Matchday 14 Preview

0:00If you're a small business owner, you'll know just what it's like to be the chief everything officer. HR, payroll, employee benefits. Well, Gusto can do all of that for you. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote friendly and incredibly easy to use. It's quick and simple to switch to Gusto. Just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast. Try Gusto today at gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer.

0:5310 KALSHI CalSheet trade the beautiful game 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors prices values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see calsheet.com regulatory whether you're watching your favorite nba team at the arena the bar or hanging at home grab an ice cold michelob ultra and enjoy every moment of the NBA season. Stock up today and watch your team drop buckets with a bucket full of ice-cold ultra. Michelob Ultra, superior light beer. Enjoy responsibly.

1:31Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra, registered light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. Must be 21 plus to order alcohol. Alcohol available only in select markets.

1:46Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Friday Preview pod from the Spanish Football Podcast. I'm Phil Kitram and ladies, here to look ahead to what's coming up on Matchday 14 in La Liga EA Sports with Dr Sid Lowe. Hello Sidney. Hello Philip, how are you? I'm good, I'm ready to talk to you about Spanish football as always. And are you ready Sid for quite a busy weekend? It's a very busy weekend. It occurred to me, I say it occurred to me, obviously I knew this, but sometimes you don't sort of take a step back and actually work it out. I will be at a game every night for the next seven nights, six nights.

2:18Wow. Well, that's decent. You wouldn't have it any other way, right? Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Fantastic. Let's go through some of those games then, because round 14 in La Liga EA Sports kicks off tonight with Getafe against Elche, a game that Sydney absolutely wouldn't miss for the world. So obviously he's going to be there. Not many other people will be there, but Sid will be there, 100%. Do you think it's okay for me to go to the Coliseum and see Getafe against Elche wearing an Oviedo coat? No. It's like a bench jacket. It's the warmest I've got and it's going to be very cold.

2:58In terms of my personal comfort, it's definitely the best option. I'm just wondering if maybe it would look a bit weird. Yeah, I mean, I think it's not acceptable, but at the same time, just do it because, you know, you've got to keep warm. But listen, tell us what you do end up wearing on this week's edition of the TSFP Diary. Oh, yes, true. Which is what you're going to, you're going to record from Getafe against Elche. We thought it would be a nice insight into some of the less glamorous sides of the job. So there we go. Anyway, then on Saturday, we've got Mallorca against Osasuna, Barcelona against Alaves, Levante against Athletic Club and second game for Cid this weekend is Atletico Madrid against the mighty Real Oviedo at the Metropolitano.

3:42Then on Sunday, we've got Real Sociedad against Villarreal, the Seville derby between Sevilla and Betis, Celta Vigo against Espanyol and Girona Real Madrid, Cid's third game of the weekend. Yeah, I'm disappointed by that, to be honest. What, that you're there and not at the Seville derby? Exactly. Have a word with ESPN. Come on. I know. I've had many words about this but no one wants to listen to me and I think everyone thinks I'm just a bit weird with potentially some reason Monday night is Rio against Valencia that will be your fourth game of the weekend and then we've got a couple of fixtures next week rescheduled for the Spanish Super Cup so we've got Barca against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday and Atletico against Real Madrid on Wednesday so a feast of football Yes, those are the games that you will be attending.

4:33Shall I have a little moan here? I think you've already had this moan, but have it again. Have I? Do you know which one I'm going to do? I feel like I do. We need to think quite seriously about the impact of the Super Cup, which takes these two brilliant games out and sticks them on Tuesday and Wednesday night. There you go. I've done it. And you're right, I might have done it before. Can confirm that you have had that particular moan. You kept it brief, so that's good. No, that was good, wasn't it? Yeah. And it's fair enough to me. It's a good point. These are massive fixtures, would be potentially the highlights of any round of games.

5:06And they're stuck on a Tuesday and Wednesday night at nine o 'clock, which is not ideal. Athletic Club against Real Madrid at seven o 'clock. At seven o 'clock, yeah. Yes. Okay, let us begin to look ahead to this weekend's games. We've picked out a few. We're going to start with, forgive us for not dwelling on Getafe against El Che. Oh, come on. We don't usually dwell on the Friday game anyway. Not even when it's an absolute cracker like this. No. Although, you know, Elche are always worth watching. Barcelona against Alaves. Barca looking to bounce back from the disappointment of getting really sort of taken apart in the Champions League by Chelsea.

