Liverpool are BACK and Bayern Munich are inevitable: Big Match Breakdown 11/05/25

30:10It's the only thing that counts. How you win doesn't matter. So what are you complaining about? And yeah, to see the atmosphere at some of these Tottenham home games, pretty remarkable, Pretty toxic, you know, compared with their league form last year. And, you know, I mean, for Thomas, you know, first, people are talking about this being a big step from Brentford to Tottenham. It's certainly a bigger stadium, but I'm not sure it's like going from Brentford to Barcelona or Brentford to Real Madrid. you know it's it's a little step up really and so yeah I don't know what entitles them to think that their team should be winning and playing the best football ever seen by anyone anywhere in the universe.

31:03He's a beautiful man Thomas Frank, emotionally so bloody intelligent, I wish him, I wish Spurs fans joy or what approach is joy, I'd say it's an Everton man, boom my team, it's a lovely release but you've tried that. Also last night, writing El Rata, a beautiful release. Paris Saint-Germain won Bayern Munich 2. A rare PSG home loss. I think this is their third in 42 Champions League home games by Munich. Made incredible 16 wins in 16 games this season. Is that good? A victory, which is really, I think, an early marker, a warning sign. God bless Luis Diaz. Everything in Liverpool coming up roses right now.

31:45scored two first-half goals, earned a red card for an ill-judged, borderline, deeply violent tackle on Hakimi, which left him in tears. It was the Gordie Howe hat-trick. James, you started to talk about Vincent Kompany. I'd love you to tell me how you understand him. He just signed a contract extension at Bayern until 2029. He was a punchline at Burnley, thriving in Germany, where he's assembled really a superbly deep squad, pioneered load management, however you say that in German, has turned Bayern into really a hurricane tip clenched fist. How do you understand him? And what does his rise say about how we understand or misunderstand what is a good manager and what's a bad manager when we see one?

32:34Well, I think with company, remember when Burnley got relegated playing a style that he wouldn't move from. People thought, how is this guy going from relegating a team from the Premier League to working with the biggest and best team in the Bundesliga, in Bayern? He's lucked out here. And certainly, I think the context of that appointment, they tried Bayern to hire Ralf Ranić and been in talks with him for a fortnight before they appointed company. And then Ranić decided, nah, not for me. So there was always this feeling, okay, should company get the job? And anyway, he wasn't first choice. And if he wins the Bundesliga with Bayern, well, that's par for the course.

33:17I remember in their sort of knockouts last year, Celtic almost put them out. And so, again, there was this feeling that they were flaky. I think, you know, as with Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Ruben Amorim, you know, Sir Jim sort of said, whatever you think of Ruben, he's my boy for three years. and we'll judge him at the end of that. I think if you give managers time to work, you do see results. And certainly with Bayern, he's got maybe a little bit more leeway to work on ideas than he would do at another club like Burnley where you're putting out fires all the time, you're trying to stay up. You can maybe play at 70 % experimenting at Bayern and win things and be better in the long run for those experiments.

34:09and certainly 16 wins from 16 games suggest that they've sorted that out. I mean, the first half in Paris, they were incredible. God bless. In other games Tuesday, shout out to Ricciardo Pepe, Texas's finest. Kemal has substituted in Athens. It's got his stoppage time for PSV Eindhoven to earn a draw with Maranakis Olympiacos. A rebound from a free kick, three minutes into stoppage time. This is incredible. It's his third result-changing goal in second-half stoppage time in the Champions League, tying none less than Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Aguero for the most in the history of the competition.

34:46That's heady company for our boy. Also, US number one, number nine, Flo Balogun scored his first-ever Champions League goal, delivering the only score in a 1-0 win at Bodo Glimt. America, two today, quickly, let's start in Manchester. City four, Dortmund one, the Erling Haaland Memorial Derby. third place Bundesliga Dortmund to second place Premier League City. City hadn't lost a group stage game at home in eight years. Dortmund had never won there. So it was no surprise though. Dortmund began confidently. All it took was Phil Foden lashing one in from range. Really a palm stinger, a range finder because a couple of minutes later picked up the ball on the edge of the area.

