Gab & Juls Show: Are Arsenal still title favourites?

22:09Julien Laurens:No, but then it's the same when Arsenal played the B team against Southampton and lost. You know, we said, yeah, they should have played the A team. In the case, it's a bit the same, but there's... Arsenal had a Champions League game coming up and Premier League games coming up, these guys aren't playing for another 12 days. I was just surprised the degree to which... No, you just can't play your same team, your same players all the time, I think. So I think he was right. He could have mixed up a bit more, maybe. But there was no other... I don't think he could have started the semi-11 for the third game in a row in six days.

22:35Julien Laurens:It doesn't work like this. You don't have to say you can change a couple... I just thought the negativity if they get knocked out in these circumstances... This was a good team enough to beat Southampton at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final, without a doubt. So I can see why he did it. I would have done exactly the same, apart from maybe 1-2, but I'm not sure 1-2 would have changed. I think it's the dynamic change when you brought four in, and then, yeah, your team became better in the second half. No, I mean, Jamal, no Rafinha, but Barcelona avoid getting border last as they win two in La Getafe and take one step closer to the league title.

23:05Julien Laurens:Yeah, I thought this was totally a trap game, because you had Real Madrid dropping points the night before, so you're thinking, okay, you know, to some degree we can do this, but like I said, we're missing Yamal and Rafinha. I thought he made an interesting call with Rooney, who I thought was terrible in this game. And I think you need to build a statue to pay that he will get a statue because that pass or the opening goal and also Leibandowski's quick thinking to Rashford for the second. But beyond that, they could have had three or four goals. But yeah, it was a really good performance, I thought, considering the players missing, yeah.

23:44And Jules, now the reason they're closer to the title because, as we mentioned, our old pal Hector Bellerin pops up late to give Betis the equalizer on Friday night as Real Madrid are held to a 1-1 draw. This was another stinker.

23:56Julien Laurens:Yeah, it wasn't good again. I thought they were even lucky to be in the lead, to be fair. And then the equalizer, I think he's everything as a manager and whatever level you coach at, must be so annoying to concede and to take because we say, I think when you start playing football, We say, you know, always play to the whistle, even if you think it's a foul, even if you think the ball is gone out, even if you think, you know, whatever. Just if the referee hasn't blown his whistle, just keep playing. And whether you think there was a foul on Mendy or not on the goal, I'm not sure from Anthony. But then if the ref doesn't give it, keep playing, just keep playing.

24:34Julien Laurens:You can't be Real Madrid and expect the foul to come because Mendy has gone down in his own box and they stopped playing. And they only got what they deserve for that. so there's an argument to be made now that they no longer believe in the title um yeah which is reasonable and so in some ways if they just let this string kind of play out with worse and worse performances it actually makes the job easier for whoever comes next that's kind of the madrid conspiracy theories and bellingham and all these other vini and whatever and we got a world cup coming up like yeah yeah i mean you know to be on the beach and on the beach they would be on the beach very soon now i mean it looked like they were a bit on the beach in this game to be fair yeah so yeah you're right and at the club don't necessarily mind that yeah yeah yeah i agree because second place is is sorted and they've got nothing else to play for and speaking of stinkers like the real madrid one gabby how about the nil nil draw between milan and juventus did you stay awake all the way because i won't lie towards the end i was a bit like my head was a bit hey Rafael Leal can always do something you know you know you never know yeah this is bad but it was also interesting to see the attitudes of the two coaches afterwards I thought I thought Juve tried to do more they tried to do more you know their way Chico Conce Sal on the wing I thought Jonathan David was was better me and hit the woodwork they can say okay fine but just so deep all they do is wait for Modric to do something.

26:03And Allegri saying, oh well, but my job was to get us in the Champions League. And then we'll look at next year, next year. No, your job was to, your whole point was like, oh, you're going to help players grow. Even at the goal to talk about laying the foundations. What foundations are you laying if the player who has played the most minutes for you, off your player this season, is Luka Modric. Throw in the fact that Pulisic is having a really, really tough run. Yes, they're going to have a tough run. I don't know. Jerry Cardinale was there. I think he's got to really have a think about where they're going.

