Gab & Juls Show: Why Liverpool look clueless

27:19I'm thinking, I'm looking at you, Rodrigo, first and foremost. Marbo Magic Mike saves a penalty and Christian Pulisic scores at the other end. As Milan win the derby against Inter, 1-0. Gab, Max Allegri is vindicated. So, for Sean Tiger, first goal. I mean, on the goal. This is what Allegri brings, right? So, this is what he's good at. In-game management, pushing buttons, motivating players. Rafael Leal was a monster in this game. a monster of activity by layout standards um and then you somehow get the win and then you break it down and then if you watch the game you know you'll notice inter hitting the the woodwork twice you notice that the goal comes in part because there's no tactical foul in midfield and i think largely because jan sommer it's weird how he goes down he seems to push the ball into his path uh and then shallanoglu misses a penalty and look and the guy never misses i could credit magic mike He does some mind games here.

28:18He's great on penalties. One of the best we'll keep. No, no, but the way he approached this, he stands like a third of the way across. He's not in the middle. He's like daring him to do that. I love that. I love that. He got into Shalhanoglu's head clearly. He also made an absurd two tremendous saves off Lautaro and off of Turam. I think he was going to get slaughtered for defeats, but I don't think Kivo deserves to get slaughtered. I thought he was brave. I thought he outplayed them I thought he showed personality in playing Suchic and bringing on Bonny for Lautaro when he did sometimes things don't go your way don't poke the bear or the Bayern in this case they go two goals down at home to Freiburg and then they win 6-2 as Michael Olisic puts on a masterclass was it four assists yeah four assists and a goal yeah and a goal out of the six goals and yeah Bayern very slow to start which is strange because we don't really we're not we're not used to that from them obviously as you know they've been incredible this year yeah and friedberg not very good especially away from home but in this but again watching the game you never thought this is going to end like this that bayern are going to come back in the game you knew i think the players knew they never panicked they stay calm and composed and then they destroy them and to be fair it could have been more than six easily uh all he said in the form of his life i don't think there's any doubt on that both for national team and with his club you know you always talk about generations leaders when sort of the yosu akimic uh kane uh neuer generation moves on in olise who's 23 and musiala when he's back 22 they have the players to to rebuild and certainly on the pitch yeah vocally maybe not as much so you grow into it you grow into it no no no he's a mute almost yeah but which is fine It's his personality.

30:09There's no problem by now. Chelsea are second in the table, guys. Benzo Mareska mixes it up and they win 2-0 away at Burnley. Yes. Moises Caicedo on the bench. Yeah. Who'd have thunk that, huh? Esteban Willian also out. Rhys James on the load management plan where he comes on at halftime. It's all pre-programmed because Barcelona are in town at midweek. Look, they get it done. Great pass from Jamie Giddens for the first goal. Burnley are just terrible. They didn't even shoot on goal halfway through the second half. That said, if you're only 1-0 up late in the game, anything can happen. So he's sailing pretty close to the wind, Enzo.

30:47Good day for Crystal Palace alums. First, Olisse for Bayern. And 24 hours later, Eberechie is his hat-trick for Arsenal, who thumps Spurs 4-1 in the North London derby to extend their lead to six points, Jules. Yeah, it was an incredible win for Arsenal in the derby, of course, against a terrible Spurs team. let's not even mention them too much. But Arsenal were brilliant without having to be that great anyway because Spurs were so bad and Eze, the pick of up really, he could have scored four or five easily. He was so composed, so good on the ball. But the whole Arsenal team, even with Gabriel that Incapier replaced really well, albeit against a terrible team, were just perfect.

31:29You mentioned that also, I might throw in also no centre forward. I'm not a Mika Merino guy, but I thought he played really well. The intelligence between him and Eze is pretty remarkable. Although Eze's goals, I guess Arsenal's second goal. Yeah, his first one, yeah. Should have been disallowed. You only have like three people standing in front. I mean, sort this out, guys. And sticking with that game, Gab, a season low 0.07 expected goals and no shot of any kind until 10 minutes into the second half. Thomas Frank said he takes full responsibility. to yeah and that's part of the reason i respect thomas frank um he got everything wrong the the game plan i thought worked okay for the first half hour arsenal other than the very early rice chance which you know good saint saint vick uh snuffed out um they didn't really produce anything right you had the the the the soccer the soccer free kicks from the side yeah right big deal but then Arsenal adjusted a little bit.