5:48Again, which we discussed on our bonus pod. It was a bumper bonus pod we did yesterday for patrons at patreon.com forward slash TSFP. You really should be a patron from just€4.75 a month. You get loads of extra content. So come and join us. This, on paper, is a really good game for Barcelona at home to a team like Alaves. Alaves have only won twice away to Barcelona in their history. Once in 2000, once in 2017. This is, in theory, a pretty straightforward game. However, Alaves have got the second best or third best defensive record in the division. They've been keeping things very tight and Barcelona have been conceding goals.

6:31Is there any way that Alaves can make life tougher for Barcelona this weekend? Well, seeing as you phrased the question through, is there any way? I think we all know the way that teams are going to try and make it tougher for Barcelona now. Let's go back to Enzo Fernandes' great remark. That line's a bit high for my liking. I don't think there's any doubt at all that Alaves will be thinking something similar, that Alaves will be thinking we can play deep, we will try and launch on the counter-attack, we'll try and run beyond them. You've got a player like Lucas Boyer who's very good at bringing the ball down and then maybe you have runners coming from either side of him or from alongside him, depending on how they decide to structure their attack and their attacking players and the players arriving from midfield.

7:15I think you look at Barcelona and the defensive issues at the moment. You look at the midfield as well, because Casado, the last couple of games, it's felt like Flick isn't sure. And so if he isn't sure, then maybe he has a defender in midfield. Maybe he has Iveric Garcia, possibly even Andres Christensen in midfield. So then you ask the question about, OK, so what do we do at the back? And so I think there is a potential for Barcelona to be a bit vulnerable. Let's add to that, of course, that Ferdermin now has a calf issue, a soleus issue, which is the muscle either side of the main calf muscle and will be absent.

7:49So then you've got another doubt about how they construct their midfield. And so there's a potential for Barcelona to be a tiny bit vulnerable. That said, all of that said, I think Barcelona win this. Yeah, let's give a few statistics. Barcelona have conceded 15 goals this season in 13 games. six teams have a better defensive record than them, including Alaves. And if you look where those goals were conceded, they let two in in Levante, who are second bottom, one against Oviedo, who are bottom, one against Girona, who are 18. So all three teams in the relegation zone have scored against Barcelona, as have 13th place, Friar Vallecano and Elche, who are 10th.

8:28So, you know, Alaves will feel that they've got a chance of at least scoring. That said, Alaves themselves are not the most prolific team in the division. No, in fact, I was looking up, I don't know why I stumbled across it earlier on today, but more than a quarter of Alaves' goals are penalties. So if Barcelona can just kind of keep their players, exactly which is how few they've scored, if they can just keep the players out of the penalty area, they'll be fine. Yes, let's see how they get on with that. And of course, they're playing before Real Madrid. So a chance to put a bit of pressure on Real Madrid.

9:03The difference at the top of the table. I mean, it's the same as it's been for a while now. They're just a point behind Real Madrid. So if they win, they will go two points clear. Real Madrid, as we said, playing on Sunday at Girona. More on that in a second. As a Noviedo fan, Sid, how are you feeling about the trip to the Metropolitano? Well, if I tell you that my son showed me today the odds, one of the score apps that he follows, he was waiting, really excited to see what the odds were, because he wanted to realise, in his words, just how shit we really are. okay and i'm sorry realization hit home i think it's always been there i think he quite enjoyed the idea of it being kind of expressed in numbers and obviously it was 17 to 1 to win this game apparently which i said to him there's no way that any bookies is actually accepting that and he said well it says here it's the bet 365 figures so there you go it's a real figure i was like okay um and so other web booking of course of course yeah and nor are we promoting them it was just a a way of kind of of kind of numerizing is that a real word numerizing i don't know if it is um but anyway putting into figures that just the the the the almost impossibility of oviedo getting anything from this uh atletico madrid have won nine in a row at home um you know obviously you've got to stop somewhere and you might stop just before double figures who knows but the only team to have taken anything from the metropolitano this year was elche who got one one draw and not only are Elche very good, but their manager, Edo Sarabia, said after that game, this is the game where we've most suffered.

