UWCL returns, UEFA approves La Liga and Serie A games overseas

0:22it's wednesday welcome back to the stadio podcast i'm Ryan that's Musa yes i'm right here i'm right here yeah i'm right here how are you man i'm good tired uh lots going on lots going on lots of work lots of catch up are you wearing a hoodie and a roll neck i am that's outrageous i'm cold man i'm cold sorry man come on i'm not cold i'm cold i'm cold well as long as you're staying warm i am that i am we hope everyone else is staying warm yes staying well staying safe staying well wherever you are today we are going to talk a little bit about the women's champions league games from Tuesday. The Women's Champions League group phase has begun.

1:01League phase sorry has begun. And then we're going to talk about UEFA's decision to green light La Liga and Serie A's request to play a game in the States and a game in Australia. So that'll be really fun. Sure. Oh god. A couple of bits of admin though. London listeners don't forget link in the description go and buy your tickets for the South Bank Centre, our first live show at the South Bank Centre on December the 4th. You can also buy tickets, early bird tickets for the show in March because we're doing a few. If you haven't signed up yet and you want to listen to all of the Stadio podcasts in full ad-free, go to patreon.com forward slash stadio.

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2:16All right, so let's do the Women's Champions League games from last night. The main story from last night has to be Barcelona's 7-1 win over Bayern. Yeah, that's the one. Coming out of the blocks with such a statement victory, you could tell that this Barcelona side has a points of proof. Alexia Porteus afterwards was talking about how focused they were, how good their press was, and you could tell that this was a side that after the final last season, which was a final everyone expected them to win, they're almost on like a revenge mission this year. Yeah, this was frightening. So, okay, look, caveats.

2:47They didn't have Damjanovic starting. If you look at the team that beat Freiburg 4-0, no Damjanovic there, no Zadra's in the midfield, Caruso came in instead. So we can point at that and Dalman didn't start either. So in terms of chemistry, they were missing something, Bayern. but I don't think that would have saved them because the way that Barcelona came at them, I don't think, if you look at this game in particular, I think the most damning thing is that Bayern did not really have a sustained period of possession. The best opportunity they came, came from Barcelona mistakes, essentially like Bon Mati, like losing the ball in an uncharacteristic fashion.

3:23That was really the bulk of it. The quality of ball that you saw from... from Barcelona all night was just spectacular. The combination play, the tight spaces, it was all unbelievable. There was, the thing about Barcelona is, they get an opening, this has been the case for years with them, if they get an opening goal against you, you're basically chasing it the entire match because they just get you. What was that thing, so Alex Ferguson called Barcelona the passing carousel. They gave them the passing carousel in this game. So you had Boul played an unfortunately loose pass across the box. Pateas leaps on it and then just curls it in the corner after three minutes and then it's just...

4:06What a goal, by the way. Unbelievable goal and almost... Absolutely incredible. There's an amazing angle from right behind it as well, which shows how much it starts outside the goal. Early Ballon d 'Or campaign. No, it looked like, really, it looked like Pateas looked like Ballon d 'Or moved. Very sharp. Yeah, very sharp indeed. Graham Hansen pulling all over the place. Paroleo, I mean, that front three of Paior, Paroleo and Graham Hansen is, it's so direct, it's so smart, quick-footed. It's, they were just too much throughout. Genuinely, this performance against a strong, I mean, it's still a strong Bayern lineup.

4:43Still a strong team. They were frightening last night, generally. Pina came on, added a late couple. So yeah, it was. It was the classic Barcelona blueprint of old in a way, where in defense, they just completely constricted and compacted the tight spaces. Apart from the goal that they scored, the ball goal, which was a rare moment where it felt like there was space to get a shot off, really. Yeah, totally. In the Barca box. Yeah. But there were times in the second half where they just compacted the space so much. There was literally no way you could go. And then all of a sudden, they turned the ball over and then it's just like, boom.

5:22And the pitch becomes huge again. I can't remember the last time I saw Barcelona look that good. You know that one when there's like those games where there are like seven or eight players on the pitch that could have been the player of the match? Yeah. It was that, like, we praised Palo Aelo, we praised like Payor, all the rest. But Mappy Leon, for example, the way that she stepped forward continually and many times looked like a 10, she was so advanced. Almost never lost the ball. I mean, the numbers, what, like 98 passes out of 102 completed. That's from Fottmob. 90 out of 102. Is Mick Brooks basically playing left wing?

