Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich “Final Before the Final”, Mo Salah's farewell, and Arne Slot under pressure: European Nights 04/07/26

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network, Suboptimal Radio. Champions League quarterfinals, are Bayern Munich one of the two best teams in the world good or just stats padding good? I don't know if you say two best teams in the world, but they're really good. Mo Salah's in the midst of his last dance. Could a loss against PSG force Arna Slott to tango out after him?

0:21Roger Bennett:Arna Slott needs at least a good performance against PSG to stand any chance, I think. It is Porto's new coach, 36-year-old Roberto, deserving prodigy, Francesco Farrioli. Next big thing, manager, everyone will want. I think he probably is, yeah.

0:53It's Ronch, it's Rory, it's European night. Raw, Champions League. It's like the opposite of a mullet. Party in the front, business is back, and we're definitely in the business end of the season. Quick bit of trivia, Raw. What's the most played Champions League game of all time?

1:08Roger Bennett:I would say it's Manchester City against RB Leipzig, just they seem to play each other constantly, but I'm going to guess it's Real Madrid, Bayern Munich. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer, and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network. Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? It's a leading question, Your Honour. 28 meetings, 13 victories for Real Madrid. Bayern Munich have 11, four draws sprinkled in. Met in the semis eight times, most recently 2024. Latest coming today, 3pm Eastern.

1:4450 years and one week after they met for the very first time. And Bayern Munich, legend and current board member, Karl-Heinz Rümenigge. He doesn't like to be hyperbolic, a man after my own heart, but he may have had a few boots of beer before he asked about this game, which he called the most anticipated match of the year. Quote, it's the pinnacle, the game of all games, a final before the final. Is this the final we wish we could have, or is this just another retread of a matchup we've seen over and over and over?

2:15Roger Bennett:It's one of those games that feels like it could be a final, Real Madrid against Bayern Munich. And I think what's maybe lost, certainly from an English perspective, and maybe from a more international one, is that both of these clubs regard themselves as being at the pinnacle of European, of world football. Real Madrid regard themselves probably rightly as the biggest club in the world. Bayern Munich maybe wouldn't go that far, but they think of themselves as being part of this kind of untouchable elite. And the only team that each one kind of discusses with any real respect is the team they're playing.

2:49Roger Bennett:Real Madrid see Bayern Munich as an equal. Real Madrid don't see anybody as their equals. Bayern, who are a little bit more egalitarian about these things, Bayern would look at Real Madrid with all that respect for their glory, for their history, for what the Spaniards call senorio, that sense of importance and gentlemanliness. They think of it as a derby, Real and Bayern. I know that we don't, and in a geographical sense, it's not a derby. It's like the Brighton and Crystal Palace of European football. It's the Brighton Palace of European football. Well, that's the best way of putting it. In many ways, their transport connections are even closer.

3:27Roger Bennett:So the flight from Madrid to Munich might be shorter than driving down the M23. For both of these, it is kind of their Spider-Man meme. They're kind of standing there pointing at each other. They see themselves in their opponents. Spider-Man in Lederhosen pointing at Spider-Man. I mean, this game, this clash really, this clash of civilisations pits the actual best team in the world against a team. We've talked about this a lot. The keeps winning, churning out victory despite it all. We'll get to that Real Madrid narrative in one moment. But Bayern Munich currently tearing up the Bundesliga as Bayern Munich do, posting astonishing stats all along the way.

4:08Our old friend, Van Sonne Company, calmly says it's inevitable they'll beat the all-time record of a 101 league goal set back in 1972. Oh, Harry Kane, I'm so happy for him. Knighthood incoming, he'll topple Robert Lewandowski's record of 41 goals in a season, presuming he stays fit. Real Madrid defender and minister of silly walks. Antonio Rudiger called Bayern the most consistent and best team in Europe alongside Arsenal... They actually wiped the floor, if you remember, with Atalanta in the last round, scored 10 times. Kane currently battling an ankle injury right now, flanked by Premier League veterans Luis Diaz and Michael Alisse.

4:49A wonder, may just be the most informed player in Europe this season. It's a real fearsome juggernaut of a team, but it also may be stats farming in a weak league and be forced to pay the Bundesliga tax against Real Madrid. Ro, how do we get a bead on just how legit Bayern Munich is? Top two in the world good, or is it just kind of distorted mirror of Bundesliga good?

