Benfica and Bodø/Glimt bring Champions League drama – Football Weekly Extra

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:29happen. Benfica the story then, along with Bodo Glimt. We know they're good on plastic in sub-zero temperatures, but to go to Atleti and win to get into the playoffs is a stunning achievement. Five English clubs make it into the top eight. Arsenal were through already. Wins for Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Man City prove what we already knew about the strength of the Premier League. Harvey McBarnes had the chance to get them all in there. A draw at PSG, not enough for Newcastle or PSG. Maddening handball alert. We'll try and round up the rest of the games and look ahead to the Premier League weekend if there's time.

0:56Answer your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:03on the panel today nikki bandini welcome morning hello lars civinson hello max nick ames is here hey nick hello max and live from lisbon archie rintut archie what a cameo for you buzzing max i've barely been able to sleep and i have no horse in this race it's wild yeah our ukrainian football expert friend andrew toros said a full hour on trubin here i mean you were there to witness that winner just talk us through talk us through that which puts them through at the expense of marseille right they needed that goal hence trubin being up for the free kick so to start with benfica could have won this game 8-2 and that wouldn't have been something to complain about the fact that kilian mbappe is coming out and saying it could have been 5-1 at halftime real madrid are not exactly the team who who are going to say well you know know what we really got battered there but that tells you how well this Jose Mourinho team were attacking in such a fluid way that I was kind of double taking the whole game the problem was as you can tell by the fact that Anatoly Trubin had to go up is they weren't very good at putting their chances away and the bizarre thing is that Jose Mourinho's assistants were not keeping him in the loop enough to tell him actually we need to go for this because such was the way that there were these penalty shouts in the first half one was given one was scored by Vangelis Pavlidis but all of that meant that the Benfica game was about five minutes behind everyone else so in a way I know that there will be conspiracy theorists out there going ah another master stroke by Jose Mourinho making sure his team knew exactly what they had to do come the final minute but it's not like anyone knew what they had to do to the point that i'm down one end of the stadium where the goal didn't happen and i can just see wave after wave of benfica fan exclaiming hands on their heads you have to go for it do you not know what's about to happen we're about to go out and so trubin just thought everyone was like losing their shit over the fact of oh we might beat real madrid so he's looking around being like calm calm he's actively trying to waste time before then finally the message gets through, oh, we need to go for this now.

3:27We're in the 96th minute of the game. And so he pumps the ball long. They win a free kick. And then finally the message gets through to him, you need to go up like right now. And then after that, I'm watching it and I just see the ball go in and I'm like, the goalkeeper scored. No, no, he didn't. The goalkeeper scored. Anatoly Trout what I I just could not there were so many blurs I just see this swarm of Benfica players invade the pitch and trail around Trubin and just the the stands and just seeing the jumping and but like Benfica have not got a great history of fantastic European moments like Like for them, stuff is meant to go wrong at the worst time in European football.

4:21So I think you could really tell that for them, they couldn't quite believe that they had this. And the fact that they've not played Real Madrid since 1965, which given the amount of football that we have these days, is something I still can't get my head around. And so for them to have this moment against Real Madrid and for it to be this player is something I cannot comprehend still. Yeah, I mean, it is. I don't know, Nicky. I think, like, we like to analyse football, hopefully, in a more than superficial way. But really, at the end of it all, a keeper sort of lolloping upfield. And bizarre, I feel like there is a magnetism when a keeper's in the box, that people don't know how to mark them, the ball goes near them, they might not score.

5:06But all those things are just, everyone is like, I am absolutely here for this. Yeah, I mean, it needs to be said it was actually a really good header. Like that wasn't just like, oh, it smacked him in the face and rebounded in. It looked like a striker's header the way he took it. But Archie's nailed it. Like, Troubin had no idea that this was an important moment about 60 seconds before he's up there in the penalty area. He thought, we're winning this game. It's great. Everything's where it's supposed to be. Mourinho said that in his post-game press conference, said even with his substitutions, he didn't know that any of this mattered.