26:38Chelsea are 90 minutes away from winning even more silverware than the two trophies they won last season. A first-half goal from Enzo Fernandez gives them a 1-0 win over Leeds in the other FA Cup semifinal. They'll face City in the final, of course. two shots on goal and an XG of 0.38 showtime

26:58Julien Laurens:most of that XG is headed by Enzo that I can't really miss let's be honest here Arthur it was a really poor performance from Chelsea and I know they won't so we need to give them credit and Callum McFarlane on his return to the bench and now he's unbeaten a draw at City and then a win a win in the semi-final Arthur did well in a way our boy Brandon Aronson with this big chance that he had a great save by Sanchez, who was the man of the match. Two big saves by Robert Sanchez. And the other one on the shot. The header missed by Calvin Lewin. They had enough from Leeds to at least get a draw and go to extra time.

27:37Julien Laurens:It wasn't to be. I think Chelsea, and I don't know what he says about Rossini or not Rossini. I'm not sure how much Callum McFarlane had to do with this win, but they wrote their luck massively. They did. Obviously, Colt Palmer apparently not fully fit playing the last 20 minutes. I thought it was, Joel Pedro I thought did well, but other than that, there wasn't much there. He's also interesting, right? Jarrell Hato, who all of a sudden had become the new Beckenbauer, kind of disappears, and there's, you know, big ugly Tosin who nobody likes starting. Yeah, it's, part of me feels, though, like, had Chelsea, if Chelsea go on to win it, it's going to mean less to Chelsea fans because of what's going on than it would mean, and because of something they've won before, than it would mean to Leeds.

28:20Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah, yeah. absolutely you know yeah but then yeah at least he could save chelsea season if they finish top five as well and speaking of chelsea gabby the times report that if they qualify for europe they will meet financial sustainability requirements sorry i miswrote they say they will meet oh they say they would stress tested them they said if they qualify they say they will meet uh the financial sustainability requirements which would mean that they would not have to take the one-year ban in exchange for reset like milan and you've interested in the past uh yeah and And I don't know, like, all these kind of hardcore sort of business of football types, like Kieran O 'Connor from Swiss Ramble and stuff, they're saying, like, I wonder what voodoo they're going to use to do this.

29:06The one-year ban, in some ways, if they end up qualifying for the Conference League, which is what, you know, it's the trick. Was it Milan or Juve? Maybe both. They pulled. It's not a bad one, right? You hit the reset button. but they seem adamant. They're going to look really stupid if that's what they have to negotiate in the end. Again, I don't know what Beydat has up his sleeve, frankly. Liverpool roll past Crystal Palace 3-1 as Alexander Isak, remember him? Scores his first league goal of the season. Jules, not a great performance at all. No, it wasn't.

29:41Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah. Palace had some big chances, more than Liverpool. Their expected goals was way higher than Liverpool, who got a little bit lucky. More than twice that. Yeah, lucky on the east side goal, because it's a shot by Macalese that goes wide. And he missits it. Yeah, and he scores like that. Robbo scored a nice goal. Yeah, that's great in transition, kind of old-school Liverpool, if you want. Salah getting injured, and we're not sure exactly for how long, and let's hope that this is not the last home game, and that this is not the kind of farewell that it would give. But yeah, they had to win for Champions League position and stuff.

30:16Julien Laurens:And they did, but that was not really pretty. Inter had a two-goal lead at Torino's lip, and they have to settle for a point. Still, Fede Di Marcos sets a new assist record in Serie A, Gab, and they can win the title next weekend against Palma San Siro. Yeah, they totally relaxed. Absolutely. But Torino showed a very unexpected, in my view, fight back. And it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, 18 assists, breaking Papu Gomez. Papu Gomez, of course. Papu. Roberto De Derby gets his first win as Tottenham coach. And in fact, it's Spurs' first victory since December as Jean Paulina pops up late against Wolves.

31:00But Jules, they also need a superb save from Antonin Kinski. And now they've lost Xavi Simons, who's also out of the World Cup. Yeah, that's bad.

