Barca win La Liga in El Clasico - Mourinho to the rescue for Real?

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1:47Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show, European edition. Today, Clasico wins these Barcelona crowned Spanish champions. For beating Real Madrid, the only top of the table interest is how Valverde ended up needing stitches. We look back on the game and a week to put the Real Mad into Real Madrid. Plus check up on Serie A, a 3-2 free-for-all in the top four this weekend. We've got word on the bun fight at the bottom of the Bundesliga and French talk too. It's all coming up in this Totally Football show.

2:21Pol Ballus: It's Tuesday the 12th of May. We've got a very international edition for you of this Totally Football show. I'm in Naples. James Horncastle is in Oslo. Hello, James. Hello. He's also on the clock. So let's make this snappy with your hellos, Tom Williams and Paul Belous. Tom, you're in London? Hello. Yes, I'm in London. Yes. Excellent. And Paul, you're in Catalonia. I am. I am in Barcelona. Hello, everyone. Wow. Got a lot to talk about with you, Paul, with the Clasco. and the crazy situation in Madrid. Looking forward to your roundup, Tom, of what's been going on in France. James, you're going to be covering Syria and also the German roundup, because no Seb, he's in Turkey this week.

3:05Pol Ballus: But first off, let's have a moment of the week. Tom. We're going to go for Lens-Nantes on Friday night. Had some spectacular Friday night games in Ligue 1 in recent weeks. this was not a spectacular game, but it did contain a spectacular moment. 0-0, 12 minutes to go. Pierre Sage throws on some of his youngsters, including a 16-year-old Portuguese youth international called Mezi and Mesloub, whose father, Waleed, played for Lens. I think Lens have got a throw-in, which they take. Within five seconds, Mesloub has scored to put Lens 1-0 up.

4:03Scenes of hysteria. It ends up being the only goal of the game. It is the result that confirms Lanz's qualification for the Champions League. Incredible achievement for a club with such a relatively small budget. New coach in Pierre Sag, a load of new players, etc. etc also confirmed nonce relegation and potentially in in young uh mesien mesloube a new star was

4:26Pol Ballus: born magnificent i loved london's celebration of their place in the champions league again they did that simpsons homage beautifully done yes they they started doing that i think last summer to announce new signings every time they signed a new player there was a new version of the simpsons opening credits. And so they, yeah, they won out again to celebrate Champions League qualification. They can use that one and Homer disappearing into the hedge from the crash out in the league phase next season. Choose your Simpsons meme. Paul? Yeah, no. Yeah, from my side, it's been difficult not to choose last Thursday and what happened with Valverdeck-Tramani.

5:10But we're going to speak about that later. So I'm going to... I will. I'm going to stay on the weekend. And we're going to go on. It was Sunday night at the Luz de Gas, one of the most famous nightclubs in Barcelona. And I don't know if you're aware of that. But just the image of Joao Laporta entering into that nightclub after winning, of course, the league title with Barcelona. I think it was 2 a.m. in the night or in the morning, depending on how you want to say it. Were you there, Paul? I wasn't there. You were? No, no, no. I couldn't be there. I couldn't be there for logistical reasons. Right, yeah, yeah.

5:50He was at a different nightclub. That's why he couldn't make it. Yeah, I'm not going to disclose any further information. Okay. But just the image of Joel Laporte walking in, in a sort of guard of honour of savage people just chanting his name. And then inside the nightclub, he's basically playing Barca soccer from the DJ set with a cigarette in his hand, just fist bumping, just celebrating and shouting and everything, and all the nightclub just cheering his name. It happens in Barcelona, and it happens when John Laporta is your president for the good and the bad things. But this is what the Catalans, in a way, like about John Laporta, that he's not afraid of celebrating, he's not shy, and he's a personality that represents what a lot of Catalans want to see.

6:42at the top of Barcelona.

6:44Pol Ballus: Celebrations that I imagine have made even sweeter this weekend by the total mess going on at their great rivals in Madrid. Something we'll get onto soon enough. James Horncastle, your moment of the weekend.

6:55James Horncastle: I think Como, James. Away at the Benticotti in Verona. They won 1-0. Anastasios Dubikos got their only goal. He's been sort of pushing Lautaro Martinez for the Capocano Neri award, even though he's got 13 goals. But that win meant that KonMor qualified for European football. Now, they've still got a chance of Champions League, given that everyone above them keeps losing, apart from Roma at the weekend, which we'll get to. But to do that in their second season back in Serie A is quite remarkable. And no wonder the players were drenching Cesc Fabregas with champagne, Prosecco, all your Italian beverages after the game.

