been playing for a regulation-time draw, will win in extra time; there will be no penalty shootout. This is one of the great unfairnesses of soccer. One notorious instance was the Champions League final of 2013, in which Real Madrid beat Atlético de Madrid. (An exception was the final of 2012, which went to penalties; but that was an odd case, because both teams’ goals came at the end of the regular period.)

Bayern would end up beating Juve 4 to 2. On the whole, what happened was entertaining – but regrettable.