Photo by Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images

The superior team is the winning side. There is a lot of discussion about how Manchester City dominated Real Madrid on Wednesday. For instance, Jamie Carragher implied that the better team lost by mentioning that the best team does not always win the Champions League. The evidence for this claim is solid: Counting this season, there have been 70 editions of the Champions League, and English teams have won it only 15 times. Obviously, the best team has not won the title at least 55 times.
This is baloney. Discounting referee errors?or potential intentional errors if you ask Chelsea fans about the 2009 semifinal?the best team always wins. The explanation is simple: The better team scores more and concedes fewer. The detractors? problem is that their criteria for what constitutes a better team are subjective to their opinions and not the scoreboard. For instance, possession and creating chances are important, but finishing chances and brilliant goalkeeping are not. Wednesday?s tie?and the punditry around it?is a clear demonstration of this fallacy.
Andriy Lunin?s performance this season has been an indication that Real Madrid is not a good team because a superior team?s goalkeeper should only distribute the ball on his feet instead of saving shots, the logic goes. Indeed, distribution is important and helpful, but to suggest that a brilliant shot-sopping performance is evidence for an inferior team entirely...