5:09Roger Bennett:It's impossible to tell, Roger. It's a problem we've got across a lot of Leeds in Europe now, because it's hard to gauge, to be honest, outside the Premier League, what level of opposition are these teams playing week in, week out. My senses, and certainly my kind of nostalgic, romantic side, would say that when you're playing Hamburg or Borussia Dortmund or Leipzig or whoever, you are playing teams who would be fine in the Premier League. They obviously wouldn't win it, but they'd be mid-table. They are probably as good as, say, Brentford or Everton or whoever it might be. Different style of play, but of that level.

5:44Roger Bennett:But it might be that that's overestimating them. And that the way we see Bayern in particular, but also PSG, sometimes Real Madrid, sometimes Barcelona, kind of just romp away with their leads. It does make it difficult to tell whether it's because they're amazing in leads that are quite strong or because they're good in leads that are quite weak. I guess all we can go on is partly just the sheer numbers of Bayern's dominance this season, which are ridiculous. They're averaging four goals a game at home. They're averaging three goals a game away. They've only lost once all season in the Bundesliga.

6:16Roger Bennett:they obviously lost to Arsenal in a sort of semi-meaningless group stage game in the Champions League as well they look completely imperious they've got a brilliant front three like you say Diaz, Elise, Harry Kane they've got a solid defence Jonathan Tarr who arrived from Bayou Labertus on a free in the summer has made a real difference and the best thing about it is they've got some young players in their team Elise is only 24 but Lennart Karl who's I think now 18 is the revelation of the season there's no question about that this sort of young Tyro who's come through I love that kid. I love how he's grown a moustache to try and undermine his kiddiness.

6:52Roger Bennett:Yeah, he's been a wonderful revelation of Bayern's season, probably of the European season. This kind of wonderfully inventive, dynamic, brave attacking midfielder who burst into the team at the age of 17 and looks like he has been there for ages. To the extent that now, if Elise or if Diaz aren't there or even if Kane's injured, you know that they have a player who pretty much everybody will really struggle to deal with. he's had that sort of impact. Max Downman with a five o 'clock shadow. For Real Madrid, one of their old rivals put it best, Gerard Pique, you remember him. World Cup winner was Spain, nine-time La Liga winner, Barcelona.

7:31Yes, Shakira's heck. He said, quote, you know what's up, man? Madrid has switched into this mode, the I don't even know what I'm playing for, but I'm winning mode. And it seems like every year, the narrative is this. Real Madrid, not the best team in the world, not a great vintage team, but when they meticulously and systematically upend every other opponent who's allegedly better than them to win the Champions League, seen it, done it. Most recently humbled Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate, a match-up that was not even as close as it sounds. In 2023-24, their imperious goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, injured for nearly three months.

8:11Would their invisibility cloak finally be removed? The unassuming Ukrainian backup, Andrei Lunin, just stepped in, played flawlessly, led Real Madrid to the final, saved two penalties in the shootout against Manchester City in the quarters, beat Bayern Munich in the semifinals. This year, Courtois again injured in the run-in again. City, then Bayern in the knockouts. Not many, even Barcelona greats are going to be betting against Real Madrid until they're out, until they're dead, until they're buried. They're vampires, aren't they, Roel?

8:41Roger Bennett:They don't feel any fear when it gets to this stage of the competition. this is where they feel they belong and I guess what Real Madrid are is a really powerful example that as much as a lot of the good work that companies have done at Bayern is about the system and the style of play that's what we want from our managers we want a vision of how the game is to be played ultimately if you have incredibly talented footballers then you win football matches Real aren't as coherent, as cohesive as PSG, as Arsenal, as Bayern who'd be the three other favourites for the Champions League but they have Vinicius they have Kylian Mbappe they should at some point have Jude Bellingham again they've got Federico Valverde they have all of this talent and that means you can never really bet against them Bayern Munich logically are better than Real Madrid that is how we should be thinking of this game but that doesn't really mean anything when it's Real Madrid and it's a Champions League knockout tie My favourite tidbit in the lead up to this game actually comes from a pair of young vibrant midfielders on the French national team during the last international break Eduardo Camavinga and Michael Olize the former a Real Madrid star the other the burning buying comic Camavinga said quote I told my friend Alise we're friends at the moment but in two weeks time if I have to kill you I'll do it man went on if I have to kick them then I'll kick them it's either them or me and I don't want to lose I just say Sean Deitch's influence on football should not be underrated well it is either them or him one's got to lose raw which one will it be how's this matchup going to go?

