Bayern v Arsenal & PSG v Barca headline Champions League week

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2:24Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show, European edition.

2:32Pol Ballus: Today, Champions League last week saw goals in record numbers. Could match day three beat that tally? What will happen when Paris Saint-Germain host Barcelona? And might an Italian side beat someone? We talk midweek action and round out the weekend, Bayern another spanking of Leipzig ahead of another date with Arsenal. France, the menage a son on top of the table. Spain, why the Ligue are comparing Real Madrid to Nazis. And Italy, where Juve and Napoli are racing for the title. The title of who will sack their manager quicker. It's all coming up in this Totally Football Show.

3:08Pol Ballus: Hey, thanks for joining us for this Totally Football Show European edition. Of course, here in the studio, we're joined by James Horncastle.

3:15James Horncastle: Hello, Jimbo.

3:16Pol Ballus: And Tom Williams Hello James Hello to you both On the big screen From Catalonia, Paul Belus Hello, hello, hello And from Hamburg, Seb Stafford-Bloor Hi Jimbo Woo! Alright Hey, who's excited about this incredible weekend of Midweek rather, of Champions League in prospect? Tom Williams Oh yeah Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona That sounds fun Yeah, I mean particularly in the context of the performances as they produced last week. Right. I say fun, but utterly meaningless as well. Yeah. You've got that game and you've got Bayern, Arsenal. All four of those teams are going to be in the top eight come the end of the league phase.

3:57Pol Ballus: They'll be great games, but they are utterly meaningless. I suppose that is why the league phase is enjoyable as it is. Because the big teams can go at it knowing that it actually doesn't matter. Although we shouldn't forget PSG have failed to qualify automatically for the knockout rounds. in each of the last two seasons. Yeah, that's true. One of the clock back 12 months ago, they were putting seven goals past by Leverkusen and they still limped through the playoff round. So there's perhaps more jeopardy than we think. But yeah, it's hard to approach these matches with a feeling that they matter an awful amount.

4:31Pol Ballus: Throw away a little bit. Is this podcast meaningless? Everything's meaningless, really. I mean, we assign meaning in what we choose to do and that's very much the battle of life, being able to select what you choose to give importance to. I'm glad you've chosen to give importance to this today, James. That's right. I'm not a nihilist. No, indeed not.

4:55Pol Ballus: Annihilating is what Bayern Munich did to RB Leipzig at the weekend. Seb mentioned PSG Barca, but Bayern Munich against Arsenal sounds pretty special. Sure does. Special and meaningless at the same time. Both can coexist. obviously Bayern will be without Michael Issa unfortunately because of the red card that he picked up against Viking last week so that's a little bit of a shame but Lenny Karl coming in to take his place he's always fun to watch and a little bit of a question mark about who plays in goal still don't know that Manuel Neuer will be fit so probably Jonas Urbic will start against Arsenal Crikey Crikey and as for Spain Paul all five Spanish teams won last weekend that's never happened

5:37Jimbo: before I don't think No that's never happened in if I have to be honest I think that they all barring Barcelona which possibly were the main favourites against Galatasaray I think the other ones had tough fixtures but yeah really good week for them and what's coming up is going to be even bigger because now we mentioned Barca PSG the week and after there's the Clásico so a massive week in Spanish football against the footballing

6:04Pol Ballus: wing of the Nazi party exactly

6:08Jimbo: yeah yeah yeah Yeah. You've said that. Not my words, the words Javier Debas. Exactly. The mighty Javier Debas. Yeah.

6:16Pol Ballus: All right. Well, that's one of the many stories from this week that we can get into. But hey, how about a moment of the week? Who wants to start? James?

6:26James Horncastle: I think I'm going to go with one of the goals of the season. There are a few actually candidates this weekend, not least in the Premier League. But I enjoyed Santiago Castro's lob for Roma against Genoa, where he's in essentially the six-yard box, crowded out. And it's already kind of a minor miracle. He's able to keep the ball, but he's able to shift it, turn, and then from, I'm not going to say point-blank range, but very close range, lift it high over the goalkeeper. beautiful piece of skill underappreciated by the commentator at the time because the camera at the Stadio Olimpico is far away running track all that kind of stuff and he's so crowded around crowded out by all these defenders that you kind of don't know what's going on and whether the ball sort of deflected up or something and instead he's just he's turned on a napkin and been able to yeah lob a keeper from an unlobbable distance extraordinary Extraordinary.