35:26Acres of space just caressed it at home with lethal precision and the touch of a tender lover. It was really beautiful to watch. One-way traffic ensued Erling Haaland, that raw milk and gold addict, facing his former family with his new one, but like Anakin Skywalker marching on the Jedi Temple, just like that. O 'Reilly, smothered shot from close range, but within a minute, it was Savino who rolled one across. Doku recycled and Haaland peeled off to absolutely obliterate the bullet. I said to him, how do you try and finish? He said, I'd try on Brig Danette. That's what I thought of when he did this.

36:06Was this patricide, James? I mean, your accent then just brought back memories of Dolph Lundgren playing Ivan Drago. That's what I think of when I watch him. I will break you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like Dolph Lundgren, but for reals. I mean, his video that came out with the raw milk that you mentioned, the tomahawk steaks and the red light. it was almost a rocky montage I would love if someone just cut that all together, put some sort of 80s kind of synth and guitar music to it it would be that's what we want we want to see him pounding the meat carcasses in the deep freeze 32nd Champions League goal in 34 Champions League games scoring in 5 Champions League games straight for 3 separate teams and now this, Holland has scored What is it?

37:0027 goals in 16 games this season. These numbers, James, they feel almost made up. We can't even conceive. Yeah. And also, I think in that video, you see how hard he works. All like kind of little things, really, but little things that add up to a lot and add up to that rate of goal scoring that you've just said. I mean, I think it would be very difficult if he carries on like this. He has to be in the Ballon d 'Or conversation. I think people will obviously have their focus distracted by what happens at the World Cup in the summer. And Norway will be there. Norway have been absolutely hammering everyone, including Italy, in their qualification group.

37:46And so if he has an incredible season goal-scoring-wise with City and then shows up at the World Cup, and they're quite capable of pulling off some big upsets, then I think he may well thrust himself into that Ballon d 'Or conversation. Him and Ili and Dai are going to go mano-a-mano. Has early Harlem made you think about whether you should start guzzling the raw milk and eating the fatty steaks? I mean, I think he's taken my routine. I mean, I've been doing that for years. The red light in the undies. We don't want to know. City 100 % record in the Champions League. This season continues. Newcastle, oh, in the middling proud club derby.

38:32Sore off Athletic Club. One of the stealth, most beautiful goals of this round from Big Dan Byrne, BDB. Arced a stunning header from way downtown. Proof that a header can be as startling as a long-range banger, James. Did you see this? It was like watching a head banger from 1980 Judas Priest concert level of awe. Or a big Dan Byrne's neck strength. Yeah. This was also a ball that was just begging to be sort of headed. And it had that lovely time lapse to it where, you know, you sort of see the camera over the shoulder of Dan Byrne and then he connects with it. And it felt like it took like four or five seconds to sort of angle its way into the net.

39:14Just very satisfying aesthetically. You know, sort of a great shot, great screenplay. Great cinematography. Oscar. Boom. It did. It looked like CGI. It was that beautiful. Talking about things, it's hard to believe. Bruges drew against defensively a wash Barcelona 3-3. Some beautiful, beautiful goals in this one. It's like a goal dance-off between Lamin-Yemal and a stunning, stunning performance by young Forbes, 21-year-old Portuguese, playing for Bruges. One of his goals, I think it was the final one, a phenomenally impudent ship. Kidd was on loan at Wolves last season, but Boston's defensive way make them truly humanly vulnerable.

39:57Inter, your mighty Italians, played Kairat Almaty, Kazakh champions. Leturo Martinez finished some slot with aplomb 12th Champions League goal of the calendar year, which is, I think, the most in football. That's how we count them in calendar years. But second half, Ofri Arat made all of Kazakhstan scream cinque, only for Inter to storm back back to Carlos Augusto rangefinder. And a pitiful Ajax loss to three Victor Osman goals against Galatasaray. I want to ask you about this one. Atalanta won late at Marseille. First of all, Adam Olautman and his coach, Ivan Uric, almost came to blues on the sideline.

