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May 28, 2022 11 tweets 5 min read Read on X
The two men who defined the 2018 #UCL final between Liverpool and Real Madrid won’t be taking part this time 🔴⚪ #LFC #RMCF

We took a look at the errors, the overhead kick, and the weirdly similar careers of Karius and Bale since then 👇🧵

metro.co.uk/2022/05/28/why…
In Kyiv, Gareth Bale swivelled rearward, propelled his left leg at a right-angle towards the heavens, and hit a shot into the top corner so unerring, so perfectly timed, so wrought with wrath, that it could have burnt a searing hole through a literal iron curtain ⚽
As football analysis and punditry have evolved in the information age, elite-level players are increasingly judged on their data, the numbers they produce both in front of goal and in their season-long all-around play, rather than on their moments of brilliance 📈
But the moments where a footballer produces a morsel of talent so unquantifiable, so incomprehensible to a mere mortal, are the reason they are so adored and why their legacies outlast not just their sporting careers but their time on this Earth 🤯
That overhead kick in Kyiv, on the night Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 to win a third consecutive European Cup, deserves to be remembered as the finest moment in the illustrious history of one of the most riotously talented forwards to have played the game in the 21st century 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
It is a spellbinding goal. A spectacular, stupefying, stomach-churning punch in the gut. I have never seen the goal back, not because it hurts too much to watch, but because I do not want my memory of its brilliance to be merged with stylised TV replays and slo-mo footage 🚀
Bale scored a second goal that night, of course, which sealed the win and doomed Liverpool to their fate. That was a pot shot from distance, struck directly at goalkeeper Loris Karius, who lost concentration and allowed the ball to slip between his hands and into the net 😬
If Bale's performance and sublime piece of skill should be immortalised as the defining moment of his sporting life, then those errors must also rank and Karius'. He crumbled on the biggest stage of all on a scale that in truth has never been seen before or since in football 🇩🇪
What is peculiar, though, is that Bale's career followed a very similar path 🤔

Both will be watching on as their team-mates compete in the showpiece event that men both defined only four years ago, their two club football careers essentially ended on the same night.
What Bale and Karius' not too dissimilar career paths show is that footballers themselves can only enjoy their careers moment to moment, because whether they are coming off the ultimate high or the most dejecting of lows, they have precious little control over what follows 🏆
But for Bale at least, the power of his glorious goal should be more than enough for him, Real Madrid supporters, and football fans everywhere to revel in for the rest of time ⚽

You can read the full feature from @_dan_austin here 👇

metro.co.uk/2022/05/28/why…

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More from @Metro_Sport

May 27, 2022
Liverpool and Carlo Ancelotti share plenty of history, and they will meet again in club football’s biggest game on Saturday night for the #UCL final 🔴⚪ #LFC #RMCF

We’ve explored the shared destiny of the club and the manager 👇🧵

metro.co.uk/2022/05/27/rea…
Ancelotti was always supposed to end up living in Liverpool. Once he did, he found that he loved the coastline 🏖️

‘There’s a beautiful beach,' he said. ‘You can walk all the way to Formby on the coastal path. There are the Gormley statues, 100 of them. I really like it.'
Since the final he lost with AC Milan in Istanbul when Liverpool came from 3-0 down to win on penalties, Ancelotti's fate had been to end up in Liverpool 🔴

That night his and the Reds' respective destinies became one, bound by the twisted metaphysics of football.
Read 11 tweets
May 26, 2022
Chelsea legend John Terry hits back at Rio Ferdinand after he named Virgil van Dijk and Jaap Stam ahead of him when ranking the best defenders in Premier League history ⚽️

Read More Below 👇🏾

trib.al/7jZi1S9
Speaking to Van Dijk on his YouTube show ‘Between the Lines’, Ferdinand and the Dutchman discussed how the Liverpool star compares to the best centre-backs in the history of the league 🏆⚽️ GettyImages
Van Dijk put himself up there with the greats after transforming Liverpool’s fortunes since his £75million arrival from Southampton in 2018 ↗️

However, he has won just one Premier League, which pales into comparison to the likes of Ferdinand and Terry 🏆
Read 8 tweets
May 26, 2022
Liverpool and Real Madrid will start the #UCL final with systems which look similar on paper, but which hide so much more beneath the surface 🔴⚪ #LFC #RMCF

We’ve analysed both sides' setups, to find out where the match could be won and lost 👇🧵

metro.co.uk/2022/05/26/liv…
Both will ostensibly look the same, bar the colour of their kits — 22 men, each 11 arranged in a 4-3-3 in front of their respective goalkeeper.

But the differences between those 4-3-3s mean both sides are going to have plenty of opportunity to exploit one another's weaknesses ⚽ Image
For Real, the key to their hybrid 4-3-3/4-4-2 is Federico Valverde 🇺🇾

He is asked to give width on the right wing when his team are in possession, while dropping deeper and narrower in defensive transitions to become an extra midfielder when Liverpool are have the ball. Image
Read 12 tweets
Mar 14, 2022
It's finally race week! 🙌

The new #F1 season gets underway at Bahrain this weekend, but which teams look quick, and who has work to do? 🤔

We analysed each team's performances in pre-season to see how they could rank going into the season 👇🧵

metro.co.uk/2022/03/14/how…
10. Alfa Romeo 🔴⚪

Much will depend on the performance of the Ferrari engine Alfa Romeo runs, but the team has been consistently dropping backwards for the past few years and the faster times they set were likely done on low fuel.
9. Williams 🔵

Williams lost an entire day of testing due to the FW44 catching fire. Aside from that, the Williams seemed pretty reliable and Alex Albon in particular put in some solid long runs, but there was nothing to suggest especially strong pace from the FW44 in Bahrain.
Read 12 tweets
Mar 12, 2022
Pierre Gasly won many fans in Netflix's #DriveToSurvive docuseries.

We sat down with him and chatted about F1 and his journey so far.

Read more from our exclusive chat with Pierre Gasly below 👇 🏎

trib.al/33OywYV
Pierre Gasly, the French driver who will lead the Alpha Tauri team into the 2022 season when it begins in Bahrain on the weekend of 18 March, joined the F1 grid at 21 and has had to contend with significant strife in his time in the sport. Photography credit: Getty I...
‘Over the last five years I think I’ve grown up a lot, from the different experiences I’ve had to go through, whether it was professionally or personally,’ Gasly exclusively told Metro.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 10, 2022
Novak Djokovic has won his appeal against the Australian government's decision to cancel his visa 🎾🇷🇸

But how exactly did the Serb manage to stop his deportation? We took a look at the key issue the judge's decision hinged on 👇
The Serb’s visa was cancelled by the government upon arrival for this month’s Australian Open, after determining that the player’s recent Covid-19 infection did not sufficiently meet the requirements for him to be allowed to enter the country unvaccinated 💉
Djokovic spent the weekend in a hotel for visa detainees, while his lawyers put together a legal case designed to overturn the ruling and allow him to compete in the tournament which he has won on nine previous occasions.

So how did the legal case succeed in the end? 🤔
Read 8 tweets

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