7:44Pol Ballus: Magnificent. Only two points off the top four. Two rounds of action to go. Very, very exciting in Serie A. We'll, as you say, get onto that very shortly. We begin, though, this morning with La Liga. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

8:20Pol Ballus: Paul Ballou's Barcelona champions. A 2-0 victory at the weekend over Real Madrid. Oh, a lovely free kick from Marcus Rashford, first of all. Excellent free kick. And one of the best things is that he didn't intend to shoot at the start. He wanted to cross the ball. But then all his teammates told him, mate, have a go. Go and try it. And he said, OK, OK, I'm going to try it. And yeah, one of the best free-kick goals of the season, easily. The first time that a Barcelona player has scored direct from a free-kick in the Clasico since, Tom? A certain Lionel Messi, I believe. Whatever became of him.

8:58Pol Ballus: Indeed so. Barcelona soon made it 2-0 through Fran Torres. And that's how it stayed. and then the general celebrations in Catalonia, as you mentioned, Paul. Touching scenes from Hansi Flick, who held a hand aloft to the skies, who'd been managing the game on Sunday, having learnt of the passing of his father, but only that morning. Yep, that's right. When he woke up, he got a text from his mum back in Germany telling him the news. And he confessed after the game that he was wondering if he had to tell the team or not, if he had to hide it and just go with the game and then explain that to everyone.

9:38But that is this sense of closeness and him being a father figure to the dressing room as well and being a sort of a family which pushed him basically to tell everyone. And the reaction of the players and the board, Joel Laporte and Deco, was really supportive. He said that he will never forget that day in his life. And the first thing that the Barca players did when the game finished was basically go to the manager. and how do you say that in English? Like push him to the skyline. Like give him the bumps? Is that what we say? Yeah, lift him a loft. Yeah. Lift him a loft. In like Spanish, it's mantear.

10:13Nice. Nice.

10:15Pol Ballus: Flick with an extraordinary record at Barcelona. People love to question the way he plays his football, but it's so effective. Second title in a row for Barcelona. They're third now in four seasons. He's won six of his seven Clasicos. it's the best record I think any Barcelona manager has ever had better than Pep who had only five wins in his first seven so extraordinary stuff you mentioned Barcelona and being like a family which is certainly something they've been emphasizing on their various social media accounts and what a contrast to the team they faced in the Clasico Real Madrid since we last spoke Paul can you just give us a quick rundown of all the stories that have come out or I can check through and see if I've missed something.

10:59Pol Ballus: You've got Mbappe, you mentioned, he's taking that controversially time break in Sardinia. You've then got Real Madrid fans launching an online petition to get rid of Mbappe with millions signing it so far? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. But that scene has a bit of a meme around Mbappe and a bit of like, yeah, taking the piece out of the situation. I don't know if I can say that. I think in these circumstances, you most certainly can. You've got Mbappé then, stories of him insulting one of the coaching staff. Mbappé then, on the day that, and this was big, Valverde and Chouameni have that fight, which ends up with the Real Madrid vice-captain Valverde taken to hospital, needing stitches.

11:38Pol Ballus: Mbappé leaving training, laughing, visibly laughing. Yeah, yeah. That's the man, no shame. Yeah, with the windows of his car rolled down, in a way. Yeah, extraordinary scenes. Yeah, he wanted... Aggressively laughing. Yeah. Mbappe then also aggressively leaving training before the Classico, unexpectedly complaining of some muscle problems which ruled him out of the game, which I think caught everybody a little bit by surprise as well. Even Arbeloa. If you listen to Álvaro Arbeloa after the game, he hinted, he said something like, yeah, I would have liked Mbappe to be here tonight, but it couldn't be possible.

12:19Okay. And yeah, reading what my colleagues from Madrid, Mario Cortegana and Guille have been reporting, the coaching staff was sort of wanting him to be there and they felt that he could be there.

12:35Pol Ballus: Not part of Mbappe's plans though. There's also reports that as many as six players are not talking to our blower. So I'm not quite sure how that works. and then of course there's the actual physical fights we had well I think we talked last week about Rudiger and Carreras but the big ones this week or in the intervening time have been the Valverde and Chumeli clashes the second day of which Sor has mentioned Valverde taken to hospital after apparently banging his head on a table and some reports say losing consciousness yeah no that's a compelling a compelling summary of like the whole week in Madrid you missed even like in the Mbappe saga in the game in the Clásico.

