A Jesper Gronkjaer Lovefest
Full marks to Network 2's commentator Johnny Giles for not holding back his views on Jesper Gronkjaer during coverage of Wednesday's match.
Not convinced that the Dane's goal was deliberate, a distraught Giles opined, "Knowing the way he usually crosses, I'd be very surprised if he meant that. I mean he's not that good at all."
And that was followed up five minutes later - when everyone else was watching Monaco hit the post - by: "He's done it so many times before, just hit it wildly across the goal..."
Not content with that musing, some 20 minutes after Gronkjaer's goal listeners were still finding Giles stuck on the same tune as the Dane hit another bad cross. "That's more like it," declared a happy Johnny. "There's no way he could have picked out the keeper like that. He couldn't have!"
Presumably after a quiet word by the producer at half-time, the sight of Gronkjaer blazing a sitter over the bar five minutes into the second found a more restrained Giles. "I'm not going to say any more about Gronkjaer," he announced.
Apparently having second thoughts during the one-second pause that then followed, he then added: "I mean even the way he hit it was wrong, with the side of his foot, but I'm not going to say any more about Gronkjaer."
So after 69 minutes: "Well that's three substitutions and I said I wouldn't mention it again, but how Gronkjaer is still on the pitch is beyond me."
Finally, with five minutes to go, as Gronkjaer stepped up to take a corner: "Oh God [pause]. Maybe this one will go into the top corner, too."
If Mediawatch hadn't have also watched the match it would have swore that Jesper had nicked his missus.