31:08Julien Laurens:Yeah, ACL for him, that's really, really bad. I think he tried, maybe shouldn't have. he tried to keep playing and that's maybe not the idea when you did such a bad injury to your knee but that's it was tense they didn't play that great either but they won that's the most important although West Ham who at some point were only drawing so Spurs were out of the bottom three also scored a late winner to win so that didn't change anything they're two points behind still in the bottom three with four games to go and it would be tense especially after losing Travis Simmons we'll get to the West Ham thing later but yeah their run-in is pretty brutal as well Bayern come from 3-0 down at half-time at Mainz to win 4-3 they needed the cavalry to come on but this was an impressive turnaround still that's one way to look at that first half was so bad they just had the two shots on goal 0.23 I mean he totally chucked the kids in or chucked the second string in the kid we saw this guy NJ who's 18 made a couple appearances but it was his first start and then boom they come on and they totally turn it around and somebody reminded me Olisse, Musiala, Kane that could have been England's front line at the World Cup imagine that imagine that mismatch Luis Enrique continues his precision rotation Paris Saint-Germain win 3-0 away to Angers Jules Lucas Speraldo in midfield is winning me over you're right, he can pass I know, he's winning a lot of people over he's still slow, really slow it doesn't matter in central midfield if you're slow.

32:39Julien Laurens:I don't want to see him at the back. Exactly. Second assist on the first goal, assist on one on the second, and then scoring on the set piece on the corner. I had a third one. I mean, for him, who had hardly played in the first half of the season, now suddenly he's reinvented in this number six position. I think it's great to see. It was a big win, an easy win against an Angers team that had a lot of players missing and everything. And you also rested some of the key players before Bayern in midweek. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start, thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is with thumbtack you don't have to be a home pro you just have to hire one you can hire top rated pros see price estimates and read reviews all on the thumbtack app download today O-O-O-O 'Reilly Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on?

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33:58Julien Laurens:Auto Parts

34:04Julien Laurens:Gab, 20 years after Calciopoli is another referring scandal about to rock Syria Alright Joel, so what we know certainly I hope we don't have Calciopoli because obviously that resulted in the relegation of Juventus punishments I mean I'm in so much poison and acrimony for a very long time on the surface, what we know so far, this is nothing like that but there might be other stuff that emerges of course so the head of the time referees Gianluca Rocchi you probably remember him when he was a referee yeah of course highly rated referee he is under criminal investigation for sporting fraud which is kind of the carries a sentence of up to six years in prison and it's basically for match fixing or altering results he's not in charge he's only under investigation because he's under investigation he has stepped back from his job he's self suspended himself the allegation against them which by the way isn't in the court documents but it was as often happens in Italy it was leaked by the magistrates and everybody's reported it so we can assume it's accurate yeah there's essentially three separate allegations The first one that last season when Inter were going for the trouble before things didn't quite work out, especially in the Champions League final, that they had a game against Bologna.

35:33There was a referee that they liked, and they lobbied him for this referee, and they got this referee. Now, the weird thing is Inter lost that game 1-0. You might remember Riccardo Rosolini's overhead kick. deep in injury time. And that goal, and Inter protested a lot at the time because it came off a throw-in that was taken sort of 10, 15 meters up the pitch. Again, had it not been for that, Inter would have been Serie A champions. The second allegation, weirdly, is kind of slightly convoluted, but Daniele Doveri was one of the top two or three referees in Serie A. According to the allegation, Inter don't like him.

36:18But they lobbied to have him referee their Coppa Italia semifinal, second leg against Milan. The first leg, I think, ended in a draw. And the reason they wanted him for that is they said, well, we're going to get him at some point between now and the end of the season. Let's get him out of the way in this game against Milan. As it happened, Inter lost that game 3-0, so they got no benefit out of it. Me personally, I also kind of feel it's a darby. Doviti's one of the top referees in Italy. It's Italy's biggest darby. It's a Copa Italia semifinal. It stands to reason that you're going to get Doveri anyway, right?

36:54The third allegation is not concerning Inter. Inter and Rocchi, by the way, of course, totally say they're completely innocent of this. It concerns a call that was made in a game between Udinese and Verona where the VARs are in their VAR room nerding out over the pictures, and there was a penalty incident or penalty appeal. They basically said, well, no, let's let it slide. We don't think it's an incident. Supposedly, according to the allegation, Rocky, there's like a glass window, tinted glass window. Rocky knocks on the window, and then they change their mind and award the penalty. Award the penalty correctly, I might add.

37:34Everybody agreed it should have been a penalty. Yeah. These seem like pretty bizarre and pretty milquetoast kind of allegations, as I see this. Of course, they need to be investigated. The back story to this is a lot of these claims come from a guy named Domenico Roca, who he was an assistant referee in Serie A. He received low remarks and his contract wasn't renewed. He appealed against it, still wasn't renewed. He seems very angry, especially with Roca. The environment in the Italian Referees Association, there's essentially two camps. There's like a Rocky camp and there's like an anti-Rocky camp.

