Man United's Top 5 Race Momentum

20:10It's obviously Mbappe against his former club. It's a bit special and Real Madrid have a lot to do to even get their own fans back on track and back on their support with them. But for Monaco, it's a huge opportunity to put a statement.

20:25Dan Thomas:They always say that Real Madrid champions league nights and just the fans in the atmosphere is always a little bit different anyway. But do you think that the fans have made their point now in that game at the weekend and now it will be all support for the side again? Or do you think there'll be more of it? Well, before I get to that point, let me just say, we have to stop sending Jules to do interviews because now it's not Fola Rimbabwe, now it's Flo. Oh, Flo, I saw that. It's Ney. It's not Kylian Mbappe, it's Kylian. He's a man of the people. Yeah, apparently so. But to your point, Kay, I believe there was a realization at halftime, really, from the fans of Real Madrid that, okay, look, we have whistle.

21:07We really did. Before the game, during the first half, some of it at halftime but then it's like well it's 0-0 against Levante I think we need to win this game so let's throttle back on the whistling let's win the game and then once the game is won we can get back to whistling and they did so with Vinny Jr. in particular I think more importantly than anything as we discussed after the game Real Madrid fans now realize with the loss by Barcelona that indeed they're only one point behind. And while everything seemed to be crumbling and the house was on fire and everything was drama and it was toxic, and oh my Lord, what are we going to do?

21:49How are we going to get through this? You're only one point behind Barcelona. Barcelona have done Real Madrid a favor, not just in the points total by losing to Real Sociedad, but they've given Real Madrid a good vibe, Positive vibe. Sensations. Feelings. Things that Real Madrid did not have. All of those things were negative. And now it's like, wait a minute. We have a new manager. We just won a game. Now we're only one point behind. And now we're playing Champions League. And Champions League, Santiago Bernabéu is our special night. Here we go. We're going to win this game. And we're moving forward and creating momentum forward.

22:30But in order to do all of that, these players still owe a big-time performance to these fans. And I suppose at some point they're going to deliver that. So Monaco, while they may think that this is the right time to play Real Madrid, somebody is going to get a backside whooping at some point from Real Madrid. It may just be Monaco in Champions League.

22:50Dan Thomas:Yeah, Mario, what are you thinking about this with the fans against the team or with the team and how important it is and the impact it's going to have on Real Madrid? Yeah, look, it always has impact on you, right? But if you do it, if it's the first time, I think it has more effect than when it continuously happens. Because then you're going to prep yourself against it. And those players, we're talking about players that are playing at arguably the biggest club in the world and it's been for years. It's not like it's now. So when you make that choice of going there, you know what kind of stakes are at play.

23:22So I saw Kylian talk, you understand, because he was saying like, oh, don't pick on Fini because it's also our responsibility. I think it's as a team effort. Bellingham, don't pick on him because it doesn't make sense what you guys are doing because everybody's responsible for it. So for a player to say that about his teammates and then also pulling the responsibility to himself, that says that those guys are ready for it. And what Ali said, I totally agree. It's going to be just the point, you understand. Monaco is going to come. They lost, what Lauren said, in the weekend already. But now you come to a big stadium and you know big occasions, sometimes go and sit in the legs from the boys.

23:59when they get to the stadium. If you see Monaco looking around in the stadium and saying, oh, it's beautiful, then you know that game is not going to be a cute game. They're going to lose their game. I hope they don't go to Madrid to spectators.

24:12Dan Thomas:No, absolutely. We do have that quote that you referenced there, Mario, from Kylian Mbappe. He said, I understand the fans because we're not doing things right. What I didn't like was that if they boo, they should boo the whole team. You shouldn't single out one player. It's not Vinny's fault that we're playing the way we are now. What's your reaction to that, Jules? I thought, to be fair, I watched the whole press conference. I thought it was a very mature press conference from him, which is not surprising because he's always been very good at communicating, usually. I thought he talked like a captain.

24:43I thought he talked like a leader. I think he was right. I liked the... We could have clipped so many moments or showed the quotes of so many moments. There's one where he said, when I was a kid, I was going... Often it was at the Paris and we were not very good at the time. He said, I used to go and I used to boo as well because what I was seeing was not good. It was not good enough. It was not good. So I think he understands very much where they're coming from. But he's right. You either boo everybody or you don't boo. Why more Vinny than somebody else? Because he's one of your stars and he's not delivering.

