Matchday 35 Preview

0:07Hello everyone and welcome to this week's TSFP Friday preview pod. Looking to head to what's coming up on match day 35 in La Liga EA Sports. I mean there are football matches taking place Sid, but there are bigger things for us to talk about I feel.

0:24Phil Kitromilides:I disagree Phil because the first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club. OK, but what about the first rule of Rio making a European final, Sid? I think it's brilliant. I mean, obviously, look, I shouldn't be going on about this. You should be going on about this because you're the Rio fan. But let me say one thing and then let you go off with it. I think this is genuinely one of the best things to have happened in football in years and years and years. It is sensational. It is incredibly unlikely for a team like Rio to reach a final. It's the first final they've ever reached. There's so much going against them.

1:01Phil Kitromilides:But they were brilliant last night. It wasn't just that they reached the final film. They were absolutely fantastic. They put in the kind of performance I actually didn't think they could put in. The controlled performance. Yeah, exactly. They brought it from start to finish. They never really felt like it was in doubt. And, I mean, genuinely, this is a Netflix series. This is a Hollywood film. This is the tiny, tiny team from the working-class Barrio who are an underdog in almost every game that they play, their stadiums falling apart, their training ground is awful, their facilities are terrible.

1:34They literally have the fewest number of people working for them. If you see big professional teams with nutritionists and physical trainers and masseuses and all this, Raya have got the bare minimum of all of that. It's just so unlikely that they should be able to, A, get into Europe and then, B, get to a final. It doesn't make any sense, but somehow it makes glorious and perfect sense. I've been saying this for a while now, the best explanation of what Rio is. Rio exists to represent the barrio. It doesn't exist to win football matches or win trophies. That's not what people want from this team.

2:11They want to go out and to represent their local community. It is an extension of the neighbourhood, the team. It's just a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing, Sydney.

2:22Phil Kitromilides:To give you an example of that, that extension of the community, that extension of the neighbourhood thing. Genuinely, new players turn up at Rio and they get taken around the neighbourhood by the fans, not by the club, by the fans. The fans take it upon themselves. And of course, that can break down and it can break down very quickly because there may well be our listeners thinking, well, yeah, but if you're a player, you don't do that, do you? But they do because it's now so entrenched as part of what they do. Actually, you know what, you are kind of obliged to open up to this. You're obliged to be part of it.

2:51Phil Kitromilides:And then, of course, it does become part of you. It does feel part of it. The fact that Ryo stand before their fans at the end of the game and sing together, but not just sing together. And I think this is actually quite important. When they do that thing of standing before their fans at the end of the game and sing together, there's actually usually a bit of a kind of a pep talk from the guy with the megaphone. You know, this isn't just we're going to sing together. It's no, we're actually going to tell you what we think. We're going to give you our kind of, if you like, our post-game review and what this means and what we're here for.

3:20Phil Kitromilides:And it is driven into them all the time. And I think they feel possibly a degree of obligation to it, but it becomes a real thing to embrace what Rayo are and what Rayo, or at least what Rayo want to be. And then, of course, you get the reality of which is the complete opposite. It's a complete disaster in some ways. But I think that actually, contradictory though it may sound, plays a part in that sense of unity and togetherness and the idea that we do this against the odds. And that actually makes it stronger and makes us stronger. incredible um i spent the second half yesterday sorting out flights to um leipzig i was um i had you know i'm going the the the flight out there is with one airline and the flight back is with another airline so i had two web pages open i filled in all the details um ready to press book on both of them and i was holding off holding off and you and you kept saying go i kept saying book the bloody thing don't let it escape you now don't let that ticket get away It's only two goals, you know, if we don't make it through, I'm down 700 euros or something, 600 euros.

4:29But then when Batalla saved the penalty, I booked. That was it. Yeah.

