Sat at Madrid airport, surrounded by all their plastic fans going back to wherever they come from. Some very sad Blues. Well...firstly - well done to the fans - perfect behaviour all afternoon in the square - despite being faced by hoards of bored Spanish 'RoboCops' hoping it would kick off, and great vocal support..until the very end. And even then as we waited to get out - some choruses of 'We never win at home...'.
I am not here to say it was Pep's fault for the subs, or the invisible Mahrez (until the goal) or KDB not being quite right, etc etc etc. It is what it is - and it fucking hurts. The walk back to the hotel was both humiliating and desperate. I did think the team - other than Ferna, Bernardo and Foden all seemed to fuck off down the tunnel without so much as a half hearted clap to the faithful perched up in the Gods - but I suppose, after that you just want to get off that pitch pretty damn fast.
So well played Real, even if that meant fouling, faking injuries and generally fucking about - but that's how you sometimes need to win - it might look ugly (although not as ugly as their neighbours) but there's a game plan experience that we seem to lack on these stages.
So - onto Newcastle lads - heads up - time to focus on the title. We need to move on - and we can spend the summer working out why and what went wrong - we have a title to retain.
As for Real - go fucking win it now.....please....its the least you owe us.