25:10There's other players who are not delivering either. So I thought it was a very good message. And I thought it was interesting that he came to talk before this game. Okay, I know it's Monaco and there's a narrative obviously there. His former club is French, blah, blah, blah, all of that. but also in moments of crisis like this current one because this could potentially be the worst week in Florentino Perez second time as the president of the club yeah he's your best player, he's your leader here coming and trying to calm everything down

25:39Dan Thomas:Jules from what you've seen have you seen anything at all given Mbappe any of the blame for Xabi Alonso's sacking?

25:49No I don't think so certainly I've not been told I don't think that had come out. I think it's probably still too soon to really hear. We need to hear from Xabi himself on his side and what he could say and how far could he go down into the like, I was not able to implement my ideas. Or I didn't feel the dressing room was receptive to what I was saying. Or I had issues with some of the individuals and the egos. All of that, we don't know yet. Xabi hasn't spoken. For the players, we can be based on what they said on social media, which is not always the truth. as we know some of them have to say what they said on social media so we probably need a bit more time to find out exactly what kind of relationship there was between Xabi and the dressing room if the players were really happy for him to go if they were not happy all of that we still don't know but I don't feel that you know Kylian felt that Xabi Alonso was probably

26:40Dan Thomas:right for him to be sacked yeah because obviously it felt like Kylian Mbappe is definitely one player who thrived under Xabi Alonso coming in but then obviously what put doubts in some people's mind was the moment after the Supercoppa final when we saw Kylian Mbappe going against Xabi Alonso when it came to the guard of honor.

27:00Dan Thomas:Would that be read into too much, you think, Ale? It's just, I think it's a player that doesn't want to pay homage to Barcelona and I don't want to stand around and just do this guard of honor for them. Let's get off the field. Xabi Alonso saying, hey, let's be classy about it. It's a back and forth. And I actually love the role of Rodrigo. Rodrigo is just up to the right of Kylian Mbappe. And he's like, yeah, yeah, let's go. Let's go. No, no, let's go. No, but you got to wave him. You got to wave him. After you wave him, then I'll wave. You wave and then I'll wave. And in some sense, that is a form of leadership.

27:40Now, I don't think that he's making the right decision, Kylian Mbappe. It's the wrong kind of leadership. But it's leadership nonetheless. So if we're establishing who's leading this team and who's making decisions, well, clearly Kylian Mbappé, as Jules just mentioned, established himself as a leader, not only in the Supercopa España, but in the press conference and saying, if you're going to boo, boo the whole team. Now, careful what you wish for. Careful what you wish for. Because they will boo the whole team. They did. They booed the whole team when they were huddled right before they were about to start the game.

28:12They got booed. They have no issue booing the whole team. And Kylian Mbappe was one of the players that wasn't being booted. So now he's putting himself front and center of all of this. So, again, much like every other player at Real Madrid, you better play well.

28:27Dan Thomas:Yeah, on that guide of honour point, though, George, do you think that's a fair assessment that it's just been too much read into? Well, I think we said it when we were together the day before, the night of. And I think it's something, it's not against Xabi Alonso. So it could have been anybody saying, hey, should we do the guard of honor? Kylian would have said, let's not do that. Let's just retract a bit and then wait. We'll still be there on the pitch when they get their medals and the trophy, but let's not do that. I don't think it was against Xabi. I think Xabi made Kylian the center of this team and made him the leader of this team.

29:04And I think for that, Mbappe would always be grateful to Xabi Alonso. I think they had that kind of relationship where they needed each other and they could rely on each other. and that was important. I think Mbappe, like everybody else, like he said on that quote we showed, he knows too well they're not playing well. He knows this is not good enough. It's very similar to last season under Carlo Ancelotti. Already that was not good enough collectively. We said it many times and they didn't win anything. And right now, you're going down the same route. So I don't think he blamed Xavi. I know this is not a good look, obviously, because your manager is saying something and it looks like you don't do it.

29:39I think it was more, let's not do that for Barcelona whoever would have asked, he would have done the same

29:44Dan Thomas:OK, we will be talking more Champions League games on the next edition of the show there are plenty to be getting our teeth into this week Inter against Arsenal as we've discussed and Real Madrid against Monaco Spurs will be taking on Dortmund that's an interesting matchup on Wednesday we're also seeing Juventus against Benfica, Marseille take on Liverpool Slavia Prague against Barcelona among the ties that we'll be picking apart there and we'll be doing so on ESPN FC. Be sure to join the boys as they look back on all the Champions League action and ahead to Wednesday's games as well.

