If you thought the last round of Champions League games were a meaningless proposition you should ready yourself to actually fall asleep at tonight’s offering. With only one remaining place up for grabs, you’d be forgiven for turning over to watch what even ITV has in store on a cold Tuesday night, but this is when the downright ridiculous often happens.
Barcelona v Rubin Kazan is the solitary game that can have a bearing on whether a team advances to the knockout stage or not. Even if Barcelona put out a weakened side there’ll be a feeling that a victory against the Russian side may offer some small token of consolation after not winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup. They aren’t the English though, so probably aren’t as obsessed by it all. If Copenhagen beat the bottom side Panathinaikos it’ll all be academic anyway.
English representation comes from Man Utd and Tottenham. Both sides can wrap up group wins at home to Valencia and away at Twente respectively, avoiding the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in the tournament’s second phase.
The game that Europe as a whole probably couldn’t give less of a shit about is the Turkish champions Bursaspor at home to Scottish champions Rangers. Both sides are out, can’t change positions, and between them they’ve scored three goals in 10 games.