40:39Yeah. I mean, I thought it was surprising that Adam Olautman came off when he did. It was about 15 minutes to go. It was still nil-nil. He just had a goal disallowed. and it looked like a negative substitution because guess who brought on? Younes Moussa. God bless. Yes. Yeah. Well, he's on the naughty step at the moment. Go on. Not like for like in terms of Luckman and Moussa. And so, yeah, there was a little bit of an altercation between Juric and Ademola. Ademola, who wanted to leave in the summer, was holding out to leave. The club stayed firm, said, no, we've already sold our top scorer. You're not going anywhere.

41:19So he missed a lot of pre-season. And I mean, he is their best player, but he's having to play himself into fitness at the moment. Oh, no. Yes. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm doing the raw milk, the tomahawk and the red light without any of the exercise. So, you know. By the way, Madder still last minute in Marseille. Marseille had a penalty shout, not given, ball bounced up. I think it was Edison on the hand. Look nailed on penalty. Atalanta just rolled up the field. Leza Samardzic just unleashed from Steph Curry range. Chaos. Was it a penalty? Would the beauty of the goal be Vardov? And it stood. It almost felt like the ref only didn't give it because it was such a stunning strike.

41:59Finally, Carabag 2. Chelsea, what? 2? 2 Azerbaijan. Where a six-hour flight and like thousands of miles, 2 ,500, 3 ,000 miles from Chelsea to face Carabag. Only a 12-time Azerbaijan Premier League winner in the Tophik Baramov Republican Stadium on Wednesday evening. Fourth game of the league phase, Chelsea. Surprise slayers of Benfica and Copenhagen. Korobag were bloody good in this one. Chelsea took the lead. Esteval became the first South American player to score in consecutive Champions League appearances, aged 18 or younger, cut inside onto his left foot like a young iron robin. but then Carabag rolled back stunningly first Liango Andrade the pride of Cape Verde finished some really dreadful Chelsea defensive slop and then a penalty from Jankovic on 39 minutes Carabag went into half time 2-1 up they were so composed full of humiliation on the horizon for Enzo Mureska's team he unleashed I think four new attacking players changed the starting five almost entirely Garnaccio and Dalat made instant impact God bless Garnaccio delivered off the bench.

43:13But Carabao were excellent. Remain in the hunt for the knockouts. Chelsea got work to do. Who do they play? Barcelona next. They'll have to go to Atalanta and Napoli. What is it for Chelsea in Europe? Is it the inexperience? This starting line-up, average age, 23 years, 97 days, second youngest side from England in a Champions League away game. Is it just the greenness of youth? Yeah, I think so. Getting there at one o 'clock, being in the land of fire, feeling like you're sort of playing in a Tolkien kind of trilogy. You know, it's tough. I mean, I was very surprised by the mentality shown by the players on the pitch.

43:53There was, when they were 2-1 down, Esteval was on the attack, lost the ball and went down. And the Chelsea players just stopped playing, expecting a free kick to be given. And no, the ref was like, play on, it's contact sport. and sort of Rhys James then you know sort of ran as fast as I've ever seen him run to sort of confront the Carabao player who was carrying the ball forward tackled him got booked for it and then had a go at him for basically not respecting Chelsea the world champions Trump's team you know when one of their players when one of their players was down injured come on boys in the chat Redheaded Redemption says Carabao are now co-World Cup club champions That's how it works.

44:38By the way, the stadium named after Tofik Barumov. You know who he is, right? Yeah, the Russian linesman who's not Russian. Yes, he's not Russian. England won the World Cup in 1966. For those who don't know, the schoolboy hero of every English kid growing up was a striker, Jeff Hurst, completed, then the only hat-trick in finals history. Second goal remains deeply controversial. Took a shot, cannoned off the underside of the bar, either bounced on the line if you're German or over it if you're English. The only opinion that mattered was of the linesman, Tophik Baramov, who awarded the goal. And there's an apocryphal story that when Baramov was on his deathbed, do you know this one?