4:33Phil Kitromilides:By the way, if you can hear a terrible noise, that is actually the rain. It's absolutely pissing down here. My office is in, what would you call it? The attic, I suppose. So it's very, very noisy. So apologies for that. Phil, I want to know something else here. Yeah, I liked how many people immediately tweeted me with a goldfish. You said you had webpages open booking flights. I hope you had webpages of your local pet shop open going to get a goldfish. On yesterday's bonus podcast for patrons at patreon.com forward slash TSFP, I suggested that if Alamau scored the winning goal to take us to the final, I would get a dog and called it Alamau and then I backtracked.

5:17You bottled it, didn't you?

5:18Phil Kitromilides:You bottled it. I was like, maybe I'll get a goldfish and call it Alamau. Yeah, so it's a goldfish or a hamster or something. I think this actually has to happen. It does have to happen. It really does. I told my son this morning and he was very excited. Oh, was he? Oh, good. You can't go back now. I tell you what, if he's up for the goldfish called Alamau, no, you can't. You cannot promise a child an animal and then go back on it. You can't do it, Kidro. He'll survive. No, he won't. Anyway, Alamau the goldfish could well be a reality. Do you know what? If you don't buy it, me and Al are buying it for you.

5:52Phil Kitromilides:And we're just bringing it around your house. And we're giving it to your son so you cannot back out. All right, yeah, do that. I don't mind. Do you think we could get a goldfish in a little Rio kit? Can you get like a mini Rio kit, goldfish-sized Rio kit? Wouldn't that be so cool, little fish swimming around with a franja? It would, in a way, yeah. Anyway, so Rio are through to that final. And we'll talk about it more against Crystal Palace. It's a nice final, I think. Yeah, tragically, I'm not going because it's against Crystal Palace. I'm so disappointed. Well, I say I'm not going. I'm not going working.

6:25Phil Kitromilides:But you know what? I'm going to have another look at the flights today and see if I can justify a trip. My latest decision is Prague. I mean, you could justify it because we'll go there and we'll do podcasts and it's, you know, it's an expense. So you could definitely. Oh, yes, I suppose so. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to. I'm looking at Prague at the moment. Prague and drive from Prague. Yeah. I don't want to say that publicly because other people might think, oh, good idea and go and buy the Prague flights. I think a lot of people are on the same page, Sid. Another friend of mine who's a Rio fan last night sent me his flights.

6:57Phil Kitromilides:It was actually remarkably, I think it was Munich. And it wasn't bad at all. I said, wow, that's miles better than anything I came up with. He said, yeah, it won't be left. He said about six of us booked it last night. I was like, oh, bollocks. I mean, Munich's quite far, Sid, from Leipzig. Yeah, it's four and a half hours. I looked at that. That's why I had actually initially ruled out Munich, yeah. Yeah, I'm going to Berlin. So hopefully that will be it. Berlin's definitely the best option. That's one I wanted. That is the one I wanted, but it was very, very expensive. Yeah. All right, listen, it's the preview pod, so let's look ahead to what's coming up this weekend.

7:26Shall we preview some stuff,

7:27Phil Kitromilides:not just review the greatest thing that's happened in Spanish football for quite a long time? You weren't here last week, so me and Al managed to get, I think, three right. Do you have a newfound respect for me? Or for the rabbit, at least? No. Yeah, maybe, maybe. Maybe I won't be so harsh. But yes, all right. This is what's coming up then this weekend. It all kicks off with Levante or Sassouna. Yeah. Yes. Levante. Really? Okay. Yeah, I mean... Okay, there are some games you don't need to dwell on. No, because they're at home, because their recent form isn't terrible. Although I do think the defeat last week sort of feels like it's...

8:12Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, exactly. That's the thing. The defeat last week feels like it's over. I mean, they've won like four of their last six, I think, or three of the last six. But last week's defeat was heavy. Away at Villarreal. That said, I don't know about Osasuna. I don't know about Osasuna away from home. I don't know if they now look at this and think maybe it's gone because they were beaten by Barcelona last week. Now, I'm not saying that's their last chance for European place. It definitely isn't because I think I'm right in saying they're only two points off 7th. Well, 8th, I think, gets into the Conference League.