32:33Mike Marino and Eze found their spaces and then suddenly even your defensive plan is not working and your counter-attacking plan with Richarlison, Kouros and Odober if you have nobody who can even pass the ball remotely and you don't in that back line because Danzo's not a passer Van de Veen may be impressive when he runs with the ball but he's not a passer Romero, forget about it Jed Spence, what are we kidding? Like, seriously, if I go to the back seven, and you have Palinho too. Yeah. Who can pass the ball to the front three with any kind of accuracy? The best passer is Bentancourt, followed by Vicario, which probably tells you everything you need to know.

33:13Yeah. That's on Frank. Oh, and by the way, if you're going to change things, it's got to be more than Xavi Simons. That's at half time. I mean, he was anonymous anyway. It's like if he hadn't played. How about those Jordies? Newcastle United beat Manchester City 2-1, and it could have been more, Jules. and I think in honor of Don Hutchinson we should have had them higher but they're just sorry other bigger stories yeah exactly it could have been more for City as well Elling Haaland's expected goal is 1.6 and again yeah his expected goal is 1.56 no no no it was just Foyden should have scored a nil nil probably two goals I think it's a penalty on Foyden anyway it was as well Barnes could have scored more so if Don were here he would point out higher than Newcastle I think it's another it's a game that you play again and I'm not sure Newcastle will win they were close Jules Let's give Camus over to it.

33:59No, no, no. I was going to say, you came here when I said the birds. Newcastle took advantage of this new Pep Guardiola style and system and that midfield because the problem is when you lose the ball, your rest defences are strong and that's exactly what they exploited on the wings. Barnes and Murphy were very good. The fullbacks as well. Bruno Guimaraes and Tonali and Joel Linton were outstanding in that midfield too. So it's a shame that we don't see that enough from Newcastle, especially away from home. I say this is a game where Pep got outcoached a little bit because when bringing up the expected goals, they could also bring up the Donnarumma save off of Voltemade.

34:36Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, and Barnes. And the Barnes, right. So, yeah, I was hugely impressed with what we saw from Newcastle. Like you said, it's a shame. It can't happen. Doesn't happen regularly. Let's see if they can do it on Tuesday in Marseille. And sticking with Newcastle, Gab, I know you like your entrance music. So what do you make of the decision to replace local hero with Blayden Races at St. James' Park? Okay, I appreciate this is only really relevant if you're a Newcastle fan. I defer to Newcastle fans. You know the songs because I don't know the songs. What, Sing Local Hero? Well, Local Hero doesn't have lyrics, so I can't actually sing it for you.

35:06Is it the guitar from... Yes, it's the guitar from Mark Donflirt. Oh, Dire Straits, okay. And what is Blade and Races? Blade and Races is a song from like the 1800s, which like Newcastle fans... It's local to Newcastle. They both have roots in the city. But what's interesting here, I don't know the song so much, it's a local preference. I'm not a Geordie, whatever, who am I to say? but I associate Local Hero with it because it's what they've been playing for a long, long time and it's wistful and it's different. But apparently it was actually Eddie Howe and the players who said, you know what?

35:38Can we have something a little bit livelier when we come out? And maybe something that the fans can actually sing. The fans have their own version of Blade and Racist. The fans sing their own version of Blade and Racist, by the way, as well. It's just not the entrance music. I just thought that was interesting. I think it's good, yeah. If the players want it and the fans are happy, I would do it. Yeah, the fans need to be happy with it. I think Surly polling suggests that fans don't like change. Oh, yeah, true, true. Barcelona return finally to the camp now and celebrate with a 4-0 demolition of Athletic Bilbao.

36:06Jules, an emotional moment. Yeah, 45 ,000 were allowed in, which we knew before. 221 no-shows. I would love to know who those people were. Yeah, exactly. The first game in, what, 800 days or 909 days or something like that? 909. Yeah, 909 at the camp. It was good to be back. They had a shirt where, as you can see on the Ferran Torres shirt, if you see Tottenham and Kassa, we go home, we come back home. The whole thing, the stadium looks a bit weird because it's still being built, so it's a building site, let's be honest here. But the whole afternoon was very nice. It was helped by the fact that Altec Club de Bilbao were very poor and then it was literally open door for Barcelona.