7:28Pol Ballus: Extraordinary. Hey, non-goal of the weekend surely came in that Barcelona clash with Real Betis, Paul. The non-goal of the weekend. Yeah, the Giovanni Lo Celso. Incredible. Oh, Giovanni Lo Celso.

7:42Jimbo: But did you see like the La Minna Mal one?

7:44James Horncastle: Yeah, but I recollect. Park your bias, Paul. For the sake, Paul.

7:49Jimbo: Ballon d 'Or is being decided, Paul. Come on. Actually, my moment of the week was going to be Kylian Mbappe. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Go on, then. I mean it was yeah no I was about to mention that this week in Spain has been you might have like four goal of the season contenders this game this weekend because you have La Midian Mano's goal Gio Lo Celso's goal that well is not going to be counted because it wasn't a goal controversial choice yeah but then to say the least but then Arda Guller's goal Arda Guller's goal that was amazing brilliant really good

8:26James Horncastle: yeah that was good Then you can put Kubo in. Kubo. Yeah. What is going on? Like the quality of goals that we're seeing across at least three of these five leagues. And then...

8:37Pol Ballus: Not in France, you're thinking?

8:38James Horncastle: There were some decent goals. Okay, not enough. Not this weekend. Sorry. But also, yeah, you go back to the Champions League. Yeah. Four threes, six threes. Yeah. I mean, record numbers of goals. It's extraordinary. It is. I don't know what's happening. I mean, in Italy, they say, you know, VAR has become so light touch as to be non-existent. But that doesn't help you score worldies like this. It just means the game flows a bit more. But, I mean, I just feel like we're seeing lots of goals and lots of really good goals.

9:09Pol Ballus: The numbers back that up. What an era. Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic. Let's see. Paul, did that count as your moment of the weekend? No, he hasn't got onto it yet. We keep interrupting. He said Mbappe. He said Mbappe was his goal in the middle of all of that. Yeah, but he didn't get a chance to talk about it. All right, go on. Tell us about Mbappe's goal, but make it quick because Tom's standing by.

9:28Jimbo: Cool. I just saved the Mbappe goal for the last one just to build a bit of momentum. He was a pro. The Mbappe one for me was the best one in terms of how he received the ball, how he turned and controlled the ball. And it was an oriented control at the same time that left him just in front of the goalkeeper. It was like, yeah, dancing ballad, something like this. The aesthetic of all of it. and then he had pretty much an open goal. He could put it to the far corner with the inside of his foot but he decided to do a croqueta, like we say here in Spain, a 1-2 with both feet to go around the goalkeeper and score it in an even more beautiful fashion.

10:12Jimbo: So props to Kylian Mbappe from my side. It's not going to be enough to win the Ballon d 'Or though, is it?

10:17James Horncastle: Wow, when is that next week? Yeah, and as you were saying, James, just meaningless. meaningless.

10:23Pol Ballus: Exactly. Meaningless. Tom! You're my mother of the week. I mean, it's also meaningless. I wonder whether there's any point continuing. All right, then. Seb!

10:35I'm going to drag me down because Brescia, Mönchengladbach are on the verge of an unwanted record. So, on Sunday, they lost 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim. That's six Bundesliga games in a row without a win or a point. If they win a seventh, that'll make it the worst start in if they lose the seventh yeah if they lose the seventh and they're away to Stuttgart on Friday night that'll make it the worst start in Bundesliga history by any team so no points also worrying signs right so at the end of the game obviously when you've when you've played badly you've lost a you know and you're in the middle of a run like that you expect a little bit of anger from your fans when the Gladbach players went to their own curb afterwards it was just kind of indifference which was i think far worse than anger well

11:21Pol Ballus: they are pointless and so is everything tom well as we've been saying yeah alex blessing after the game he was asked about that and he he described their performance as angfaßenfußball which basically means cowards football which is a really strong term for a coach to use and actually i don't disagree with him because what blessing was getting at is he was saying all of our passes are going backwards everyone's playing conservative no one's making any runs and he's right these these players look really scarred by not just the start to this season but some of the experiences last season too where okay they survive but they're pretty poor for most of the campaign and yeah like it's it's october so you don't want to be you don't want to go too hard on relegation predictions but they don't look talented enough i think blessing is a very good coach an excellent coach I'm not sure what he's going to use from what he has to make them that much better this is not a particularly weak Bundesliga even the size that came up Elversburg we've talked about Schalke or Schalke Paderborn will probably struggle but you know there aren't many default relegations in there so worrying all times and I you know Stuttgart lost this weekend up in Hamburg but they're a good side so odds are on a seventh straight loss which should be yeah pretty dismal for a club of that size crikey tom have you reconsidered on the moment of the week for you well also on the theme of seven oh yeah about a seven goal thriller at the stad Jean Bois in Paris home of Paris FC three times Paris FC go ahead against Rennes three times Rennes equalize from the penalty spot courtesy of Esteban Le Paul extraordinary First scorer of a penalty hat-trick, a.k.a.

