Euro Leagues: Ligue 1's selling spree & Viking's double act

24:15It's so frustrating to watch Milan at the moment with him up front because you can see how many chances of being fashioned that he's not taking on board. But this is a side that is playing very attacking football, as do Juventus do. Juventus again have lost some of their best, well I mean they've lost Canaan Yildiz and they've lost Turam in midfield, some of their most important players if you like and Volta Madre is being described as a giant, I mean the advertising was that they kept giving him things, so they gave him a shirt then they gave him a cup and everything in his hand then becomes baby size and it was like the whole point is that this is such a giant but Speleti went to say that you know I don't care if he's bad at shooting it's going to be part of his bread and butter like he is going to get to know that off by heart he better get good in aerial jewels sorry because that's what it is that he doesn't do he doesn't head the ball well and Spalletti was keen to emphasize that he's going to be great at that so Volta Madre there is a lot of I think a lot of excitement around him there was a lot of talk about Joshua Zerxi and whether or not he was going to play because that seemed to be the guy that Spalletti wanted the most he wanted a very different profile to Kola Mwani and with Walter Mada, you can say that he is very technical and he's a very intelligent footballer in how he plays his football.

25:31I'm a massive fan of Yasle, but I agree with Jules in the sense that that would have never worked out together. I mean, I've actually gone to even watch him in Al-Ahli when he was in Saudi Arabia and I really enjoyed the way that his teams play. But that wasn't going to work out and I really do think this is going to benefit Juventus. I really hope it does work out. But it does seem that Serie A keeps bringing in all these taller and taller players. Statistically, every player keeps getting taller. So let's see what happens.

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26:51has a brand new home. Welcome to a special EuroLeagues.

26:56Julien Laurens:The biggest stories from across La Liga, Bundesliga, Syria and beyond. I think they can go from strength to strength. It's the kind of team you don't want to be facing. From managerial merry-go-rounds to unforgettable moments. Back to his best, just wanting the ball. I'll sort it out, no problem. Remarkable stories and the biggest talking points from across European football. This pressure is on every manager in the league. The expectation is high. Subscribe now and don't miss an episode. Search EuroLeagues on BBC Sounds. After a bit of a glimpse, European successes last season, Norwegian football is once again on the rise this season because the champions, Viking, are into the Champions League phase, what used to be known as the group phase, for the first time ever.

27:44And I'm very pleased to say that the joint head coaches of Viking are with us now on Euroleague's Bjarke Lunde Orsheim and Morten Jensen join us. Hello to both of you. Thanks so much for joining us. How are you doing? Hello. Hello. Good evening. So, first of all, the obvious question. Bjarke, I'll start with you. Just how exciting is it to have the prospect of the Champions League right around the corner for the football club? It's almost unreal. we talked about it maybe you should go okay you go into conference and learn there then you go into European league but we just jumped into the best party ever so it's unreal but we're really looking forward to it you've gone straight there and you've got some fixtures to really look forward to Bayern Munich at home Aston Villa away Atletico Madrid away Napoli away when the fixture list was drawn Morton when the draw was made what were you most looking forward to from those fixtures I think we're just really excited that we got to we got the whole buffet we go to England we go to Germany we host the German team we go to Italy we go to Spain so and yeah I think obviously Bayern Munich home will be very interesting to play against one of the best teams in the world but historically as well go to Napoli, Maradona's old playground.

29:16That'll be fantastic, but also Atletico Madrid and be up against Diego Simone's side will be very interesting and obviously Aston Villa as well. Norwegians are quite obsessed with English football, so to go there to Villa Park and actually our old assistant coach Paul Fjelde is the set piece coach at Aston Villa just now.

