Barca Edge Closer To Title Despite Yamal's Injury

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0:47Guaranteed at no extra cost. Exclusively at the UPS Store U.S. retail locations. Visit the upsstore.com slash air shipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply. Send your Mother's Day gifts at the UPS store and we'll get your gratitude there on time. A lot of the star players in this World Cup. It's Rafinha now, Laminya Mal, Kylian Mbappe, Mo Salah at the weekend. So many players getting injured at the moment. Karvajala sitting on the bench and he's making like walking signs on his legs. The post intimated that it was towards Trent Alexandrano. He's club captain. You shouldn't be doing that.

1:21It was a little bit meow.

1:29Hello and welcome to the Rest is Football La Liga episode with Alex Algeo and me, Gary Lineker. Quite a lot has happened since we last did an episode because we didn't do one last weekend because there was no La Liga at the weekend. But since then, there's been two rounds of fixtures and basically Barcelona have almost won themselves the league. A couple of victories, which we'll come to shortly. But first, Alex, I don't recognise where you are. It sort of looks like a ski chalet, doesn't it? I'm in Paris for the Champions League. So, yeah, having a lovely time here. The sun is shining and looking forward to the game later on PSG by Munich.

2:13Should be a cracker there. Yeah, should be a great game. And next week I'll be covering Atletico Madrid at the Emirates. So, yeah, looking forward to these two. Yeah. So have you interviewed anyone? Yesterday, I interviewed Kvitsa Kravoskelia. Kravoskelia. He's a nice guy, actually. Do you know what happened? When Ballon d 'Or about two years ago, and I came out of the hotel the morning after, and I was wondering, this little guy was, you've just stood there, wasn't he? Just chilling with a hoodie on like this. And he goes, hey, Gary, Gary, and I went like this. And Harry was with me. And I went, yeah, hi, nice to see you.

2:49I just thought it was fun. Harry went Kravitz Kalyer you idiot that was so funny that was so funny he saved me well done Harry did you go back and say hi after that well no he told me quickly enough for I don't know but he did have a hoodie on I mean footballers do look very different than you see them on the pitch but what a player nice guy yeah really nice really nice we don't get that long with them which language in English It was English. It was English. He speaks a few languages. Yeah, yeah. He was good. So yeah, I spoke to him yesterday. Luis Enrique was there, but we didn't interview him.

3:28So yeah, we'll see what happens in the game. Yeah, let's talk about, well, Barcelona to start with. Two victories, fairly comfortable one away at Getafe and a goal for Marcus Rashford. Came off the bench again, even with the injuries. He still didn't get a start. He's not really getting a look. him. Funnily enough, I actually interviewed Marcus about a week ago. How is he? He was in really good form. You could tell he was slightly frustrated at not starting all the time, but we had a nice chat. It was for a magazine actually. And Marcus's team wanted someone that he knew to do the interview. So, they asked me.

4:06So, I thought, of course I will. I'll do that. And we had a nice little chat. He's always very engaging, very warm, intelligent. He's clearly loving life in Barcelona. So, and I think he'd be very keen to stay. What do you, have you heard anything? Yeah, no, I was going to say the talk out there is that Barcelona aren't keen on paying the 30 million. Yeah. That he's a good player and he's been good for them. But yeah, and he might not be, be worth that. And I just think we've spoken about it earlier in the season and I was saying it was a bargain, a no brainer, surely. But, and especially if he wants to stay as well, he doesn't want to go back to, to Manchester United, I'm sure.

4:43So it's a tricky one. I feel like they should keep him. United have picked up, obviously. And I think it's probably more of an attractive prospect under Michael Carrick than it would have been otherwise because he clearly didn't get on with Ameren. But he came on again and, you know, he got a breakaway goal, went from the halfway line, one-on-one with the goalkeeper and finished it pretty comfortably. So there will be suitors. I sense he wants to stay there. Whether they can make that happen or not, I don't know. You say you've heard, boss, I don't want to pay that much money. And they are restricted, aren't they, over there?

