Euro Leagues: UCL Final set & Marti Cifuentes on his career

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1:11You'll reach the right buyers because you can target by company, industry, job title, and more. So cut the bullspend. Advertise on LinkedIn, the network that works for you. Spend$250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a 250 credit for the next one. Just go to linkedin.com slash broadcast. That's linkedin.com slash broadcast. Terms and conditions apply. On the Football Daily Podcast, the EuroLeagues with John Bennett. Hello and welcome to EuroLeagues with me, John Bennett on the Football Daily Podcast. joining me this week Guillaume Balaguet and ESPN's Julien Laurent hello guys so Guillaume you've been busy you were at Arsenal Atletico Madrid we'll get some stories from that then you were in the Match of the Day studio and Jules of course was in Munich last night he looks very tired but it's a happy tired so we got but I think there's a dilemma Guillaume for Jules because I think I'm right in saying this Jules' household the Laurent's household it's half PSG half Arsenal isn't it?

2:22Is this right? Yeah, that's right, man.

2:23Julien Laurens:It's the worst final ever. Literally, literally so bad that for my marriage, it would be better if Arsenal won that final. The kids, the kids can't really say anything, but they're, you know, they're PSG fans. We all know that. But we won last year. They were very happy last year in Munich with me to witness PSG winning that. So I guess, you know, if he was Arsenal to win, they would still be very happy. And like I said, my life would be so much better for it. But this is like New Year's Eve, right? Where you all want to be together and celebrate together. to jump into the new year, but I bet nobody's going to see each other until right at the end.

2:57Is that right?

2:58Julien Laurens:I bet. Absolutely, man. We can't even talk about the final already in our house, you know, and we've got another three weeks to go. Tough few weeks to come for Jules. It's not just us three. On EuroLeagues this week, Guillaume, you have brought us a special guest. Introduce us to our guest this week. Yeah, I just thought that having seen the two semifinals of the Champions League, so many tactical discussions that we can get into by not getting somebody who has been brought up in the Catalan coaching culture and went from youth to senior and then decided to leave everything he knew behind and go to Scandinavia, everywhere but Iceland, to coach and then eventually jump into English football in one of the toughest leagues in the world, which is the Championship.

3:40So we've got with us Martí Cifuentes. Martí, thanks so much for joining us. Great to speak to you. Hi, guys. Hi, everyone. Thank you for the invitation. What is it like, Marty, at this time of year for a head coach who's not in a job at the moment? Can you relax with the family or are your bags packed, ready for the next adventure? I mean, it's a mix, right? I think that after many years in a row coaching, changing leagues, living in different countries, it's been a nice time to spend, back in Barcelona, to spend some time with the kids, with the family, with friends. But at the same time, watching a lot of football, watching trainings, watching games.

4:18a lot of matches on the TV, live. So, yeah, almost getting the feeling back and getting ready again. Do you know when you choose your frame to do a Zoom with, you always look behind you to see exactly, you know, what it is that you want to say about yourself to the world. All I see is a lot of blue and white. Is that Sabadell? It's Sabadell. Sabadell actually is the first club that I started coaching and I have a great feeling for the club. and I spent five years, fantastic years there. Yeah, I'm still watching a lot of games. I follow them and I always support them. Yeah, as well on the other side, it's a QPR shirt.

4:56But I have, this is my office. This is where I work and I have all the shirts from all the clubs I've been in. And definitely that one from QPR is a special game. It was the day that Stan Bowles passed away and we were playing at home. I loved to roll that we had a fantastic game. So it's kind of a special shirt for me as well. And I see a tactics board in the background as well. We're going to talk tactics with you, Marty. We'll talk a bit more about your career as well later on Euroleagues. But I'm looking forward to getting your insight into the Champions League semifinals. So as we mentioned, it will be the current champions, Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal in the final in Budapest 30th of May.