5:38at the same time though i was thinking as archie was was saying all that about um marino master strokes when we rewrite the narrative but is this going to be a takeaway lesson from this night of chaos that we're going to be talking about because it was i think it was great i think max seems more on the fence about it than i do i flipping loved it last night but it was brilliant but is a takeaway going to be make sure you do a good amount of shithousery in the first half because you really want the extra time at the end of the second half so you know whether your keeper has to go up in the 95th minute to score the winner for you like maybe that's maybe that's important information because goal difference mattered um goal difference mattered quite a lot in the end yeah it was last i mean i'm just asking the same question now but i think it's worth it but so you know there are for me there are there's we'll get to bodo glint they're the two headlines from this i i don't want to be grumpy about it i just sort of i'm not sure if this is how we should consume football watching 18 games at the same time but for one evening for one evening only yeah it's probably worth it and this was just such a standout moment i i wrestled with it because yeah there was too much i mean there's too much information to take in i found it was very difficult it was enjoyable but there was too much going on especially towards the end where like i was like a lot of people uh prime watching the goal show primarily to try to get a good helicopter view of what was going on but then towards the end i had to watch both because we'll get to it but that is probably the biggest result in norwegian club football history so i couldn't not watch the last 10 minutes of it uh but that also meant i missed some other stuff that was going on like there was nowhere yeah it was that thing when you're in the when in is this a fairground thing they put you in the machine with the money that flies around and then they turn on the fan and then the money goes everywhere and you try to grab the money it was a bit like that yeah you know that's what it was though nicky it was the crystal maze of football this i mean we're gonna get years where there's even more big things at stake here in terms of like big teams not qualifying more english teams that a lot of people care about being on the verge of not qualifying so it's gonna get even more chaotic i think which uh above all is a challenge for podcasters future podcasters might have a might have an issue there but it was fun just to pick up on what mike said though though like i mean that's the once a year thing i agree like if this was every week too much but that's kind of what they've successfully done is we now have like an extra event day in the calendar yeah obviously you know you've got the championship final that's an event everyone looks forward to but this is now going to be every year like oh it's that day and it becomes like an annual thing that people look forward to i think i think from a fan point of view obviously for a lot of fans really what they're interested is just their specific club and those fans will be at their club's game and they will be watching their club's game on TV and they won't give a stuff for everything else.

8:28But I think from a spectator point of view, from the fans who aren't as invested in one team point of view, I think that this is where sport has always been trending but is moving more and more, which is into these big event occasions. And it is, I think, an event occasion now, this final day of the Champions League. It's clippable football, isn't it? I mean, hopefully we'll get on to a bit more of the sort of football and sporting ramifications but I don't know just just anecdotally I don't think any of my whatsapp groups last night of friends who like football but aren't football journalists were watching these games I don't think they were watching the games I don't think they're even watching the gold show but they were aware of what had happened at about 10 o 'clock and you know sending links on twitter blue sky whatever um and i think that's the road that this showpiece event goes down now i i personally don't like that much as i enjoyed the evening very much actually i don't think uefa and and its stakeholders will care that much as long as the broadcast rights money is still pouring in and i i guess we'll see in in a generation's time or possibly a bit more quickly than that whether that is brought to bear, but it feels like a bit of a dirty pleasure last night, to be honest.

9:45It's clippable football, not the real thing. I like that, you know, on the one hand, we're saying that this is clippable and quick, and then you're just saying we have to wait a generation to see if it's going to work or not. That feels like, even for me, as a legacy fan, waiting too long. Archie, it even made us happy for Jose, right? You spoke to him afterwards, but, you know, him and a ball boy. Speaking of dirty pleasure. Yeah, exactly. I just wanted to add the change in in in competition structure has meant it's become less about the sport and more about the entertainment in the in terms of sporting merit has has stopped being as as important but i think also because it was it was so clear who the best teams were that now that is is much more murky to see and in terms of entertainment that is as we've seen last night you have over 20 clubs who are almost in a final on the final match day and and teams play with with a different with a different mindset that's why bodo glimt i think were able to get themselves up for this game against atletico whereas who knows in a usual group of four they they might not have already been still in the competition jose last night there are a few things that will really stay in my head about last night one for example was walking out the stadium and seeing these benfica fans kind of circling like vultures almost looking for like and someone coming up to me going are you from spain are you from spain i went no no i'm i'm from england oh why are you here and i was like well like because because the football is isn't it great that yeah and then kind of just walking away and this other guy comes up to me and he's kind of clutching an anatoly trubin plastic cup and he's going trubin trubin and i was like oh can i can i take a photo of that sure and he's like oh no but but get a photo with me in it as well i was like okay so i took a kind of reluctant selfie with him just smiling away um and trubin in the tunnel as well i i think he was okay when I spoke to him as well and he was saying he didn't know that he had to be up 60 seconds before.

