Felix Bavaria

By the eighty-ninth minute I had come to the conclusion that I had seen more supreme mastery of footballing skills in matches in the Sandlands pitting Al Wahda against Al Ain.

This impression lingers, in spite of the last minute goal scored, like the previous two German goals, by a player from Bayern München.

It is estimated that the game was watched by about forty million viewers in Germany, 29.5 million via the ZDF channel (who tallied an incredible 85% viewership share), the rest being those attending 'public viewing' venues and the not inconsiderable audience served by satellite channels targeting the Turkish-speaking community here. Somehow amusing that one of the few broadcasters who did not expereince an interruption of transmission during the second half was Al Jazeera Sport.

Hah, success! I honestly thought I'd find nothing to say about the game at all!