5:23It's quite difficult in terms of the financial regulations. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like he's done what's required of him when it's been asked of him all season, hasn't he? And this was just another example. and they've struggled at Getafe as well. It was a comfortable win, but they hadn't won there since 2019. It was three nil-nil draws. I've only scored a goal there since 2019. So it was a hard ground for them to go to it and they made it look very easy. Now firmly in control, 11 points clear at the top. But it's an interesting one because if they win next weekend and Real Madrid lose and they win the title, but if they hold on, it will be El Clasico.

6:04And I feel like Real Madrid will hate that. It would be incredible for Barcelona to win the league, having beaten Real Madrid and celebrate in front of their rivals. I think maybe we should talk about Laminya Mahal as well. Obviously, he didn't feature. He got injured, didn't he? It looked like he got injured at first from taking the penalty, but actually he was clearly injured in the tackle on him for the penalty. And he clutched his hamstring at that point. and then he probably just thought he maybe got a whack and then stood up, took the penalty and then collapsed to the ground. He's not on his own either, is he?

6:41That's Rafinha now. There's him, Laminya Mal. I hear Kylian Mbappe has just been announced that he's got a hamstring injury. There's a lot of the star players in this World Cup. Mo Salah at the weekend. Another one. Jabby Simons. So many players getting injured at the moment. It's really worrying. because we want our big stars fit. I mean, they've got time, just about, depending on the gravity of a lot of hamstrings, depending on how serious they are. Barcelona have said, haven't they, they're going to do conservative treatment. I presume that means that they're not taking any chances with him and they're going to wait for the, try and get it right for the World Cup.

7:22Yeah, not rush him back. If it were, it would be a real shame if he wasn't fit for the World Cup. So I guess that's the priority now, isn't it? especially with the league wrapped up, well, more or less wrapped up, not playing in the Champions League. They don't really need him if he's not fully fit. Do you think he's been overplayed this season? I mean, you've got to take him to go. We know how good he is and he's probably one of those, when you're that good, you want to play all the time. But, you know, he's still incredibly young. Are you more susceptible to injuries when you're that young? I don't know.

7:55I'm not a doctor or physician, But I do know that that period of 16 to 18 is very much, for many young men, is a growth time. So if you're growing, then, you know, you're feeling to your body. We've seen similar circumstances with Pedri, who thankfully seems back to his best now. But he had a lot of injuries, didn't he, after being played an incredible amount of football at a very, very young age. you know if you look at even the likes of Messi and Ronaldo let's say for the two greats of our generation this generation when they were that young yes they played some football but they nothing like Laminya Malo or Pedri did so I wonder I don't know it's just I'm just thinking out loud whether that's had an effect and we you know we need to be I think there's a debt of responsibility towards these young athletes and and you can understand why you want to play them every game because so bloody good.

8:49And I bet he wants to too, but sometimes we don't know what's best for us as kids. Yeah, exactly. And if he plays to Cristiano Ronaldo's age, what, he's got 20 years left in him and more. So, tranquilla. But you look at someone like Raheem Sterling, for example, who played and played and played when he was 16, 17, child superstar. I don't know whether it's one of the reasons that his career has kind of petered out at a relatively young age, like late 20s it started. I don't know whether that's anything to do with that. Probably isn't. I don't know. But I just wonder. I do wonder. Yeah. Well, we hope not because it'd be a real shame if Lamin Imel didn't keep going, you know, how he is at the moment.

9:31So, fingers crossed he returns soon. Yeah. Barcelona have been linked with one or two strikes. I think Lewandowski obviously is coming towards the end. Yeah. He didn't play midweek, did he? But he didn't come off the bench. No, and he's been left out a little bit now. But he did start in the last game. So I wonder, you know, they've been linked with Sorlot and also Alvarez, both Atletico Madrid players, which is interesting. I don't know if there's any truth in those rumours. Yeah, well, we know what Eric thinks of Sorlot. So critical of him at the start of the season. Yeah, he has. He's changed his mind.