38:18He apparently submitted this evidence to the Italian sporting court, where the threshold for evidence is actually lower than it is in a criminal court. They looked at it and they said, we don't have grounds to investigate. And that was that. Now, apparently, there's a criminal investigation, so the sporting investigation might need to continue. The key here for me is, what evidence is there? because if it's just this guy talking, that's not going to convince anything. And the accusations he brings or the allegations he brings, I don't think are particularly compelling at all. Haston Villa fall at Fulham, 1-0.

38:56Jules, their run-in is pretty brutal. Should I not be confident that Emery's working his magic despite the eight-point lead?

39:06Julien Laurens:I don't think, I mean, they play Spurs at home and Burnley away the next two games. I don't think that's brutal. And then Liverpool City, by then, they would be clear enough even if they lose against Liverpool and City to guarantee that they... Spurs? Did they have to be fighting to avoid... No, I don't... Personally, I don't see it. Liverpool and City are tricky especially the last game where City, they need something from that to make sure that they're in the top five. The only thing I would say is obviously the Forest Europa League semi-final in between. And there's that too, yeah. Yeah, in midweek, back to back but I think they have enough and especially after being really poor this weekend so they have to bounce back.

39:40Julien Laurens:This was back on Friday Yeah, but Napoli stomped over Cremonese. Gab, a reminder of what might have been without the injuries for Napoli? Yeah, no question about it. Napoli were really, really good. They passed, they moved. Alisson Santos played and was really, really good. But most of all, you saw De Bruyne, you saw Hoyland linking up. I think Cremonese also said, hey, let's just go for it and let's have fun. They also gave him some space, tried to play football against Napoli. Napoli just a better side with better players. They're still second. they're 10 points back ain't gonna happen but in the end I think it shows that Kunt is still for all his foibles a really good manager and maybe would have been a head-to-head if not for all the injuries also on Friday Lons come from three goals down away to Brest to snatch a point thanks to the genius that is Alan Sam Maximan long range strike deep in injury time Jules they'll be disappointed with the result but these guys just never give up yeah it's not the first time they come back like that they're all in Montana yeah yeah it's good I think Piazzaj was disappointed by the fact that he mixed the team and left some big players on the bench because they just could not play again another game with the A team the point that we mentioned for City earlier it's also valid there the problem is those players didn't really play at the level that the manager was expecting them to so he changed he made four changes in the 52nd minute or something like that because things were not going well and after that obviously or a bit like the Bayern game too, they came back and they were by far the better team.

41:14Julien Laurens:Brest are already on the beach, which is right by the stadium, by the way, if you go or not far. But it was still not enough to win and now, obviously, those points dropped. Mandali is six points behind PSG with as many games played, which is no ideal. Even if they will host Paris in a few weeks' time, six points seems a bit a bigger gap now, obviously. Atletico de Madrid snap a four-game losing streak in the league as they come, oh, sorry, in all competitions as they come from behind to be Athletic Club they build our 3-2 and the only living source in captivity scores another two goals. Gab, not much rotation from Simone this time.

41:51Julien Laurens:No, he was getting a lot of criticism because like, we even saw like the C team, right? Some of these guys. Yeah, the kids, yeah. I'd never even heard of in some of these games, right? But I think he said like, all right, no, let's, our guys are rested enough. Let's get them back in ahead of this Arsenal cash. And I think he got the response he wanted. Not everybody played. Alvarez stayed on the bench, for example. But you don't need to see him. Alex Baena, I thought, played really, really well. And Sorloff, what can you say? I mean, non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, 1.06. Nobody who scored 15 or more goals the past two seasons, or I could even say 19 or more goals, has done that good.

42:34It's better than Harry Kane is at 0.85, Mbappe 0.83 Lewandowski at 0.80 I'm assuming mostly last season and Erling Haaland at 0.78 and I might also add about Sorlos these other guys they play for much better teams that score many more goals so I never thought I'd say this but Guy's a pretty special player even though he's not the best Norwegian center forward out there let's go to the Women's Champions League rough day for the Lyon keeper as they fall away to Arsenal in the semi-final first leg 2-1.

