Champion reduced to also-ran ignominy
The Statesman|March 10, 2023
To kick off with the moral of the story: the truth will ouch.
PULAKESH MUKHOPADHYAY
Champion reduced to also-ran ignominy

And when it does, you begin to doubt the spin they put on it after setting things up as when a film was made and later you, with your popcorn packet in the cinema, didn't really know Haroun al Raschid's dazzling palace was only a cardboard castle. You only let your jaw hit the floor. Qatar 2022 would inevitably have come back to everyone's mind on Wednesday morning when Paris Saint-Germain, Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappe and all, fell yet again in the Champions League, Bayern Munich winning 3 - 0 on aggregate, implying the World Cup final's heroes had failed to score over 180 minutes across the two legs of the match-up.

"Lord love a duck" would have been a popular reaction. More importantly, perhaps, a French journalist quoted in some reports made a point that, juxtaposed with the high praise in the wake of the Argentinian victory in the West Asia summit showdown, seemed to be a vital truth missed out on by a good many in the euphoria of the moment.

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