Last night, the Europa League winners hosted Bayern Munich in fine mood.
I don’t know why.
Bayern had already won the Super Cup in Germany putting five past Red Bull Leipzig. Remember them? They at least had kept it semi-respectable, scoring three in the same game.
But Eintracht had won the Europa and beat the side RB couldn’t.
Their optimism was for naught. They were annihilated.
It was 5-0 Bayern at half time. It ended 6-1.
Eintracht will play in the Champions League next season, but they are miles from being a Champions League quality side. They are who we should all be hoping for in Pot One.
If we get them then that’s truly good fortune. Otherwise, brace for impact.
What last night reminded us of is the difference between a genuine Champions League super-club and the rest of football, and that difference is so stark as to be nearly obscene. You could not get a more potent lesson in the enormity of the gulf between the genuine “big clubs” than the total obliteration Eintracht encountered last night at home.
These are the types of clubs we’re going to be playing against, and I welcome it, I love it and I dread it at the same time.
We need to be realistic about what our prospects are against those kind of teams should we happen to draw them.
There is no point in buying into the entirely fictional narrative being spun elsewhere that we should be setting our sights on qualification. Let’s see the draw first. Then we can start thinking about what’s achievable.
There is nothing wrong with thinking this way. It is not defeatist.
We are used to being the biggest fish in a small point, and that gives you a narrow idea of what it’s like out there in the big water, in the deep ocean, where there are things that could swallow us whole.
Like a hundred to one contender in the ring, I want to see us land some punches.
If we connect with the right one and knock somebody out … wow.
That’ll be glorious.
But right now I’ll settle for knowing we left a mark, that even if we lose that our opponents will leave respecting us and the football we played, and what we tried to do.
In the past we’ve gone into some CL games in a sort of state where psychologically we regard these opponents as being almost deity-like in their superiority, when the truth is most cases the differences between their players and ours are pretty small margins. If we go into games with that in mind then belief and confidence will come easier to the players which will enhance our chances. In our Euro games last season it looked like Ange had instilled a bit of that, I don’t think we were abysmally bad in any of those games just defensively weak and under-prepared but given Ange was in the door five minutes and the players were still getting used to the system that was to be expected. I don’t think we’ll have any issues getting goals it’ll be whether or not we can keep our discipline defensively. I guess we’ll see.
I’d love an easy group but I reckon it’ll be Porto, Atletico, Inter.
Buh-buh-babeh…I-I-I can’t wait…
Point taken, its gonna be tough but its not unrealistic, just unlikely, particularly if you are a betting man or woman. This isn’t that though, this isn’t a gamble. Its 6 games against 3 teams going head to head on 2 occasions with Paradise lit up on 3 of them.
What we lack in terms of financial investment and the individual talent that investment brings, I hope we are able to counter with tighter defending, team intensity, hard work, endeavour and our own wee bit of genius. Not to mention that home crowd atmosphere.
We start evens, I fancy at least one surprise, and in the thrill of the chase who knows we might excel in the race. First things first though
Spot on the level of quality now and the gap money has created is staggering. We are way of the mark. 2001-2004 we were a CL team capable of beating anyone….now if we win two games at home I would be thrilled.
An article entirely about Rangers. Brilliant stuff.