45:18He was asked how he was so sure that it was a goal. This is obviously in the pre-Bakvar era, James. On his deathbed, how was it a goal? And he gave the one word reply, Stalingrad. I thought you were going to do the Virgil van Dijk. No. No. No, no. Stalingrad, the bloody World War II battle in which nearly 750 ,000, was it? Soviets died. I love football. By the way, how is there not a stadium in England named after Tophik Baramov? That's where they should build one. I don't know. One other lovely note, we are living and breathing in the golden days of Cypriot football. 23rd of October, Larnaca beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in the Conference League.

45:58I watched that game. Their fans are immense today. Paphos beat Villarreal 1-0, first ever win in the Champions League. Proper, proper Yasu to all you fans. James, we are officially halfway through the whole Big Gulp League phase, completion of the table, not completely surprising. A lot of English teams up and amidst the top there. Very quickly, we're going to take some questions very, very quickly, but what's been your greatest joy, your greatest surprise? What's thrilled you the most in this opening, the opening nine holes of the Big Gulp Champions League group stage? I mean, it's watching Lamin, really.

46:35I mean, even tonight, go check out his kind of slaloming goal in Bruges. With Pedrick, the flick. Yeah, I mean, both on the same wavelength, sort of completely ESP, just like we're there. Because it's perfect. It's really efficient and yet beautiful to watch. Lamin two-footed sort of going around four players really and then with the outside of the foot finish I just love how chaotic Barca are they have arguably the most talented player of the next 15 years and yet this team can't defend and will not win the Champions League it's like I feel quite bad for Lamin in that case, I was at the incredible semi-final between them and Inter where he was unbelievable and yet they still found a way to lose that game and it feels like they will do the same.

47:31It's so incredible watching him, all of that pressure, all of the haters wanting to fail, all of that and he just does things as sublime as what he did tonight, so effortlessly and joyously. But if you ask him who his inspiration is, he'll say young Max Downman and I just love all of this.

47:52We're going to take a very couple of quick calls to have love listening to you tonight, James. You are, you are the continent, all is joyful in the continent of Europe in human form. But let's bring up the great Double D from Birmingham, Alabama. I've just told you what I'm going to ask you to tell me. I've balled it up, Dobbs Durkin. Tell us where you are and what's your question for the great James Horne Castle? I'm from Birmingham, yeah, the home of the great Chris Richards. What do you think we can expect from the YouTuber Erling Haaland and the revived Phil Foden versus a seemingly informed Liverpool this weekend?

48:28And also, what happens to the earth when Arsenal concede a shot on target against Sunderland? Or if they do? Wow, these are deep philosophical questions. Just mute your incoming would be amazing, Double D. By the way, you've just nailed the other third, Ballon d 'Or. We've got Haaland, we've got Lamine, We've got possibly Luminiumal. We've got my man Elian Dye in there. And of course, Chris Richards. Those will be the top four. Obviously, vote getters in the Ballon d 'Or, James. What are you feeling about Manchester City and Liverpool? How do you even begin to think about those two sets of strengths and vulnerabilities colliding, James?

49:09And then we'll do the Arsenal one. I love that they're both still vulnerable, that they're not these perfect teams that they were in the past, getting into the high 90s and even in 100 points. And it makes it really kind of difficult to call what's going to happen in that game. You know, it would be very interesting to see, you know, Liverpool with this momentum now, you know, what clips are they going to find from Erling Haaland that they're going to use? What are they going to workshop and storyboard in the next few days at Melwood for those post-match interviews that they're going to do when they've beaten Man City.

49:49You know, that's the... That's what I'm curious about. Be afraid, Wayne Rooney. Be very afraid. Yeah. But I think of all the players on both those teams, the one that is most in form at the moment is Haaland. And the connection between him and Foden is as good as it's ever been. I think I was there at the Etihad for Man City-Napoli and again, just what those two can do in sort of tight spaces. There's no ball that is too far for Erling Haaland to stretch and get to. There's no tighter space that Phil Foden can't get out when he's in the form that he's in at the moment. That second goal, James, that second goal tonight for Phil Foden when he, it was a slither of space, which he made, I'd say, an air pocket of space with his first move.