13:17He posted an Instagram story saying Gala Madrid when Real Madrid were already losing 2-0. So basically he couldn't even bother just to post it before the game or something like this. And all the Madrid fans were like, mate, you're still having a laugh. We are already losing 2-0 after 18 minutes. Just wait for it. But yeah, that's been a compelling summary of an eventful week in Madrid, something that has made the supplies of popcorn run low in Barcelona because everyone has been enjoying this this time I don't remember like a situation of that scale in my lifetime happening at Real Madrid Not even Marseille I think Tom could compare with that I mean it's very Marseille-esque behaviour and Marseille have been having one of their classic Marseille weeks but yeah it's pretty extraordinary to see something like this happening at Madrid.

14:15Marseille have had what? Aubameyang with a fire extinguisher. Is that right? Yeah, that was the main headline. I mean, yeah. I mean, Marseille have been sliding down the Ligue 1 standings, are no longer in a position to qualify for the Champions League. And the response of the Marseille hierarchy has been to punish all the players by forcing them to spend days on end at La Commanderie, the Marseille training centre. And last week, they basically spent the entire week there, not allowed to go home to see their families. And then apparently what happened was that on Thursday, it was announced that actually they would be allowed to go home on Friday.

15:00And they decided to celebrate that on the Thursday night. Things got a little bit out of hand. And a group of players led by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the senior member of the OM squad, ended up bursting into the bedroom of a guy called Bob Taffey, who is a sporting coordinator. He's basically one of Mehdi Benassia's henchmen or one of Mehdi Benassia's lieutenants on the Marseille staff, and soaking him and his room and his belongings with a fire extinguisher. Q Aubameyang being dropped for the trip to La Havre over the weekend and yet more improbable Marseille storylines but a bit more keystone cops than what's been happening at Real Madrid we've not aware of any teammates punching each other this week at Marseille but you can never rule it out

16:03Pol Ballus: Well, as you say, it is unprecedented. Even at Madrid, with the tensions that have been running while there for a while, the level of leaking that's going on, everything just seems to be an open book by now. Absolutely. Yeah, I think it's part of things going really bad and people inside seeing what's going on. Then there's an element as well of Barbeloan knowing that he's leaving, that he's not going to stay at the club. So basically people around him, players, I don't know, coaching staff, backroom staff, everyone at the club wants to live clear that this is shambles and that it's not their fault of it or like what they see badly.

16:43so I guess that this context makes that everyone is sort of keen on licking or like open to explain a situation that is really dysfunctional and has been for a long while because what everyone tells you about is that this is not news and that some of the situations that they've seen this week have been brewing in the background for a while. I read in the report that our colleagues did on the fight that a lot of dressing room sources when asked about the Valverde and Chouamé thing they said about Valverde that in a way this this had been coming all season for the way that he had behaving so we've seen the news this week but those who are inside they've not they don't believe that this super super new because it's been like that for for a while in Valdebebas.

17:30Pol Ballus: So what does the future hold this season's gone second season in a row without winning any trophies a lot of talk about talks advancing to bring Jose Mourinho back in but on the playing front as well, there's the question marks presumably now over Kylian Mbappé, I imagine are there questions about Valverde and any number of other players if they're going to resolve this in time for next season, what's going to happen? Yeah, so the questions are as you say, they keep raising those questions about Valverde, about Kylian Mbappé, about Chouamini, about a lot of senior players, like the contract extension that Benitez is not getting and he's entering to the last year of his contract next season.

18:13So how do you solve that? Mourinho coming in, which is speaking to people in the industry, they basically say that it's going to happen 99%. But then, apparently, those in the hierarchy at Real Madrid, and when I say those, I say the one people who is called Florentino Perez. basically his feeling is that this is a talented squad and that what they really need is a manager that put them together in a clever way and that if a manager is able to do that they're going to function. So which is not of course the same sort of thought that people in that dressing room have and that a lot of people around Madrid believe that they should clean that a bit clear the air a bit and let some people out and bring some people in but Fronadino Berth's thought is like No, no, no, let's just fix it by putting a manager there to make things right.

