All against Madrid

A supernatural phenomenon marked the last Champions League and its shock continues at the start, this Tuesday, of the 68th edition.

All against Real Madrid, not only because of their 14 crowns, but also because of the amazingness of their last summit, perhaps the most sinuous of the Madrid club.

Inexplicable for most.

This is Real Madrid, they conclude, convinced that they win because and because not.

The most champion champion, the natural and the supernatural, opens this Tuesday in Glasgow, in the fiery Celtic Park (9:00 p.m.).

Celtic, a club with a better past than present, his rival.

The Scottish team is one of the 14 participants of this course that has at least one orejona.

The first of a British club, the one conquered in 1967 by the Lisbon Lions, as the team led by captain Billy McNeill and the iconic Jimmy Johnstone, a 1.57 meter devil, was immortalized in the Catholic sector of Glasgow.

The Inter of Helenio Herrera, Facchetti and Sandro Mazzola —Luis Suárez, injured, did not play that final— succumbed 2-1.

A stand at Celtic Park bears the name of Jock Stein, the Verdiblanco coach at the time, legendary despite being the first non-Catholic —Celtic was founded 134 years ago by brother Walfrid, a Scottish Marist— to direct the bhoys.

Stein died on September 10, 1985 in Cardiff, just after the duel between the Scottish team he coached and Wales.

He was 62 years old and was succeeded by his assistant Alex Ferguson.

The current Celtic has nothing to do with the mythology of the Lisbon Lions, who in 1970 would lose the final with Feyenoord.

Celtic and their antagonist Rangers -finalist in the last Europa League- have paid dearly for their root in a tournament as parochial as the Scottish one and have hardly had a dictate in the elite in decades.

Celtic's last great adventure was a UEFA runner-up finish in 2003 against José Mourinho's Porto at La Cartuja, with 60,000 Scots in the streets of Seville.

The Greek-Australian Ange Postecoglou directs today a Celtic without great stars and countercultural in which four Japanese coexist: Ideguchi, Hatate, Furuhashi and Maeda.

There is no better echo of this Celtic than that of Celtic Park, always on fire, especially after beating Rangers last Saturday (4-0).

A stadium in which on April 10, 1974 - Holy Wednesday - one of the greatest Zapatistas in the European Cup was experienced, a knife tie between Celtic and Atlético de Ayala, Panadero and Quique, the three expelled while Johnstone , body of a bird, miraculous survivor, begged for mercy.

Two of the great contenders to step on the white throne for the first time -City and PSG- also reappear this Tuesday after their unexpected setback last year with Madrid.

City threatens a Sevilla (21.00) sounded by its bad premiere.

The appointment, in Nervión, where the sevillistas are very tense.

Everyone on the fans' radar: Julen Lopetegui, Monchi and the president, Pepe Castro.

To make matters worse, Haaland faces, who has terrified the Premier, in which he has ten goals in six games.

City, the usual Pep Guardiola but with that Norwegian terminator, has already lost two draws in the English league and has had to sweat some comeback.

To take pressure off his team, Ferran Soriano, City's executive director, recently proclaimed that the main objective is the Premier League, not the Champions League.

In the celestial entity more than one would put him in quarantine.

The other Manchester never in its history has been so close to the top.

Soriano and Guardiola know it.

Among the favorites of this European Cup nobody has had the initial acceleration of Madrid.

The Premier is cruder, but also the supreme PSG has already lost two points in the French tournament, in which crocodiles do not abound.

With Pochettino or now with Christophe Galtier the turbulence continues.

That if Neymar and Mbappé do not swallow, that if they collide with their crusades for being penalty takers... Juventus, a Champions League leader, will examine Messi's PSG in Paris today (9:00 p.m.).

Four other champions also have a poster this Tuesday: Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea, Benfica and Milan.

In principle, all with a certain advantage against Copenhagen, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Haifa and Salzburg, respectively.

The same as the apparently reborn Barça, which pays a visit to Viktoria Plzen this Wednesday (9:00 p.m.).

Worse matter for Atlético, which opens the Metropolitano to the always disturbing Porto (9:00 p.m.).

Also on Wednesday, turn for Bayern de Mané, Liverpool de Darwin Núñez and Chelsea de Aubameyang.

Reinforced forwards, like City's with Haaland and PSG with the retained Mbappé.

Movements with one eye, if not both in some cases, in Europe.

Or what is the same: in the inexplicable and fascinating Real Madrid.

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