30:23Dan Thomas:We'll also see Real Madrid back in action at the weekend. Could be a tough one away to Villarreal on Saturday, 2.30pm Eastern for all the build-up to that game. And let's see if Barcelona can bounce back against Real Oviedo on Sunday. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions.

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31:44Dan Thomas:Now the AFCON final descended into chaos where we saw the Senegalese players walking off in protest. There was that long delay. There was a missed penalty from Brahim. And now we're hearing that both teams could face punishment after what happened. This is what FIFA president Gianni Infantino has had to say. The ugly scenes witnessed Sunday must be condemned and never repeated. I expect that the relevant disciplinary bodies at CAF will take the appropriate measures. Jules, are we looking at both teams here with what Infantino's had to say in terms of punishment? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think so.

32:23And I think that's right as well. I mean, Senegal, obviously, for walking off the pitch like they did after the penalty decision, not being happy, clearly not so much by the penalty itself, I think, but by their own goal being ruled out a few minutes earlier by the Congolese referee. Not happy, you just can't do that and you can't get away with that, most importantly, because if you get away with it, I can guarantee you whatever competition next, somebody is going to do the same. So this cannot happen again ever. This was a bad look for football already. Let's make sure it doesn't happen again.

32:55So they need to be sanctioned, whether that's a big fine, games behind closed doors for the next World Cup qualifiers round, for example, maybe for the next African Club of Nations, something like that, I don't know but they need some sort of punishment for Morocco it's a different sort of punishment we've seen too much chaos I mean the story of the goalkeeper's towel, it's just it's even beyond me how at this level this kind of thing is even possible for players, for ball boys to go and steal towels from goalkeepers so they can dry their hands, dry their face in the pouring rain during a competition of that level and we see I mean players like we see Saibari there why is he even doing that why is Saibari doing that the ball boys why are they doing this is Juve the Senegalese second goalkeeper who plays in France for Nice Paris-Borne-Brette by the way look at what he has to do to keep what Mendy the game is actually going on it's not even I mean yeah we can make fun of it it's not funny it's embarrassing and just for that Morocco just have to be punished as well and again it's probably a fine it's a game behind score's door you might not be able to play in rabat anymore i don't really care but this can't be allowed you can't they can't get

34:07Dan Thomas:away with this it is embarrassing isn't it i've never seen anything like it and to juicer's point

34:13Frank Leboeuf:i'm laughing because how ridiculous it is i mean juicer's absolutely right here we're talking about an afghan final this and this wasn't a one-off no it also happened to nigerian semi-final where you have stewards and ball boys jumping over the advertising hoardings to steal a towel. So in the final, you have to send a player with a towel, and then he gets accosted by ball boys in official tracksuits. I mean, this is farcical beyond all belief. And added to that, right, make what you like of the referee decision. But from everybody else's perspective in Africa, there were a lot of questions about the refereeing that benefited Morocco on home soil to get them to the final.

35:01Frank Leboeuf:And then you see this. You you you feel vindicated in in all your criticism of Morocco and whatever else you you may need to. because if Morocco as an organizing host can't be trusted with the small things like a goalkeeper keeping his towel, how can they be trusted with the larger things? I am fully with Jews on this.

35:27Dan Thomas:Tell us a bit more about what it's like in wet weather when you do need to wipe your gloves down or the ball down and you don't have your towel.

35:33Frank Leboeuf:Like anything else, your gloves function best when they're a little moist, you don't want them too dry, you don't want them too wet. So every single goalkeeper takes a towel, regardless of the conditions. I would take a towel and take a go with me when it was baking hot and dry because you use water, you soak your gloves down, and then you pat them dry so they're just a little bit damp. But that's a part of the game. That's a part of the game. How you have what seems to be officials, because they're in full suits, coming onto the pitch, going into the goal and taking a goalkeeper's towel, So, and it's not a one-off.

36:12Frank Leboeuf:Now, if it happens on this, some rogue official does it against Nigeria in the semifinal, you say, well, it was a rogue official. He'll never be a part of what we do again. But then it happens again in the final. So now you can't excuse it. You cannot be excused. You're now party to this. Added to which, as you saw, hordes of ball boys in official tracksuits running down a substitute goalkeeper because he's bringing a towel for Mendy. It is absolutely beyond belief. You are messing with somebody's gear. That is like telling Senegal, in the pouring conditions, you can only wear short studs. You're messing with somebody's match gear.