19:05Pol Ballus: This is like the Mighty Ducks. You have a rabble, a disparate group of rough diamonds, and you bring in a charismatic, twinkly-eyed manager who somehow shapes this dirty almost dozen into something that breaks the rules, shakes things up, takes some titles, woof. I'm down for that. Excellent. So Jose Mourinho, you say? Yeah, yeah, no. I think barring something unexpected, I think, yeah, he is going to be the manager as soon as... The plan is to announce it, I think, as soon as the season ends. Just out of respect as well to Arabello to let him finish the season. Right, because respect's really important for the manager.

19:44There's some respect left at this point. But yeah, that's how it looks. In favour of Jose Mourinho, I'm not going to say that he's going to... I don't know if it's going to work out, but the good thing that he's going to have is that the bar of the last two seasons is so low that it's, in a way, easy to improve that. And I think that Real Madrid, if you tweak some things and you adjust some things in that dressing room, you're going to be able to compete in the Spanish league, in the domestic competitions, because they have so much talent that they will be able to do that. And then, yeah, let's see what happens.

20:24I think that, as I said, It's not impossible that they can improve the last two seasons.

20:30Pol Ballus: Jose Mourinho, who is still unbeaten domestically with Benfica over in Portugal, but they lost second place this weekend with Sporting moving past them after a 2-2 draw at home to Braga. Oh, hmm. Yep. Very good. Elsewhere in La Liga, oh, that 3-2 win for Levante against Osasuna. Outstanding. Plus, they were losing 2-0, so basically they come back from two goals. Yeah, yeah. And that's given them a real chance of escaping the drop. They're one of seven teams within three points, battling to avoid two places to go down. There's three rounds to go, so plenty of room for this to move around. But they beat Osasuna 3-2 Sevilla with a big win over Espanol 2-1, which has moved them to the top of that pile of seven teams, but still only three points clear of the drop.

21:22Pol Ballus: so looking very, very, very tense. On the Sevilla front, I see that Monchi is going back to Spain but very much not to Sevilla. Yeah, he's going to Espanol to lead the project mostly for next season. I think that the announcement was rushed a bit because of the Espanol situation and just to give some good news to the fans and just to let them know that the project is still on, is still going on with Alan Pace in front but the Espanyol case I wanted to mention it because I think well they are the worst team in European stoplight this year they've not won one league game in the second half in the second half of the season they've done five points and they were clear contenders to go to I'm not going to say the Champions League but the Europa League after the first half of the season in Spain and now they're just in the relegation battle.

22:19They're playing without any sort of confidence. You can see that they are one of those teams that is really struggling to play and to perform with confidence. They lost against Sevilla in a bad loss because they were winning and they let themselves go. And yeah, with 10 minutes to go, they were one goal up and they end up losing. And now, yeah, they are just two points above the relegation zone with two games to go. Three games to go, sorry. So it's going to be tough for them. And yet, the relegation battle is just amazing. One of the best that we've seen in recent years in Spain. They say that...

23:02So when you need to do a lot of points to stay in the competition, they say that the salvación está muy cara, is very expensive. And that's the case this season. And they say that with 40, 42 points, you tend to be saved in La Liga. But now this season, we'll see if that's enough because all the teams are winning. And there's so many teams involved in that battle. Wow. All right, we're going to follow that with interest. Paul, is there anything else from La Liga before we move on? I wanted to mention the case of Nico Williams because Nico Williams got injured. It looked like a bad injury. He was even crying on the pitch when he saw the hamstring tear.

23:46and there were doubts about him missing the World Cup or not. Athletic Club made a statement yesterday saying that he has an injury, a hamstring injury. He's not going to play more this season in Atletico's quest to try to get into European competitions. Now that we know that the fifth spot of European competitions is going to go to La Liga after Rayo Vallecano got qualified in the Conference League. But yeah, Nico Williams is not going to play for Atletico again. But he looks set to go to the World Cup or set to be fit for the World Cup. So he should be in Luis de la Fuente's list. But a big blow for Nick Williams, who's had a bit of a disaster season, if I'm honest.

24:25Pol Ballus: Athletics game this weekend was against Valencia. They lost 1-0. And by the way, that victory for Valencia has moved them out of the relegation picture. So fifth now confirmed for La Liga, which means that Real Betis should be, should be, because they're four points clear of Celta Vigo, should be in the big cup come next season. Yeah, let's wait for that, because Real Betis play against Barcelona because Barcelona now are champions already, and I expect them to play with the second unit in the next three games. Both Celta Vigo are in decent form. They won against Atletico de Madrid. The great goal from Borja Iglesias.

