Dan Critchlow

That might be one of the all-time most embarrassing starts to a Champions League tie. Like ever.

I will admit that in this case he got the run up about as wrong as you could possibly get it, given his stutter surely made the GK more likely to stay still than dive.

But even then, just hit it hard. Maximise the chance it isn’t saved.

It is harder to save a smashed penalty than a chip, so it makes perfect sense. I don’t want my players to deliberately give the GK a better chance at saving the penalty.

Yeah and one of the other Brentford players did it excellently later in the shootout. Didn’t stutter, hit it hard and high, a serious penalty like the others.

Not some nonsense slow chip the goalkeeper couldn’t possibly drop.

Panenkas in shootouts 🚮 Putting your ego ahead of the team when every kick matters is so lame.

Southampton win, Port Vale ahead, great news for the people apparently fixing Arsenal with lower-league draws every round.

Obviously I don’t like Chelsea but Alan Shearer is talking nonsense. It’s offside, it may not feel good because you want Wrexham to win but it’s just offside.

Neto has really good acceleration, which makes him aesthetically pleasing to watch for the first few strides. Everything else about his game seems really inconsistent.

Job done, quarter-finals up next. Passed up far too many chances to settle it, but ultimately we’re through and I won’t complain.

The ball is actually in play with the game going on and we’re looking at Arteta and Clough and hearing about their dogs. I hate TV coverage.

Now an actual yellow for simulation. Pathetic stuff.

Honestly that should be a yellow for simulation. When did the lower-league teams get so soft, appealing for that?

Why is Matterface so keen to write the story of the game while it’s still happening?

Talking about Mansfield being proud of giving a good account of themselves overall, while there’s only 1 goal in it with 20 minutes or more remaining.

Excellent from Eze. Feel like we should always be starting him in these lower-league ties, when there’s a big gap in quality (Preston, Wigan, Spurs, today) he’s so good.

All that good work by Dowman and Madueke and all Jesus has to do is not dive in for the ball so Martinelli can tap it home.

Felt a bit sorry for Salmon at one point when he put in an excellent challenge on Mansfield’s experienced striker but the commentators didn’t hype it up because they presumably wanted a Mansfield attack.

Very funny handball there, wonder if he thought it would be subtle.

Great finish from Madueke, and decent effort from him in the first phase as well. Good stuff.

What was that camera behind the goal? Is someone streaming to TNT from their phone?

Jesus attempting two backheels in the first 10 minutes and giving possession away both times. Can you please be serious until we’re ahead?

Assume Norgaard is in the back four, but no idea what order they’re playing in. Salmon could be at CB or at full-back, same for Calafiori, same for Mosquera.

That’s some serious rotation. Great to see Salmon getting a chance to start, and Dowman back too. Three academy youngsters and Setford on the bench too, big opportunities for all involved.

Arne Slot, Unai Emery, Liam Rosenior, I’ve always liked you guys, don’t let anyone say differently. Fabian Hurzeler, I didn’t mean all that stuff I said yesterday. Granit Xhaka, I need one last favour.

After last night, Timber now has 10 g/a this season. 8 in the PL, 2 in the CL against Bayern and Inter.

Up until last night I was really looking forward to the break from PL football for a couple of cup/CL games.

Then we won and City drew and suddenly I’m like “can we play the rest of the season this week?”

I think it was just the classic fans angry at a defeat looking for ways to rain on the winning team’s parade.

But they can cheer if they want, they’ve already played City home and away and got results in both games, so they’ve done their job.

Brighton fans were fuming leaving the ground. Overheard a few of them running through the permutations for how City could retake top spot.

Absolutely the funniest possible way we could have won that game after Hurzeler’s pre-match whining.

HUGE!! Finally a strong defensive display. Massive cheer at the final whistle, another one as the City news filtered through. Let’s go, Arsenal!

With one obvious exception, this is one of our toughest remaining fixtures, and we’re winning it.

Unfortunately that’s about the only positive thing I can say about that half, which was largely very bad. Gabriel was good I guess.