11:58But also, he seemed quite a reluctant hero. He was walking around and there was a look on his face being like, well, if I'd known that I'd have to do this much media, I'm not sure I would have actually wanted to score, to be honest. But this is quite a lot. But the memory, the core memory that will stick in my mind is seeing Jose Mourinho walk out of the Benfica dressing room straight after full-time and Dean Housen, his former player at Roma, is there. And this is how I wanted to start the interview with Mourinho as well. However, due to the way that broadcasting works and you can't swear, I couldn't start with what he said to Dean Housen because he just went up and he huffed.

12:38Fuck. That's so good. That is, you know, the elite level is Sunday League all at the same time, isn't it? And that's perfect. Hey, Archie, you can go away now. You've done your job. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. cheers cheers archie rint up there out in lisbon i just a quick one last on real madrid um you know dropping down into the playoffs and not ideal for our below does it matter i mean like psg won from the playoffs last time it's not a disaster yeah i i feel like everything that happens at real madrid now is more almost like a referendum on the players than on our below because they had a manager who's quite a good manager who was telling them what to do and they basically told him to get fucked.

13:20So they're like, okay, we don't have this manager who will tell them what to do now. We're just going to do it by how the big stars want to do it. So if they screw up now, it's kind of on them. And I think getting played off the park at times, it seems, at least in terms of the chances they conceded, conceding four goals to Benfica, having two red cards towards the end of the game, it's quite a dismal failure, I think. Maybe an experienced coach at the side of the pitch who could tell them what to do would have been a good thing here. Yeah, if they listened. So as we've established, Benfica were through.

13:58So Marseille went out because of that goal. They lost 3-0 at Club Bruges. They started this competition pretty well, but finished 25th, the worst of all places. But Simon Mignolet is still playing, and he made a lot of saves for Bruges. So nice to see him there. Let's go then to the Bodo win, 2-1 away at Atleti. and as you've said, we know they're good at home, we know they're good on that artificial service, we know they're good when it's really cold but to go to the Wanda Metropolitana, go a goal down and to come back is brilliant. Yeah, and the context here is as well is that they haven't played a league game since November.

14:34Their last league game, I believe, was the 30th of November. Then they played that away game at Dortmund in the Champions League where they got a point and on the 10th of December, turns out to be an important point, But that set them up so that they just needed to beat City and Atletico Madrid away to give themselves a chance at qualifying, which is unbelievable, really. So since, I believe it's October 2024, two teams have beaten Atletico Madrid away, which is Barcelona and Bodo Limt, which doesn't make any sense. It's absolutely absurd. And we've talked about it here a few times. I think Jan-Oge Fjortov made a good point.

15:13Nine out of 11 players in the starting lineup are Norwegians as well. And the goalkeeper, Nikita Heikin, is in the process of receiving Norwegian citizenship, I believe. Actually, he's joining our side. But yeah, it's a genuine Cinderella story without big money behind it. It's built on a local identity, built on a football identity. you've got a number of players who have been successful enough at Bordermatt that they've gotten offered to play abroad they've gone abroad, they've decided they don't like it and come back to Bordermatt and it made me chuckle so Jens Petterhaugge is one of them who's the very talented winger who's played at Milan, played at Frankfurt never quite made it he said after the game that in terms of what we did with the ball it was one of our worst games this year which raises a few questions obviously they've not played too many games this year I think he means last season as well.

16:09I mean, the other game they played this year was beating Man City. But I think the point was more like they weren't able to, they're self-critical to the point where they were saying, we weren't really able to do what we usually do with the ball here, but they still stayed rugged and disciplined and held off. And it's an absolutely unbelievable achievement. And you can't really lay any of the usual caveats of the playing surface or the temperature or the fact that it's really far north or all the other things people complain about. you know they've done it away from home as well absolutely unbelievable yeah it's it's so good isn't it and so you would say the greatest because we're having this discussion last week about the city game but this trumps that for those reasons i think it does so the only the other touchstone is when rosenberg beat uh milan away from home in 96 i'd like to say could have been 97 97 yeah oh you've looked it up that's so annoying i just know these i know these things last come on Yeah, the Hegem goal, because that was a good Milan team on paper, but I think they were going through some kind of crisis at the time.