29:44Julien Laurens:Boys, so let's be honest here. What's the secret? How have you taken a team like Viking into the Champions League with all the big boys, all those games that you mentioned? What have you done? How have you worked your magic to make that happen? yeah I think it's it's hard work and the grind obviously but it's I mean it's we talk a lot about development and performance and if you have that mindset together with a really strong culture we have to have the sum of our 11 players need to become 12 and 13 when you play these big teams and I think we're good at man management and being able to lay good tactical plans into the games to try to get the best out of our teams.

30:33I also think it's the positive wave that goes in Norwegian football now with, of course, Bude, as you know, and our national team. And also the ranking in the system that makes the, like us, who become champions for the first time for a long time and get the chance in the playoff to Champions League makes the way into Europe. Also, it's not easier, but you see how many Norwegian teams that's joining the European competition now. So that's also a sign that the quality in our own league is much, much higher than it has been. I was listening to your CEO, Eric. You're now talking to UEFA. And he said that when the interview came about, you both came in and it was your idea to work together as a duo coaching this side.

31:41Has there ever been a moment where you turned around and thought, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to be on my own. Or do you think your superpower is actually your partnership? I think the last part there that you said is our superpower because I think modern leadership is all about teamwork and having it's not only us we have other assistant coaches around as well but it's how you work as a team and not only as one head coach that's going to make a team great and I think that you if you dare sometimes to go against the strides then you can achieve great things if you're going to follow and do whatever everybody else does, maybe we become a poor replica.

32:23So for now, we're quite happy, happily married here. And we love working together. And we see that we keep developing both individually, but also as a coaching team every single day and every year. So for us, it's really important that we have that hunger and drive and appetite to always try to make our product better. How do you delegate things, Beata? Do you have special skills? So Morten will look after this, I'll look after that. How do you delegate the responsibilities? How's it split up? Or is it just something that you've been working together so long, it's just natural now? It's like a special story also, to the point where we decided to go together.

33:08We were like born Viking fans. We've been playing in Viking, both of us. We were working together as assistants, coaches, and the dream job in managing Viking came up. There's been some great coaches in Viking. But we found out that, okay, let's do it together. It will be better and the chances to also get the job will be better. But in the office, of course, we discuss everything. You need extra time, especially in the beginning. but also to the players I do everything in the way we defend Morten do everything in the way we attack but yeah Beata you mentioned your playing days I want to talk about your playing days because you're the former Vietvich and captain over 400 appearances for the club and I really hope this is true because I said this earlier in the show that you have a nickname linked to an English footballer is that right?

34:10Can you tell us about this? Give us the big reveal then. Which English footballer was your nickname? It came in when I was quite young. Morten mentioned we follow English football a lot. And there was a player in Leeds, David Batty. David Batty, fantastic. That picked up a lot of yellow cards. I also did that. So that's the reason I got that name. Morten, was he getting lots of yellow cards? I'm not sure if I'm proud of it. Was he a dirty player? Morten, was Beata a bit of a dirty player? Lots of cards? Yeah, he was terrible. He's lucky that he's got PR now. He would have many of those yellow being red.

34:54They were at different times. Different times. What are your hopes then for this Champions League? You mentioned Buda Glimp, your big rivals, of course. But can you be inspired by what they did last season? The fact they got out of the league stage. What do you think your ambitions can be in this Champions League campaign? It will be quite similar to their achievement, but we have to remember Buda Gimt has been now three or four years in the European competition and had a lot of learning as a club, but also as a team. And they've managed to keep the same players, the same coaching staff over a good period of time now through Conference League, through Europa League.

35:33They went all the way to the semifinals and quarterfinals in Champions League last year. So when you have consistency over time and you are able to take the learnings from one season into another, I think you can progress. So for us, it's going to be obviously a lot of learnings. Maybe it will be some brutal games for us, but still it will be learnings there. And then hopefully we can manage to create some results home. And then who knows, maybe we'll be able to add up enough points to see it through to the next stage. That will be fantastic. If not, we still have a lot of learnings. And we're so proud to be a Norwegian team.