13:12Pol Ballus: a reverse Martin Palermo, in Ligue 1 since 1992. But then, in stoppage time, Paris FC go down the other end, win a penalty of their own. Lassine Sineyoko tucks it away. 4-3 Paris FC. The victors, and they are now one of the five teams level on points at the top of the standings. The scorer there, Tom? Lassine Sineyoko. Did he not score earlier in the game? And that was a bit of a special goal. Well, he set up the second goal for Maxime Lopez, who scored a brace himself. Then he scored an overhead kick to make it 3-2. Kind of mishit it. Obviously, overhead kicks are spectacular, but it wasn't exactly a net buster.

13:54Pol Ballus: But a goal that would have been a worthy win of the game. Esteban Le Paul equalised for the third time. Sineoko had the last laugh. Who can tell me the only two other players, aside from Mesterban Lepol, who have scored a hat-trick of penalties in one of Europe's five major leagues in the 21st century? Okay, so this has happened in Serie A, hasn't it? I don't know if it has.

14:21James Horncastle: Okay. Well, I mean, Sinister Mahal has scored a hat-trick of three kicks. Right. But that's not really the question. And nor was it in the 21st century.

14:28Pol Ballus: No. But apart from that, James, you're spot on. Spot on, yeah. No, but it's a good story. Just while we're waiting.

14:34Jimbo: No, no, I'm just trying to think. Shall I let that one just marinate?

14:37Pol Ballus: Yeah, marinate.

14:38James Horncastle: Okay.

14:39Pol Ballus: Marinate on that, listener. And let's talk some Champions League. I mean, Champions League, we've already chatted a bit. But just to take you through some of the fixtures, obviously Paris Saint-Germain against Barcelona Tuesday, possibly this evening as you hear this. But also on Tuesday, Liverpool Villarreal, Man City against A.K. Athens, and a Napoli-Bodo-Glimp game, which is looking very interesting indeed. That one could have meaning on it. Wednesday, equally, Como Man United is a, I would say, worthy rival for Bayern Arsenal in terms of your viewing plans. Also on Wednesday, you've got Villa against Viking, that aforementioned clash of the Bavarians with Mikel Arteta's side.

15:29Pol Ballus: And also Real Madrid against that RB Leipzig team who are freshly red-cheeked after they're spanking by Bayern Munich at the weekend. Crikey. All right. Bayern Arsenal, we'll talk a little bit later on about that. Seb, anything else we want to say about PSG Barcelona? PSG this weekend, for example, Tom, the usual story, left an entire Champions League winning side on the bench. And then had to bring them all on. Had to bring them back. Because the subs aren't good enough. Yeah, 1-0 down away at Strasbourg. Gio Reyna, USA international with his second goal for the club. And yeah, toiling. And then in the early stages of the second half, Ousmane Dembele, Desiree Dwey, Vittinha, Ashraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes all come off the bench.

16:18Pol Ballus: Lo and behold, PSG take control. Ousmane Dembele has an opportunity to equalise, squanders it by dragging a penalty wide. PSG have now failed to score nine of their last 19 penalties. And three in a row. And three in a row. Three in the last week, in fact. Which isn't great. But Dembele atones, tees up Ilias Abani for the equaliser, scores the second goal, and then has a hand in the third goal. Beautifully brings down a high ball from Matvej Safinov, the PSG goalkeeper. Lays it off to Ferran Torres, who squares it for Desiree Dwey to tap home. 3-1 winners. PSG briefly back on top of the pile Lyon have since gone above them on goal difference But five teams in Ligue 1 on the same number of points Yeah, yeah It is du jamais vu It has not been seen before at this stage of a Ligue 1 season Good Lord One of those missed penalties Tom in the last week of course came in the clash with Man City The first half of which was hailed by The Athletic's very own Jack Lange as the most devastating 45 minutes of football he's ever seen What were they saying about it in France I wonder?