17:11I think a vote for that is more of a nostalgia vote. I think beating City and then Atletico Madrid away, being only the second team since 2024 to beat them away from home to qualify, is absolutely the next level. And I think what we also need to point, bear in mind, I think it is harder for smaller clubs now than it was 20 years ago. I just think it is 30 years ago because the financial discrepancies have gotten so large now to build and to keep a team together when you're from a smaller league now is harder than it was 30 years ago the concentration of elite level talent in these sort of handful of elite clubs is even more extreme than it was 30 years ago so I do think this is on a different level and I just love the fact that it's done without massive financial backing because it really should be an example if you are from a smaller country, if you're supporting a smaller club.

18:06I keep saying this, but 10 years ago, they were in the second tier in Norway. It is possible. Your team can be quite bad. And within this decade, it is theoretically possible for them to achieve these sorts of things, even without some kind of shady kleptocrat putting billions into it. It is still just about possible. I agree with Lars. I think they're single-handedly saving European football at this point, I think, generally, given the gross accumulation of resources that we see basically in almost every position above them in this Champions League ranking and in many of them below, to do what they have done and to show that sale management, steady growth, building, not splashing millions around, consistency, a style of play that is bought into.

18:55I just think it's the most incredible thing going on in European football at the moment by a distance and I think people should know it it's remarkable and I mean they've got who is it in the playoffs I think they could play Real or Inter Inter, yeah and you just like after this you couldn't not give them a chance I remember their draw with Dortmund a few months ago when it looked like that was just a nice souvenir to take back and as Lars has just outlined they've turned it around incredibly and I think it's the most important story going on in European football right now I also think it's not one that should blind people to the wider structural issues that are still cutting out half of the continent from the elite level but that's that's a broader debate I guess.

19:43Yes there's like a second thread to that which is I suppose the fact that Premier League clubs are very very rich and Premier League clubs are very dominant in this table which I'm sure we'll get to but the question I wanted to come to to throw to throw at Lars actually is like what's the what's the secret sauce I guess because it's not just Bodo obviously Norway surely is herring surely it's herring isn't it but we always we always do this in football don't we you know you get countries brands of football tend to have their moments of up and down and it feels like right now Norway is as up as I can ever remember it being again like the the World Cup qualifying it wasn't just that they um finished ahead of they beat everyone and they battered everyone is there something is there something that that maybe people aren't seeing or is it one of those cyclical things or well we've actually been worried a little bit about the month of january because harley holland wasn't scoring you know uh sheldrup wasn't getting in the team you know what's going on with oscar bob like there's a few little question marks going into the going into the looking ahead to the world cup but you know Yesterday was a good day for Norway.

20:47We had Scheldrup scoring two goals for Benfica. I mean, Jose Mourinho said to Archie after the game, I can't believe Archie didn't bring this up, but Mourinho said about the goal that the most important thing is that the delivery is good, which I think is harsh on Truman, to be fair. But Jose said the most important thing is that the delivery is good. Now, of course, that was Frederik Aosnes, the Norwegian, who sadly doesn't play for the national team right now. But, you know, I just think it's with smaller countries. I mean, it's such a boring answer, But I think with smaller countries, you have generations, you know, you have stronger and weaker generations.

21:19And I'm very, very lucky that right now we have an unbelievable generation going. In terms of the secret sauce of Bordoglämt, I think that's an interesting question. Because even as they've gotten, even as they've had these European adventures, you know, beating Roma, getting to the Europa League semifinal, they now have quite a bit of money by Scandinavian context, just because they brought in. I mean, they're not spending a lot of it, but they brought in a lot of cash. And so far, they've mostly spent it on handing out decent contracts to returning players, these guys who went abroad and decided they'd be interested in coming back, handing out a good contract by Scandinavian standards to their coach.