10:08He's been brilliant, hasn't he, for Atletico Madrid, as has Julian Alvarez. So I think that will be Barcelona's priority, won't it, in the summer? They'll spend big on a striker and we'll see what happens with Lewandowski, who has had a great season, by the way. I mean, he's incredible. Obviously, he's coming towards that stage of his career, but what a goal scorer he's been. One of the absolute best number nines of his generation. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll discuss the ongoing problems with Real Madrid. Right now at the Home Depot, shop Spring Black Friday savings and get up to 40 % off, plus up to$500 off select appliances from top brands like Samsung.

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11:43Welcome back to The Rest is Football La Liga with Alex Algeo and me, Garelini Carham. Even though we've not done an episode for two weeks, I actually saw you last week. We did a little gig, didn't we? Yes, we did. The Q &A. We did. I forgot to mention that at the start. Met my mum and dad. Yeah, I met your mum and dad. We had a little bite to eat afterwards. Loved your Gaza stories. Oh, I've got a lot of those. So good. You can have a whole pod just on Gaza stories. Well, we had him on. We had him on. He told most of those stories when he came on. He's in great form. So not heard from him from a couple of months, which is actually normally a good sign with Gaza.

12:22That's a good thing. Hopefully he's all right. Because whenever he calls, it's always on a mystery number. It's one of those. And you go, and then he leaves a message. It's Gaza. Call me back. So you call him back and he's sometimes I've had a few. So when I don't hear from him it's quite good. But he's always on a new number, a different number every single time. It's mad. I mean, I try and get hold of him. You can't. You can't. That's so funny. Let's move to Real Madrid. They beat Alibes 2-1 on Tuesday, didn't they? So they got that result and then obviously they needed to win all their games to have any kind of chance including the Clasico and then Real Betis they got ahead but there was a last minute goal and I think that's it.

13:06Yeah, they started well. Yeah, started really well. Vinicius Junior scoring first and then Jude Bellingham had a really good chance in the 34th minute. But yeah, Betis came alive in the final few minutes of the game and it was Hector Bellerin. I know, Bellerin. Another friend of the pocket. I actually interviewed him 18 months or so ago. A very intelligent, reflective person. I liked him a lot. His English is amazing, isn't it? Well, yeah, he spent a lot of time at Arsenal as well. And he's got like a very English accent. Yeah. Yeah. So he doesn't say Estacion or Spain. Spain. Yeah. They struggle with that, don't they?

13:48It's brilliant. I love it. Yeah. It's so funny. But yeah, he scored it in stoppage time, virtually the last kick of the game. Terrible result for Real Madrid. Arbolet wasn't happy. there was a penalty shout for handball by Ricardo Rodriguez and Alvaro Abelhoa said it was a very clear penalty with the hand open not even close to the body on a shot by Brahim so he wasn't happy about that he said it's something very basic in the world of football it's not the first time this has happened to us I believe that it significantly influenced the match so yeah but not a good result for Real Madrid it's been a really disappointing season overall and we didn't see it going this way you look at the players in that team and they should do better.

14:32I'm not sure there's much of a togetherness there. There was another little thing, you sent it this morning actually, I had already seen it, a little social media clip where they cut to Carvajal and he's sitting on the bench and he's making like walking signs on his legs. The post intimated that it was towards Trent Alexander-Arnold. Whether that was the case or not, I don't know. I mean, I thought a little bit like pathetic. and he's club captain you shouldn't be doing that he's obviously annoyed that he's not playing as much as he'd like to be he's apparently rumor has it fallen out with alvaro albolo so he's clearly not in a great place but still come on it is it's a terrible look isn't it when you're doing that on the bench when i first saw i thought because everything's ai these days i was thinking oh that's not even real then i realized then i realized it was uh and i think it's pretty clear what he's insinuating.

15:25It was a little bit Yeah. Pathetic. Yeah, I thought it was. Pathético. Pathético. Pathético Madrid.

