To listen to Mircea Lucescu, you’d think everything in Ukrainian football is stacked against him and his Shakhtar Donetsk side.

Given the — justifiable — excitement over Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao at the moment, it would be easy to overlook just how significant a part Schalke 04 played in their thrilling meeting in the Europa League last Thursday.

It is rare in modern football to see something quite so startling as Athletic Bilbao’s two victories over Manchester United.

One of the great joys of South American competition is that nobody knows anything.

There was something almost cruel about the way the fixtures fell.

No formation is ever perfect.

There have been four direct free-kicks scored in this Cup of Nations.

What this tournament has shown, more than anything else, is the value of cohesion, of having a well-drilled side that knows its plan.

THIS has been the tournament that restored the glee to the Cup of Nations.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA is not a football nation. Or at least, that’s what everybody said before the start of the 28th Cup of Nations, which the tiny former Spanish colony is co-hosting with Gabon.