5:34I'm sure Guillaume and Jules have their tickets booked already. And you'll be able to hear the game, of course, on 5 Live. So Arsenal beating Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday night. 2-1 win on aggregate. More on that shortly. But let's start with Paris Saint-Germain against Bayern. So 1-1 on the night. 6-5 on aggregate. And Jules, we said on last week's EuroLeagues that it's very difficult for Paris Saint-Germain to be solid and to control a game. It's all about attack. And then what happens? They're so close to keeping a clean sheet.

6:02Julien Laurens:Yeah, I thought they were incredible defensively. And the way they set up the game plan from Luis Enrique. the cohesion defensively with that team, the structure as well, but also all the sacrifices because you can put, and Marty, I'm sure, would agree, you can put the best game plan in place and the best structure in place and have worked a training on how drilled you have to be and how disciplined and organized. But if on the day your players don't run and don't give all that they have to track back and to double up on, you know, the players that they have to double up on and help your teammates and make sure that you're covering and just go and put all those effort in, the best game plans would never work.

6:41Julien Laurens:And I thought yesterday on that pitch, every PSG player, the one who started, the one who came on, just did that perfectly. Really helping each other out, playing as a team, defending, sometimes suffering, sure, inviting the pressure, being under pressure from Bayern, who are a wonderful attacking team, really, but also keeping them quiet massively with Diaz and Olysses and Kane. And that's not easy to do. And at the same time, having what you need to hit them on the counter, the first goal, obviously, earlier on. We've seen PSG doing that before under Luis Enrique, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, last season and this season.

7:17Julien Laurens:But even after that, Dwayne could have scored, Neves could have scored, Herreg Vazkeliar could have scored one of the goals of the season right at the end when he just whizzed through that box and just missed a little bit of composure at the end. So I thought from Luis Enrique and the boys, almost the perfect plan from start to finish. Yeah, the Paris Saint-Germain president, Nasser Al-Halafi, he said, we have what it takes, as we proved today, they're not just footballers, they are true fighters. As Jules says, the attitude was so impressive. Marty, what impressed you the most about that Paris Saint-Germain performance on Wednesday night?

7:48Yeah, definitely I would say it was, again, a very interesting game from a tactical point of view. Obviously, the first leg was incredible, one of the best games we have seen probably over the last years. but at the same time this one was so intense right fluidity a lot of rotations very dynamic way of playing for both teams for me perhaps the summary of what PSG did on yesterday it was minute 89 Kavitschwella is jumping to press Manuel Neuer they are leading 1-0 it's almost game done and he still has the mindset not only the legs but the mindset to jump on the flair player doing that the star player the flair player doing that.

8:29Exactly. And probably the best player, in my opinion, in the pitch. He did amazing. He handled a lot of situations, difficult, keep the ball, give the transition moments, but as well the quality to keep the ball for PSG in difficult moments. He's jumping to press. That provokes as well that the full-back is jumping behind him. Half a second late, which that makes the difference at this level. After 89 minutes, those high-press situations are not easy. And he still has the energy and the mentality to track back and provoke a throwing, defending and tracking his men. So I think that that defines a little bit, not only the quality, but the mindset and the level of those players.

9:07It just felt like Dembele's goal spoiled the party, really. I mean, because from that moment on, I'm joking, obviously, but from that moment on, PSG, having learned from the experience of the first leg, decided to manage the game and manage expectations, which is fair enough. They defended deep. That and the lack of accuracy of Bayern Munich that was like 10 out of 10 in the first leg meant that Bayern couldn't break them through. And of course, Michael Oli disappeared. Bruno Mendes was absolutely brilliant, held by Fabian. So there was no way that he could actually push Bayern to another level.

9:43And it was interesting that Harry Kane was used mostly as a nine and not as a link-up and allowed others to do that. But we have to point it out at some point. And this is not just the consequence of a game or a season or a bunch of players being put together. This is a change of a culture at the club. There are so many examples that I'm sure Jules can help us with. But it just comes to my mind what Luis Enrique said when Mbappé left. He said, when you have somebody that does whatever he wants, the problem is you cannot control everything that happens on the pitch. So from the moment he left, he said, now I'm going to be able to control absolutely everything.

