The difficult duality of the soul

We all know how difficult it is to win a Champions League match.

Okay, there is always someone in your group that seems like three sure points, six if we add the game that must be played outside, unless this is the first of the group, with what this always means novelty and that the beginnings are almost always uncertain.

Therefore, mathematics is not deceiving, it is much more complicated to win two games in a row.

Last deduction: the mission becomes almost impossible when you have to win two matches... on the same day, and in one of them the only thing you can do is pray or appeal to the oldest ancestors of magic to lead to victory to those who, from the start, seemed destined to be that victim that all groups, except group D this season, have associated.

The fact is that Barça is already located in the next pot of the Europa League, that same competition in which Sevilla and maybe Atlético will also be, two teams that have made the second European competition a spa in which gain and strengthen prestige.

And fill their own showcases with trophies that are already in the legend of these clubs, with that cup with which their followers continue to take photos full of emotion and beautiful memories.

A few years ago, when I was working in France, at OM, after a work meeting at my club, someone asked me what my recipe would be for PSG to gain confidence in the Champions League and, in this way, be able to reach the final steps of the competition (no one in Marseille would dare to find a solution and for PSG to win the second Champions League for a French club, that's as far as we could go).

My response was one of those jokes, rather nonsense,

in French, that can only occur to a conceited guy: “I think the best thing for PSG would be to fall to the Europa League for a year and win it.

In this way they would experience the satisfaction, the joy, the confidence of winning.

That way they would learn to survive in that difficult climb that is the second European competition and with that base camp to be able to attack that infernal north face that is the Champions League”.

It is clear that this bizarre argument would not be valid today with a forward with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé, but it was a foretaste of that Europa League final in which an Atlético ready to aspire to the Champions League stole our Marseille dreams by beating us in the Europa League final in Lyon and filling Atletico Madrid with joy in May that was sadness in December.

No, it's not about blowing up the balloon of the Europa League to make it look like a Champions League, that will never make sense or coherence or real value, although there are big, huge, clubs like Manchester United that were very happy when they won this second competition.

But perhaps it's best not to single out the

as an example given their erratic run in recent seasons.

It is, simply and as if that were simple, to forget about the great words and music of Tuesdays and Wednesdays to focus on the effectiveness of Thursdays.

Dignified, dense and strong efficiency, as beautiful as it was so many times forgotten when you walked relentlessly through the skies of the Champions League.

Oh, and for those who rejoice at the misfortunes of others, tell them, these are pure data, that three of the four Spanish teams in the Champions League will not be in the round of 16, nor will they reach the sixth qualifying game to settle their continuity.

That, for me, is sad news for our football.

Perhaps a fear of future pain.

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