36:48I like the fact that Lamin Yamal, who's only played seven minutes in his career at the Old Club, really. and some players like fermin had never played yeah many players i think four or five yeah yeah so for them it was the perfect debut if you want or first game or you know welcoming back to the new stage we will see in its full glory august 2027 105 000 strong inshallah oh surely napoli bounced back into second place with three one win over atalanta gab antonio conte knows the buttons to push and his holidays did him some good i i think everybody cleared their heads a little bit after he said, clearly I'm the problem, this is not a team, blah, blah, blah.

37:27He did simple things. Noah Lang, he didn't like the guy. And he may not like him now. Noah Lang said, yeah, no, I had a rough time at the start. I didn't agree, and I still don't agree with the coach. So I'm like, dude, you just shut up. Noah Lang talks too much. He talks way too much. Too much. But he's an outspoken judgment. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it was Noah Lang and David Neres behind Hoyland. And they did the thing. They weren't wide. They were inside. McTominay was deeper in the Manchester United role, back three, and the goals were like photocopies, two of them of each other, ball to Hoyland, it bounces off him into the path of the two roadrunners, and off they go.

38:03And Atalanta have their issues, but they still have quality. I thought it was an impressive win. Conte, by the way, the Napoli president, Reino De Laurentiis afterwards, like, oh, Conte got his team back. And Conte said, that's what he tweeted, and Conte hits the back, he's like, he's wrong. The team never left me. The team were always with me. Of course they were. They've always been with me. They will always be with me. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Luis Enrique sends out the B team, partly by choice, partly by necessity, and it's a 3-0 win over Le Havre. But between the visitors hitting the woodwork and the ridiculous Lucas Chevalier save, maybe the best save of the weekend.

38:39Yeah. Was this closer than it looked? Yeah, a little bit, although I think PSG also missed some chances. Yeah. I think it could have been a 4-2 win. Yeah, like 4-2, 6-2. Yeah, exactly. and love played well and didier diga obviously the manager who was a former phd player good friend of our show uh was happy in a way it's funny you lose three nil but he was still happy with the performance and he should be because there was a lot of positives it's just it was just not that night so i was interested in seeing like which of the starters uh actually played i don't i think it's telling that jog homes and virginia both played drug on scoring again joe nevis yeah he He becomes a monster season so far.

39:18Incredible. Really incredible. Denis Wendav backs a hat-trick, including an injury-time equalizer, and Borussia Dortmund let a two-goal lead against Stuttgart slip and have to settle for a point. Gab, I thought you said Niko Kovac has brought some stability. So I think he has. So I think context matters here. Borussia Dortmund should have won this game. They deserve to win this game. Totally. Undav put on his Superman cape. That first goal, that weirdo backwards flick. He's such a good player when he wants to be. Is that genius? Does he think, like, this is the only way I can get the ball behind me?

39:57I think so, yeah. Nobody's expecting that. Yeah, yeah, definitely now. Go and watch the highlight. I think it's a bit special. After that, the other goals come late. Obviously, you score in the 89th minute. You think you're going to win, and then you can't give up in injury time. but i i don't think this is down it was disappointing though still it's it's disappointing the result is disappointing because they deserve better and they should have got better but again i can't have it both ways i can't talk about performances all the time performance wise yeah yeah this is okay i am not ready to say that you know bruce dormant have gone back to their original status no no but it's not the first the first time this season though that this kind of thing happened you know no but it happened can we at least agree it happens a lot less than it happened before.

40:38Can we have a bit of faith in Uncle Nico? It's weird that I'm liking Nico Kovac now when I disliked him most of my career. But Nico, I am impressed with the work you're doing. Partidico de Madrid grind out a 1-0 win away to Getafe as my boy Magic Jack Raspadori comes on, forces a late own goal. That's right. Jules, they nearly got borderless. Yeah, they nearly got borderless. They probably should have got borderless, even with magic Antoine Griezmann, my boy, coming on early because of the Llorente injury. Didn't change much. There was just not much in this game at all. As often when we watch Getafe, right?