36:13For Viking to be the first time ever in the Champions League. So we'll be super proud every time we step on the field. It's going to be the home games that's going to be important for us. If you compare us to Bode, how many games we have? Eight, nine games in Europe. and they have 90. So we need to make this happen next year as well and do a lot of quick learning this year.

36:46Julien Laurens:For our listeners who are going to watch your games in the Champions League, what kind of football do they expect to see from your team? And if there was maybe one player that I know you're a very strong collective and you might not want to pick just one of those players for us to watch, But could that be Peter Christensen? Could that be Slatko Trippic? If there was one maybe that you say you should watch him play because you will enjoy that, who will he be? Do you want to go first? You go first. No, like you said, I don't think any individual. But obviously, we have a special captain in Slatko Trippic.

37:19He was very experienced and involved in a lot of the goal-producing situations. And one of our key players, which was sold to West Ham in Edwin Ospur, was a little tricky magician on the wing but we have some really good young players one guy Tobias Moy coming up the ranks now I think he's high profile now and he will be high profile within next year and anticipated a big move for him also within a couple of years or sooner so he's like a number six, number eight really good, reminds me of Kobe Mainu and we also have a young winger Niklas Fuglestar so homegrown and produced player as well both of these guys so we're very proud that most of our players in our squad come from our area and our academy Beata, more to mention there that West Ham have signed one of your players obviously it must be tough to say goodbye to him but Edwin Oersberg what can the West Ham fans look forward to from him?

38:21How much potential does he have? He's a dribbler and a goalscorer he's gonna challenge one against one he's quite quick in like small areas and really good with the ball and he can shoot and curl the ball in the corner so I think West Ham can expect that I watched 12 minutes he played now and then it was all about defending so he picked up some stuff in the defending as well so I was pleased I wanted to talk about Norwegian football in general has grown exponentially I mean we've seen the team be excellent in the World Cup obviously all these players are now flooding the top leagues Norwegian players how much has the investment by the country into artificial turfs and everything helped the different clubs as well in growing and nurturing talent across the board I think it's a good and fair point.

39:25I think Norway needed to revitalise because we had a really big peak in Norway in the 90s with so many Premier League players. And then we had a huge dip where Denmark and Sweden just surpassed us greatly. And I think Norway as a federation have looked upon to these countries, but also Belgium and now Netherlands and to try to find ways to make our academies better. And I think the professional coaching has been much better at the lower stage. And with the turf now, you see these Martin Ödegor, these Nusa, Andres Scheldrup. There are so many great Norwegian players now. Before Norwegians were used for the flow pass, they used the long ball up to the big striker and knock it down and finish.

40:14But you see, we have these so lots and Haaland still, though. But I think many Norwegians now are really technical. They're good tactically. And they've always been, in every single Norwegian, I think has been grit. Like, yeah, they work hard. They're consistent. They're not kind of flamboyant players, but they're hardworking. You know what you get from a Norwegian player. And there's been done a great job from the federation to the academies in the top clubs. So the youngsters meet qualified coaches much, much earlier than, for example, in my time. And one final question. Thanks so much for giving us so much time today.

41:05Who's on the edge of the technical area the most out of you two? Is it Morton or Beata? Oh, Beata's pointed to Morton. So, Morton, you're on the edge, are you? It all depends. I mean, I'm usually, we cycle, but it's difficult. We like to be active in the game, and you think you can affect the game when you're active. We both have a lot of passion for the game, and I think that it makes a difference if we are living into the game. So I think it's a good cooperation on the sideline. And let's see how it will be when Stuttgart is away next Wednesday. We talk a lot to the fourth official. We'll be watching.

