Absolutely buzzing and all, but a couple of caveats need to be made. That was a victory of guts and character, rather than much else. It's good that we've got that in our locker, too. Poor selection error by Pep, in my opinion. Sané should have been on that pitch all night long. Any lad that age who goes back to his old club has got a point to prove. And any lad that goes back to his country, who didn't select him for the World Cup – God knows why! – has got a point to prove, big time. At the very least, when it was clear that Raheem was having a poor night, working tirelessly but constantly making wrong decisions, and running up blind alleys, Sané should have been on much earlier in the second half. Yes, I'm well aware that that means Raz wouldn't have been on to score the tap-in. But I don't even believe we would have been in the position where it was needed, if Leroy had been on.
Bellend behaviour by Ota. He was on a yellow, you just don't do that.
Two completely unreal dead ball strikes. Leroy's. And Eddie's.
One other thing. Tonight totally exposed the limits of VAR. The first penalty is downright outrageous. The second is no penalty, either, in my view. The Schalke player feels Laporte's hand on his hip, he thinks “Right, I'm going to try this one, I'm going down and I'm going to see if the ref swallows it”. He did. And it was “confirmed” by the people in the back room.
Most importantly, though – buzzing!