10:13Roger Bennett:It will go one way than the other it will be incredibly close it will be tight it will be really tense I think because as much as Bayern are a superior unit they're a better team Real Madrid have got all of that individual quality that can be decisive in tiny moments that can make that kind of fine difference but I think Bayern go through I think Bayern are a better side than Madrid the fact that Madrid have obviously they're on a semi-caretaker manager thing at the moment with Alvaro Abaloa that the absence of Courtois will be really significant. They still don't look as well drilled, as well built, as you need to be to get to the semis and beyond in the Champions League.

10:50Roger Bennett:I think Bayern will take them, partly because you'd need to be a much better defence than Real Madrid have got to stop Diaz, Elisa and Kane scoring goals. First leg of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich today, 3pm Eastern in the other Champions League quarterfinals. league-leading Arsenal travel to Lisbon to take on Sporting today Tuesday 3pm on paper the most lopsided matchup notably remember listeners all games they are played just on paper yes especially this one known around the world as the Victor Jocheres Memorial Derby Big Vic goes home and tomorrow there's the all-Spanish affair Barcelona against Atletico Madrid it's happening at the same time as a rematch of last year's Round of 16 tie, PSG and Liverpool.

11:40Roger Bennett:Wins it. And is it the year of Paris Saint-Germain at last? That, dear listener, is the sound of the French Revolution. Desiree Douay's deciding penalty in last year's round of 16 clash between PSG and Liverpool. Mighty Liverpool then were shocked to exit the tournament so early They hand up a PSG team that, remember then, barely scraped through qualification. But as Michael Scott once said, oh, how the turntables. If Klopp's Liverpool at their peak were heavy metal, Slot's Liverpool right now seem very, very missionary position. PSG's one-size-fits-all attacking triumvirate of Desiree Douai, Cavaradonna and Ousmane Dembele have the ability to collapse time and space like a footballing everything everywhere all at once.

12:29Yeah, minus the hot dog fingers. And the kicker, PSG, still so bloody young. Eight out of the ten players who led the team in league minutes played this season 25 years old or younger. I'd call them PS Gen Z. It will never catch on. Luis Enrique's hand, though, has been forced to rely on such young talent in part because of so many injuries. Raining Ballon d 'Or, winner Ousmane Dembele, has missed huge chunks of time this season. Hamstring problems, calf problems. old man 31 year old captain Marquinhos hampered by a thigh injury and that rampaging right back Ashraf Hakimi sideline for two months with a severe ankle sprain bad news for Liverpool all on outfit ready for action so Raw PSG this season defending champions yes but have been erratic subdued narrow lead over Lons in Ligue 1 uncomfortably close but as they head into this Liverpool clash this rematch this week could those early injuries those opportunities to play their young bucks also unleashing their old hands cool and a little fresher actually helped them in the long run could they end up more fit more sprightly in the business end of the season?

13:38Roger Bennett:The short answer, Rog, is yes I think the fact that they've not had to kind of overburden a lot of those players that they've been able to gradually bring them back from injury I think that PSG, like Chelsea to an extent are affected by how far they went in the Club World Cup that has to be a factor in PSG's season and like you say They haven't been as impressive as we thought they might be. You know, if you cast your mind back to this time last year, they looked so much better than everybody else in Europe. They looked like a team that was ready to be kind of the prime force in European football for the next five years.

14:11Roger Bennett:And to be honest, for a lot of this season, they haven't really lived up to that. Even much later into the group stage than we'd have been anticipating, they were still kind of stuttering and starting. you think of that game against Tottenham that chaotic 6-3 win drew with Newcastle on the final the final match day in the group stage which means they have to go through the playoffs again and all right and even when they're there they only beat Monaco I think by one goal over the course of the two legs which which was not kind of what we expected from this all-conquering all-singing all-dancing PSG team but as you say all the players are now fit they've had probably an easier run of the season than most other teams in Europe.

14:52Roger Bennett:And they've got, to be honest, quite a kindly draw in the quarterfinals. So it does look as though it might be falling for Luis Enrique, for that team, to get within touching distance of repeating. Once upon a time, a young man named, was it Rory Smith, spoke on this very Men and Blazers media network about how the signings for Liverpool of Hugo Eketike and Alexander Izak fit again, slowly, slowly coming back into action. But the idea of those two, alongside Mo Salah, honestly may have drawn direct inspiration from PSG's positionless front three last season. Not unlike when I bring a photo of Timothee Chalamet along with me to the barbershop and say, yeah, make me look like this.