25:04And yeah, they will still push for that Champions League spot but right now Real Redis is going to go to the Champions League. Excellent. Paul, thank you so much.

25:15Pol Ballus: Next up, let's head to Italy and Serie A.

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28:21Pol Ballus: Alright James Horncastle, let's talk Syria. An absolutely wild weekend. the race for the top four thrown wide open after a series of three twos with late goals galore Roma coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Parma with two goals in stoppages Milan promptly going three down at home to Atalanta then trying to come back themselves but ending up losing 3-2 big problems there and then Monday night at the Maradona in Naples a thrilling 3-2 for Bologna away to Antonio Conte's side. It means that with only two games to go, there's only three points between Napoli in second place and Roma in fifth. Como, as we touched on before, down in sixth, but they're only two points off a Champions League spot.

29:10Pol Ballus: James, where do you want to begin?

29:12James Horncastle: Well, you were in Naples, James, weren't you? I was. You got to see Johnny Rowe. Johnny Rowe. The former England N21 international. I spoke to him last week. He only scores bangers, this boy. You know, he's scored a great goal against Roma, a great goal against Villa. Obviously, in the game you attended, nice goal. Beautiful goal.

29:35Pol Ballus: So at the end, I was there with BBC Alba, our Gaelic friends, and they did a little interview with him at the end. But I happened to have his goal on my phone because I was half able to watch it because he's coming down the stairs while the game's finishing to get pitch side. So I kind of shook his hand and said, do you want to see the goal? And he said, oh, yeah, I'd quite like to see that. It's a lovely overhead kick and very much spur of the moment. At the time, he seemed pretty calm about it, kind of wandered off to the corner flag like this is what I do. But he'd only just come on and turned around.

30:04Pol Ballus: What was an absolutely thrilling encounter, Napoli taking on Bologna, to whom they'd lost 2-0 earlier on in the season, which prompted Conte to basically go AWOL back then, amidst lots of talk that he might walk out on the club. He left the team to kind of train on their own for two or three days. This game here came against the backdrop of question marks over his future. And also the fact that with a victory, Napoli could have sealed their Champions League spot. So what happened? They probably went 2-0 down in the first half. A fabulous goal from Bernadeschi. And then the returned captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, conceded a penalty.

30:47Pol Ballus: They pull it back to 2-1 through Di Lorenzo. great moment that was just before half time as the maradona erupted and all of a sudden napoli seemed to wake up and having had a rocket uh freshly inserted in their backsides at half time by conte in the second half they came storming out and made it 2-2 with a lovely goal from the excellent brazilian winger that they've picked up in january alison santos however it was bologna who came up with a winning strike in the 91st minute, just as some people were making their way down the stairs to get pitch side for presenting duties, that the ball, that a bit of Bologna pressure, saw the ball come swinging in for Jonathan Rowe, who'd just come on the field.

31:34Pol Ballus: And he took a look at it, said afterwards, I thought maybe I'd take a touch, but nah, I'll just leap up in the air and scissor kick this in. And he duly did, and a magnificent strike, after which he kind of strolled over to the corner flag as if it was all part of a day's work. So Bologna win 3-2. Napoli don't yet seal their top four place. They should be good for a return to the Champions League, but they are only, as mentioned, three points above Roma, who are in such excellent form, James.

32:02James Horncastle: Yeah, absolutely. And also, Juve got a win at the weekend as well. And I think by common consensus, Juventus have been playing some of the best football in Serie A over the last six weeks. It hasn't always translated into results, but the performances have been good. They play Fiorentina at the Allianz next week, and then they close out the season with the Turin derby. And Torino, one of those clubs where fans are protesting bad vibes there. It's going to be really interesting. I mean, this midweek, we've got the Coppa Italia final as well between Inter and Lazio. And it'll be interesting to see what Bering Lazio maybe have on this top four race.

32:48James Horncastle: Because after that, it's the Rome derby this weekend, which is being played.

32:53Pol Ballus: At some point, nobody knows where.

32:55James Horncastle: Well, I think it's being played at lunchtime, James, which is a big source of controversy. Because, you know, it will be hot. It's May. It's not too hot, at least in my recent experience of being in Italy. But that's, you know, obviously if Lazio win the Coppa Italia and can stop Roma getting into the Champions League, that's going to be quite big. The only problem is, is that Roma have arguably the most informed best player in Serie A in the second half of the season, which is Daniel Marlin. Marlin has scored 14 goals in like less than three months since he moved on loan from Aston Villa. and really seems to be the difference at the moment between Roma qualifying for Champions League and Milan not qualifying for Champions League because Milan do not have anybody at this moment in time.