41:53I would be watching the technical area as much as the pitch, I think, when I watch you play against Stuttgart next Wednesday. All the best, guys. Thank you so much for your time. It was brilliant to speak to you. That was Beata Lunde Orshae, the co-manager of Viking, alongside his other joint manager, Morten Jensen. So all the best to those guys against Stuttgart next Wednesday. Mina Rizuki is with us, Julian Lerons as well, with me, John Bennett, on the Euroleague. We're going to head to Germany now and welcome our German football expert, Raphael Honigstein. Hello to you, Raphael. We want to talk, first of all, about Bayern Munich, avoiding an early scare against the Bundesliga two-side Osnabrück yesterday in the Cup, but everyone's not talking about the game.

42:34They're talking about an amazing rollercoaster ride, Tifo. If you haven't seen this, head to the BBC Sport website and search for Osnabrück Tifo. Raphael, you've got much better description skills than me. I'll let you talk about this. It was an incredible sight behind one of the goals. Was it along the side of the pitch, actually? No, no, it was behind the goals. So at Bremer Brücke, which is the home ground of Osnabrück. So imagine the whole stand behind the goal showing a rollercoaster track, effectively. And it says, always rollercoaster with Osnabrück because they're a classic yo-yo side, mostly between second and third division.

43:18They've also had a few scandals over the years. They also had a very famous DFB-Pokal Cup win at Bayern in 1978. which was much referenced before this game. But then to just bring out the rollercoaster nature of this choreography even more, suddenly there was a rollercoaster car with doors dressed as ultras going up and down sort of tracks through the choreo. That's astonishing. Jules, have you seen this yet? This has got to win the World Cup of TIFOs. This has got to be the champion.

44:00Julien Laurens:And Germans are usually very, very good with their TIFOs. I remember one, there's been a few over there that were quite special. But that's what ultra or certainly like, you know, hardcore fans do all around the world and all around Europe. There's the one I prefer from a PSG point of view is the Dragon Ball Z one that they put out a few years ago that was very, very special. But yeah, they're so creative. They're so good. Often they don't have, I mean, in this game, they had, I guess, a bit of time, but sometimes you don't have much time to prepare. And the whole community gets together to do all those T4s.

44:38Julien Laurens:It's wonderful to watch. Yeah, they're not always great, are they, Mina? Some signs they disappoint, but this one did not disappoint at all. No, I mean, my favorite one remains the Arsenal one, which was just the canon. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. But actually, there was a great one. do you remember the one which was Milan when they did the Matrix with me on Dodging Bullets? That was a great one when they were playing against PSG and Borussia Dortmund against Malaga many years ago. God, I don't remember when that was. When they had the glasses. There were so many, so many. But the Italian, it is called TIFO, so the Italians do it better.

45:17I'm not so sure. Yeah, Borussia Dortmund have had some fantastic ones. So, Rafa, we want to look back at the Bundesliga action and one big story, the story of Elversberg, who are from a town of just 13 ,000 people in the Bundesliga for the first time. And they held on for a 3-2 win over the 2024 champions by Leverkusen. What a story. How good was this performance for them on their Bundesliga start? Yeah, it was great. I mean, this is a team that's been flirting with promotion for a number of years. They couldn't quite make it. The fact that they were so close so many times is in itself, of course, a huge compliment to the way they've been doing things.

46:01Because historically, in terms of the size you mentioned, this is not a team that really belongs in the Bundesliga. But they've been doing stuff really smartly. They've had smart coaches in the past. They have another one who looks really good in Vincent Wagner. and they are the experts in picking up players that others overlook and making them into a really fun side. They also like to play football and we saw that against Leverkusen. This is not just a side that plays on the break and runs a lot and presses a lot. They really like to play football. And Vincent Wagner before the game likened the chance of not going down to the humans landing on planet Mars.

46:42so quite remote in other words but I think after that result and the way that they held on and the way they caused real problems to Leverkusen who are in transition we have to mention that you know a very new team a new coach things will take a bit of time but Eversberg looked like they belong at this level and after Heidenheim have gone down I think they're the new sort of obscure provincial side that a lot of people enjoy watching You mentioned picking up some talented players What's the secret then behind their scouting? How are they finding these talented players, particularly youngsters? I'm not sure there's a secret.

