💫 CL Awards: Snow joke, the missing man and joined up thinking | OneFootball

That’s it then. The Champions League semi-finals are over and Manchester City will be playing Chelsea in the final.

Next stop: Istanbul.

The Going Places Award

Chelsea, from top to bottom, are a club going in the right direction.

The men’s team have hired one of the best coaches around and are now in the Champions League final.

The women’s team already had one of the best coaches around and are now in the Champions League final.

Manchester City and Barcelona await but it could be a brilliant few weeks in west London.

It’s Snow Joke Award

Snow? At the Etihad? For a Champions League semi-final?

Yes, like Prince almost sang in his criminally underrated 1986 banger, sometimes it snows in May.

The pitch in east Manchester was covered in the white stuff for the first half, which caused a lot of issues in the opening 45 minutes.

Thankfully, the ground staff cleared things up at half time and watched as Pep Guardiola’s men romped to victory.

The Bad Optics Award

This was Eden Hazard at full-time on Wednesday after his Real Madrid side had been comprehensively beaten by Chelsea.

Some harmless banter with his former team mates? Yes, absolutely.

But do you think they’re going to care about that in Spain?

The Missing Man Award

Kylian Mbappé was consigned to the bench on Tuesday as he was deemed not fit enough to play at all against Manchester City.

And how much did the French giants miss their World Cup-winning star?

In short: a lot.

The Master/Apprentice Award

It was often suggested that Mason Mount was Frank Lampard’s favourite at Chelsea.

The ‘teacher’s pet’ accusation was always a ridiculous one from the start, but it’s nice to know that after his goal at Stamford Bridge, the apprentice has now become the master.

The Ruben Dias Appreciation Award

To Manchester City what Virgil vam Dijk has been to Liverpool.

Ruben Dias’ arrival last summer has totally transformed the City defence this season.

But the 23-year-old saved his best performance for Tuesday night.

A truly remarkable defender.

The Petulance Award

Trying to beat Manchester City with 11 men is hard enough, with 10, it’s almost impossible.

But that was the task PSG left themselves in both legs as Idrissa Gueye and Angel di Maria received their marching orders.

Di Maria’s, in particular, was a petulant, needless sending off and would have frustrated coach Mauricio Pochettino immensely at full time.