N. Kesminas: "Real" can no longer win – everything will depend on "Arsenal"

2025-04-10 20:46 © ZUMAPRESS.com

The football commentator Nerijus Kesminas described this week’s UEFA Champions League matches on social media.

"In the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, the first matches have been played, and the entire public space behaves as if both have already passed. Yes, experts and analysts are briefly evaluating what they saw on the football fields this week, but the main focus is on piecing together the upcoming semifinal mosaic.

Of course, "Aston Villa” and "Bayern” receive some reverence. It's not the case that there are no chances to pull through.

A bit more - in London, Madrid’s "Real” conceded three "dry” goals. But in this case, a strong draft of thought flows between the lines, suggesting that this is more out of respect for the club's name and the players’ surnames.

About: can Kylian Mbappé score a "hat-trick”? Of course, he can. Can Vinicius Junior ruthlessly tear apart the opponent’s defense? He can. Can "Real” slip into the semifinals? Not a fact.

And there’s no reason to be angry. The dominant narrative is what it is because it doesn’t even slightly stray from reality: the semifinal pairs are actually clear.

Miracles happen in stadiums, and quite often. But for some reason, it doesn’t seem that "Real,” playing their current style of football, can remain in the Champions League longer than until next week.

It doesn’t seem that "Arsenal” will concede three in Madrid, even though it is emphasized that Jakub Kiwior is far from Gabriel Magalhães, and "Los Merengues” could take advantage of that. Or that Vini Junior should play much more effectively against Jurrien Timber than he did in London.

And it certainly doesn’t seem like "Real” could not concede themselves. And then even three scored goals would just be meaningless numbers on the scoreboard.

It might be better formulated like this: "Real” cannot win. Their only chance is to possibly lose to "Arsenal.” As it’s currently fashionable to say: the ball is in this team’s court. Well, under their feet - after all, we’re talking about football.

The other pairs? "Bayern” on their path - probably the best-balanced defense and attack combination in Europe and "Inter” fans’ support for the Italian champions in the "San Siro” stands.

"Aston Villa” proved only on Wednesday that they are not the David who could merrily throw a stone into the Goliath's gap in Paris. "Barcelona” - Borussia Dortmund... 4:0 in the first match and hasta la vista, baby.

If everything falls into place as it almost inevitably should, we will have incredibly excellent semifinals ahead. "Barcelona” - perhaps the best attack in the world - against "Inter,” whose organizational harmony on the field has already been mentioned.

And PSG, perhaps the best attack in the world - yes, another one - against "Arsenal,” which... Can unexpectedly surprise, for now, let’s leave it at that since we’ve already seen that.

Theoretically, it could turn out that the public space is drawing conclusions too early, and everything will be different. Let’s wait for the return quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, I will create and place some football puzzle on the website kesminas.eu. By the way, while preparing for the live game, for which we haven’t yet definitively decided on the time and place, we set up a small poll to find out what type of quiz you would prefer - football or sports in general. Vote if you are interested and not too lazy,” wrote N. Kesminas.