47:21Everyone is doing the same, but then it comes to the quality of the people making the decisions. Everyone has the same data. Everyone looks at the same players. Of course, they had to be really cute with getting people on loan. They've had Paul Wanner, who is now an Austrian international playing for PSV Eindhoven on loan. They had Nick Voltemar on loan a few years ago as well. So they have a habit of identifying talent and they foster talent and they, for some reason or another, find the right players. Now, Dortmund, for one, have been very much paying attention because they pinched their sporting director all a book before the start of the season.

48:09So now he's working for a bigger side, but a successor is already looking pretty handy as well. And yeah, a great side with, well, a small side, but with great promise. And I think definitely a story to watch this season. You mentioned Borussia Dortmund also started strongly. 2-0 win over Hamburg with their Greek stars shining. Here's what Rafa said about them on last week's EuroLeagues. Caretas and Constantelios two Greek players that they bought who are very creative and look really interesting and I think along with Christos Solis from Arsenal might usher in sort of a renaissance of Greek football a little bit there's a lot of talent suddenly appearing They started so well they made you look very good yet again but then what happened?

48:54A massive injury Yeah, it's really sad Constantelios ruptured his ACL it's a big shame He had such a wonderful debut, but picked up that injury. And yeah, we'll be out for a long, long time. Dortmund tried to react. They thought about a player we already mentioned in Vltimare, but ultimately decided to go for Ethan Njuanieri. So obviously not a player for player swap, if you will, but somebody who should give them movement, ability, also a sense of you know variability oh wow I can't speak today variability or flexibility maybe is a better word up front because he can play in a number of positions and they have high hopes for him and of course Dortmund have had a history of developing young British talent really well from the Premier League and maybe he can be the next Bellingham or next Jadon Sancho for them

49:58Julien Laurens:and Rafi last week we had Miron Merslis the Schalke manager who got them promoted back finally to the Bundesliga who played with fans who listened to us who remember our championship fans and we loved him on the show he was great wasn't he unfortunately for him that first game away at Augsburg didn't really go down well no it was a rude awakening I think Augsburg got a sort of side even away from home that Schalke would like to compete with if they are in with a chance. But you could just see the step-up in quality was a little bit too high. Maybe nerves played into it as well for this Schalke team.

50:38You know, the first time back after so many years out. Things don't get easier for them because they've got Bayern next at home on Saturday. I mean, the atmosphere is going to be absolutely incredible for this Schalke fandom who will celebrate being back at the big stage and they'll make it as difficult as possible. But yeah, I think it was a classic wake-up call and a sense of, you know, this is not going to be a foregone conclusion that we're staying up. Rafa, we had some joint managers on the show, the joint managers of VKings. So I asked Jules, I asked Mina, who would you have from the EuroLeague's panel to be a joint manager?

51:14Mina, tell us who you went for. I chose you just because I thought you would have fun. Rafa, she chose you. That's so sweet. Yeah, but what about Jules? He didn't go for it. He didn't even mention it. He went straight to James Horncastle. But yeah, Mina Rizuki and Raphael Honigstein, the joint managers and Julian Arons and James Horncastle. Thanks so much to Raphael Honigstein for joining us, Julian Arons and Mina Rizuki as well for joining us on EuroLeagues. That is all for this week.

51:55So much sport today and all the goals as they go in up and down the league. This is Five Live Sports. It's all eyes and the lights and foot to the floor. To bowl him. It's not his stopper. Everyone standing around the 18th green. Overhead kick. That is sensational.

52:12Julien Laurens:He serves to the centre. Down to it. Oh, the right hand. And the former champion is down. It's extraordinary stuff. They've got all the show for us tonight. He gets on his knees and kisses the turf. Five Live Sports. The home of the world's greatest sporting events. There is the full time whistle. Listen on BBC Sounds.

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