43:09Julien Laurens:Yeah, Christiane Handler had a really bad second half. I mean, she had nothing to do in the first half to start with. And second half, she made two mistakes. One on a free kick where she fumbles the ball on me. Just, you know, didn't stop the ball. And then the second goal where there's a miscommunication, misunderstanding really between her and her centre-back. And again, that led to Olivia Smith scoring in the empty net. really a really good first half I thought from Lyon the game was obviously live on Disney Plus with us much better from Arsenal in the second half sorry where they play more long ball they were aggressive they won all the second balls they were really really good it was such a great game I thought the quality of the game apart from the endless mistake was outstanding I think great publicity for women's football I caught the last kind of half hour of this game live on my other screen and I thought But Arsenal could have scored more.

44:03And I was kind of disappointed then when I saw, like, you know, on YouTube when I went to watch the highlights again, it's all like, you know, Leon Howlers, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, no, I thought. I mean, that's part of the story, obviously, right?

44:18Julien Laurens:The biggest chance is for Diani, who hit the crossbar for you. A 1-1. Could have made it 2-1 before even the Smith goal. But, yeah, Ford had a big chance when she, like, slotted him through the ball. I thought it was an outstanding game of football. and I can't wait for the second leg, which is already next weekend in those Champions League semifinals. Borussia Dortmund and Leipzig both won this weekend in the Bundesliga, which means they can pretty much count on Champions League football next season. The gap behind them, the race for the other sport, is very much up in the air. That's right. There's three teams that are competing.

44:48We still don't know if they're going to have one spot or two spots. That will depend on how the likes of Bayern and Freiburg do in European competition vis-a-vis the likes of Atletico Madrid and any other Spanish team? Valicano. And, of course, Raya. Stuttgart and Hoffenheim both on 57 points. Stuttgart this weekend drawing 1-1 with Werder Bremen. Those are two big points dropped. They have a pretty tough run-in. Well, it depends how you look at it. What I love here is it's a head-to-heads because they play Hoffenheim, who are also on 57 points next weekend. And then May 9th, they play Leverkusen.

45:27We're just behind on 55 points. I like the fact that Stuttgart controlled their own destiny, but these are tough, tough games. Man, they could get leapfrogged by Leverkusen. Imagine that. And imagine if they end up with just only top four in the Champions League and Kasper Hulman somehow pulls this off. But yes, as a fan, I want to see Stuttgart. and why not Bayern Leverkusen also in the Women's Champions League Barcelona come away with a 1-1 draw Bayern Choles again I watched the highlights felt like Barcelona could have scored more

46:07Julien Laurens:yeah yeah yeah they probably should have they took the lead early with Payot lovely finish he's such a great striker such a great finisher and then after that you miss some chances you have a lot of the ball you know you play some really good stuff and then you get caught in transition late in the game They're still in a very strong position, let's be honest, to qualify at home next weekend for the final. Again, another final. But yeah, at least the Bayern goal just keeps this a little bit interesting, although I cannot see Bayern being able to go to Barcelona and win that second leg. The top two teams in the National League in England, so the fifth division, York City and Rochdale, faced off for a spot in the Football League, Gab, and we saw an incredible ending.

46:48Yes, ordinarily, I wouldn't care about this at all. if not for the fact this is one of the most unbelievable endings that I've ever seen so just oh and by the way great anecdote about our colleague Mark Ogden so he went to this game because Rochdale are his local team he sends me a video of an incident which we'll get to of like a pitch invasion and a fan being punched by one of the York players and that's all he says about it he doesn't mention the unbelievable other stuff that happened in this game

47:19Julien Laurens:as a Rochdale fan It didn't really end well for them, really, because his son is a massive, massive fan. His son goes to every game. Okay, so context here, right? Winner gets automatic promotion, essentially into the pros, although National League, most of those teams are professionals as well. Rochdale were two points behind on 105 points. They needed to win this. In the 95th minute, so five minutes of injury time, somebody named, I'm going to mangle his name, when I'm sorry because I pride myself on pronunciations, but Emmanuel Dizeruveve. Yeah? Yeah. He might be Paris-born and bred. We don't know.