15:36Numbapé, what are they saying about his injury? I read out until the rest of the season. Out for the rest of the season. Yeah, out for the rest of the season. But okay for the World Cup. It's not too soon. I mean, I hope so. I mean, we mentioned it in the first half, but yeah, we want the stars, particularly Kylian Numbapé. and Laminya Ma, we want those two fit. So 41 goals in 41 games for Mbappe this season in all competitions. In a tough season. In a season where he's had a lot of criticism as well. And the team's underperforming. It's mad, isn't it, really? And that is a lot of goals, isn't it?

16:10It is. I'm a mathematical wizard, I am, actually. So I worked that out as a goal of game. But where do they go from here, really? I just think Well I think it's coach who's going to coach them next season is the interesting one And it's not going to be Alvarado Yeah unlikely to be him Klopp's the one that's been rumoured a bit I think personally not that my opinion counts but I think it would be a really good fit I can see Jürgen Klopp at Real Madrid I really can he's got the right mentality and the players would listen to him they respect him I think if Jürgen was interested in going back into management I think Real Madrid would probably be the most likely club to do it.

16:55But I think if Jürgen wants to do that job, I'm sure they'd give it to him. I mean, I think he'd be perfect for them now because he'd get them together. He'd get the crowd behind them. He's got such an amazing personality, infectious enthusiasm that I think the fans will really buy into, the players buy into. Obviously, he knows someone like Trent. He knows. I think he'd bring out the best in the big superstars I mean, if it is Jurgen Klopp, then I think he's a strong enough personality to say to the president, right, he needs to go. Yeah. He needs to go for the good of the side. We need to be united as one.

17:33I'm not the person to say which player we would say would move out. And it's not easy because you've got superstars there on very big contracts, no doubt, as well. But, yeah. or I mean Klopp being Klopp we'd probably get them all together and you know bang their heads together get them on the same page yeah get them on the same page and in terms of signings what's a priority I know that you've spoken about the midfield this season haven't you do they need an Enzo Fernandes in there we know Enzo wants to go he's in Madrid at the moment by the way I was thinking don't do that he's got two days off and he's gone to Madrid is that right yeah but he's he's gone to the tennis he's gone to the Madrid Open but still it's like come on Enzo just as you've got the captain's armband back, you've scored at Wembley, don't fly to Madrid on your day off.

18:22And do you know what? Apparently he was wandering around and around the Bernabeu. Yeah. I was just... And that's when he was photographed. Florentino! Florentino! Astoria! Astoria! Astoria Keith! Astoria Keith! That's so funny. I didn't know. I think midfields are definite for them because I think that's personally where they're... apart from the fact that they don't seem to be entirely together. And obviously they've still got the issues up top because you've got, you know, Vinicius and Dumbapé don't really love defending. Let's put it that way. And I think that that becomes an issue. When Trent's playing as well.

18:59Well, if you say that, but I think you can get away with one forward that doesn't want to track back, but two is difficult and the balance of the side and all that sort of stuff needs regulating. But I think midfield is, they need some kind of control again, which they've not had since. And understandably so. I mean, you've lost an entire midfield there, haven't you? Casemiro, Cruz and Modric all gone pretty much within the space of 18 months. That midfield was ridiculous, wasn't it? So good. If you think about it. So good. I was watching United last night, actually. Casemiro, even though he's finished in the end.

19:37I mean, he was so good. He's a proper player. You can see why I had so much success at Real Madrid. I mean, he was such a good player. So anyway, we should discuss Atletico, big Champions League game for them against Arsenal coming up, of course. They've had a mixed week or two because they lost, obviously, the Copa del Rey. Amazing scenes. Incredible. Crazy couple of weeks for them, like knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League and then losing the Copa del Rey final, losing to Elche in the league and then beating Athletic Club 3-2. What's Eric saying about it? What's Eric saying? He's been sending videos because he was at the Copa del Rey final.

20:16Yeah, he sent a video from Sevilla. Looked incredible. The atmosphere, they were under one of these big flags. T4. The T4, yeah. He said the only good thing was the food in Sevilla, which they look like sardines. What's that? And I think we've got clams. Oh, clams. I'll neck us. I'll neck us. Yeah, I think they're clams. They look like clams. Anyway, so he had good food, but obviously very disappointed about the Copa del Rey final. And then we were just speaking about the Arsenal game. He said, yeah, Arsenal are favourites as we look bad at defending set pieces and crosses. Oblak just back from injury, looked rusty.