8:45Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, and they're only two points off 7th. I think I'm right in saying that Getafe are 44, Atletic are 44, Real Sociedad might be next on 43, and I think Ossesuna and Raya are both on 42. But anyway, I'm going Levanta, I'm going at home. One last desperate grab at potential survival, which I think will finally be gone this weekend for them. They've got a decent home record and also soon have an abysmal away record. Exactly. So it makes sense. Yeah. All right. Home win there. Elche against Alaves, the early kickoff on Saturday. Well, as you know, I last week was asking about where I should go because I was trying to decide.

9:23Phil Kitromilides:Obviously, I have to go to Glasgow on Sunday, but Saturday has a series of pretty good games. And this was one of them. And I was really close to going to this because I think this is massive. If I say I think this is massive, it is massive. It's not that I think it. I in the end decided not to I in the end did decide not to because I thought that Sevilla and Espanyol was bigger we'll come on to that in a little while so here's the thing Elche are quite good at the moment so they were beaten last weekend at Vigo but they've won three in a row before that they've won three in a row yeah I'm going Elche I'm going home win yeah yeah yeah yeah I can see that okay after that we've got the game that you are going to, which is Sevilla against Espanyol.

10:07Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, which I think is huge. Sevilla obviously got an absolutely enormous victory on Monday night against Real Sociedad, which took them out of the relegation zone, but only by one point. And it was interesting. It's been very interesting actually listening to Luis Garcia Plata, the Sevilla manager, throughout this period, because he is already, I think, a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. He's very up and down. But I like the fact that he's prepared to talk about it and say so and say, you know, and he made the point, and I think he's right, he said, you know, all we did on Monday, he said it was absolutely huge, this, all we did on Monday was give ourselves the chance to survive.

10:45Phil Kitromilides:You know, we're still alive. Had we not won that, we wouldn't be. Now, I suspect had they not won that, he'd still be saying this was a game to give them a chance to survive. But this is a game that gives them a chance to really pull away. Because now, obviously, you can't assume that everybody above them won't pick up points. But if they were to win, it is, I've got a table here, One, two, three, four, five. Five teams they would go ahead of, assuming those five teams don't pick up points. Now, obviously, some of them will. But it would not only do that, but it would take them ahead of Espanyol, who they're playing against, and very definitely draw Espanyol into it.

11:15Phil Kitromilides:I thought on Monday they were the better side. I thought they should have won. I didn't think they should have won by as many as Luis Garcia tried to claim. He said, yeah, we could have been three goals up easy. Well, yeah. I thought one of the things that was really interesting to me in Monday's game, particularly in the first half, was that every time Sevilla saw the goal, they did a shot. And it was really desperate. And a bad shot. A bad shot. You had such a feeling of desperation about it. It was like they would get to the edge of the area and go, you've got the pass on to the right or to the left.

11:44Phil Kitromilides:I'm going to bloody hit this thing. And that's basically what they were doing. And so Luis Garcia's argument, and I see a degree of justification point was saying, we had 25 shots. Yeah, but most of them were shockingly bad. and most of them were like, there's the goal, kick the ball. It was really desperate. But that result, obviously, they did deserve to win. They were the better side. That result is a really big one. I think it relieves a little bit of the pressure because it puts them in a place of safety. I think it puts them in a place, here's the other thing, where I think they now believe that they look at their fixtures, they have two more home games and two more away games.

12:27Phil Kitromilides:They go away to Villarreal. They go away to Celta, I believe, on the final day. I think they look at this and think, you know what? Those two games, it doesn't matter now. Exactly. I think they look at it and think it doesn't matter now because we win our home games and we're safe. Now, Real Madrid at home, who knows what to think of Real Madrid these days? More on that in a moment. Sevilla are definitely not safe, but this is a big one and it is one that puts them very close to safety. I think we go for home win here. I think, but I'm not convinced. Okay. I mean, that really does put Espanol in the absolute.