10:22So he has imposed a culture that has to do with how they relate to each other, how they work, how much they look forward to coming to training. A lot of things that are absolutely crucial to get the kind of performance that we saw. Marty, how much of a challenge would that have been for Luis Enrique to completely change the culture? Like you say, Kravitz Kalia in the 89th minute, the star player, the flair player, working that hard. Is that what really impresses you? not just tactically Luis Enrique, but the way, as Guillaume said, he's completely changed the culture and there's no egos in that squad.

10:56Yeah, I think that both Guillaume and Gilles previously mentioned and talked about it. I think that probably the most important or biggest challenge that as a manager we have when we arrive to a new club is to set the culture and to be aligned in the culture. I definitely think that Luis Enrique has the personality and a clear philosophy on how he wants to work. But anyway, it takes time. So probably his first season was not easy. And instead, perhaps last year, this season, we can see that he's feeling like probably this is his team in terms of all of the players playing at really high level of intensity, understanding, because the level of those rotations that we speak, obviously Luis Enrique is a coach that comes as well from the position of play for school.

11:42So it's a lot of fluidity, it's a lot of rotation. And that requires not only just the theory, but the game understanding. And this is as well about the Eagles at the end, because the players, they need to understand that, OK, my teammate is here, now I need to do this, because that's the best for the team. And that's exactly what, in my opinion, we can see at this moment with this team.

12:04Julien Laurens:I think there's something that sums up everything we've just said, is when Dembele came off after 65 minutes, when he's the current Ballon d 'Or, you know the current Ballon d 'Or he's the best player in this team he's just scored a goal he's scored in the semi-final in the quarter-finals and yet he comes off because he's run so much he pressed so much he didn't touch the ball that much actually after the goal but he did so much invisible work for the team his legs were probably already gone a little bit and yet he came off and you know went and supported the team from the bench high-fived his manager not sulking not complaining not moaning nothing at all because he knew that Barcola coming off on, we do the job that he did, and then at some point, that's what teams do, that's what squads do, you know, it's not just about one player, and I think this PSG team that Luis Enrique made so special, is a team where there's not one above the others, they're all, you know, whether you're Ballon d 'Or winner or not, whether you're Vazcalia or not, whether you're 20-year-old Zaire Emery or Due, or 31-year-old Marquinhos, you're all at the same level, really, and in a way, we could say that Luis is the boss, and Luis is the star, which is fine because he's earned it, I think, by now.

13:12Julien Laurens:But in terms of players, they're all on the same page and same level and all those things that the boys just described, that's what they do. And I saw Desiree Dwayne after the game and he said, you know, to win titles, you have to defend, you have to run, you have to track back. If you don't do that, whoever you are, it's never going to work. That is an iconic picture, isn't it, to represent all of this, which was the face of Dembélé about to pressure Soma against Inter. Remember that face? Yeah, in the final. Yes, yes. And I asked him about it and he says, I was so tired. He was a hunter, but a hunter that had lost the consciousness almost.

13:53He was so tired he couldn't think, but he knew he had to do that. So imagine, Martito, to have a player that when he cannot think, he's still doing unconsciously what you ask him to do. You actually reinterpret his DNA. I mean, that is the biggest success as a coach, isn't it? Definitely one of the best feelings when you as a manager, you feel that you convince everyone to work for each other, that the whole team has the same idea, the same target. That's the definition by Team Urgaz, right? I think the credit, obviously, to the whole organisation. But I have good friends in PSG as well. and I think the transition from that model years ago when it was about signing perhaps the best players but that doesn't make you always the best team and instead now you can see top, top players and many of them are best probably in the world as well.