41:18This is often like that, what they do to the opposition. He nearly gave up the equalizer at the end as well. To be fair, no Giuliano Simeone, no Robin Le Normand, that supposedly is good. That's true. And then they lose Llorente too. No All Black. No All Black, yeah. So there was a lot of players missing and they got a win. That's all they would care about. Really, not the performance. Three draws in a row now for Juventus, who held 1-1 away. Fiorentina. Great goal by Fiorentina, if you haven't seen it, by the way. Garb Luciano Spalletti said he sent on Jonathan David and Lois Openda. Why, too late?

41:49What, like two minutes to go? You think? It might have been a little late. How weird. He's a weird man. All right, I've got to start at the top. He put his eggs in the Dusan Vlaovic basket, obviously. Yes. Fiorentina fans like Dusan Vlaovic about as much as they like venereal disease uh that doesn't justify he was he was uh ethnically abused uh and on two occasions had to stop the game it was maybe predictable um i'm glad that they applied the protocol and they're taking this stuff seriously fiorantina players going and pleading with their fans to stop and and eventually they did i said the game itself but there's two ways to look at it and i think this is the problem with juve right you have you've it for years since it ah winning is the only thing that matters.

42:34Look at us. Ha ha. We play garbage football. But look, we always win, right? Which is really annoying, really stupid, really short-sighted. Hey, but it's Juve, right? The problem now is that because they're so obsessed in defining everything by results, they don't notice the fact that actually Spalletti's already provided some progress. Yes, it's three draws, but they totally deserve to beat Torino. I thought they deserved to beat Sporting. Yeah. And they probably should have won this game too. I know Moise can hit the woodwork and stuff, but it's a new coach on the other end. Dusan Vlaovic missed a sitter as well.

43:08Spalletti, again, didn't help himself with the late changes. I don't know if he thought he was going to do some psychological mind game with Vlaovic. There's still a lot of issues here, but what bugs me and what they need to grow out of, and I'm not talking about every Juve fan, and I'm certainly not talking about Damian Kamali, who I think has a different view. I'm talking about all the pundits, the media, and so on. stop judging this team only by results, especially when you have a coach. Spalletti's had, and I don't like Spalletti, as you know. Yeah, yeah. But he's had like what? Like five training sessions with his team?

43:42Yeah, probably. And still, obviously they won the first game against Clermontes. Still, they could have easily won the next three. Yeah. And then all of a sudden he'd be the greatest guy, the greatest coach in history. So I think we need to be a little bit balanced on this and look at the performance and look at the signs of progress that are there. There's still a lot of issues to work out. Oh, and by the way, at least he's taking responsibility when he does stupid things. Yeah, yeah, true. Morgan Rodgers scores twice, including a nifty free kick as Aston Villa beat Leeds 2-1. Jules, and that was on the road, too.

44:13Six wins and seven in the league for Unai Emery. They're creeping up there. Yeah, I mean, remember when they were not winning, we were saying, this has happened before last season. They went through a really bad patch with, I think, no wins in 10 in the league. You were saying that. Not me. I was saying, ah, Unai Emery's been exposed for the weirdo vampire that he is. Yeah, but again, I think in a season like it is, which is not a very good season, we've said that already, outside of Arsenal, obviously, and maybe Crystal Palace, like you said, or something like that. They are putting that running together, and then that's why they're climbing up very quickly in the table.

44:51Massive mistake by Debo Martinez on that goal. I'm not even sure what he's doing, but that's an embarrassing goal to concede from an Aston Villa point of view. but after that Leeds are just not very good enough I don't think Daniel Farke will finish the season anywhere I think they've got horrendous run of fixtures coming up where they play basically every big team and then I think after that because he's not going to win any of those games probably they're going to get rid of him and replace him by a guy that might not do much better but at least he would be a different voice and methodology but for now Morgan Rodgers what a player though that's why I think he's going to start for England in the World Cup ahead of Bellingham ahead of Foden ahead of Palmer, ahead of whoever you want.

45:30Tuchel loves him because of those kind of guys, those kind of goals he can score. Oh, you heard it here first. Rodgers starting in his first game at the World Cup. I can see why Tuchel loves him so much. I have to say this about Emery. As you know, I'm very mindful of the fact that even though we pretend otherwise, it's all about resources. That is a big part of it. Last summer, if I asked you who was Villa's biggest signing of the summer, who would you say? Evan Guisson? No, not Bezo, but yes. But this is a level, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the level compared to the spending they did before.