15:30You know, inspiration and execution, two very different things, let's just say. And we've spoken extensively about Liverpool's struggles this season, me objectively with no pleasure at all, particularly that of Egyptian king Mo Salah. Not managed to stay out of that conversation at all. There was this public duster with Arnaz slot back in December when he talked about the club had, quote, thrown him under the bus. That left him iced out of the Champions League phase. One little win against Inter Milan. Did not travel with the squad. Many read that as a push for a January transfer. That never came.

16:03And it all culminated in this really pathos-filled announcement two weeks ago that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. despite it all. Last time Salah took the pitch in Europe, that second leg game against Galatasaray, we saw a glimpse of the old mode, just a glimmer. The trademark left-footed top corner curler from outside the box that made everything feel so good again. Oh my God, it was a footballing version of watching Whitesnake play. Here I go again. So, Roar, this match against PSG, it is different in so many ways from Liverpool's last season. and for Salah, for the club as a whole.

16:41Salah's future with the club has already been decided. Liverpool now are undoubtedly underdogs in this match-up, which is a rarity for them in many senses. What has to happen for Liverpool to play with a freedom we've just not seen them play with at all this season? And also for Mo to let us dream romantically and revive for one last hurrah.

17:02Roger Bennett:I suppose if you're looking for silver linings or glimmers of hope, one is that PSG don't have a very good goalkeeper they let Gianluigi Donnarumma go and replaced him with Lucas Chevalier from Lille not really worked out so now Matthe Safonov has replaced him and hasn't been especially convincing that's it from a footballing point of view Rog that's literally the only glimmer of hope the other one is that Liverpool's only two good performances this season have come in Europe they were really good in beating Marseille 3-0 in the group phase and that again as we mentioned before it's easy to say well it's only Marseille it's only French football but the Velodrome is one of the most hostile places to play football in the world and Liverpool went and were excellent and then they toured Aletaceraita Shreds in the last 16 that was a genuinely impressive performance again against a team that had not only beaten Liverpool twice already this season but had looked really good in the group phase so it does seem to me that they are less abject in the Champions League than they have been in the Premier League I think they prefer the style of play they encounter in the Champions League they may be more themselves in Europe than they are in the Premier League that would maybe give you cause to think that at least they won't be humiliated I suppose but at the same time it just looks to me like the golfing quality is so great that game last year seemed to really influence Arnazlott it almost seemed like it got in his head how different PSG were in terms of how they attacked to Liverpool and I do think that signing Isaac and Etike was the first step, I suppose, to trying to replicate that at Anfield.

18:40Roger Bennett:But the direction of travel between the two teams since then has been diametrically opposed. Chelsea were swatted aside by PSG really easily in the last 16. I find it genuinely very hard to think that the same doesn't happen with Liverpool. It might not be quite as emphatic, but I think the outcome is exactly the same. one other gent I do want to touch upon very quickly another Liverpool character that is in a very different position than he was during this match-up last year we mentioned him already it's Arna Slaught, that once-ball king gent one now feeling the crackling heat beneath his Dutch buns slowly rise Slaught has, I mean from the moment Liverpool were beaten by PSG has been obsessed with that clash said recently at that second leg I've said that many times it was the best game I've managed in my career even though we lost.

19:30Often tried to soften the blow, pointing out Liverpool were the only team to take PSG to extra time or penalties last season. Also credited the loss to PSG as, quote, the reason we won the league last season. You know, it feels like Slott has never gotten over that loss in a way. His team were absolutely flying in the league and the Champions League, and then suddenly they weren't. It's almost like this dark turn in the Premier League this season was prefaced by the shot loss in that moment to the Parisians. He keeps relitigating this match all the bloody time. And the faction of the Liverpool faithful have gotten incredibly restless with their Dutch overlord.

20:08The swagger of Liverpool has disappeared. The intensity has almost been lost into navel-gazing, quite ponderous football. So here's the question. I take no pleasure in any of this. What happens if this tie gets away from him? It's just a scenario, Raw. but if Liverpool are completely outclassed in this quarterfinal, does it make Slott's future untenable?