13:02Phil Kitromilides:Exactly. And Espanol are in the shit. 17 games without a win. 17. No one has ever had a run this long at the start of the calendar year. Now, admittedly, in a league season, there's been runs this long. But, you know, to start 2026, having won your last one of 2025, and literally not win for 17 games, it's absolutely nuts. And they are definitely in the shit. and they are, I think, emotionally and psychologically in a difficult place as well. Although the funny thing is when I watch them play, I don't have the feeling of fear that I have when I watch Seville. Seville, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just have the feeling that it's just not happening for them.

13:40Phil Kitromilides:I'm not saying they're good because they're not good, right? I'm not saying that. Don't get me wrong. But you watch them and you don't think this lot have fallen apart. Whereas, to be honest, you watch Seville and you think emotionally this lot have fallen apart. They're probably a better set of players. Actually, maybe they're not. I don't know. No, they're probably not, actually. But you look at them and you think they're mentally here. I'm not sure that I feel that with Espanyol. And yet, here we are. Espanyol, who are reportedly on the verge of signing Monchi to be their sporting director.

14:09Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, that's an interesting one, because obviously their current sporting director is Fran Garagatha, who was the guy that was at Avar for many years. He went to England with Lopetegui at Wolves, it must have been, mustn't it, briefly. I mean, he suffered a heart attack. And so he hasn't been working since around about December time. I think there was actually quite a lot of admiration for how well he works. And so this replacement, I think, says something about ambitions beyond him. It says something about his absence and it says something about the desperation, the situation. It's very interesting.

14:39Phil Kitromilides:It feels like a slightly unusual place for Monchi to me. But there you go. All right. So we're going for a home win there. Afterwards, we've got Atletico Madrid against Celta Vigo. Celso have got a very good away record this season and Barcelona and Real Madrid have more points on the road than them Atletico Madrid who are suffering from the coming down and being knocked out of the Champions League nothing really to play for nothing, literally nothing to play for they're five points behind Villarreal so you could say well maybe there's half a fight for third place half of one because they're a very disadvantageous is that a real word?

15:13Phil Kitromilides:I suppose it is, a disadvantageous position but I don't think it matters third or fourth in fact I'm not even sure exactly I'm not even sure it matters third four four fifth anymore because the other thing Rayo did by winning last night was give Spain a fifth Champions League place yeah so Atletico have got a 10 point gap between them and Betis behind them a five point gap between them and Villarreal ahead of them when really and truly getting caught or catching either of those two means nothing anyway they've just been knocked out of Europe and they're gutted do they go into this game with freedom and just play and sort of say let's enjoy it and sort of together come through this or do they just sort of you know i don't i honestly don't i have literally no idea what to do in terms of a prediction for this game because logic to me says celta but i still think at home atletico are a better team and if they just play and they play some of their good players because i think they will because they've got nothing to rest them for either that's the other thing we've seen atletico bin games off because they're resting players but this isn't a big game off situation at the same time as it sort of is because they saw it sort of doesn't matter i'm going home win there you go after going around i'm going home win yeah okay i like i like that uh big game on saturday night israel sociedad against betis yeah very big in theory in practice yeah in practice i don't think it is anymore um because this in theory had real sociedad you know won the last two games i've got something Well, look, exactly.

16:39Phil Kitromilides:You see, I thought after the cup final, in fact, I know after the cup final, that they genuinely thought, you know what, that Champions League place is there for us now. Yeah. And the problem is, of course, they're unlucky enough to have midweek fixtures after the cup final. So they played Getafe. I actually thought they played really quite well against Getafe, considering everything. And they lost in a really bizarre fashion. You know, Getafe didn't have a shot on goal. They scored with an own goal. And you sort of wonder if at that point it's gone. So then Real Sociedad have that draw with Rayo, that slightly bizarre draw with Rayo, when I actually thought Rayo were the better team.

17:12Phil Kitromilides:They were. You know, I don't think 3-3 is like, oh, Real Sociedad were dead and unlucky. I don't think they were. I think Rayo were the better team. I think their challenge for fifth place died with that Getafe game. So I think this is a home win. This is Betis winning this one. A way win. Sorry, a way win. Sorry, sorry, a way win, yeah. Then on Saturday, we've got Mallorca, Sunday rather, we've got Mallorca against Villarreal. Villarreal of course announced that Marcelino will not be continuing at the end of the season absolutely bizarre situation but one which does have well yeah I mean I don't want to go into the backstory for too long here because it's a preview pod not not an analysis pod but essentially uh he was offered a one-year deal only essentially there was always a slight feeling that him and the the not so much the owner of the club but the son of the owner of the club who now runs the club that was sort of not a huge amount to use a Spanish phrase there was not a huge amount of feeling between them.