5:56It's unreal. It's the level. And they were also, yeah, there was, she was brilliant. And then you have, and down that flank. So the other thing to the other, the other wrinkle here, Tanikawa against Freiburg, she played as a 10 and here she was playing on the right wing. And you could see Bayern were hunting out the uncertainties. They were really hunting out the places where they were like, okay, that person doesn't have the best combinations. And they were just, they were just hunting in packs. It was a bit like when we watched the, the World Cup final and the way that the Spain press in the center of the pitch were waiting for like someone lucy bronze to come in field there's a similar thing here where they were just like the moment they saw uh two buying players that weren't accustomed to having a combination of playing out they were just on it and there were specific parts of the pitch and maybe that's just the buying press being brilliant i don't know but it just felt like last night they just understood instinctively we're going to get something if we if we go after x y z here i mean it's just like a kind of total domination uh yeah it was absolutely incredible It's incredible.

6:56So it was one of, and it's a weird thing. I think, I think I prefer to praise Barcelona than criticize Bayern because I'm not sure how many teams in the world live with that. Actually, I really don't know. Like you consider that Bayern team. So you consider the Barcelona team. You've got what in that front six, Pateas, Bonmatti, Graham Hansen and Pajor maybe even as well. Those four players, if any of those four players had won the Ballon d 'Or within the last five years it wouldn't be weird like it wouldn't be weird like just because of the quality of those players so I think you know and they all turned up they all turned up at peak form so yeah Caroline Graham Hanson is always the one that's like the disrespected yeah but that's I told her that's my conspiracy theory she's not going to keep her angry that's my that's my conspiracy theory but yeah the early game of the day Juventus came from 1-0 down went 1-0 down at home to Benfica very early on.

7:54Yeah, lovely finish. And then a couple of goals from Cecilia Salvae, one late in the game, a few minutes from time, got a late win for Juve. Arsenal losing their opening game at home to Lyon. Alessio Russo gave Arsenal the lead after seven minutes. And in that first 10 minutes or so, I thought Arsenal were really good. Two Lyon goals in quick succession coming from Arsenal errors completely switched the momentum of the game. And also just the energy and the mood of the the atmosphere, I think. It really killed the vibe. Yeah, look, I mean, Van Damsel has made a couple of errors, uncharacteristic errors this season, actually.

8:31Oh yeah, that one against West Ham, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that wasn't so costly, but, you know, here again, there's a problem. I think it's a funny one because this isn't necessarily the most wildly unexpected result in terms of the strength of the teams, right? If you look at, like, how good Lyon were in the last, you know, last season's Champions League, this isn't on paper, like, it's not the most shocking result, because this is a good side that beat them. The problem is it's like they're now winless in four Arsenal and they've shuffled the pack a lot and still things haven't really worked.

9:04It's strange because it's almost like this isn't the result to catastrophize about but the trend is one to be anxious about if that makes sense. Like I think the trend was, for example, the City game I think was probably worse just because they were just loose in that game in a way they weren't necessarily, I think they were structurally loose against City, whereas they had individual mistakes in this game, a couple of times playing out. And also, like, Leon were just very good possession-wise. And once they got that lead, it was difficult for Arsenal to get the rhythm back into it. And they're not necessarily, I think, that high on confidence at the moment, it doesn't feel.

9:40So yeah, this isn't a disastrous reverse. There's still plenty of football to be played. But I just worry about or wonder about Arsenal, I think overall this year feels they haven't really found their groove in the biggest games Yeah, I agree Rennie Slagas seems like she's struggling to find a formula that clicks feels like it hasn't quite clicked and it's weird though because there hasn't been a huge amount of turnover so I just wonder if there was maybe a bit of a hangover from the Champions League and the Euros for some of those players that were involved in that. I think there's too much quality there for Arsenal to have a disastrous season but it's one of those things that the longer it goes on the more it kind of feeds into itself Yes, absolutely But you really just need a result and they've got Brighton on the weekend You know, that's not an easy game Not at all, not at all At this point it's just to get the points, isn't it?

10:30I think they take a 1-0 at this point, yeah Oudheverle-Loyven drew away at Paris FC to all in the other game from what day is it? It's Wednesday, the other game from Tuesday and there's more Women's Champions League tonight five games 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