Most of all, it feels as if any of the eight Champions League quarter-final teams could have won the entire tournament. If only they had Erling Braut Haaland on the team. Only Manchester City has that. And therefore there are now many indications that they will finally win the world’s most coveted trophy in club football. Finally, because they have been trying for a long time. Including one finals appearance, where they went on to lose bitterly to Chelsea in 2021. City have spent a near-infinity amount of petroleum money from Abu Dhabi to make it happen. They just haven’t been able to get the 22-year-old unique from Bryne until this season. The only one It’s all about him now. He who, after he scored five goals against Leipzig in the previous round of the Champions League, stated to the American CBS with a dry smile that “they have not brought me to win the Premier League”. Understood – there is only one thing that applies. The Champions League. They will now face Real Madrid in the semi-finals. In a pure repeat from last year. Manchester City then led 5–3 on aggregate until 40 seconds remained in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu. In the space of a minute and a half, Real scored twice and sent the match to extra time. Everyone understood how it had to go. Bayern Munich made an honest attempt, but Erling Braut Haaland hit back after missing a penalty. Photo: Andreas Schaad / AP That is why Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City has never won the Champions League. Nor the Qatari club PSG, which has also paid fantasy sums for the world’s best players on paper. What you can’t buy Real Madrid, on the other hand, has won the most attractive European Cup 14 times. It is called “culture”. All the walls at the Santiago Bernabéu are wallpapered with this. We could also call it tradition. Or history. Or soul. Everything that money can’t buy. In the same way that true love can’t either. Unlike the world’s best footballers – for real. Beauty in the near future It was also possible to get that reminder this Wednesday evening, as a Norwegian and fond of what at least occasionally lives up to blessed Péle’s autosignature “the beautiful game”. On the same evening that the replay of last year’s semi-final in the Champions League became a fact, a match was played that not only reminded a lot of it in dramaturgy – it also showed how beautiful true love can be. Not in the Hollywood version, as we see it in the Champions League, but the one you can experience on a worn bench anywhere in a small town somewhere in Norway. For the elite series match between Lillestrøm and Strømsgodset had a tension curve one can only dream of. The one where the home team leads comfortably ends up being under before they end up deciding in the very last seconds of overtime. In the sun. In an almost sold-out stadium in the station town of Romerike. But it could just as easily have been at Marienlyst in Drammen. Bayern Munich made an honest attempt, but Erling Braut Haaland hit back after missing a penalty. Photo: Andreas Schaad / AP Time for tenderness For the really big moments came before the match, which was postponed from the start of the series a week and a half ago due to something so nostalgic, the Covid outbreak in the Strømsgodset squad. Which ended in a discussion about whether this was enough to delay a long-awaited series premiere. A discussion which in many ways was landed at Åråsen – and to some extent taken further. Because the match mascot Gullik came with a mask. So did the ball boys. And when GodsetUnionen occupied the away stand, they did so in white protective suits and with banners that read “Lillestrøm medical center” and “Covid-1907”, which is the year Strømsgodset was founded. The prelude to the match ended with Strømsgodset coach Jørgen Isnes going to say hello to one of the most high-profile LSK supporters. And was greeted with the elbow salute. Before the natural grass on Åråsen became the basis for a match that had everything we could dare to dream of from a Norwegian spring match. When it comes to commitment. Of excitement. Of poisonous humour. And not least the indefinable feeling of authenticity. The fact that this is what we really love. Without us needing to stop being fascinated by the slightly extraterrestrial performances on even better prepared grass mats in much larger and more polished arenas in the great, mythical Abroad. Emotions for full stands That’s why it hits the heart. Even without having other feelings for any of the teams, watching the match at Åråsen. As it does to see the attendance numbers from the first two series rounds in the Eliteserien, which are the highest since 2011. Next weekend, Brann plays against Vålerenga in Bergen, in front of a sold-out stadium. But yesterday, the red-clad ones instead had to listen to the spontaneous jubilation at Karmøy, where the club’s title-defending women surprisingly had to concede a point against home team Avaldsnes, coached by John Arne Riise. Riise, who in recent seasons has felt the intensity of football on his body in a completely different way than as a Liverpool player, is one of the few Norwegians who has actually won the Champions League. It happened in Istanbul in 2005 after the final victory against AC Milan. Now he will soon see another. When Erling Braut Haaland and his Manchester City could soon end up traveling to Istanbul to meet AC Milan in the final. And win football’s most prestigious trophy. On behalf of another state. Not the Norwegian hearts. Who will win the semi-final between European football’s two current giants, Manchester City and Real Madrid, will otherwise be decided on 17 May. Or to make it easier to remember: The day after football’s real party day.
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