36:59Frank Leboeuf:And I don't think, while we are talking about a towel, I don't think it can or should be minimized for what it is. And if I may just say, both boys don't act on their own. Yeah, exactly. Right? So somebody sat this, both boys down and said, you're doing this. That order, from wherever it came from, that's the trail that you got to follow. And that's how you actually get after Morocco in this particular sequence. Embarrassing doesn't begin to describe it. And this is a final of what is the major tournament in Africa. And this is what we're talking about. Towels and ball boys. And we haven't even talked about Senegal walking off the field just yet.

37:45That in itself is embarrassing too. Yeah, okay. I'm going to go home to you in a minute, Mario.

37:49Dan Thomas:But Jules, I know you've got something to add here. No, just quickly, because right now Morocco are co-hosting the 2013 World Cup. They cannot host the World Cup. Not after what we saw in the final. and it's not them, it's not just them on their own. Obviously, we will have a bit in South America first and then with Portugal and Spain, they will share. Morocco cannot host the World Cup in those conditions. We can't have those scenes at World Cup in the same way that we should not have had them in this final and semi-final of CON in the last few days. This is not possible. So if the sanction has to be take the World Cup away from them, do it.

38:25If you're FIFA, do it. Because we can't have a repeat of that. whoever's going to play against Morocco on their ground at the 2030 World Cup will fear that something like that will happen it just can't happen and if you think about it, this was in a way some sort of rehearsal for Morocco for the 2030 World Cup, right? And this is what they showed? Really? I mean come on.

38:48Dan Thomas:Mario, what do you think of it all? I feel it's sad, you know why because I'm connected to the Moroccans because you know, coming from Amsterdam you have a lot of Moroccans close to you. Also the prior captain, he's a very close friend of me, Moussafa. So speaking to them, I felt sorry for them because it is true what you guys are talking about. This was the occasion for them to really set out the red carpet that everybody goes, wow, it needs to be played there. That is what it's supposed to be. And then you do stuff like that. And what Eli said about the ball guy, I've been a ball guy and we definitely get tips.

39:22We get told how to handle the situation. They even tell us, like, pretend like you don't want to get the ball. Pretend like you're lazy. Play like you're walking. So we're getting all those tips. So they probably got tips as well what they had to do with the towel. And, come on, one of the key things for me in this situation that Mendy kept his focus. Oh, my God. You know, as a goalkeeper, you see so much commotion around you, and you still keep your focus? Even like when on the penalty kick, because this is the second time that he got chipped. He got chipped by, you know, Aguero did it also to him, and he catched the ball as well.

39:55And now he got the same situation. And for me, it was just watching the game. I was like, oh man, I didn't want it that. I wanted Morocco to put the mat out perfectly. But no, they go and do that. It's not going to help them. And I, yeah, I'm sorry for that, man. It's not going to help.

40:11Dan Thomas:Jules, with regard to punishments that could come down, has there been any speculation as to it playing over into the World Cup and affecting those teams in the World Cup? No, we don't know yet. We've never seen this before anyway. So it's not like if there had been precedent and you say, oh yeah, remember when X did it, they got that kind of sanction. This has never happened. Certainly not as a big tournament. I mean, I remember, not that I was, I can't remember, I've seen it later, but in the 1982 World Cup, Kuwait played France and the Kuwaiti were not happy with something and the Sheik came down on the pitch and told all his team to go.

40:44This was not an I've got final. It was not Senegal. It was not Sadio Mane. It was not all those players. so I don't really know even if we try between us even to think about what kind of sanction they could have that's why I said earlier a big fine I guess some games behind closed doors you can't take away the trophy from them obviously and that would be completely undeserved but you can't they can't get away with it that's for sure because again then other people will do the same in the next time you get a penalty you don't think it's a penalty hey let's walk off the pitch yeah let's move and for 15, 20 minutes you just do nothing and this can't happen again.

41:21So you need to take the appropriate sanctions. I'm not really sure what the sanctions are because even in the rules, there's nothing for that because this should never happen.

41:29Dan Thomas:Walk-off aside, what did you think of Brahim Diaz's penalty? Well, first of all, we cannot say walk-off aside because walk-off aside plays a part in all of this. As it pertains to whether it's a penalty, not a penalty, well, that's a different conversation. The penalty is given and then Senegal is against it. And they decide to walk off the field. And if I'm the referee, I'm saying, listen, the game is going to go on. Are you coming to play or are you going over there? Are you going to the locker room so you're not going to be on the field? You forfeit the right to actually to protest. You forfeit the right to voice whatever your concerns are when you decide to walk off the field.