21:56I keep waiting for them to try to turn into the Scandinavian, the Norwegian FSA Copenhagen, because FSA Copenhagen kind of hoover up the most talented teenagers from the region and are not shy in terms of spending money. and Bordeaux-Limt are mostly just kind of keeping it local, keeping it, you know, they're not spending any of this money really compared to what they could do and they're keeping faith with the guys they have. And it's an interesting case of how I think the community that you can create, the connections between players, the strength of the system actually can enable you to punch up a little bit compared to the sort of absolute individual talent that you come up against if you're able to keep a group together.

22:39I think that's the sort of really interesting case study from a footballing sense that's happening up there. A stunning generation of Norwegian footballers and a stunning generation of Norwegian football pundits, Lars. We are lucky to be alive in this time. That'll do for part one. Part two will rattle through the Premier League sides and the rest of the million or so games that were on last night.

23:06Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. so let's do PSG Newcastle first that draw not really good for either of them and Nicky Harvey Barnes has such a massive chance doesn't he three minutes to go to get what would have been a brilliant win for Newcastle hard to sort of get a handle on whether it would have felt like a deserved win or not because on the one hand I mean PSG did create more chance through the game obviously it was a great penalty save from Pope at the beginning which felt like justice because that penalty was just oh my god such a horrible I mean I don't know that is sorry that is abolished iFab levels for me like Barclay Barclay I mean it he punches the ball into I wouldn't give a handball against Barclay either but he punches the ball into Lewis Miley's hand surely you can't go that isn't a handball and that is a handball it's utterly it is obscene and like in a way actually you have to give credit to the pgmol sorry it's your answer Nikki but um uh because at least a handball or in the premier league is terrible but not that bad but like no referee could go this is what the fans want nobody can want this like i don't i know i'm yelling at people who either and it's not achieving anything but i don't think if i've listened to anybody they're impossible to reach than this unaccountable body i just can't stand it but anyway do carry on i've just got this image now of ifab ai chatbot that you're trying to get through to the department on and max is furiously typing they just cannot get through to the right Looks like you're trying to ask a question.

24:30Yeah. Do these answers help? Fuck off. Yeah. I mean, there's no point analysing that penalty. Anyone who's seen it understands what we're talking about. And you just said, yeah, from one arm to another. How is one arm OK and one arm not? It seems ridiculous. But PSG were better for a long stretch. And if anything, the Newcastle equalised for halftime felt like, oh, well, that's a bit of a surprise. But in the second half, as you said, once the two substitutions come in, once Barnes and Gordon come onto the pitch, The game really shifted the directness that gave Newcastle. It really felt like they ended in the ascendancy and could have taken all three points.

25:06So it was definitely an impressive performance away from home. Slightly hard to know exactly what to make of it from the point of view that this is PSG and they are the defending champions and we expect better of them because, of course, everyone can just point at the fact that they didn't get in the top eight last season either and they went on to absolutely clobber everyone in the knockout round. so who knows but certainly I mean even however they feel about oh maybe we could have won that at the end I think you can't really say oh going away to PSG and getting a point is some bad result is it still a good result Yeah and Nick like getting into the top eight it's not so much getting through to the next round it's just not having to play two more football matches which sort of feels counterintuitive about you know you win games to play more games but in this case it's just two games that certainly Newcastle with their injuries do not need Yes, the aim is to deprive yourself of football, which seems slightly strange, but maybe sensible given the proliferation of it these days.

26:04And I think, yeah, Newcastle, as we know, have been pretty stretched for some time, would probably have liked to avoid the playoff. but I think they're probably quite pleased to be in there and to be putting up dog-eared performances like last night ultimately was. And also, we don't need another English team in that top eight, do we? We've got so many of them already. Newcastle's draws look very favourable as well, just to add to that. Like the two games, the two opponents they could have. Yeah, Monaco, Carabaug, I would solidly expect them to beat. Yeah, I think so. No, but you're right about how many English teams you could possibly get.

26:42you know the coefficient will keep changing eventually there'll be 10 English teams in the top eight and we'll say that is that is clearly too many isn't it I think like I don't know if I'm interjecting too early on this point but I just think it's a massive concern honestly like I I know there'll be champagne corks popping in neon where UEFA were based at the level of drama that we saw last night and all massively enjoyed but five English teams in the top eight six in the top, what is it, 12. Something's not right there. It shows, and we probably need to see this, to be fair, over a longer period of time.

