Have you ever wanted to watch the Champions League but you didn’t have a cable subscription? Have you ever wanted to listen to two friends who wouldn’t shut up about a match for the full 90 minutes? Facebook has just the thing for you.
The UEFA Champions League debuted on Facebook with a free livestream of the Paris Saint-Germain vs. Celtic match with former U.S. international Stuart Holden and former Dutch international Mario Melchiot providing what was either match commentary or two guys at a bar who didn’t realize they were mic’d up.
PSG routed Celtic 5-0 in what was a bit of an experiment between Fox Sports and Facebook, who brought the world’s biggest annual tournament to the masses free of charge and without commercials. No more borrowing your parents’ cable subscription credentials to watch soccer!
The performance of Holden and Melchiot drew mixed reviews. They opted against the traditional announcer roles of talking about what was happening on the pitch and instead talked about whatever popped into their heads.
This about sums it up.
Melchiot brought plenty of excitement while Holden occasionally tried to actually analyze the match. “Mario, we have to be critical; we’re not here to be cheerleaders,” Holden said at one point before criticizing Celtic for not having a billion dollars to spend on players.
Most of the time Holden and Melchiot were just shooting the shit, like two bros sitting on a couch, eating candy and talking occasionally about the soccer match on TV. Some people loved it. Others not so much.
Photo: @McVey10 | Twitter
When fellow host Rachel Bonnetta asked those following along for questions for the guys to answer at halftime, her responses ranged from “What kind of ice cream do you like best?” to “Can you guys please not talk at halftime?” Sadly they didn't have time to answer those important queries. I bet Holden likes mint chocolate chip while Melchiot is more of a sherbet guy.
There were some technical issues early and the stream never did get the game clock on the screen, but the overall presentation wasn’t bad. The match itself was never in question, especially once Neymar opened the scoring in the 19th minute.
5th game for PSG, 5th goal.
Okay, Neymar. https://t.co/WzSvUCGwYh— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 12, 2017
Neymar set up the next score with a header across the face of the goal. Edinson Cavani completely whiffed on his shot attempt, but we’re sure he was just faking it to set up Kylian Mbappe, who scored his first Champions League goal with PSG.
Neymar Mbappé
Get used to it, folks. https://t.co/hn7GbAkJ4W— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 12, 2017
History maker! 18-year-old forward Kylian Mbappé equals the record for most #UCL goals scored as a teenager (7 by Patrick Kluivert). pic.twitter.com/OgFzHHPmdf
— #UCL (@ChampionsLeague) September 12, 2017
Cavani took a break from doing his best Danny Welbeck impression to score a couple goals. The first came on a penalty kick and the second on an excellent header from a tight angle. PSG also scored on a Mikael Lustig own goal.
All-time top scorers in the #UCL for Paris:
— #UCL (@ChampionsLeague) September 12, 2017
It wasn’t a great night for Celtic as the three PSG amigos all got on the scoresheet for the second straight match. But at least fans got to watch the match online for free, even if they had to put up with Stu and Mario's inane banter all match.
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