42:06And in a sense, you forfeit the game. I don't understand why the referee doesn't just continue to play. We cannot allow teams that don't like a call to think that they have the power to just walk off the field. You walk off the field, you're no longer able to compete. You're not able to compete, you lose the game. Simple as that. Some may think it's harsh, but a team that decides to walk off the field, not because of some safety concern or because they have been forced off the field, they on their own decided to walk off the field, and their manager takes them off the field, okay, you don't want to play, you're forfeiting the game.

42:40Morocco, welcome. Here you go. Here's your trophy. You win this whole thing. That's if now it would take some guts to do it if you're the referee. But that would have been my decision as a referee. Listen, I would go to the team captain. I would go to the manager. You decide to walk off the field. We're going to continue to play. Since you're not available to play, that means that there's no team for Morocco to compete against. It's a forfeit. See you guys later. You lose this thing. Be careful. Make the decision that you need to make. They decide to walk off. That's on them. game is over.

43:11Dan Thomas:Do you think that's right, Shaka?

43:12Frank Leboeuf:Yeah. And to Ali's point, and Jules as well, we've never seen this before. I think there will be legislation to address exactly that. In one way or the other, there will be official FIFA regulations to address a situation such as this. And now, similarly, as much as I make the case about sanctions against Morocco, there has to be sanctions against Senegal. I have a feeling that those sanctions will be harshest on the Senegal coach, Thiau, because he's the one who called the players off the field, and less so on the Senegalese national team, per se. I am also mindful, and we spoke about this some time ago, with the Ronaldo red card and the suspended suspension, that we felt at the time that FIFA were boxing themselves in, that if there was anything that kind of interfered with another player in another country's performance at the World Cup, they have to be a little bit lenient.

44:12Frank Leboeuf:And now you have this situation, which far exceeds, granted, far exceeds what Cristiano Ronaldo did on an individual basis. But all of a sudden, you've kind of boxed yourself into an air of leniency around it. Now, I am completely sympathetic. And to Ali's point, I thought it was a penalty. I thought it was a penalty on Ibram Diaz at the end. The argument for me, which I said with Senegal on, is the goal that they scored moments earlier, which I thought was perfectly fine, disallowed for a foul. Referee didn't go to check the monitor. Ball found it to win to the back of the net, so he very well could have.

44:50Frank Leboeuf:Didn't go to check the monitor. That's where I think the Senegalese were especially upset. And again, kind of given the lottery rhetoric all tournament, that the refereeing was very biased towards Morocco. I'm not commenting on that. that's how other African countries felt. But in this one, that was not a foul for me. If you look at this, the defender is not looking at the ball, gets shown one way or the other, he goes tumbling. That's not a foul. That goal should stand. And then three or four minutes later, look at the time on the clock. Three minutes later, you award, and again, I thought it was a penalty, you award a Morocco penalty, you understand the frustrations.

45:31Frank Leboeuf:But the sanctions, just in terms of what was done, sanctions have to be handed down. What those sanctions look like, I have my suspicions. Thierry will be in very hot water for the Senegalese national team, less so as it pertains to the World Cup. Right. I don't care how frustrated you are, Xhaka. You don't walk off the field. Agreed. Agreed. You just don't walk off the field because you lose all the leverage. Yeah. Walking off the field, you lose all the leverage and all the credibility. You agree, Mario? Yeah, no, I agree with the guys. But then you had, you know, I was happy that I saw Mane, you know, because I watched the game.

46:08Look, also for the spectators, right? You know, like me, I'm not for either side, you know, because I just want to see beautiful football and I see whoever wins the final. But then you're watching. The key thing is when I saw Mane calling his team out and saying, like, guys, come on, we're going to play this game like men, he said. So watching him, just the motivation that he created for his team and then go out there and play again, and then they end up winning the game. Okay, that's two aside. But I was happy that he could turn things around because it could have been even bigger than that. Because if he would have walked off, then every would have been gone.

46:43Imagine every player is in the dressing room and then trying to get them back out. Everybody's there. Now there was maybe one or two were still between, and he was one of them. So I was happy that he could do that because he had the influence on his team. And then you could see also how important this game was. He won it prior to that. Then he can win it again. Sometimes people don't realize how big the African Cup of Nations is. I've never played in it. But the way I watch it, oh, my God, this is one of the cups that I would love to participate in. Because it is incredible, the joy that the guys get and the respect representing their country and the way the battles are going.