10:40This is the game where I felt like we were furthest from getting anything. Oviedo don't score goals. They do defend reasonably well. I think if Oviedo are going to have any chance at all, it's going to be of a 0-0 draw. Right. And that's not very likely, is it? And also the fact that this game is coming in between a Champions League game against Inter Milan and a Tuesday night game against Barcelona, so there might be some rotations. In fact, I'd be very very surprised if they weren't. Obviously, you've got Llorente out, you've got Le Normand out till the middle of December. Oblak missed in midweek, although we assume he'll be back for this one.

11:13I wonder if we might see Mark Poulby put back in the team after he played in midweek and played pretty well. Maybe we'll see David Hanks co-play. So, I think there will be some changes in the Atletico team. And I don't know about you, but I would assume that one of those changes will be resting Koke because of that Barcelona game coming up in midweek. But Koke's just not resting at the moment. We were talking about this yesterday and so I went and looked because I wanted to see if our perception of what was right. Koke has played 10 games this season as a starter, two as a sub and one that he didn't play at all.

11:47The two as a sub and the one he didn't play at all the first three weeks of the season and since then started every single game, in La Liga at least. Well, that would coincide with Cardoso's injury. Yes. That's where he starts getting the opportunity and it turns out he's quite good. So they kept on playing him. Yes. Here we go Sid this is the so you're telling me there's a go on please do yeah yeah tell me there's a chance yeah five of all the Edo's pitiful total of seven goals this season have come away from home yeah boom that's all I got that's all right that's it there was definitely some uh there was definitely a dot dot dot there and I was waiting for the killer the killer thing that was going to say you're actually going to win oh thanks for giving me the tiniest sliver of uh of hope in this Atleti with the best home record in the division alongside Villarreal 19 points from a possible 21 as you mentioned the only team to have gotten anything out of a trip to Metropolitano this season have been Elche so we're expecting a home win but that doesn't mean that you won't go there and try and enjoy the occasion right?

12:54Yeah the first sort of big you know they went to Bilbao and San Mames is a big stadium Do you know what? There is a nice little curiosity here which is that Obviously, this is the first time that Real Oviedo have played against Atletico Madrid in La Liga for a quarter of a century. Although he did actually play them in the Copa del Rey, although they came to the Tartillera a couple of years ago. In fact, that was the night when I think we first saw Pablo Barrios and he was brilliant. Like, wow, this kid is really, really good. But it's not the first time that Oviedo have been to the Metropolitano.

13:23We went in 2018-19 against Real Mahonda. There was about 4 ,500 people there and about 4 ,300 of them were Real Oviedo fans. Wow. And it was basically because everyone was like, wow, we've got to go to this because it's a big game. Not a big game, a big ground. How many Oviedo fans are we expecting? Far less because Atletico obviously giving Oviedo that top corner, which I don't know how many are in there, maybe three or four hundred, if that, maybe not even that. And this has been a game where I've been talking to, you know, the people who I normally kind of lean on quite heavily to try and get tickets when there's difficulties.

14:01and there were no tickets for Oviedo in a kind of institutional sense either. So, you know, for players and families and people around the club and so on. So, yeah, yeah, not very many. Although people always find a way. I reckon there'll be a thousand Oviedo fans there. Oh, decent. Okay, well, go and enjoy your big day out, Sid. You know. Sorry. Horrifically patrolling. I will. Yeah. But, you know, try and enjoy. I will. I mean, that's what we're here for, isn't it? Yeah. Well, you're here to try and win. Yeah. You're here to try and stay in the division and win football matches, but also trying to enjoy it as well.

14:35Imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it. Frustrating, right? Now imagine the exact same feeling, but you're paying way more. That is what buying business software usually feels like. Fragmented, disconnected, and incredibly expensive. Odoo completely changes that. Odoo is a complete, fully integrated business suite where all your apps actually talk to each other. We're talking automated lead routing for your sales team, seamless AI integration, and intuitive point-and-click website builder. It's everything your business needs to scale, saving you time, headaches, and money.

15:16Stop piecing your software together. Go to odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com to learn more. Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with Power Boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Goats only trust goats, because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell. so good so good so good new markdowns up to 70 off are at nordstrom rack stores now stock up and stay big on shoes tops dresses accessories and more must-haves for summer join the nordic club to unlock exclusive discounts shop new arrivals first and more plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free great brands great prices that's why you rack Seville Derby on Sunday.