50:39But there were defenders surrounding him. There was a push in the back trying to fling him off balance. It didn't deter him at all. And the way he thought, there is a defender shielding me from the goalkeeper. I don't actually need to blast this like 99.97 of other players. I can just caress this. I can roll. It was the longest distance slow roller, but exquisite, lethal, precise, and quite wonderful. To see full food and bat would be, for me, one of the great redemption stories of this season. I do want to ask you about another player in this game. I mean, I think both of these teams, Double D, all are more beautiful for being human and vulnerable.

51:17That's what's so fascinating about this clash, I think, at the weekend. I can't wait for it. I think both teams' fan bases are in for an absolute classic. But Donnarumma, City, we've laughed that they're almost just a team of two big men, one up top, one at the back. How are Italian fans experiencing his move to Manchester City? Italian fans have their own set of prejudices about England. I remember when Ravinelli moved to Middlesbrough early in the early Premier League, when the Premier League was a backwater and he was one of the great players. He moved over. I remember reading an article in one of the Italian papers that just was essentially like, oh, it's so sad for Ravinelli that this is what his career has come to, that he has to play in England.

52:03Obviously, the tectonic plates have shifted since then in terms of the world power. But that move, the unexpected nature of the move, the rolling up at Pep Guardiola City, the different style of play to what the strengths overtly are. How is he being received by the Italian media and understood? Yeah, so I think two very different Premier Leagues to the one that Ravinelli went to and the one that Gio Donnarumma is. Also, two different cities, Manchester and Middlesbrough, where, you know, Middlesbrough has the crime to Italian food that is the parmo. I just had one. I just had my first one last week.

52:38Can you just explain what a parmo is? It's so amazing. It's probably one of the most English dishes of all time. Parmo. Do you want a parmo? Parmo. It's, well, it's, do you have the chicken parmo? I did. It was in a bun. It's in a bun. It's like a, it's a, I guess for Americans, it's like chicken parm, but they stick it in a burger bun. It was actually created by an American who was over there, like a former World War II veteran who happened to wash up in Middlesbrough and invented the parmine. Yeah. Apparently this is how a lot of Italian cuisine, which Italians are very defensive about, actually happened.

53:15You're like carbonara and that sort of thing was, you know, American GIs bringing the kind of ingredients that then became, oh yes, of course, this Roman dish is carbonara. In Spain in 100 years, they'll all be walking around just saying, Adios El Ratso. It's just sometimes it's the foreign import-export. It's how it works, the cycle of life. But go on, how has he been seen? With Gijo, I mean, all of the best Italian players have been encouraged to come to the Premier League. And yeah, Pete Bick's gone under the radar a little bit, but there are some very, very good Italian players playing in the Premier League.

53:51But Gijo, chosen to be the goalkeeper for Pep Guardiola in the West, the man with the highest standards of what a goalkeeper needs to do for a team that is coached by Pep Guardiola Tonali at Newcastle Cayo De Brentford, the right back with his long throws he's been the talk of the Premier League this season sort of a teenager who scored the only goal when Italy won the under 17 euros so there is this feeling that for Italian football to progress their best players need to play in the quote unquote best league in the world which is the Premier League So, you know, even Federico Chiesa, when he came on and scored that goal against Bournemouth on the opening night of the season.

54:31Giovanni Leone, the teenage centre-back that Liverpool signed for, I think, 30 million. Oh, God bless. Yeah. Califiori. Yeah, Califiori. And that's a bit of a problem for the Italian clubs because they've never really had to face this before, Rog. a league that has been able to take their best players away because best Italian players because the likes of Juventus and Inter would always basically get to those players early and then they would never leave. I think one of the reasons Juventus find themselves in a bit of an identity crisis at the moment is they can't compete for these really good Italian players who would be the core of the next great Juventus team because they're all playing in the Premier League.