14:46I'm not saying that there is not the same quality but it's definitely a team that works with, yeah, like a symphony, right? Everybody knows what they need to do in the pitch. I think from a tactical point of view, the way they build up, for instance, when they are slightly high on the pitch. It's very interesting because usually it's what we call a structural three plus one with Vitinha on the base, with three players, one of the fullbacks goes higher. But that's extremely fluid. And that changed. Sometimes it's Fabian here and then Vitinha is higher. Sometimes he's one of the fullbacks that stretch higher while the other stays.

15:21So that requires, as I said, not only the understanding from an individual point of view, not only a lot of work behind the scenes on training and so on, but requires understanding every moment during the game, what does it need, what is the opponent doing, and that's the beauty of what they are achieving. So Arsenal will stand in the way of Jules' Paris Saint-Germain going back-to-back, Bukay Sacco's goal, sending them through an excellent performance against Atletico Madrid in the other semi-final. And Guillaume, you're in the thick of it. Were you around the technical area at the end when there was chaos, wasn't there, with Diego Simeone going wild, the Arsenal backroom staff, the players going wild.

16:01No, no, that was started by Berta. Oh, yes, yes. Well, talk us through this. How close were you to this? Talk us through what happened. Yeah, we were just a little bit behind in the kind of observer seat and you could see that somebody that shouldn't be there, in this case Berta, was incensed about things that were happening on the pitch, whatever it was that got him upset. So remind us of his role. He's director of football of Arsenal, but was director of football of Atletico Madrid for nine, ten years. so close to Simeone. And when Simeone saw him, he started pointing out at the referees, get this guy out of here.

16:34Come on, go, go, go. And then the whole thing just started. But there was a lot of tension because it was just little details that has taken on, will take us now in the next 20 minutes or so to praise Arsenal. And there's a lot of questions about the project at Atletico Madrid. On the back of a game that could have gone completely different ways, We're not going to get into, in detail, into referee decisions. It was small margins going. And Atletico Madrid played two very good 45 minutes. Both second legs were very, very good. In fact, they shot on goal more than Arsenal. They shot on target more than Arsenal.

17:09They forced more saves from Arsenal's goalkeeper than from O 'Black. So, considering the gap that is financial gap and in terms of quality of players, I think Atletico Madrid did quite well. But we have enough time to actually talk about the culture of Arsenal because that also is crucial to what happened on the pitch, how Arteta has changed everything. And if you have to find a moment, he talks about when he first came in, he brought in an expert in culture, in company culture, and they put on a board, he asked to put on a board, the main words that people describe how they felt coming into the training ground.

17:47This is players, assistants, chef, everybody. And he was amazed at the words. They were disappointed and happy. They didn't believe in the project. So it was like, oh, wow, we're going to have to just put roots here and then start developing it. And it took about six to 12 months to start seeing a little bit of a change of that culture. And as a consequence, we've seen a progression that's taking them to the Champions League final. This is the theme, isn't it, of the two Champions League finalists, Marti? The culture change that both the head coaches have brought in. What are you making of this match-up in the final then?

18:22And Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, I mean, it's a bit of a generalisation, isn't it? But everyone's saying best defence against best attack. What do you make of this match-up in the final? Well, definitely it's going to be, I think that the end spoke about the small margins. This level of the competition is going to be always about the small margins. So one action can change the whole game. Even yesterday, for instance, Mendes could have seen, he was humble. He's going to be the second yellow corner or not, what would have been the effect of it. So the same with Atletico against Arsenal, those are both situations.

18:55For sure, I would say that we are talking, when you look as well at the level of performance in their own current leagues, championships and so on, it's probably two of the best teams at the moment in Europe. So it's going to be a fantastic game. Probably there is differences on the way two coaches as well coming from this positional play is cool. but perhaps having different expressions on it I would say that Arsenal still relying more like in zonal principles to defend perhaps Paris and German being more aggressive looking more for man-to-man situations more often than what Arsenal does but in any case two fantastic teams and it's going to be a fantastic final to watch because the quality of the players of both teams the bench quality the level of the managers it's going to be super interesting Jules, most people are talking about what's going to worry Arsenal in terms of Paris Saint-Germain, Dembele and Kravitzkeli.