16:24It is Sevilla against Betis. It is at the Estadio Ramon Sánchez-Pijuan. And as usual in the last years, this has been sort of Sevilla coming into this game, you know, not great. And Betis being considerably better than them in the division. But in the end, it kind of gets leveled out and it usually ends up in a draw, this fixture. year. Betis, who have a couple of really, really important players missing. I said a couple, actually quite a few really, really important players missing. Anthony was sent off in the last game. They tried to appeal it. They haven't at the moment been successful with that appeal.

17:02So it looks like Anthony is going to miss this game. But Isco started last night in the Europa League. They did beat FC Utrecht 2-1, I think it was. But Isco only lasted eight minutes and he was practically impossible that he can feature in this game. Dibadi Lo Celso's injured. Amrabat got injured as well in this game. There's no Hector Bejodin, who's been brilliant, at right-back as well. So, Betis missing some really, really important players. Yeah, you mentioned Amrabat and Isco missing this game for the same challenge. It was Amrabat on Isco, by mistake. The two of them going for the same ball.

17:38Isco's got... The good news, well, the bad news is that Manuel Pellegrini post-game confirmed that Isco wouldn't make the derby. The good news is that he confirmed it wasn't that serious. either but it's a cut that needed stitches I think he said seven stitches um and and so you're not going to make it to the derby but it does mean that the fear that everybody had of course because this guy only just come back from injury yeah it was oh wow you come back and and as you say you know it's eight minutes into this game and you're gone already and he came on at the weekend and provided an assist having been out for what was it four and a half months something like that I'm not sure exactly how long it was maybe maybe a little bit less um and that's really important and the other thing that was very striking about this post game because as you mentioned bettis disappealed the suspension for Anthony.

18:20And Anthony found out post-game in a post-game interview and basically starts crying. Well, maybe not quite crying, but his voice is cracking and he's really hurt. He said, I'm really, really, really disappointed to miss this game. This game really matters to me. Remember last year, remember me telling you on the pod that I'd been at the game that Betis won and Anthony was being carried around on the shoulders of Adrian and waving the Betis flag around. It was the last one that beat Benito Villamadino before it was redeveloped. But there was a real sense of, you know, they're celebrating like this is a World Cup win.

18:49And I don't think I've ever seen a celebration for a seemingly non-important game be as big as that. You know, obviously it is important because it's a derby, but the kind of the emotional side of it was huge. And I think for Anthony in particular. So, yeah, he was very, very close to tears last night talking about missing out on this. And while Sevilla haven't been very good of late, in fact, correct me if I'm wrong, I think they've only won one since they beat Barca. and Betis would be favourites, but that's a lot of players missing. It is. And it's all the creative ones as well, apart from maybe four nails.

19:23I should also mention that for Sevilla, they're without Ruben Vargas, who is basically their best player. He's everything. He's top scorer. He's provided more chances than anyone else. He's made more happen than anyone else. I think he's their highest assist provider as well. So, yeah. Yeah. good for them either. Yeah, no Ruben Vargas, no Gabriel Suazo as well at left back who's basically started every game for them too. Sevilla, who are the side with by far and away the most yellow cards in the division, Sid. But like, by 10 or 15 more cards than anyone else in the division. I think this could get feisty.

20:00I think it could. Yeah. I think it could. And I think, in truth, we all want it to, don't we? We do. We do. I mean, you know, we don't want blood. We just want... We don't want anyone hurt. Maybe a little bit of blood. Maybe a little bit of inconsequential blood is all right. Inconsequential blood. We just don't want anyone. It's a good pub title, isn't it? Inconsequential blood. We don't want anyone really hurt, but we wouldn't mind a little bit of pushing and shoving. Yes. OK, well, let's see how that Seville Derby pans out. It is usually just an incredible sort of spectacle. If you've never been to a Seville Derby, just the atmosphere is, I'd say, unique in Spain because there is no city that is so divided down two lines exactly like Seville is.

20:46So it's just everything in this city. But in terms of a visual spectacle football-wise, it's not always the best. No, the truth is it's rarely a good game. But it's always a good occasion. Let's talk about Robert Jood travelling to Girona, the game that you're covering on Sunday night for ESPN. I'll be commentating as well for the world feed. Xabi Alonso just about goes into this game with a bit of pressure and relief having won midweek in the Champions League. But had he not won in the Champions League, there's a chance that he'd be going into this game potentially playing for his future, which seems ridiculous.