46:05But then yesterday, he brings on Marlon that cost 30 million. Mattson, who also, I think they paid 30 odd million for him as well. So there's good depth in that squad. Yeah, but what I'm saying is a lot of coaches in the summer, or if you look at what happened with Monty leaving, with Dibu Martinez pretending like he was going to leave. No, that's true. You know, like, Emery's gone through that and he's come out the other side and he's worked with what he has and he's delivered this run of form. And again, and I say this as somebody who thinks he's odd, he's kind of like a, he's kind of like a more successful Spanish version of Spalletti, if you want.

46:45This is impressive. Yeah. I am impressed. Really good. Roma, keep rolling. Debi Cremonese, 3-1 top of Serie A and matthias sulle is a bit special he's a bit special we're trying to naturalize him in italy hoping that your nose caloney doesn't notice that he's argentine no it's not going to work um yeah i they were they were in control didn't stop gasperini from flipping out of course getting two yellow cards in the space of a minute and getting sent off um after an hour sulle scored a great goal uh and even evan ferguson how about that scoring a goal as well is he opening his account in Serie A.

47:22He's regenerated kind of some of the old guard like Cristante, like Mancini, like Pellegrini. He's getting a tune out of Celic, which people don't thought. He's regenerated freaking Manu Kone. I know. Well, it was very good last season, Manu Kone. That's why he almost got a big move in the summer. But he's a real producer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. He can't take credit for regenerating a guy who started playing better after playing badly. Well, yeah, but I don't think it was that bad last season. Before he arrived, no. But he knew gasperini was arriving yeah maybe no no okay but still um they're top of the table will they stay there i don't know syria race is so tight it's the most exciting of all of europe you know even more than barca and ramadry because that's only barca and ramadry and it's always the same two yeah exactly this one you've got five teams in four points yes let's go and hey well no wait what about what about france it's a two point you don't take you know that's a yeah but that's exciting, riveting.

48:15No, as sexy as Italy. Three teams. You think France isn't as sexy as Italy? No, this title race. Not this title race. Everything else is, but not this title race. This was way back on Friday. Speaking of France, but Olympique Marseille win their local derby 5-1 to stay two points back. And they're alongside Longs as well. Yeah, yeah. Alongside Longs as well. It's got another goal on set piece. But Marseille and Dezerbi are standing away. Anise. Anise team that is just not really clicking right now, but it's still a difficult opponent, especially in this especially in the derby especially with no aware fans because it was they were not allowed to travel it was deemed too too dangerous but outstanding performance from mason greenwood again angel gomez again timothy weah again in a right back position it was a really really strong performance from marseille who have been great apart from um maybe a few performances and few games there and there especially maybe more away from home but that game on Tuesday against Newcastle is going to be incredible.

49:13The velodrome is going to be incandescent. It's going to be fantastic. I think Ligue 1 are the only major league that do this. But why do they play games on Friday at the end of international break? Do clubs ever push back? Yeah, the clubs wanted it for more rest for Tuesday Champions League. So they could have vetoed this because their international players are all just back and everything, right? Yeah, but I think a lot of them were back quite early anyway. So it's a day more recovery than Newcastle. No, I understand that, but it just seems curious. Nobody else seems to do that because, look, I mean, a lot of teams played on Tuesday.

49:51Some teams, you know, in South America might be coming back even further. Just you're chucking these guys on the pitch. Yeah, no, no. With what? A run-through. But just thought it was an interesting French quirk. Gab, some notable news from the Premier League meetings on Friday. Yeah, if this stuff bores you, feel free to skip forward. um but uh the uh scr squad ratio rules um or squad cost ratios uh that passed 14 to 6 very tight they needed 14 votes to pass it this basically means that you can spend 85 of your revenue um on on players on your squad basically so it's player wages it's amortization it's um agent fees and and it's the cost of your coaching staff.

50:40If you do not comply with that, you get fined 21 % of your overspend, and then that gets distributed among the other clubs. I think it's not an instant impact for the big clubs because UEFA have even stricter squad cost ratio rules. There's a 70%. But the clubs that are against it are clubs, what we know of, like Brighton, like Crystal Palace, clubs that have done relatively well but want to be able to maintain that flexibility. It's not like these are well-run clubs. It's not like they overspend year on year. And they say this is actually going to... It's harder for us to raise our revenues, basically.