47:58I know. I don't think he is. Well, Dizeruveve doesn't... That's not a French name at all. It's okay. It could be. Well, whatever. It's not only French people that are born and bred. No, true. True, true, true. Anyway, he scores for Rochdale. Everybody just loses their mind. There's a pitch invasion. It's actually not necessarily a violent pitch invasion. like it doesn't get aggressive but then at one point as sometimes happens these things sort of turn there's like a scuffle a melee a fan is on the pitch a player for york goes and this is the video augur showed me goes and just punches this fan from behind as well it's pretty cowardly i thought i mean i appreciate fans shouldn't be there getting involved you're protecting your teammates whatever that mean you go and blind sign somebody right this is just my take on life anyway Anyway, so it takes forever to clear everybody off the pitch.

48:50You reckon it's all over. Goalkeeper goes up, chaos. And then in the 103rd minute, Josh Stone. No idea if he's related. I like to think that he is to the more famous Stones. Probably isn't. He's somehow equalized. A massive scrambled finish. All these shots blocked. The highlights are out there on YouTube. Find them. It is worth your time. And so as a result, York goes up. And the Ogden family are all sad. Oh, they're in the playoffs, so they can still go up. I know, but this has got to be pretty soul-destroying.

49:20Julien Laurens:There was two more minutes of additional time to be played. If you invade the pitch, then obviously the referee is going to play more time after. That's what caused them. For me, if they don't invade the pitch, then they can see this game out and they win. Or invade the pitch at the final whistle. Yeah, exactly. Don't do it then. That's all you need to do. I think that messed it all up, really. In today's world, planning ahead isn't always top of mind, but not having life insurance can leave families facing difficult financial uncertainty during already emotional times. In many cases, loved ones are left managing expenses, debts, or long-term obligations without a clear plan in place.

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52:26Julien Laurens:Yeah, although they were a goal down, that would have made the penalty for 1-1. They scored straight after Everton to equalize anyway. But I see his point. I thought it was a stonewall penalty watching it live. I don't understand how this was not given. I think we get to a stage in this season now wherever teams are playing for whether it's the title between Arsenal and City the Champions League positions or European positions the relegation the referees can't make those bad calls. They can't. It's not possible. Not with the AR. There's incidents in every game now because it's going to be so tense.

52:59Julien Laurens:There'll be so much pressure and everything. And the referees cannot get it wrong. It's too many times now where we're in this position where Everton are going to ride to PGMOL. Spurs have done it. Arsenal have done it in the past. Pep is not happy. Nobody is happy with the referees because they keep messing things up in key decisions, key moments. And they have to be perfect between now and the end of the season. They have to. I'll say this, right? We both know and like, and I have a lot of time for Howard Webb. And if he wasn't already bald, I would have thought he would have lost all his hair.

53:30because it's like talking to children to some of these referees, right? You know that in general they said, well, we don't want to, you know, we're the Premier League, our brand is, we don't give away tiki-taki penalties, and so if people are grappling in the penalty box, let's not give the penalty and whatever, right? And we can agree or disagree, but as long as you're consistent, which is what people want. In this situation, I guarantee you, without having heard the conversation between the VR and the referee, the guy said, oh, look, it's coming together between Mateo Fernandez and Cherno Berry, they're fighting for the ball.

54:02And it's not a coming together. Mateo Hernandez comes from behind, basically bear hugs him, right? In so doing, he handles the ball. Now, if you don't want to call the bear hug, I would, but whatever, because you want to be consistent, physical play, and you like all that, and you're a big macho dude, fine. But once he goes in and he knocks the ball away, that's it. That's a penalty.

54:27Julien Laurens:Yeah, I don't think anybody agrees. argues with the fact that it's a penalty. It's just that it wasn't given. It's not a mistake. And the list of mistakes this season is so long. And now again, we are coming to the crutch time of the season. They can't make mistakes like that. Eugliss in the Spanish second division as both West Ham and Zaragoza fight to avoid relegation. And got the Zaragoza goalkeeper, Esteban Andrada, faces a lengthy ban after punching Jorge Pulido. Yeah, Andrada, of course, from Argentina, veteran goalkeeper. if you want to see how VAR should work properly, the highlight of this, the Spanish FA put it up on YouTube.

55:10I watched it this morning because this is exactly, this was complicated, this was ugly. And they went through the whole sequence and I thought they applied the rules exactly as they should. So what happens is it starts, there's a free kick. Like, Tassende was one of the players. He's got his markers behind him, and he gives, like, a little kick. It's a little stupid kick. Like, it's a wussy kick. But it's still a kick, so the VAR flags it, and in Spain you get sent off for that. So as the referee's going over the VAR, Andrada, the goalkeeper for Zaragoza, He comes over, he wants to take a look too, and he's confronted by this player, Pulido, from Huesca, and Andrade pushes him away.