20:51Musso is a lottery. I would prefer Oblak at 70 % than a fit. Musso, who's obviously the deputy. But yeah, I think he's saying Julian Alvarez isn't 100 % fit, but it could be mind games. Yeah. To be fair to him, he said, Real Sociedad deserved it. they deserve to win but yeah big win at the weekend they needed that it's great for Real Sociedad though wasn't it I mean yeah and the American manager as well yes saw that yeah he's got quite a career hasn't he he's done it's amazing what he's achieved isn't he the first American to win a European competition in the top five leagues yeah amazing so good so yeah but Atletico yeah funny old season for Atletico but they could go and win the Champions League they could I honestly think that they could knock Arsenal out.

21:35I really do because I think Diego Simeone and Mikel Arteta are both very emotional managers, right? But I feel like Diego Simeone, the way he is doesn't affect his players and what it does affect his players, but in a positive way. Whereas I feel like the way Mikel Arteta is actually affects his players in a negative way. Do you think? Yeah, I really do. I think they get nervous and anxious and I think it just... Well, they are at the moment in the league. Yeah, that's definitely the case. Yeah, I was talking to Mike and Mike thinks they're actually better equipped to go well in the Champions League rather than perhaps the league at the moment because they defend so well and good on set pieces, et cetera.

22:15But we shall see on that one. We'll talk about that no doubt next week. There's quite a lot of games for the roundup, Alex. Okay, well let's round up the rest of the games. Sevilla remain in the relegation zone after a damaging 2-1 defeat at Osasuna They took the lead in the 69th minute thanks to Neil Mope, but Raul Garcia levelled in the 80th and Alejandro Catena bagged the winner in the ninth minute of stoppage time. Elche moved four points clear of the relegation zone thanks to their second win in a week. Goals from Pedro Vigas and Gonzalo Villa were enough for the points against bottom side Real Oviedo.

22:52Valencia moved six points clear of the bottom three thanks to a 2-1 win at home to Girona, Laji Ramazani and Umar Sadiq with the goals for Los Che. Rayo Vallecano with 3-1 down at home to Real Sociedad with six minutes left to play, but goals from Florian Legione and a 99-minute equaliser from Alamal saw the points shared. Villareal kept up their hopes of finishing in third place with a 2-1 win over Celta Vigo, Gerard Moreno and Nicola Pepe on the score sheet. Alaves beat Mallorca 2-1 in a crunch relegation encounter, a brace from Tony Martinez, gave the home side the points and leaves Mallorca just one point outside the drop zone.

23:34And it was all square on Monday night as 10-man Espanyol played out a goalless draw with relegation battlers Levante, who remain in 19th place. Espanyol haven't won a game all year, by the way. Bleak times. And they were in fifth at one point. They were going really well earlier in the season. complete collapse complete collapse I've got this cracking name in there Alex not Largy although it's very similar Pedro Big Ass Big Ass which is Largy it's Largy Pedro Big Ass I love that Peter Big Ass we call him what a name what a name that is what a name okay Alex well enjoy the game thank you enjoy the game and a night out in Paris after no doubt.

24:25Yeah, well, we had one last night as well. Oh, really? I thought you looked a bit worse for Wales. All right, don't say that. Just kidding, just kidding. Yeah, yeah. Alan was ordering the wine, so that's when it gets dangerous. It was nice wine though. It was good wine, too nice. That's good. Hope he was paying. Hope he was paying. No, no, no, he wasn't, no. Oh, all right, okay. It was on Prime. Yeah, it was on Prime. I think they can afford it. They can afford it. All right, Alex. So enjoy the game. Thank you. Abiento. Abiento. Okay, that's it for this episode of the Rest is Football La Liga.

25:00Goodbye from me. Goodbye from me.