51:21And this is actually going to cement some of the edge that the big clubs have. Anchoring the de facto spending cap, that failed. Only seven clubs voted in favor of it. I was surprised that it was even introduced because normally they don't introduce votes that they know they're going to lose. They say that they've been working on this for a very, very long time. I think some of the main proponents of this, I think Tim Lewis, who used to be with Arsenal, who is now gone, I think he was like the architect of this. And so some clubs might have done a 180-degree turn on it. Did somebody not vote in this anchoring?

52:01Yes, somebody abstained. So that's why it was 7-12. I I would could have been the proposed legal actions from agents and especially players if they introduced this I don't know at some point everybody the books need to be squared I think some of the arguments against anchoring such as the fact that oh it's going to give an advantage to other European clubs guys the only European clubs that can go beyond this and still fulfill UEFA's rules are Real Madrid and Bayern there's nobody else nobody else not Paris Saint-Germain not with all their cuts not Barcelona with their dad. There is nobody else who can do this.

52:38And you can always change it if all of a sudden your teams are at a disadvantage. It seemed kind of stupid. I think it was largely a case of Manchester United and Manchester City were the two biggest clubs against anchoring. And I think they were very good at lobbying others to join. And I think there was some horse trading as well to get the squad cost ratio rules to pass. Other clubs accepted voting against anchoring. So it goes off the table for now. And the other big news or notable news, predictable, you can no longer pull the trick that Chelsea and Everton and Aston Villa pulled. You cannot sell capital assets to yourself, essentially, like they did with the hotels at Chelsea or the women's team.

53:20This brings the rules in line with UEFA. Leipzig are second in the Bundesliga, and they beat Werder Bremen 2-0. Juul, second-half goals, but very deserved. Yeah, and Medrago is a very special talent. If you don't know him, you can go and check him out. Maybe the next big German thing, he scored for the national team, by the way, against Slovakia the other day in the last World Cup qualifier. He's only 19. He's a wonderful talent and was very good in his game. He scored a great goal to lead his team towards a win. They're the only one that seemed to be able to kind of like keep up a little bit with Bayern.

53:55They're still five or six points behind, so it's nothing for Bayern to worry about. But if Leipzig can finish second, and again, we've said it before, but they've got no Europe, which should help them compared to who they're competing with to finish in that top four, maybe five, to qualify for the, to return to the Champions League next season. So that was a big win, considering a lot of the other drop points, obviously, on the Saturday. So a big win for them, but we'd rather go. Let's hope it doesn't happen. The draw for the World Cup qualifying playoffs was held after our show on Thursday, Gab.

54:28so let's remind everybody what it is and maybe do some predictions that's right i'll just go through they're basically foursomes and threesomes so i'll just tell you what the fixtures are and then we'll both predict and then perfect people can pull out this video in march and then make fun of us if we get things wrong yeah because you know they won't praise us if we get everything right yes all right we have new caledonia against jamaica the winner facing the democratic republic of kong i want to believe in the Congo to go back to the World Cup for the first time since 1974. So whoever wins, I would love New Caledonia to win, but I still don't think they can beat Jamaica.

55:02I think Congo would prevail anyway. And in 1974, of course, they were Zaire. I'm with you as well. Congo also, not least, because like a lot of these teams, Congo, Haiti, Iraq, a lot of these countries are coming from a lot of strife, a lot of violence. And this is something I think that can bring a country together. Completely. Bolivia against Suriname. The winner faces Iraq. Bolivia are the strongest favorite, the favorite here, obviously, I think. Although Suriname have been one of the great stories. I know it's not Correzao because they didn't make it all the way straight in, but they've got a lot of Dutch influence, obviously, being a former colony.

55:41I would love Iraq to qualify. So more by heart than head, I'll go for Iraq to qualify and beat whoever between Bolivia and Suriname win that semifinal. Yeah, I'm going to go with Iraq as well they really battle-tested with that crazy Asian qualifying process ah just move to UEFA yeah Wales against Bosnia and Italy again I tell you Northern Ireland I imagine the playoffs so much fun so it was so great the last two times we did he said let's do it again yeah you know I think it's a tough draw for Wales although both of the first game against Borja would be in Cardiff and if they win that they would be in Cardiff as well to face either Italy or Northern Ireland it would be Italy if Italy don't qualify anywhere through this path I never even want them to ever take part in any World Cup qualifiers ever that's fine that's fine we'll just wait until we host it so we can avoid the World Cup okay maybe but you see already the potential of Edin Dzeko knock you out no I don't see any potential Northern Ireland you cannot lose to Northern Ireland this would not be serious.

