Bellingham scores and Liverpool win

0:22hi everyone welcome back to studio i'm ryan and that is i'm here Do my eyes deceive me? Musog Wong is back. I'm right here. Traveling the world with work. Glad you're having a nice time. I am indeed. I am indeed. How are you, man? Very well indeed. Very well indeed. Difficult to record, obviously, yesterday, but I'm very, very happy that Carl stepped in and was incredible. Listening back, this guy's like, damn, this has come from my spot. I was listening to the podcast going, wow, that's steady. I'm really enjoying this. Who's this?

0:55Step out of the seat for two seconds. the man comes in and just absolutely hits home runs he was brilliant man great fun having Carl on thanks to Carl so so good Stadio members you are listening to this probably a little bit early because we're recording this ahead of Thursday night's Europa League games and Conference League games so we're not going to be able to cover those but if you are in London and you would like to come to the Stadio live show at the South Bank on December the 4th tickets are available now link in the description if you're listening to a clip of this on the free feed you can listen to the episode in fall along with every single episode of Stadio ad-free in full.

1:29Go to patreon.com forward slash Stadio for the podcast membership or if you want to join the Stadio Social Club, it's a little bit more a month, but you also get access to the Stadio Discord server. You can connect with the community of Stadio listeners and, you know, potentially go to some of the meetups and stuff. There's rumours of a Berlin Stadio Social Club meetup happening this weekend. My goodness. Can you believe it? I'll have to investigate. Are you going to be there? Are you going to, like, pop... You know, like the car too. In the corner with a cigarette. Who's that for you? I will try actually.

1:58I'll see what I've got on when I get back. But yeah, if I'm free, I'm definitely coming down to that. We hope everyone's staying safe and well. Today, we're going to talk about the news that the La Liga game in Miami is off. Yes. For now. Yes. So we're going to talk a little bit about that and we'll just do a quick wrap up of any other Champions League stuff. Some stuff from Wednesday night. And then we'll get out of here and let you all enjoy your weekends. There is only one place to begin though. Oh no. No. where's that we're going to Portland Maine because Portland Hearts of Pine have already qualified for the playoffs in the USL1 they broke the USL1 single game attendance record during their 6-1 win over Spokane Velocity 6 ,400 oh wow were there cracking crowd so in their debut season they've already broken the USL1 attendance record for a single game it's a gorgeous part of the world as well that man shout out to Portland Hearts of Pine yeah yeah there are a few unofficial Stadio Social Club teams that like everyone kind of roots for and Hearts of Plain are one of them love to catch a game there one day love that shout out to Portland Hearts of Plain and best of luck in the playoffs we've got a one Knoxville fan in there USL teams are popping off in the Stadio Discord I actually met a guy recently quite a new listener he said oh yeah I'm from Philly I'll check out the podcast I'm listening now and I'm like have you got any Philly listeners there I said oh don't worry don't worry Philly stand up Philly's a represented yeah yeah no doubt no doubt go birds right shall we go to wednesday's champions league games let's do it i watched the wrong game yeah i'm wondering uh where to start what game do you think i watched live i think you watched ramo duventus i did not a classic but some interesting details some interesting details in this game so great kits yeah great kits beautiful kits beautiful gowns um interesting i thought the use of arda gula in a slightly deeper role for madrid and him almost being the outball at times.

3:54Super interesting because, you know, he's not the sort of most robust player physically, but he defends well, presses well, moves well, and technically is exceptional. I loved what Braham Diaz gave in this game. And a Jude Bellingham winner against Juventus that was very much Jude Bellingham of the first season. Poachers goal. Yeah, playing. There were different ideas of what the tactics are. It looked like, it kind of looked more like a 4-4-2 with Mbappe and Bellingham as the strikers. It was down as a 4-4-2 on paper, but I think it ended up being more of a 4-3-3, really. I think with just Bellingham more kind of pushing up.

4:34But yeah, it was interesting to see Goulet in that deep role. I love what he's done this year so far. It's been really impressive. And not the greatest game. Juventus is quite solid, I thought, but Madrid are still finding some interesting gaps. They're not sort of like exactly blowing teams away in Madrid, but they do have a sense of identity. The players seem to know what they're doing and they seem to have bought into what Chabu Lanzo is making them do. I'm interested in the Clásico. And for Bellingham, it's a big thing for him coming back. I mean, look, they've won all three in the Champions League.

5:04They're looking good in the league as well. Well, looking good. They're solid. They're top. I think the Clásico is a massive game for them. It is, isn't it? I think it's a bigger game for Real Madrid than it is for Barcelona, actually, this weekend. Yeah, yeah. I'd say so. If Barcelona get a result, and let's say they get a big result because they have actually had a few big results against Real Madrid recently. I think we talked about this, but off the back of the Madrid derby, I think that there will start being a little bit more unpleasant noise around Xabi Alonso, which is weird. I don't think he's going to really come under a huge amount of pressure already because I think this is a team very much in evolution and they're being asked to do things that they haven't been asked to do in this, well, I think wearing Real Madrid shirts.