47:19Now, this is something really beautiful to be part of. But it's sad that it ended like this. Yeah, absolutely.

47:24Frank Leboeuf:I really need to double down on what Mario just said. Because the story of AFCon 2026 cannot be told without mentioning Sadio Mane. It simply cannot. As good drama as that final was for any number of reasons, Sadio Mane stepping in, calling a team back out to the pitch and how that game ended up finishing, you cannot. Sadio Mane has written his name into African footballing history, world footballing history in that in that one act for all that we have to see good bad and indifferent about afcon about afcon 2026 sadio mani is the defining story through all of this

48:07Dan Thomas:absolutely here here all right thank you so much jules for being with us you can hear more from jules talking about this very subject on the gabon jules show that drops on monday talking about flow and Killy. All his boys. Check it out on the Gavin Hill show.

48:28Dan Thomas:Got some Monday night football for you. Brighton against Bournemouth where we're kicking things off tonight. 27th minute. We're going to see Bournemouth get themselves a penalty kick here. It's actually a lengthy review of a Bruggen deemed to have caught Adley because originally there was a yellow card and that was rescinded and then a penalty was awarded.

48:46Frank Leboeuf:Yeah, Verbrugge does make slight contact. Adli does a Moreno-esque job of selling it.

48:55Dan Thomas:Tavania makes it from the spot.

48:57Frank Leboeuf:We teach that on Thursday.

48:58Dan Thomas:Driving camp. There would be a level or a very late one as well, Costoulas with a bicycle kick to tie the game. Resourceful finish. Once the ball pops up on him and he's maybe thinking, maybe I lay it off, no thought of that. I'll go with a bicycle kick. The fact that the ball pops up on him on the first touch kind of sets up the idea of the bicycle kick. He reacts well, executes even better. Athleticism, 1-1. And so it is a pointer piece, and it casts our eyes to the bottom half of the table where both teams find themselves. Brighton in 12th and Bournemouth in 15th, just three points behind them.

49:38Dan Thomas:Make sure to join the latest edition of Extra Time. Mario, Ale and Xhaka will be answering your questions. you can check it out over on our YouTube channel. In La Liga, we got to see Elche against Sevilla. And the 14th minute is where we see the first of the goals. Elche, the newly promoted side, who really made a name for themselves this season. This is Aleix Febas with the opener.

50:02Frank Leboeuf:It's wonderful football. And then Febas picks his ball up. It's a nice finish. It shapes to go to the goalkeeper's left, but beat him in at the near post.

50:09Dan Thomas:And soon enough, it would be two for Elche in the second half. this from herman valera ball goes through a lot of bodies it gets laid off by mark aguado and as it goes through a lot of bodies i don't think the goalkeeper sees it until late and by then the ball is past them to nothing sevilla would pull one back 20 minutes later akar razim

50:30Frank Leboeuf:i don't feel qualified to talk about this finish There's somebody I know Oh boy Oh boy That is My kind of range

50:46Dan Thomas:Alvaro Rodriguez gets a handball in the box here Ref calls for a penalty for Sevilla Oh, hey, Elche, walk off the field Walk off the field You're not happy, walk off the field Here's Adams again, converting from the spot 2-2 This is how it would finish Elche are up to 8th with that point and Sevilla are not in the top half of the table. My son who is in Alicante right now was supposed to be at that game at Elche Sevilla but I think the weekend was a little too good in Barcelona. What could have distracted him? How could we ever know? Make sure to see you know who is there front and center.

51:32Dan Thomas:Shaka Hissler. Leading the charge, 8.30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+. Man! Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks.

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52:27Dan Thomas:All right, that's all we've got time for on the main edition of ESPN FC, but these guys will be answering your questions on Extra Time, which is coming up now. So stay right where you are. We'll be over there.

52:42Dan Thomas:Welcome into the latest edition of Extra Time. Mario Melchiot is joining us today. He's very happy after seeing Dembele's goal, which has just become the new king of the pitch. Had quite the reaction to that. We've got Ale, we've got Xhaka here. We've got your questions as well. I'll start with you, Shaka. Do you think the issue with Spurs is not their manager, but their bargain-hunting transfer policies over many years finally catching up to them?