56:51But then after that, Wales or Bosnia is... Well, is Gareth Bale coming out of retirement? Come on, come on. It's going to be tense a little bit. Come on, we got this. It'll be all the way. Ukraine against Sweden and Poland against Albania. This is two very good games. Graham Potter not very lucky with the draw because this is tough. He doesn't deserve to. He's already lucky with the fact that they came in through the back door because of his predecessor's achievements in the Nations League. That is very true. That is very true. I think Poland and Albania would be very good and I think Poland just about will be a very tough and strong Albania team.

57:24I would go for Ukraine against Poland and Lewandowski to go to the World Cup and adding to the list of the guys who were playing in his last World Cup. I am team Albania because I love me some Sylvino. I obviously have Ukraine beating Sweden for obvious reasons. And then I'm going to lean Ukraine to go because, again, that's another country that's been through a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Turkey against Romania and Slovakia against Kosovo. I like this pathway too. I think Kosovo could be Slovakia for sure. I've been quite impressed with Kosovo in the qualifiers. No love for Tullio Calzona, man.

58:00No, no, but Turkey and Montella. So here you go, another Italian manager. Turkey and their generation will beat Romania and then will beat Kosovo to go to the World Cup. Yeah. By the way, fun fact about your boy Zagrova. Yeah. You've anticipated for a private jet to get him back in time for the game so he could be all rested and ready oh good and did he play any minutes no he played as many minutes as you did in that game zero but yes great turkey turkey come on this is your time this is your time it is czech republic ireland uh and denmark north macedonia wow i mean i think the czech republic v denmark final is probably what's going to happen and the most likely although as we saw with island against portugal and cristiano don't write them off I think Denmark, surely.

58:47I know it was disappointing against Scotland and heartbreaking, all of that. But Denmark have to qualify. Do you say that? Yeah, on paper, Denmark should be Denmark. I will be rooting for anyone but Denmark. Oh, okay. No, it's just that... North Macedonia, I've never really beaten anybody. Just stop it. Just stop. Stop. He's trolling me. I want HR on the phone. we're both big Paul Pogba fans tell me about his return to the pitch after more than two years you actually wrote the number in one of the group emails was it 800 days something like that yeah 811 I think or something like that or 13 I can't remember we knew he was going to be in the squad we wrote the story on Wednesday that he was going to play that was the plan he went through the Thursday training session all good the Friday training session all good he was very excited on Saturday it didn't go well on the pitch for his team at all because they were down to 10.

59:44And then four went down when he came on in the 85th minute. But you could see on his face as he was waiting with his number eight and the kind of beigey shirt that Monaco have away from home this season. They were well. And how excited you could see and the relief almost and the emotion and the happiness, all of that, that he had carried on his face just before coming on. To be fair, he touched the ball far more than I thought he would in five-ish minutes. there's touches and diagonals that he's been doing all his life that you know he still has there the plan is obviously to build up that game time and the minutes and hopefully at some point he will be able to play the whole 90 minutes maybe go back to back games both started and maybe both at some point 90 minutes too but for now it's just beautiful to see him on the pitch he went obviously through hell both with the doping ban and all the controversy with his own family and the extortion so to see him back on the pitch as a footballer which is all he does he's going to be 33 in march is incredible so i was so happy for him and now they play in the champions league in midweek then there will be another game i think they play psg maybe next weekend even uh so for him the paris born and bred kid to play against his you know his home city is very special so it's it's a wonderful wonderful story one of the best stories of the weekend for to paul That's all I'm going to say Gab, I could not help but notice That some Serie A teams Were playing with women's names On the back of the jersey What was that all about?

1:01:15So, yeah I can imagine people Like tuning in And I'm thinking Wait, what's this? So they should know by now What? It's the same every year, right? No, it's not Oh, okay No, so this is Okay, so So basically This is the This is the world Day To sort of Campaign against violence Against women which is why all the Serie A players, they had like a red mark on their cheek, right? And that's a campaign. Everybody's involved. This year, and I think you're confusing this for what Milan did last year for Mother's Day. Oh, for Mother's Day, that's it. So last year for Mother's Day, Milan had this idea, and I thought it was great, and they got everybody, all their players, put like, you know, the name of their moms on the back of their shirt.

