Two teams built on the knowledge they will dominate their domestic leagues and so playing with a freedom built from not having to grind out wins as Premier League teams have to. With the shackles off this is what football can be - basketball-esque with constant counterattacks leaving formations behind and creating little one-on-ones, two-on-twos, three-on-threes all over the pitch in an open and stretched game.
Fearless forward momentum, vertical through balls, long balls into space for lightning quick skillfull attackers. A really outstandingly entertaining game to watch and the perfect antidote to the Premier League that has become do doggedly competitive it has crushed itself as spectacle in the quagmire of diving, time-wasting, sideways passing, tactical timeouts, long balls into the box, and compact formations that risk little with a win-at-all costs mentality that has favoured prioritising defence. The Premier League might be the most fiercely competitive league in the world and so perhaps it was inevitably going to end up with every game being a defensive battle to the death. But the lassez-faire football we’ve seen today was a wonderful tonic, like water to a drowned man, it reminded me of the adventurous approach Marcelo Bielsa has, or Pep from a few years ago. Two teams just throwing caution to the wind and attacking each other at every opportunity believing it’s better to lose 5-4 than to lose 1-0.
Lovely.