56:04Pulido throws himself, but with two hands, but not hard. Pulido throws himself to the ground, and then the referee goes, who witnesses all this, two hands on the other one, sure you threw yourself to the ground, but you put two hands on him, I have to send you off. And it's at that point when Andrade sees the red card, realizes what he just did, that he completely loses his mind. He runs off. He goes after Andrade and goes and really whacks him. I mean, a really violent punch, right? And then there's a massive melee and everything. During the melee, and this is why I commend the VAR here, the Huesca goalkeeper, Dani Jimenez, comes in and cheap shots, like from behind, he punches Andrade in the back of the head.

56:51Not as hard as what Andrade did to Pulido or whatever. that was caught by the VR as well and they sent him off too so ugly ending, embarrassing ending system worked, I thought I think Pulido should get a ban too because you embellish this once your face heals get a nice ban for you it's stuff we don't need but this is how the system should work let's go back to Ligue 1 Olympique Marseille's season just gets better and better, there's late goals against Nice So finishes 1-1, two points dropped, Champions League further away.

57:25Julien Laurens:Yeah, further away. It's going to be difficult, I think, for them to come back into it because Lyon and Lille, who have won as well, Rennes have won too. And for Marseille, they had to win this game at the Velodrome in the Derby as well. This is Nyssa, one of the teams that they hate the most over there. The atmosphere was great. The football wasn't great. Big calls made by Habib Bey, including Mason Greenwood on the bench. for example and then they took the lead through Heuberg and after that you thought okay at least they're going to see this one out and yet they gave a cheap penalty away just before the end Correct decision Yeah yeah absolutely stamped on his foot young kid from the academy and then Eli Wahid the Paris born and bred striker who used to play for Marseille had six months very difficult there and considering Nista fighting not to go down by the way they're really close from the bottom three took here with one of the best panencas you would ever see in your life especially within the context and the environment.

58:21Julien Laurens:And that finished 1-1, and that's more, more misery for Marcel. Okay, so when I saw that, I thought back to the most significant Panenka of my lifetime, which was Francesco Totti against Australia, right? For a guy to do a Panenka in that situation, especially given his past, if he had screwed this up, wouldn't the Nice fans just... Yeah, probably. But then again... Is it just his head that's like this? No, he's just a very confident, very good player. And he's been scoring a lot recently. So he's in a good mood, really confident. Everything has been working for him. He qualified them for the French Cup final in midweek.

59:07Julien Laurens:So it's that kind of mood that he was on. And yeah, it was an outstanding panic, really, if you have a chance to watch it. Al-Khali made it two in a row after they won the Asian Champions League yeah, so it's two Asian Champions Leagues in two years, we should point out this is the, I think it's the, it's called the Asian Champions League Elite, because it's all now in tiers and stuff, they play the whole tournament in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah which, you know, because I guess they put up the most money, but hey, whatever, they voted on it they decided to have it in one location, it is what it is they beat Machida Zeta from Japan in the final, Machida Zeta who had the best defense throughout the Champions League.

59:47Al-Ajli, I thought, showed a lot of composure. They created the better chances. Then they had a guy sent off, Minute 64, whose name escapes me right now. Complete rush of blood to the head, right? He tussles with the Machida defender who's who looks like he's about a foot taller than he is, incidentally. And what do you do? He's got obviously, this dude obviously has like angry little man complex because he goes and he headbutts him, or tries to anyway, sent off, and you figure, okay, that's it. Machidek can see this game out. But no, they concede in injury time, sorry, an extra time, and end up losing 1-0.

1:00:28I don't have a word on Matthias Gaisle now, right? So those of us who remember, Matthias Gaisle in 2023, 35-year-old, bright, young thing, Salzburg coach, in the vein of Marco Rose or Jesse Marsh at the time, He had offers from bigger clubs, bright rising star. And what does he do? He decides to go to Saudi. And a lot of people, including me at the time, said, I'm like, bro, what are you doing? Sure, you'll make a lot of money, but people are going to forget all about you. And you're not necessarily going to improve. Well, he goes there. He wins two Champions League titles. He gets to work with a whole bunch of big-name veteran players who he might not have worked with before, like Fran Kessier, like Edouard Mendy, Ivan Toney's on that team, Demi Raal.