20:31Roger Bennett:It's interesting, Rog, there's been a lot of reporting over here the last seven, ten days or so, that Liverpool's intention, and this is what I've been told as well, that Liverpool's intention is they want Slott to stay. They want the world to arrange itself in such a way that in the summer Arna Slott keeps his job. And I think that's an honourable intention, and I think it's probably a sincere one. to me and you know I'm conscious I don't run a football team so maybe my opinion is not that valid but it it does strike me as being a little bit kind of pie in the sky because like you say if they if they are beaten heavily by PSG if they go out narrowly if they perform well I think Liverpool fans the expectations are so low that that won't lead to any great mutiny but say they lose by enough goals in Paris that the second leg at Anfield is a formality that will be a really kind of dispiriting, maybe quite sour occasion, I think.

21:23Roger Bennett:A lot of the goodwill, not just from the title win, but obviously everything that the club went through in the summer, I think a lot of that has dissipated, particularly towards slot, maybe towards the ownership. And I think there is, and I've said this before to you, that there's a really real possibility that Liverpool's season is kind of over by the middle of April, in the same way as it was last year. If you think back to last year, they won the title in the middle of April and then they kind of went on this month-long bender. Back on the boat. They'll be back on the boat. Back to Ibiza. Back to Ibiza.

21:53Roger Bennett:But I think this time, the mood obviously would be ridiculously different and it would be different and damaging because you've got to play out all those games that are meaningless in a bad way. There's no celebratory atmosphere. You have nothing to play for. There's a decent chance that, you know, qualifying for the Champions League will slip away as well. Certainly if they continue the form they were showing immediately before the international break. I don't see how Slott could survive that in a way that would make next season anything other than an absolute tightrope walk because the problem is if you have a negative end to this season if Liverpool don't make it through the quarterfinals of the Champions League if they don't finish in the top five for the Premier League then you go into next season even with all the best intentions in the world that Slott is still your manager the first time Liverpool lose maybe the first time Liverpool concede a goal or go behind in a game or go in at half-time at home, not winning, you're going to face a complete mutiny.

22:47Roger Bennett:And that in itself is a kind of, to me, is probably the decisive fact when making a decision around slot.

22:57I mean, it's really about, do you want to give the successor, the inevitable successor, a chance to have a pre-season with the players or do you want them to have to come in mid-season? It almost feels that darkness. But Rory Darmus, it's prediction time. PSG, Liverpool, Port-de-Ur. Dierks, for those of you in England, how do you see this one playing out?

23:16Roger Bennett:Yeah, as I say, Roger, I think the quality gap's just too big. So part of me does think Liverpool are better in the Champions League than in the Premier League. And part of me also, just a secret little kind of hidden part of me thinks Liverpool were pretty bad in the Partie de France last year and got away with a 1-0 win. But they were actually quite good at Anfield. They did live with PSG at Anfield. That game has gone down as PSG blew Liverpool away. It didn't work out like that at all. I think they've been through so much this season. and their form and their confidence is so poor, there's no way they beat them.

23:45Roger Bennett:But I do wonder if they might give them a better game than a lot of people are expecting. So I think maybe they lose 3-1 in Paris. That would be my guess. My Lord, I feel like Thierry Henry, he came on our show right before the Club World Cup final, PSG Chelsea, and was just utterly, utterly assured. He's like, I cannot see a way in which Chelsea beat PSG. That's how I feel about this game. Will history repeat itself? We do not know. We have to wait for that game tomorrow, April 8th, 3pm Eastern time at the Parc des Princes. But in the meantime, let's take a quick detour to Portugal.

24:27That's the sound of the home Porto fans serenading their team after a clinical 3-0 win over mid-table Morerense, which puts them well on track to wrap up the Portuguese league title again. No fist bumps here, just the jazz fingers pointed out to the crowd. There's plenty to celebrate in Porto. Rory, you're going to watch in the Europa League this week.

24:50Roger Bennett:Is Porto against Nottingham Forest, which is a typical kind of Europa League quarterfinal in a sense because Porto are one of the best stories in Europe this season. This team that's been reborn under the presidency of Andre Villas-Boas, Tottenham legend, Chelsea legend. My mate. And in fact, yeah, friend of Roger Bennett, which is the main thing. It came on our show ahead of this season in New York City. We did a live show with him and somehow has still thrived and soared, which is almost impossible. He's not been cursed by you, Rog. That is amazing. That shows the strength of that Manzora. But just as importantly, Rog, they've appointed Francesco Farioli, as you say, who is and has been for the last two or three years, like Europe's up-and-coming coach.