It’s been nearly a week and the thought of FC Barcelona’s miracle comeback in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) still makes the heart flutter and brings a tear to the eye.
The epic match sent shockwaves around the world.
Back in February, FC Barcelona entered the Parc des Princes, home of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and finished the 90 minutes at the losing end of a 4-0 drubbing. It was one for the ages, a remarkable victory for the French outfit and an extraordinary loss for the Catalan powerhouse. In the days that followed, the gloating from both PSG supporters and those of Barcelona’s arch-rival Real Madrid was nonstop – given the unlikely odds of a comeback, or remuntada, and that fact that no team in UCL history has ever come back from being four goals down.
The day before the second match, an article appeared on the Facebook newsfeed that showed oddsmakers were giving PSG an over 90 percent chance of victory. It was a reminder of events of recent past, the 2016 US presidential election and Super Bowl LI.
Before the election that saw businessman Donald Trump rise to the most powerful seat in the world, newspapers and media outlets across the country were touting the expected landslide by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
An article in The Independent cited the Princeton Election Consortium that said Clinton would win 312 electoral votes, well above the required 270. The model was developed by Princeton Professor Sam Wang, who successfully predicted 49 out of 50 states in 2012. He was so sure of his prediction, during an interview on CNN, he vowed to eat a bug live on the air – he did make good on his promise a few days after the election that proved him wrong.
The New York Times closed their campaign coverage giving Clinton an 85 percent chance of victory. “Mrs. Clinton’s chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an NFL kicker misses a 37-yard field goal,” Josh Katz wrote with assurance. His analysis was followed by endless charts meant to back up his hypothesis.
The final Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of victory, even holding on to the idea that third party candidate Evan McMullin was still a contender to take the state of Utah.
Over on MSNBC, Steve Kornacki displayed his “expertise” by showing a map with 363 electoral votes for Clinton and a mere 84 for Trump, after confidently giving Clinton the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina, while marking solid Republican states like Utah, Texas, Kansas, Indiana, and South Carolina as “swing states.”
Trump dismantled the entire media establishment by proving them all wrong, winning 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227 – along with flipping the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin to his side.
A similar event took place at the most recent Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. By the third quarter, Atlanta was up a massive 28-3, wherein the Wall Street Journal tweeted: “The Falcons now have a 91.6% chance of winning Super Bowl LI.”
Trump’s son, Donald, Jr., retweeted the post, commenting, “Where have I seen stats like this before?”
New England eventually forced the game into overtime and were declared champions yet again, winning 34-28.
Was close to pulling a Don, Jr. with the article giving PSG the huge odds of winning, but did not want to jinx Barça. Then, among Facebook memories a couple days before the match, there was a reminder of FC Barcelona’s 7-1 demolition of German club Bayern Leverkusen during the 2011/2012 UCL, where superstar Lionel Messi scored five of the seven goals.
There were too many signs of an impending miracle, but did not want to get any hopes up and settled on accepting defeat, considering the atrocious first leg, or being overjoyed after witnessing another against all odds victory.
After the win, the New England Patriots even tweeted to FC Barcelona to welcome them to “The Comeback Club.” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also commented on the outcome, calling it “an inspiring display of will and determination under pressure.”
A factor that also played a part in the win – and, likely something that impacted both the Clinton campaign and the Atlanta Falcons – was overconfidence. According to Barcelona defender Jérémy Mathieu, he said the disrespect shown following the first leg of the series was enough to inspire the huge second leg heroics.
Referring to players posting on social media their conclusion that the series was over after the 4-0 win, he said, “You have to wait for the end of both 90-minute matches.”
“When you have gone through to the next round, you can put out a few little things, but for me it was a lack of respect,” he added. “I can tell you the dressing room was very angry about that.”
Questions came about after he was seen giving the middle finger during a celebratory selfie with his teammates.
“They’re young and I think they lacked humility,” he said about some of the PSG players. “In football, things change quickly and it came back to haunt them.”
The classic lessons of never giving up and working hard to achieve your goals always plays out in every life. However, these major events have all shown just how much impact those basic lessons can bring. They can win elections, snag championships, and do what was believed to be impossible. While there is so much focused on the excesses of life and the focusing on putting on a façade for others, things always seem to boil down to the same lessons – lessons that lead to sustainable success and not just short-lived and meaningless victories./WDJ