33:50James Horncastle: I know they came back and scored twice against Atalanta at the weekend, but they don't really have anyone that they can go to and look to to score goals at this moment. And they have to go away to Genoa, which I've spoken about Madassi being probably the best atmosphere in Italian football this season Genoa coached by Daniele De Rossi a Roman icon who will be doing everything I think to ensure that Roma get Champions League so maybe he can do them a favour against Milan and then Milan play Cagliari on the final day and as we'll talk about now the atmosphere at San Siro for that game against Atalanta was almost self-defeating.

34:32James Horncastle: The fans were protesting against the chief executive, Giorgio Fulani, they'd been gathering tens of thousands of names for a petition to get him out of the club. Yeah, they were chanting the name of Paolo Maldini. This was all sort of before kickoff. And bearing in mind that the Milan players had gone into the dressing room, I think thinking that Roma were losing to Parma because going into the last 10 minutes of that game, Parma were 2-1 up. And then as they go out for the warm-up, what's this? Are they equalized? And then they come back in from the warm-up. Oh, what's this? Marlon scored a winner.

35:14James Horncastle: Oh, God. And then, you know, whilst they're out for the warm-up, they're looking around and, yeah, there's boos, there's whistles, there's banners against everybody associated with the club. and lo and behold, Milan went 3-0 down and the fans who've been protesting kind of left when they were 3-0 down. So it's a really difficult atmosphere at Milan and one that's going to be tough for Max Allegri to turn around.

35:43Pol Ballus: Inter, their neighbours have the Coppa Italia midweek against Lazio, who they beat 3-0 this weekend. The other thing we should touch on is the fact that while Creminesi have given themselves a slim chance of staying up, a 3-0 win at the weekend, featuring a rare goal from Jamie Vardy, a very fine one too. Meanwhile, heading in the opposite direction, Venezia have confirmed their promotion and lovely scenes on the Grand Canal there.

36:10James Horncastle: Yeah. Whenever Venezia go up, this happened a couple of times in the last 10 years, they have this flotilla on the Grand Canal, which just looks a hell of a lot of fun. People sort of falling in at the water and getting back out, sort of flares being lit. And yeah, just kind of Venezia banners fluttering from the balconies, that affront onto the canal. But yeah, they've just announced a sort of, not a takeover, but new investors have come in, which will, I think, maybe give them a better chance of staying up than last time. Everyone loves a Venezia shirt, even though the guys who used to design the Venezia shirts left.

36:57James Horncastle: And, you know, sort of Drake has come in and basically, yes, that Drake has come in and basically says, they need to be designed by my Nike-affiliated apparel supplier. But, you know, it's good stuff. Frozinone, Frozinone LA also going up, James. you know one of the smaller clubs whenever we speak to Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis he always sort of says you know we want to go back to a 16 team league enough of these poxy teams like Frozionne getting up you know when Frozionne were in Serie A was it last season they then knocked Napoli out of the cup so let's see if there's more hijinks like that coming up

37:46Pol Ballus: Looking for another memorable season of Frozzanoni in the top flight. Excellent. All right, James, you have to head off. Who are you interviewing?

37:57James Horncastle: I am interviewing arguably the best athlete in the world right now, which is Johannes Kleber, who won six gold medals at the Milan Cortina Olympics, cross-country skier. you might have seen the viral clip of him running uphill on skis at 18 kilometers an hour he's a big football fan so we are going to go and talk some football nice one james all right well eat well and we'll catch up with you soon we all belong outside we're drawn to nature whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it.

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40:35You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show.

40:51Pol Ballus: European finals are all decided since our last show. English clubs in all three of them. First time that that's happened, that there's been an English representative in three different European competitions in the same season. And Aston Villa will be in the Europa League final Wednesday week. They face Freiburg in Istanbul. On the 27th of May, a week later, it's Crystal Palace taking on Riot Vallecano, a first European final for both of these two clubs. And then on the 30th of May, Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal in Budapest. Tom, what's the reaction been in Paris to this? I mean, great excitement, as you would expect.