27:22To see it borne out. We can't jump to conclusions, but it does seem this year to bear out the idea that the Premier League clubs can stock up such deep, deep squads with such incredible resource compared to everyone else, roll out whatever rotated team they need to go with and still do absolutely fine now that can bring different consequences later on in the knockout stage as we've seen before because of the amount of games some european teams are maybe a bit fresher etc etc but at the moment it's it's a bit of a pulverization in my book and um you know it's it's it's been very entertaining lower down the table but is is that because the other european teams are constantinoing and the premier league is streaking away i don't i don't know but it's it is not a pleasant look and it isn't lost in non-premier league boardrooms across europe when when you know future formats are looked at etc i think sure and i think last the flip answer would the only sort of flip side to that is as nichols alluded to is it doesn't mean an english side will win it you know because there are some other teams that are you know big and good and have lots of money who will be pushing in the latter stages well yeah of course because that's the joy of knockout tournaments but i would expect i mean another ranking that was came out recently where the english were dominating was the annual sort of deloitte uh financial report right so the the the deloitte money like thing came out recently and six out of the top 10 clubs in the world by revenue are english right so the six out of the top 10 so it doesn't shock me that we're then seeing the the six English teams amongst the top 12 in this tournament uh the only difference really is yeah you have on the money side United are in the top 10 but they're not in the Champions League substitute Newcastle United who have a little bit of money behind them I think it's fair to say so it's it's not hugely shocking to see that that's how it how it ends up this format has I think it is a weakness.

29:30The format has delivered fun. You can't deny that. But it's an even safer runway. You have to mess up a lot to not qualify at all. So I think it's for the big, rich teams. It's a very, very comfortable format, even if there are some extra games in there for their schedules, which I guess was the point of the format. That's why it was introduced. It was supposed to have even more content, even less of a chance to lose big teams in the group stages, and enough scraps for the rest of us to enjoy, I guess, is the idea. And reluctantly, it seems to be delivering on all fronts. What a night for the Swiss.

30:08There's a weird part of this, which I think maybe hasn't been talked about much, which is an extra advantage that the English clubs have in this league phase is they can't play the other English clubs. So they can't run into these other rich clubs. whereas so for instance like talking about it was it's pretty narrow in the top eight spots right it's pretty narrow like we're talking about all these English clubs getting in I mean there's a point difference between quite a few of them not being in there and look at the fact that um say a team like Inter and picking them just because they're the Champions League finalists last season and currently top of Serie A well they had three losses one of which was against Liverpool one of which was against Arsenal and you know those are games you can lose the other one was away to atletico madrid which clearly uh bodo didn't lose there but a lot of teams do most teams lose yeah meanwhile i'm and i'm gonna get absolutely roasted for this now because um uh because everyone knows i'm an arsenal fan but it's just easy to pull out the example of tottenham tottenham played two teams that finished in the top half of this group they played uh vrl who were 35th they played eintracht frankfurt who were 33rd copenhagen were 31st slavia prague were 34th Monaco who are 21st and then Bodo of course 23rd, Dortmund 17th there are very different schedules going on here and one advantage that you've got there is you're not going to play the other English clubs who are likely to finish the top half I suppose the way Tottenham are tearing it up in the Premier League would mean that they probably would have beaten lots of top teams anyway Can I ask you about Napoli losing to Chelsea?

31:40We'll do both sides there They turned it around, they're 2-1 up Did you have hope at that moment? I have a distinct fatalism whenever I watched any Antonio Conte team in Europe. I feel like no matter what the journey is to get there, we know where the destination is, which is going to be a disappointment. I will say Napoli, look, Napoli have been dealing with, as much as Conte is a professional elite level, I would say, when it comes to injuries and stuff, he is dealing with quite an injury crisis at the moment. when you think about all the players who he hasn't had available from obviously someone like De Bruyne you kind of go well you signed De Bruyne you know he's going to miss some time but he was part of the project this season but then also players like Anguissa even someone like Billy Gilmore who hasn't been there Lukaku did come back in this game but hasn't been there for most of the season you can go on the list is really long Rachmaninoff in defence like it's been a really really long injury list for them you see that in fact in the fact that their first goal in this game is scored by Antonio Vergara, which is a great story, by the way.