18:04Phil Kitromilides:It was a one-year deal and they came back three times. So it's not like they were saying, we don't want you to stay, but they came back three times with one-year deal. And each time he thought, well, you know what? That doesn't suggest a huge amount of feeling. And so essentially he said, no. He actually hasn't got a club to go to at the moment. I mean, I think there will be clubs to go to, but he hasn't got one just yet. Yeah, there will be. For sure there will be. Anyway, so what is this game? I don't know. What is this game? Mallorca in decent form? Mallorca in decent form and Mallorca might well feel that if they get something from this, that's it, it's done.

18:42Phil Kitromilides:No, it's not done because they're still only on 38 points. They're still only two points above the relegation zone. But if they were to climb to 41... Well, no, no, no, no, it doesn't matter. No, no, because I think... Because what happens to the other teams? Exactly, exactly. But I think if they were to climb to 41, they would feel pretty close because then they would go away to... I think people are going to go down with at least 40 points. I think you're right. No, I think 41. Someone's going to go down with 41, I think. That said, you look at Mallorca's final games. I've just brought it up because I wasn't sure, but I have been proven correct in my mind.

19:14Phil Kitromilides:I was thinking they don't play anyone good. Are you ready for this? Getafe away. Now, obviously, in theory, that's hard, but Getafe, I think, it's sort of done now. Levante away, by which point I think Levante may be mathematically down. and Oviedo at home, by which time Oviedo are very definitely mathematically down. So is this Mallorca's chance to be very, very, very close to safety? I guess it is. I mean, they'd still have to win the other matches, but yeah. Okay. I'm going for a draw. What are you going for? I've seen Villarreal be, you know, extremely uninspiring away from home this season.

19:52Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, exactly. So have I. And they're a funny team, Villarreal, because they are, objectively, they're very good, but they're sort of not very good sometimes. They're very good on the counter-attack, so I suppose they're a team that don't always have to play that well to beat you because you maybe carry the game to them and they catch you a couple of times. I'm going for a draw, if only because I can't think of anything else to say. There you go. Good. There we go. It's just a sort of good insight into how much thought and preparation goes into this preview pod. So, Athletic Club against Valencia, big historic fixture.

20:25You know, in theory, still quite a lot riding on it because Athletic Club make Europe.

20:30Phil Kitromilides:Athletic Club make Europe. And Valencia aren't safe. And Valencia aren't safe. And also, I think the interesting thing with Valencia is that a couple of weeks ago, you thought, right, they're pulling clear now. Yeah. And yet, poof. Narrator's voice. They didn't talk clear. Exactly that. They were beaten and beaten badly by Atletico's B team last week. They drew with Mallorca. They were beaten by Elche. They were beaten by Celta. Now, obviously, that can happen. But you sort of think, oof. I'm going athletic. I'm going athletic in this. I'm going athletic in this. I think athletic... Nico and Nico played very well last week, which was really important.

21:11Phil Kitromilides:They scored four goals, which I think was important. It wasn't actually as clear-cut a win as that suggests because they were 2-2 with Alaves until, what, 70 minutes, was it? something like that, 75 minutes. Sunset scored an absolutely glorious goal after a really poor season. I wonder if part of the thing, emotionally for Athletic, is they've been given a chance they didn't think they'd be given. So now's the time to grab at it, and I think they will. Home win. Home win. Okay, interesting. Then after that, it's Oviedo against Getafe. Yeah, I mean, Oviedo, I think we all know Oviedo are down. I think actually even mathematically, Even the statistics say it's only 0.1 % chance of them surviving now.

21:54I think it was 99.9 or maybe it was 99.1.