41:32I mean, PSG, who had this curiously sleepy first part of the season and who was still scrabbling around in search of their best form as recently as kind of mid-February, suddenly moved through the gears and look every inch the team that they were at the end of last season when they swept to glory in the Champions League for the first time. I think there's a bit of a feeling and this is not unique to France but that this is the the irresistible force against the immovable object given Arsenal's renowned defensive strength I mean I think you know most people in France see PSG as as favourites but you know they gave PSG a really good game Arsenal did over two legs in the semi-final last season and in a one-off final, you know, who knows?

42:30Who knows?

42:31Pol Ballus: Well, we'll find out on the 30th of May. In the meantime, Paris Saint-Germain haven't yet sealed their Ligue 1 title. They can do it this Wednesday when they face Lens, who are currently six points behind with two games to go. Both of these teams enjoying 1-0 victories at the weekend. Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 against Brest. After fielding their B team, they had to bring on Desilé Douay, who scored an 82nd minute winner. L 'Anse, meanwhile, 1-0 against Nantes in circumstances that you described back at the start of the show with the 16-year-old Mesien Mesleau. Any chance that L 'Anse can win and take it to the final day this Wednesday?

43:14No. The title is basically done. PSG are six points clear, but they have a goal difference advantage of 15 goals. So it would require a minor miracle for Lancet to win the league from here. And it was interesting to see the reaction at the final whistle after PSG's win against Preston Sunday night. Because obviously you can't really celebrate the title until you've actually properly, definitely, mathematically won it. But that didn't stop PSG from kind of celebrating it all the same. and there were kind of fireworks going off from the Virage Oteuil and Luis Enrique and his coaching staff had a big jubilant huddle in front of the dugout.

43:56So, yeah, no suspense in the title race, sadly. But, you know, fair play for Lens, pushing it for as far as they did. And right up until Desiree Duhé scored the winner, which I think came with about, you know, only eight or nine minutes left to play, you did find yourself looking at a situation where Lons would go into that game against PSG in midweek that controversially postponed game against PSG knowing that if they won there'd be only a point in it going into the final day so we almost got a little bit of genuine run-in drama but you know what can you do against the might of PSG who were sporting their new home kit for the occasion of the match against Plessis, with a kind of throwback 90s retro vibe, very broad central red stripe as part of the classic PSG colour combo.

45:00And they've gone for royal blue as opposed to the more traditional navy blue. And royal blue was the colour that, you know, was the kind of blue that they wore in the sort of mid-90s heyday of, you know, your George Wayers, your David Ginolas, your Reyes and all that. So I'm sure that one will sell pretty well.

45:23Pol Ballus: Very nice. I bet I know one person who'll be sporting one soon. If he's not wearing it already. If indeed so. Well, so the title race almost wrapped up. As for third and fourth, that does look very tense. Three teams in two points, Lille, Lyon and Rennes. Lille, who profited from a Denis Zakaria-owned goal as they won 1-0 at Monaco to move up to third place this weekend. Lyon, a point behind Lille, and themselves a point ahead of Rennes. With Marseille back up to sixth after their win this weekend away to L 'Arve. But they're four points off to Champions League places, so that ship has sailed.

46:05Tom? Yeah, Lille, the big winners at the weekend, moving up to third place and into the last automatic qualifying spot for the Champions League, thanks to their winner, Monaco. Lyon, who've been on a fantastic run of late, unexpectedly losing away at Toulouse. Lille are at home to Ossaire, relegation threatened Ossaire on the final day, so you would expect them to get the job done. Lyon are at home to Lens, who haven't really got anything left to play for. And yeah, a big game coming up between Marseille and Rennes in the clash of the former coaches. Habibé and Francais both going up against their former clubs.

46:49But if Marseille were to win, that would secure them a Europa League place. And the latest OM news is that it looks like they are going to appoint Greg Gregory Lorenzi as their new sporting director. He was the mastermind behind Brest's unexpected successes of recent seasons, getting them into the top three in the Champions League. Not like he was going to go to Nice. He's actually going to go to Marseille. And I think there's also an expectation that Habib Bey will not be hanging around in the dugout at the Vélodrome for much longer. and yeah I mentioned Ozair who are at Lille on the final day they picked up a really crucial win in a bit of a relegation six-pointer against Nice which moved them above Nice on goal difference so Nice are now in the relegation playoff spot but Nice are at home to Mets on the final day and The Mets are bottom and very bad.

47:53And Ozer are away at Champions League chasing Lille. So I think the expectation has to be that Nice, Manchester United's somewhat neglected sister club, will probably end up finishing above the relegation playoff place. But they will need to win that game against Mets.