5:45I don't think they have. had a couple they still got a couple of injuries as well and Fede Valverde is playing right back which is kind of fine because he was points last season he was the best right back in the world but their injury list at the moment is currently Rudiger, Carvajal, Alaba, Hausson, Alexander-Arnold, Ceballos and they're all players that would feature quite heavily so yeah I think for Real Madrid at the moment it's just kind of maintaining until they get everyone fully back I just don't think they could lose on the weekend at all. I think we also know, it's strange to say, but I feel like I know more about Barcelona than I do about Madrid.

6:23Yeah. Like who they, I mean Madrid, Barcelona, we know what their strengths are, their weaknesses, you know, it's so well documented at this point, exactly all of that. But Madrid are funny because Mastantuono coming in at the start and doing a lot for them, getting a lot of minutes. And then maybe in more recent weeks, like his development hasn't slowed. He's young, right? So he's, I think he'll, I feel like he's gone back into the rotation because he hasn't made that role fully his. Might also be just like literally managing minutes as well because he's a young player. And Bram Diaz is a great, I mean, they're basically plug and play.

6:57They're really good options to swap for each other too. But also, Jabby Alonso did this a lot at Leverkusen, right? Players would get runs of games and then you'd be like, oh, and actually they're starting a different front three or like they're playing, you know, he was quite big on rotation at Leverkusen. I think he likes to do that. Jabby Alonso also, maybe it's because of his time at Real Saucyde B, but I think he strikes me as someone who is quite protective of younger players. Yes, yes. He's been really good, like just in the press conferences he did. The Managing Madrid guys asked him a great question about Mastanto Ono specifically and whether he was being a bit rushed in the final third.

7:30And I just, the care with which he answered the question was really impressive. He's someone who really cares about development. I think there's also an element of like wanting to put his own stamp on the team by bringing in younger players and maybe like shaking up some of the established order. one member of the Sabah shoulder who's flying by the way is Kylian Mbappe who looks absolutely bang in form and as good as he's ever looked at club level to be honest I mean he's been spectacular and he's combining well with all his teammates around him yeah I'm super hyped for the Classico actually I'm super hyped me too and I've got I've just got no idea at all you know sometimes there's some fixtures you know like when Classico's before you've had a rough idea going into a game of like which team has the hot hand and I couldn't really tell you actually because Barca have won some big games so they've won by a huge margin but they've also been cooked so you know who can say who can say they've got higher ceiling Madrid but a lower floor I think is the that's my take my hot take there you go write that down everyone speaking of getting cooked Eintracht got absolutely cooked yeah sorry they just can't they can't defend they've conceded something like 21 goals in their last 6 games now and the goal they conceded the opening goal they conceded to Eketike the way they were just great finish it was a great finish he didn't celebrate you know he obviously had his breakout season with them but the the way they were opened up right through the middle it was way too easy they don't close down on shots it's bizarre really it's bizarre it's really weird because I remember when we were talking to Seb I think you were off I think I was talking to Seb about the Gladbach game you know how infuriating that must have been for Dino Topmuller to kind of be absolutely cruising and out of sight and then just ship four in the second half for no reason it's like indicative of something a little bit deeper there and they've got like I think they're great in attacking sense they've got loads of attacking talent but they can't defend at the moment and Liverpool absolutely punish them great goal from Ekotike and then two goals from set pieces who hates set pieces now eh?

9:28I mean that midfield got there was a conversation about like you know Eintracht and how good they really are but look that midfield that they put out I mean Jones was excellent Sobberslai too who got a goal too Goetzer and Larsson it's not a midfield with an exceptional amount of like mobility or physical power and against Sobber Slyne Jones they just got run out run off the park Eintracht couldn't hang with Liverpool as soon as Liverpool scored that was it they probably should have been ahead earlier actually and the goal the Eintracht goal was actually really lovely from Rasmus Christensen but it had come after a point of pretty heavy Liverpool dominance I think the goal before the rushing yeah well I mean it was right it was I mean there's been a few of those this week actually but yeah back to back corners from Van Dijk and Canate Gakpo with a great goal and Zobaslai finished it off as soon as they got ahead Liverpool they were never in danger a perfect toning after a difficult difficult couple of weeks for them that was a preview of today's episode of Stadio if you want to join up for ad free podcasts extra podcasts access to the Stadio social club and more you can join us at patreon.com forward slash stadio Thank you.