53:09Frank Leboeuf:I think Thomas Frank has to take some responsibility for them being as poor as they are this season. But without question, I keep saying this about Spurs. That's a team full of very average players.

53:23Frank Leboeuf:and as a result, you're going to get very average results. I think that's what you see. Before I forget, I just wanted to point out that Kay today's got the curls. Yes. And when Kay's got the curls, there's a certain attitude about it. Yes. Yeah. I witnessed it before we came to air. Yeah. There was a kind of feverishness about that. I was like, oh, I don't know. Let me stay out of Kay's way. Yeah, there's a little pep in her step. Oh, yes. There was a lot of mandating from the chair. Give me my back. Can I get the paper? Can you bring me printouts? Bring the top ten goals. I've been sitting there for five minutes.

54:01No printouts. And it all starts with the curls. See the curls? Yeah. It's like Mario. I would defend you there, Kate. But Kate likes to go at people. So that's why I allowed him. Keep going. Keep going. Because he loved it.

54:16Frank Leboeuf:I saw it. I saw it. I was here for that.

54:18Dan Thomas:Let me just put that in my notes. Yeah, like I said. Oh, boy. I'll be back. Mario, at PSV, we'll win the Eredivisie this season. Who will finish second? Feyenoord, Ajax, NEC or Groningen? Look, you know what I think about Ajax, but they're changing some stuff. They brought the son of Cruyff here, So hopefully he will put some old school Cruyff in that team because they need some help. But PSV is definitely going to be the champion. So I go for Ajax second because I expect them to do something. Okay, nice stuff. Okay, how far do you think Senegal can reach in the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Remember, they're already in a difficult group.

55:07Dan Thomas:What's their group? Their group is France, Norway, Senegal and then TBD. And TBD. That team is tough. Nobody knows much about TBD. TBD can go far.

55:20Frank Leboeuf:TBD can go far. Oh boy, that's a hard group. But third place, you can squeeze in. You can squeeze in as a third place. Quarter final.

55:30Dan Thomas:Huh? Will they stay on the pitch throughout the whole of that quarter final? Nah, just walk off. Unless there's a bad call and then at that point. Look at it. No, Mane is going to be there. Mane will tell them, you guys, behave yourself. Behave yourself. OK. Ale and Xhaka, how important is it for an American manager like Pellegrino Matarazzo to have success with Real Sociedad? Will this help change the perception of managers who are American when they try to manage in Europe? I don't believe Pellegrino Matarazzo is thought of as an American manager. and he has made a career in the Bundesliga and had some success in Bundesliga and it's been through there that he finds his way to Real Sociedad.

56:19And through it all, and I give Pellegrino Matarazzo some credit and those that watch him in New Jersey as well, at the garage in New Jersey, we're familiar with his family.

56:28Dan Thomas:Yeah, his brother and his family. Uh-huh. Should we say hi to the garage in New Jersey? We absolutely should. Well, you know how special you are. We're supposed to be invited to the garage in New Jersey and were never invited. We weren't during the Bundesliga days. Maybe now it's La Liga. We can come and watch a game with you in the garage. Yes, we will. The garage in New Jersey. We'll take it. El garage. And give him credit in that what he has brought to Real Sociedad, it's what he was doing in Bundesliga. Attacking football. We're going to be on the front foot. We're going to press the ball higher up the field.

57:01this is the way my team plays. We're going to allow some goals because it's the nature of what we are as a group and what my style is. But we are not afraid of playing and going toe-to-toe with Barcelona as they did yesterday. They did the same thing with Atlético Madrid in his first game. So I like what he's doing with Real Sociedad. And Pellegrino Matarazzo has been a successful manager already. So what he does or doesn't do, I don't think it affects the perception of American coaches around the world. I concur.

57:33Dan Thomas:Everything he said.

57:34Frank Leboeuf:Yeah, what he said.

57:36Dan Thomas:Do you want to join us in the garage if we ever do get there? Absolutely.

57:39Frank Leboeuf:El garaje. I am available for anybody's garage.

57:42Dan Thomas:She's with his Spanish. She's going to make it all so easy for us.

57:45Frank Leboeuf:Duolingo. Your Lego is tough, man.

57:52Frank Leboeuf:Lego is tough.

57:54Dan Thomas:That little bird been bothering you.

57:55Frank Leboeuf:Well, boy, not anymore. Not anymore. Good.

58:01Dan Thomas:Nada mas.

58:02Frank Leboeuf:Yeah, I'm just like, ah, I'm settling with, ah, I don't know what you're saying.