21:27Kifende Real Madrid are top of the table as we record this podcast. Perhaps a little bit of pressure relieved, Sid, going into this game, but not really. It just feels like he's only one bad performance or by a result away from the pressure mounting again. I think there's two different things here. I think one is the result and what that brings with it and the performance. And I think you're right. That kind of relieves it up to a point because it was a win, but doesn't really because actually the way they collapsed at a point in which they had the game under control was really concerning. 18 shots from Olympiacos.

21:59And this is a long run of lots and lots of chances being conceded against Liverpool, against Real, against Elche and now against Olympiacos. And so in that sense, I don't think it resolved very much. We talked about this in depth yesterday on the pod, this idea of even the good things they did are a little bit problematic because it's different to what they've been doing. And so that idea of, is this actually them getting things right? Or is this them just kind of going, well, let's just go back to what we used to do. And is that because the manager has shifted, because the players are going in a different direction?

22:25So that's one thing. And I think in that sense, it didn't resolve very much, but it did at least put a little bit of breathing room in. I think the other thing is the very, very interesting. How do I put this? What do you call it in English?

22:43The staging, the very interesting staging of a newfound union. You know, the very public comments from Mbappé and then Valverde, the Vinicius embracing Alonso, the Vinicius and Mbappé performance. you don't buy it uh no well let me sort of yes i do i do and i don't and let me explain what i mean by that um and and then the other part of it for me is the is the very similar kind of series of articles about where the kind of you know where the fix has come from it's essentially it's come from kind of presidential level and it's been all sorted out and everything's fine now i think quite often when you get the everything's fine line it's because everything's not fine it's also true that i also think that it actually wasn't quite as dramatically bad as it seemed but there were certainly some problems there and i think that when you make a conscious effort to fix things that is not in itself a bad thing but i think it does need to be understood as something that that deals with a problem that's there and and and and helps to smooth it and helps to make it better but doesn't necessarily fix it as you know if a couple more bad results and do these things come back um and i do think there's a really interesting question about what the midweek win means in terms of how they want to play and whether they're all on the same page about how they want to play.

24:10Okay. We'll see what happens with the injuries because we're recording on Friday and the game is on Sunday, so there is a little bit of time left for us to get some injury updates. But obviously missing for the game in Olympiacos were Eda Militao, Rudiger, Housen, Mastantono, Courtois. There were a lot of, and obviously Danny Carvajal, long-term injuries. So there are a lot of players who were unavailable for that game to Bellingham. We've had a strange injury because he had a calf issue, but then came on for the last half an hour, which was a little bit difficult to get our heads from. Well, the last half an hour in a game which I know it didn't turn out this way, in a game which on the face of it was sort of done.

24:51So I don't really see the reason for putting him on the pitch. If you've got any doubts about him, if you're at all nervous about his physical condition and you think you're going to win, And to be honest, Madrid should have thought they were going to win at that point. I didn't fully understand that, to be honest with you. No, neither did I. But let's see if he starts and if he's okay to be involved in the game against Girona. All they said, Sid, I think, you know, Girona away is a pretty comfortable game for Real Madrid, given the stakes. Well, let's go back to some of the stats we were talking about earlier.

25:25I mean, if I tell you that Real Oviedo scored three there. Yeah. yeah bloody hell yeah yeah so Madrid should be able to score about 15 shouldn't they if that's I mean I know that obviously doesn't work like that but I mean sort of works like that yeah I mean they should Oviedo with the worst attack in the division and Girona with the worst defense in the division yes three of Oviedo's seven goals coming against Girona what's that as a percentage it's uh well it's a little bit less than half isn't it it is a little bit less than half yes 40 something percent of uh of your goals coming against your honor so we're expecting real madrid to be able to uh find a way past that paulo gatsoniger and his uh gorgeous twinkling green eyes uh on on sunday evening uh listen we will leave it there dear amigos we'll be back on monday to discuss what happens on match day 14 so make sure you join us then and if you uh want extra content, come and be a patron.

26:24Patreon.com forward slash TSFP. We've also got annual memberships available as well, which make a really good gift. Given it's Christmas coming up and maybe you want to give someone the gift of TSFP. And yeah, otherwise make sure you listen to the Monday and Friday pods. Adios. Cheerio.

27:14That's the sound of zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and the power to burn body fat. Storm, energy for life. Storm Energy Blend helps boost metabolism, which in combination with exercise and a healthy diet helps burn fat. This product alone does not produce weight loss. Individual results may vary. The right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. At Blinds.com, we've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50 ,000 five-star reviews to prove we deliver.