The goings on in today's Champions League matches distracted me from Toronto FC's date with history on Saturday. Not a complete distraction as I was still having a conversation about hanging outdoor stadium heaters while watching Celtic play like they finally decided they needed a result in their last group match, long after they had been eliminated.
The Champions League always offers up many meaningless last matchday matches. Only one group out of the four had anything to play for today. Benfica hosted Napoli where a win for either team guaranteed progression to the round of 16. But if Besiktas didn't beat Dynamo Kiev than a draw would have been enough for both of them. I was keeping an eye on those results, expecting Besiktas to have a relatively easy win against the group's bottom team for whom even third place and a consolation spot in the Europa League was beyond them.
The match in Portugal looked like it would be a winner takes all. And then Dynamo scored, and Besiktas had a player sent off and Dynamo scored from the resultant penalty. And Dynamo scored again, and again. And then it was half-time. The Besiktas players and manager must have done some serious miscalculations about the combination of results necessary for them to move on. Surely they would realise at halftime that they had it got it terribly wrong and that they needed to score more goals than their previously woeful opponents, and come out fighting in the second half to produce a miraculous mother of all Champions League comebacks. And then Besiktas had another player sent off, and Dynamo scored again and again.
And thus at 6-0 the meekest, yet biggest, collapse ever of a team in a position to reach the last 16 ended. Oh, to be in that dressing room after that match, only to want to get out of there as quickly as possible.
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