Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich all but crashed out of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday as Lionel Messi added to his own legend by scoring twice for Barcelona before assisting Neymar for a third in a 3-0 win for the Catalan giant in the semifinal first-leg. At some level, well, what do you do? The greatest player that has perhaps ever played the game just showed everyone exactly why he deserves to be called that. But the truth is, Messi shouldn't have even had to weave his magic for Barca to win this one, such was the Blaugrana's dominance. Indeed, …

Real Madrid is being absolutely eviscerated in the press following its 2-1 loss to Juventus in the first-leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal in Turin on Tuesday. The general consensus is that three players in particular, Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal, had a nightmare of a game at the Juventus Stadium, and as a result, the team failed to click.

Heading into Wednesday's UEFA Champions League semifinal clash-of-the-giants between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou, you get the sense that things will be very different to the last time these two teams met at the same stage two years ago, when Bayern mauled Barca 7-0 over two games en route to lifting the UCL title.

With three games to spare, Chelsea shoved its way over the Premier League finish line on Sunday, reaching an unassailable 83 points after 35 games following another stolid 1-0 win, this time at home to Crystal Palace. For the game's many pundits, Chelsea's victory has served up the perfect opportunity to applaud, deify, wax philosophical or complain about coach Jose Mourinho's tactics and management decisions.

As Off The Post, and others, have noted, much of the talk surrounding Chelsea's stroll to the Premier League title this season, which will be consummated if the Blues manage to get three points against Crystal Palace on Sunday, has centered on the club's entertainment value.