55:10God bless. Your other question, I've just looked this one up, Dob Sturk and I've just Googled it. about the shot, how the world will be changed if there is a shot on target against Arsenal in the Sunderland game. I googled when a meteor hits Earth and it depends on the size composition of the shot. Minor events that burn up in the atmosphere can have catastrophic impacts. I'm crapping myself now. There can be shock waves, thermal radiation, tsunamis, long-term climate change. Oh, as long as it's just long-term climate change, I'm all right with that, James. I think we'll be okay. We're going to pull this one together.

55:43God, I'm scared about the thermal shockwaves to be candid when Xhaka hits that ball. Josh Youngerman, are you there, bubs? If you are, remind us where you're from. Come on up and close this shit show with the great James Horncastle. Hey, Rog, I'm in Brooklyn. Yes, Arsenal's Josh Youngerman. You don't sound a bully in all that winning. I play for Arsenal. There you go. I did play on the FIFA game and I played at left back and I ended up being a stud on the England national team. How old were you when you broke into the Arsenal team? 23. I was a 23-year-old sort of journeyman. Finished. Old man.

56:21Old man. I ended up scoring 10 goals. Max Downward would have no respect for you. Too old. Josh, you're a beautiful man. What's your question for the great James Hulman? Yeah, so let's say the inevitable happens, which Arsenal go on and win the double. do you think that I'm looking at Ballon d 'Or candidates for Arsenal do you think that Declan Rice has a shot at possibly winning a Ballon d 'Or considering the amount of goal contributions he's going to have and also he'll be playing for the England national team in the summer which will be probably the thing that stops him from winning the Ballon d 'Or no I mean I think Arsenal's problem for candidates for the Ballon d 'Or is that there are so many good contributors to what Arsenal are doing at the moment.

57:13They'll split the vote and someone else will stand out. And I think it's always difficult for, even though we've seen a player like Rodri or Luka Modric win the Ballon d 'Or recently, usually this will skew towards attacking players. It will skew towards the guys who score the most goals in the Champions League and the World Cup, which is why, again, I think, yeah, I mean, people don't talk about it really. Mbappe hasn't really been in the Ballon d 'Or conversation for a few years. He's sort of tracking the Haaland numbers. But I think Mbappe with France has a better chance of doing something in the World Cup than Erling does with Norway.

58:00And, you know, even Dek with England, although I'm quite bullish about England's chances going to this World Cup. So I think you'd get very long odds on Declan Rice winning the Ballon d 'Or. And that's purely because midfielders don't win it often. And we're all distracted by goals. God bless. That's why we're saying Forbes tonight. Forbes is my tip for the Ballon d 'Or. You heard it here first. Josh Younger, it is lovely to be here. I watched Declan Rice with such admiration, man. He is a hand grenade of a footballer in the greatest of ways. That is it for tonight. I think, James, you have made a night of football.

58:40There was not a barnstormer, if we're being candid. You've made it. I mean, there's been a breadth of conversation here. Much of it from you, deeply intelligent. Much of it from me, I would say, muddying the waters. But reminder, our interview with the magical Ruben Amirim drops tomorrow on this YouTube. Anton Semenyo, a really stunningly philosophical life art. Anton Semenyo, I enjoyed him greatly. He pops up on Friday. Get those calls into our big weekend preview show. We can ask us your footballing questions about the weekend ahead. 646 450 9472. 646 450 9472. Look, I've got my phone here. Thank you for being here with us this evening.

59:25It is such a joy to be with you, James. It really is, mate. It's always a pleasure. yeah I just you know I mean it feels like we were born to do this but we weren't doing it when we were both ages of five I know you should have heard James and me when we were 15 then we really had it right imagine imagine if we did it when we were 15 it would just be so unbelievably oh my god the things that filled my head let's just say they were not Max Downman things Godspeed to you Let's never take a minute of watching football together for granted. Big love. Courage.