32:43Great goal. Fantastic goal, homegrown player who is so unknown that at the weekend, when he was playing against Juventus, they have this great ref cam in Italy this season where like the referees are all, have got cameras on them. So you're seeing their interactions with players, which is often hilarious. But the weekend, the referee in the game against Juventus was trying to talk to Vergara in English because he didn't know he was. And so he just assumed he was a foreign player. and they're going to speak to me in Italian like I don't know what you're saying so they are stretched Napoli and I thought the first half coming back from a goal down was some of the most impressive football they've played in a while honestly they're on not a good run right now they've won I think one of the last seven games in all competitions to some extent it's the same conversation we've been having Premier League quality and depth just showed I mean Jean-Pedro scored an absolutely screaming goal to make it 2-2.

33:36Brilliant goal. And then obviously Cole Palmer's come off the bench who coming back to fitness is going to make a big difference for them and sets them up for another one. Chelsea were great in the second half and they deserve to win and they're the better team. But this isn't where Napoli failed to qualify. Napoli failed to qualify because in the last round they were a goal up and a man up against Copenhagen after 40 minutes. And they should have put that game to bed about 50 times and wound up drawing it and that's why they're not going through. Yeah, just on Conte, eight Champions League campaigns four group stage exits two knockout wins 2012-2013 home and away to Celtic that's it and a big result for Liam Rossini now has five wins in his opening six off the pitch a Chelsea supporter was stabbed and taken to hospital on Tuesday night in Naples Chelsea said the club's aware of an incident that took place on Tuesday evening two fans have been treated in hospital having sustained non-life-threatening injuries we wish them well of course Spurs won 2-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt Lars yeah Frank in Frank in I mean, it was kind of meaningless to try to make any detailed analysis of any of the 18 games as they were going on.

34:42But by all accounts, looking at numbers and reports from people who were there, Spurs were quite good. Seems to be they were quite good against the Frankfurt team who aren't doing very well at the moment. But this seems to be like they're not terrible, Frankfurt and Tottenham by all accounts were good. So that's not a sentence we've been able to say out loud a lot recently. So good for them. Yeah, moved to a 3-4-3. Odeber and Simmons played pretty well. Two centre-forward scored goals. Obviously, the 2-2 against Burnley was not good at the weekend. But I saw the first half of that. And I don't hate the back three for Tottenham.

35:18I do think that possibly solves some of their issues and open up some opportunities. So, interesting one. Maybe this is the way for Frank. Especially given how incredibly difficult their fixture list is going forward. that that is the thing i was thinking when i saw how they lined up against burnley they've got city manchester united newcastle and arsenal and they're nice four so just sticking three center halves in there and trying to get through that run alive uh is probably a not a bad strategy for thomas frank yeah man city like had to win to be sure and nick they made sort of pretty easy work of galatasaray didn't they yeah that was pretty quick out quick out of the blocks dealing with what looked on paper a very sticky assignment.

36:02I've got to say, quickly, lots of hand-wringing before, especially I'm sure in Norway about Erling Haaland's relative lack of goals. But the way he took that one was absolutely sensational. Just the way he took that through ball in his stride and just sort of scooped it as it bubbled up a bit. That was not the sign of a man who was lacking confidence nice second goal I think it was Cherokee wasn't it with a sort of cut low drive that was really nice and I didn't get the impression they were threatened too much after that so you know they've only squeaked through in eighth largely because of that defeat in Buda but I think they'll be perfectly happy with what's gone on in this group stage and you you feel always there's a bit more to come from them Liverpool beat Carabao 6-0 flying in Virts and got his first Champions League goal for Liverpool.

36:58Nice finish. Mo Salah scored a lovely Mo Salah-y goal. So that should give him some confidence. Eka TK got a good centre-forward goal. McAllister got two. And Chiesa scored in the last minute, Nicky. I mean, as someone who's always loved Chiesa, how do you feel about him being a sort of scores occasionally lay on for Liverpool player? Was that that I'm someone who's always loved him? Because I think you've always loved Chiesa. Well, I've always loved Chiesa, but I sort of got that from you. I think I got it from you. Yeah, I'd like to have a soft spot for him. I mean, I'd love to see him doing this more regularly and then maybe could contribute to Italy and then desperate hopes of actually qualifying for a World Cup for once.