1:01:59Yeah, the mothers made their name. To recognize their mothers and motherhood and whatever. so cd i said oh look that was great and maybe allowed us to sell a few more shirts um let's do this let's do this again for violence against women's day and so i think five teams participated lazio cremonese parma lecce and somebody else um but here's the thing there's two elements of this first of all it's about violence against women it's one thing honoring your mother but they told the players oh you can put the name of any woman that you like on your on your back so some people chose their mom some people chose their wives or girlfriends some people chose their daughters i get the intent it feels slightly kind of male protector of women rather than honoring it feels like this is not what the message is about this isn't about honoring women this is about like the way mother's day is this is about um and maybe even sending the message that like oh look the man will put the name on the back of your shirt and you'll be somehow safe no this is about ending violence against women um so i again i think the intention was good was good i think part of the reason many teams did not participate in this initiative was they were kind of like wait what are we actually doing here um but yes it looked it looked interesting and and i discovered it was actually more challenging because you know some of those marginal players for for for leche or Cremonese um I don't know when they have their moms I don't necessarily recognize them yeah yeah I see the mom and then I gotta go on Google and someone's done that all it was the same number and you know who good guess who Jamie Vardy put on his whose name prevents back Rebecca yeah Bex well yeah yeah but yeah there you go and that's it for one but Jules there's one thing to talk about in this game Cristiano Ronaldo's overhead kick in the six minute of injury time You're the Techers guy, I will defer to you But am I wrong in not being overly impressed Relative to some of the other stuff Not just he did in the past when he was younger But continues to do You prefer other things that he does He's obviously scored better goals But it seems to me That was pretty good I think No, very good But six minutes of injury time Looping ball like that I've seen Cristiano do that many times It just doesn't seem, it seems like something.

1:04:29I think you're a bit harsh. I thought that was an amazing goal, especially at that time when he's been running for 90 minutes at 40. And I know he's... How much running does he do in the 96 minutes? True, but still, you still spend 90 minutes on the bench. Mactomini did it after four minutes. So it's not, you know, when you've done it after 90 minutes, I think, in the whole game, physically you're certainly not as sharp as after four minutes in the game, obviously. I still thought it was incredible and I don't know. You almost expect this from him. Yeah, probably. Probably. That's a fair point, too.

1:05:00But then again, you are wearing an El Nasser jersey, as we say this. I'm wearing Cristiano's shirt, of course, yeah. Pure tribute of this goal, because I just thought, well, okay, there's... Again, I don't think we need to choose between Messi and Cristiano. Some would like Cristiano, some would love Messi. I was choosing between Cristiano and Cristiano, to be clear. Yeah, no, no, no. But what he's doing still at that age is incredible. Like is, obviously, Leo Messi, who scored a goal and gave three assists in the Miami's win against Cincinnati 4-0 in the MLS playoffs. Yes, I had this game on in one of my TVs.

1:05:34It was early kickoff, yeah. It was 10 p.m. UK time, I think. Yes, and so I had the Eagles game, which unfortunately didn't go quite in a plan. I didn't even think you would mention the Eagles today. No. They could have scored. Again, I don't follow MLS. I just watched the Inter Miami highlights, but I watched this game. They absolutely ripped them apart. Maybe it helped that Luis Suarez wasn't there or came on. But yeah, aren't Cincinnati reasonably good? Well, not bad through the season, but no, obviously not. Because he could have had a hat-trick of goals and a hat-trick of assists. The old guy on the pitch.

1:06:11Yeah, easily, easily. We lost Hung Minson, by the way, in MLS playoffs. He was beaten by Vancouver and Thomas Muller on penalties, then Hugo Lloris was not happy with the plastic pitch. Wow, who is happy with it? Very true. Boto Glimt. That's who. Speaking of, Boto Glimt will be playing in the Champions League this week. That's right. It's back. The Champions. I'm hyped. I'm amped. Until then, we're going to be back on Thursday to talk about it. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbour. Love yourself. Gavin Jules out.