48:10Pol Ballus: Pretty extraordinary position for them to find themselves in, though. Yeah, completely. And a reflection of the fact that Ineos have basically just abandoned the club And so Jim Ratcliffe has made no secret of that fact. I mean, you know, he gave that interview to the Times, when was it, about a year ago, when he talked about how he can't really bring himself to watch Nice because the football isn't very exciting. And, you know, you look at what's happened at Nice this season, various controversies, you know, players being harassed by supporters, change of coach, another dreadful European campaign.

48:48and they do just feel like a club that has been abandoned. Although we shouldn't forget, they are also in the final of the Coupe de France. So there is still a possibility for an unexpectedly glorious coda to what has been a very difficult season. When's the final coming up, Tom? Final is coming up a week on Friday, Friday night. Yeah, would ordinarily be a Saturday, but there's something on at the Stade de France or something. So it's a Friday night instead. But duly noted, Tom. What else from France? So the news last night, we had the UNFP Awards, the annual Player of the Season Awards in France, sort of the French equivalent of the PFA Awards.

49:27And Ousmane Dembele was crowned Player of the Season in Ligue 1 for the second year running, despite having only started nine league matches, which is quite the feat. Piaçage of Lens got Coach of the Year. Robert Risset of Lens was Goalie of the Year, despite his own form being a little bit wobbly of late. And Michael Alisse was named best overseas French player and gave a characteristically short acceptance speech in Paris.

49:57Pol Ballus: Very nice, Tom. Thank you so much. Just to quickly touch on the Bundesliga before we wrap things up here. Seb enjoying a well-earned break in Turkey as we speak. But while he was away, Bundesliga kept on rolling. What's the situation? with one round to go. Top three places are, of course, already settled. Bayern Munich are top. Dortmund in second place. RB Leipzig confining third spot this weekend. Then a huge victory for Stuttgart over the last few days in the hunt for fourth place. They beat Leverkusen 3-1, which leaves Stuttgart level with Hoffenheim in fourth spot with Leverkusen three points behind.

50:37Pol Ballus: Stuttgart have the advantage going into that final day. then of the German season because they've got a superior goal difference. It's five better than Hoffenheim's. Stuttgart are going to be at Frankfurt this weekend. Hoffenheim are going to be at Gladbach and Leverkusen have to hope they both lose and that they win with lots of goals against Hamburg. Down at the bottom, meanwhile, poor old Wolfsburg. They thought they were getting a point against champions FC Bayern, but Michael Elise's 100th minute winner for the German champions means that Wolfsburg stay in the bottom three, who are all, remarkably, on exactly the same points, St.

51:17Pol Ballus: Pauli, Heidenheim and Wolfsburg. So one of them is going to get the lifeline of a playoff, but the other two will go straight down. This weekend, two of those three face each other. It's St. Pauli against Wolfsburg, while Heidenheim hosts Mainz. Crikey, that sounds incredibly exciting. Perhaps even more so and the tremendous battle not to go down in La Liga. Also this weekend, Union Berlin had a 3-1 victory against Mainz, which means that Marie-Louise Eta has become the first female head coach to win a game in European football's top five men's leagues. Crikey. Late goals from Oliver Burke and Josip Juranovic in stoppage time to see them pick up the three points and move up to 12th.

52:02Pol Ballus: Lovely stuff. All right. Well, that's the situation in the various European leagues. There's cup action in Italy with the Copa Italia. There's a full midweek round in Spain coming up, Paul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see how things evolve. As we said in the relegation battle, championship is already decided. But European players in relegation battle, big fight in there. All right. And there's also Long's opportunity to put 15 past Paris Saint-Germain and really make an interesting final day of it in France. Stay tuned for more on that. Anyway, we'll be back. I mean, they only have to put seven and a half goals past them to make it interesting.

52:40So it's even more possible than we're making it out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in football,

52:46Pol Ballus: you just never know. But we will have the answers next Tuesday when we return with the Totally Football Show European Edition featuring, I think, Seb Stafford-Blurback to round up the final day action in the Bundesliga and all the rest of your favourites. Lovely stuff. Many thanks for now to James Horncastle, to you Paul, Tom, to producers Lucy and Javi and you listener. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll catch up with you soon on the Totally Football Show.

53:22You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

53:48James Horncastle: The Athletic FC.

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