Us football fans can be a ridiculous sight to those who do not feel the same passion as we do. For so many of us our entire emotional well-being on game day can be dependent on the action of 11 men—or women—over a 90-minute period. We experience great anguish or great joy according to the final score line (or maybe just a sense of unsatisfying discontent that we cannot shake until the gloom overtakes us). These are not just football feelings but universal emotions that most humans experience, and some humans then use that emotional energy to create works of art. It is not a stretch to say that watching the best players or an amazing football game can lead one to wax poetic; who hasn’t seen a sublime move by Messi and not be inspired? Who can say that they haven’t watched Zidane’s goal from the 2002 Champions League final and not felt a flutter in their heart or rush of blood elsewhere? The best players and the best games have a way of bringing out elaborate and effusive exclamations from the best of us.
The Champions League has almost alway delivered spectacular matches and dramatic results at some point during the yearly tournament. It’s no surprise, then, that the spirit of the last sixteen clubs in this season’s competition can move one to poetry … producing the following odes to hopes and dreams of lifting the coveted trophy come May.
Manchester United
Tending fallow seeds
Blossoming to potential
Devil’s flower blooms
Paris Saint-Germain
Sisyphean task
Looms ahead of hungry boys
Desperate for fame
Roma
Previous heights scaled
Icarus flying too high
They can burn too bright
Porto
Calm Casillas helms
The ship heading towards the edge
Of what can be dreamed
Tottenham Hotspur
Lost the dearest but
Familiar beloved Son
Charging forward on
Borussia Dortmund
Buzzing everywhere
Favre’s industrious workers
Bees looking to sting
Ajax
Youth go not to war
But a different battle
Fresh faces await
Real Madrid
High on the mountain
Top of an unending throne
Contenders restless
Lyon
Anemic defense
Yet brave Cornet undaunted
Hope prevails to all
Barcelona
Winged feet of Messi
Mercurial vision yet
Champions abound
Liverpool
The twin sons of Rome
Klopp’s she-wolf strength nourishes
His pack to glory
Bayern München
Robben’s fancy feet
Enemies’ cherry popping
Red blood in the wake
Schalke
Royal blues abound
Domestic frustrations yield
Continental hopes
Manchester City
Aguero shining
Bright-maned star amongst many
Wishing for success
Atlético Madrid
Determined stoking
The flames of the hot cauldron
Feeding their desire
Juventus
Conquering heroes
Questing for further triumphs
Far long remembered