19:48What do you think is going to be concerning Paris Saint-Germain in the lead-up to this final?

19:52Julien Laurens:I think set-pieces to start with. I know we say often, and even if Arsenal lately haven't been as efficient on set-pieces, then earlier in the season, they still are the best team on set-pieces too. So hard to defend. And we can't really say that it's PSG 40 to defend set-pieces either. So let's see that. I think if there's a team that can also slow down the tempo against PSG, that can control things, is this Arsenal team. They can almost do to PSG what PSG did to Bayern last night. I think that. However, I think PSG have maybe more options and more variation in the way they can play as we saw against Bayern in the first leg and in the second leg.

20:27Julien Laurens:I think they can do a lot of different things that maybe Arsenal can't do on the ball either. So I think it's going to be great. I also think, just to finish on that, that last season's final that PSG won against Inter will be psychologically a huge advantage. There's a lot of players in this Arsenal team and Mikel who've never reached this stage, obviously, they've never been in a final, they've never won, apart from Kai Havertz, they've never won the Champions League. And I wonder if at some point, especially if the game stays tight and there's not much to it, the difference could just be made on that kind of experience of having been there before and having won it before.

20:59If they win the Premier League title, though, will that take a lot of the pressure off going into that final? The focus will be on that and it'll make it a bit easier for the preparation? Yes. I mean, they already, I think, deserve a lot of praise for what they got to. But yes, getting the Premier League, which seems to be the priority for most fans, interestingly enough. In England, that's how it works. In Europe, it will be completely different. But I also feel that Harley got nothing to lose. They're at the beginning of a project, I feel, where they got it right now. Can you still say at the beginning?

21:28I think Arteta has obviously put that culture in place, but now he's got a squad from the last two years, maybe, which has taken them to the semifinals of the Champions League. OK, call it progression. But to get to that level where you start winning, there has to be a moment, a moment that you almost can point out a day, an afternoon, an hour, a gesture that takes them into the next level. It was, I don't know, with Spain when we beat Italy in the penalty shootout in the quarterfinals of the European Championships 2008. Boom. Psychologically, we were released with a lot of pressure. Here, I think it was this semifinal.

22:05It felt like they won it in a way because it was like now we've just done that step that everybody's asking us to do, which is fair to demand and now I'm not saying they have nothing to lose but I'm saying that in a way the PSG are favourites and Arsenal will do the best but I do feel that there will be more PSG Arsenal finals in the near future Marti, can I just ask a very quick one about Mikel Arteta again I asked you about Luis Enrico what impresses you the most Mikel Arteta the job he's done is there one thing that really stands out for you? Well, first of all I would say that I love the fact that he's been allowed to build something because the first couple of years probably were not easy, neither for the club, neither for him.

22:47I think himself yesterday, he mentioned that, Guilherme, in an interview to you, that he felt like the confidence he got from the club was massive to be in the place where they are at the moment. But you see there is a common threat, I would say, in all the clubs that are successful, the culture. And when the culture is strong, the most important, I would say, most of us managers would say culture. and then you want to arrive at the end of the season with options to win things. To be in a position where, look, we cannot control if it's going to be a handball, if it's going to be this action that will change the game.

23:21But to put yourself in the situation where they are at the moment, it's up to them to win the Premier League. Obviously, the pressure is massive. It's been a lot of years since Arsenal won the last Premier League title. So it's going to be some pressure in those games. But they are putting themselves in almost the perfect spot, right? It's up to them to win the Premier. It's up to them to play a final Champions League after, what was that, the last one, 20 years ago. I think it says a lot about the development, the culture, the style of playing that he has implemented. I hope some club owners are listening to this.