UEFA Champions League
Only bleak reality in Theatre of Dreams as Man Utd hit new low
Far from being the Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford provided a horribly bleak dose of reality for Manchester United fans as they went out of Europe with a whimper on Tuesday.
A season in which United have already lost half of their 24 matches in all competitions plumbed new depths as they slumped to a 1-0 loss at home to a Bayern Munich side in third gear.
It condemned Erik ten Hag’s side to bottom place in their group with just four points — their lowest total in the Champions League group stage — while the 15 goals they conceded in six games was the most ever by an English side.
For the third time in seven seasons, United have exited at the group stage and this time they do not even have the consolation of the Europa League.
With a daunting trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool at the weekend — a fixture they lost 7-0 last season — the question is are things about to get even worse and how much time does Ten Hag have left to try and turn it around.
“The fans have shown a level of patience, but there’s huge disappointment,” United’s former title-winning defender Steve Bruce told the BBC’s Football Daily podcast.
“As we have said many times with United they always look like they’re two games away from a crisis. Erik ten Hag now has to try and lift the spirits of everyone and the only way you can do that is getting a result (at Liverpool).
“It’s a desperate situation they find themselves in.”
Ten Hag’s first campaign was relatively positive as the former Ajax Amsterdam manager delivered the League Cup, their first trophy fox six years, and put the club back in the Champions League via a third-placed finish in the Premier League.
It earned Ten Hag plenty of credit in the bank but he is using it up fast, even if the fans are largely still behind him.
The truth is, despite 400 million pounds ($500.88 million) being spent on new signings since Ten Hag took charge, United look like a team lacking a clear vision or direction.
Jaap Stam, a Champions League winner with United in the treble-winning 1999 side, said he fears for fellow Dutchman Ten Hag and says United’s recent banning of some media outlets over stories of dressing room rifts just adds to the malaise.
“You need to have peace and quiet,” he said.
“You don’t want to pay too much attention to other things like players and the press. It has to do with your players as well, but he invested a lot of money in players that he brought.
“But are they the right players? My opinion is that they’re not.”
While imminent investment into the club by Jim Ratcliffe offers some cheer, the immediate concern is a trip to Anfield without suspended captain Bruno Fernandes and defenders Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw after they were injured against Bayern.
“I am trying not to think about that,” former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel told CBS Sports
-Reuters
UEFA Champions League
LaLiga to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League

Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
UEFA Champions League
No complaints from Ancelotti, as Real humbled by Arsenal

Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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UEFA Champions League
Arsenal cruise past lacklustre Real Madrid to reach semis

Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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