1:01:13and and I just look at it now he's got two Asian Champions Leagues on his resume he's still only 38 years old there's a lot of job openings this summer

1:01:23Julien Laurens:yeah yeah can we get him a top tier job? maybe not he will eventually yeah maybe it might not be this summer but he will come back to Europe probably a better coach than when he left so and a much richer coach as well so well done Matthias you were proven right the verdict is in from UEFA's disciplinary committee jewels Gianluca Pristiani is getting a six-match ban for abusing Vinicius Jr. You remember that game, Benfica against Real Madrid. However, three of those games are suspended. And, of course, he's already served one. So he's only going to miss two more games. This doesn't seem right. Can you explain the logic here?

1:02:02Julien Laurens:Yeah, I mean, apparently because he admitted to homophobic abuse and not, I mean, he admitted to some abuse on Vinny. That gave him mitigating factor, which I'm not sure I really understand. So because the guy said, yeah, yeah, I was an abuser, I abused somebody else, then he gets less suspension than if he said that he'd done nothing. Yeah, so basically the minimum, look, this totally feels wrong for 101 reasons, right? So the minimum 10-game ban is for discriminatory language. That can be racism, it can be anti-Semitic abuse, it can be anti-Muslim abuse, it can be homophobic abuse, whatever, right?

1:02:45But if you admit to it, rather than them having to rely on witnesses to prove it, which of course was going to be difficult, because the little turd pulled his shirt up above his mouth so you couldn't see what he was saying, and nobody heard it other than Vinicius, so there was nobody to go and testify to what he actually said, right? He said, I called him a gay slur. What I don't understand, though, is you shouldn't suspend three games because of it. This is what I don't... I understand giving you a lesser ban if you admit to it, even though I think... Put it this way. if he had called Vinicius would not have reacted nobody believes Vinicius would have reacted that way if he if he had called him a gay slur right I'm not saying one is better than the other but Vinicius has been called that before I don't believe he is gay I don't think he's I don't think he would have he would have engendered that kind of reaction right so nobody believes that but I so if you want to say so so there's this there's this whole there's different layer one is it's kind of nefarious and crappy that he again I think I could be wrong and only he knows the truth that he lied about what he actually said but on top of that to get a reduced sentence because you admit to it and on top of that to have half that sentence suspended i mean

1:04:07Julien Laurens:this is wrong right tools i think this the ufa disgraced themselves again i can't i just can't believe this he's going to meet the two benfica's two qualifiers because it looks like they're going to go through qualifiers so he's going to be back for the first game of the league phase if they qualify. I think it's a disgrace, absolute disgrace from UEFA. The Times have found what is probably the most expensive ticket in the history of sports. Gab, block 124, I mean, whatever. That is right now on the resale site of FIFA for$2.3 million each, so the original price was$8 ,680. This is crazy, right?

1:04:43Julien Laurens:Are you going to buy it? Yeah, to not watch Italy in the World Cup. Yeah. Okay. To me, the story here is obviously, like, I bought it. I can put whatever price I want on it. Nobody's going to buy it at$2.3 million unless you're a moron because you can go, you could get a hospitality suite with, like, a limo and hookers and drugs for a lot less than that, right? Still a lot of money, but... So nobody's going to drop nearly$10 million on this. This is a really bad look on FIFA that this ticket is out there, that the story is out there. I have an old colleague Martin Ziegler at the Times coming out with this because this just speaks to absolute greed.

1:05:23This should not be on the official resale site. If somebody else wants to do this, that's fine. I do wonder what you would pay. I would tell you I would not pay this because I've already seen Italy win two World Cups in my lifetime. You've seen France win two World Cups in your lifetime. That's very true, yeah.

1:05:40Julien Laurens:I'm assuming you wouldn't pay it either. No, no, no. I don't have the money anyway. But if you did. What? Well, I mean, look, I just find this to be a very bad look. That's part of the problem, right? That is part of the problem. And I don't know what FIFA can do now because they can say, well, no, we'll cap the prices on our official resale site because then people will go to the other ones and do whatever they want. This is a stain. I almost wonder whether this wasn't done on purpose by somebody who wanted to make FIFA look especially bad. And if that's the case, hey, well, you succeeded. Jules, this brings us to an end.

1:06:14Yeah. But we got to come back on Thursday. You know why, right? The champions. Well, I'm hyped and I'm amped. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

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