58:07Dan Thomas:Okay. Shaka, we've actually, we've talked about this in the show, but we're going to elaborate a little bit. What exactly is special about a goalkeeper's towel that Moroccan officials, ball boys, and even Hakimi himself needed to keep stealing opposition keeper's hand towels at AFCON? So we talked about how important that was for you guys to have it. It's part of the equipment. Right.

58:27Frank Leboeuf:Your towel is a part of your equipment because for your gloves to function properly, it has to have a certain amount of moisture to it. So whether it's in dry conditions and you put a whole lot of water in it and then kind of sap it until it's just right, or as in the Afghan final, it's raining down and you've got to, again, just keep them dry so they function well. Well, I liken it to, as I did on the show, to any normal player's boots or cleats. you won't mess with that depending on weather conditions. And for a goalkeeper, you messing with how our gloves function. That towel is a part of that, of our equipment.

59:09Frank Leboeuf:So, I mean, you see, I keep giggling because it's just so farcical. You have officials jumping, you have ball boys running on players, you have subs coming off the bench and running after the tentacle of subs. It was just the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Mario? He forgot the most important part. The most important part, Chaka, you forgot. How do you guys react if you grab one thing of your equipment? Because you guys are terrible sometimes when you're in the team. Yeah. You cry, you start fighting. Yes, yes. So one time, playing really trying to be a good national team, Steele and John, best friend on the team, we roomed together all the time.

59:49Frank Leboeuf:He put baby powder in my gloves. It was a friendly against Cayman Islands or something like that. We sure it wasn't easy. We put baby powder in my gloves before the game. I went absolutely ballistic. The team was like, it's just a baby powder. I just, I don't want anybody messing my gloves. I don't want anyone to touch it. Can I, can we get a little taste of what ballistic Shaka looks like? No, no, no. We haven't seen that. No, no, that's. You haven't seen it? Last time I went ballistic was I was doing Duolingo. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

1:00:29Dan Thomas:Shaq, have you ever had, like, any of these dirty tricks played? Because we often see dirty tricks across the pitch. Maybe we see them sometimes with penalties. Have you ever experienced anything, maybe not quite as extreme as that, but anything, like, similar?

1:00:41Frank Leboeuf:Well, I don't know what's similar. I mean, I've had bags of bodily fluid through the majoring games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's commonplace. That's pretty common, yep. I've had...

1:00:54Dan Thomas:Very conca-cafe.

1:00:56Frank Leboeuf:Speaking of dirty tricks, yep. I'll tell you how quickly you become near from the Matrix. Games going on. Games going on, boys, this way. I still don't know what's coming. Yep, yep, I've had all that. I've had all that.

1:01:12Dan Thomas:Oh, no.

1:01:13Frank Leboeuf:I thought if that's what you were leading towards, K. Those are tricks and those are dirty. Absolutely.

1:01:21Dan Thomas:In plastic bags. So there you go. I'm sorry I asked. Yep, yep. Thank you so much, guys, for sending in your questions. Go ahead, Mario. We've got time. He played with Stern John. I played with Stern John. I never forget the day. We were in a room. We were going back and forth. He was so angry, Stern. He got angry. You got to tell him that story. He wanted to grab Clinton Morrison. and I throw him out of the window. He was that angry. And we had to stop him. He said, he said, you know, it was like, it was like three o 'clock in the morning. We were on training camp. We had to go to bed, but we do every training session.

1:01:58We get together and we just, you know, like talk, talk, talk. And then we said, hey, it's three o 'clock in the morning. But Clinton was having a go at Stern John. He got so angry. Stern goes, why are you going at me? Because Marouin's going at you. You cannot hold your ground against him. I throw you out of the window. Oh, God.

1:02:15Frank Leboeuf:We all stopped him. Oh, boy. He's crazy. Oh, my God. I'm gathering that Trilla and Tobago people have some difficulties with their mood swings. Holistic and people thrown out the window. Yeah, we have some issues. Yet to be seen.

1:02:31Dan Thomas:TBD. And without curls.

1:02:37Frank Leboeuf:Moody without curls. Oh, you're doing a Z-curly, Jacka. Oh, boy. Now we do. Name don't, name don't.

1:02:47Dan Thomas:Nobody does. Oh, boy. Looking over, Cody Tucker. Maybe next time on Extra Time. Thank you so much for sending in your questions. Oh, boy. Do it all over again.

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