17:24Pol Ballus: Similar things. Really? Yeah. And I think there was a degree of surprise. De jamais vu. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And I think there was a degree of surprise because, I mean, PSG destroyed Slovan Bratislava in their opening fixture. But, I mean, you'd expect them to. Their domestic form has been pretty underwhelming. And a feature of PSG in the last two seasons has been that they've taken a long time to get going. Now, last season in the Champions League, they actually got off to a pretty good start. 4-0 win against Atalanta in their first game, which was a real masterclass. They won two on away to Barcelona with like a second string attack.

18:02Pol Ballus: They put seven goals past Bayer Leverkusen, but they didn't in any of those games hit the heights that we saw them hit against City. We've not seen them do this to one of their supposed Champions League rivals this early in the season. So it kind of surprised people a little bit. And I think it just shows that when Luis Enrique has his first choice 11 on the pitch and everyone is fit and everyone's in the mood they have this gear that they are capable of just shifting into and when they need to do it they do and when they don't feel they need to do it they they don't so it was a tantalizing glimpse of you know what PSG have shown us so many times over the last couple of years in the Champions League.

18:41James Horncastle: It's the way to beat this PSG Tom to kick them in the penalty area and force them to take

18:46Pol Ballus: penalties yeah if you could restrict them to penalties only they score one in two okay and more or less so that could be a fruitful yeah line of inquiry they're not one of the answers to your question they are not okay paul just the 5-2 for barcelona this weekend that is now 11 victories in their 11 games this season they've won every single match they've played they've scored 48 goals in the process. Not sure if they've kept any clean sheets in that run. Probably not. But that 5-2 win at Betis this weekend featuring one sensational goal, one sensational disallowed goal. And what else can you draw from that ahead of this clash with Paris Saint-Germain?

19:33Jimbo: The biggest talking point in Barcelona now is the amount of injured players they have in defence. They have quite a difficult position in there because Eric Garcia and Jules Koundé left the match basically injured and they're going to miss the PSG game. They are confirmed absentees of the game. Eric Garcia is going to be out for a month so he's going to miss the Clásico too. And then Andreas Christensen is also injured and has no trouble with the team which leaves Hansi Flick with limited choices at the back. It's not possibly the best opponent to face with those limitations. I think Xavi Espart, the Alamacy Starat is going to be the right back.

20:12Jimbo: Pau Kuversi and Gerard Martin should be the centre-backs. Paul Gerard-Martin is going to do a fitness test this afternoon in the late training Barca are going to do at the Park de Prince. And Joao Cancelo as a left-back. So that's the biggest takeaway of the game. But if we speak about what happened on the pitch, I think that the game was really amazing. I mean, it was a fun game to watch. And Betis got dismantled, basically, in the second half when Facundo Bernal was sent off. Barca were 3-2 up. But Betis were quite damaging at the counter. Betis, one of the most fun teams to watch this season by a mile.

20:48Jimbo: They hadn't lost a game at home this season yet. They won against Real Madrid with that Troy Parrot goal. And against Barcelona, they put them on the ropes up until that moment in which Facundo Bernal got into a heated clash with La Minha Mal and head-booted him. And yeah, the referee sent him off, basically, and that was all downhill for Barcelona. It was an easy ride from then and scored a couple more goals and an easy win. It's beyond the 11 wins in 11 games. In La Liga, it's nine wins in nine games, which have matched the best start ever in Spain's top flight, like beyond La Liga, like from the start of the creation of football.

21:30Jimbo: And if they win next week, they're going to have the best ever, which, funny enough, is going to be in a Clásico. So that's another takeaway of that game. and let's see what happens regarding the absentees who can play who cannot ball i have the sense that in barcelona as and returning to the meaningless sort of subject of this podcast um this game is meaningless compared to the weekend when you when you can leave real madrid nine points away from

22:00Pol Ballus: you wow so true talk about real madrid later on but tom yeah psg have injury concerns of their Oten going into this game. No Nuno Mendes. Came off the bench but then got injured late on against Strasbourg. When he went up against Lamin Jamal with Portugal at the World Cup, he was brilliant. And it was only after he went off through injury that Jamal kind of came into the game.

22:23Jimbo: And I remember the Nations League final where Nuno Mendes was outstanding against Lamin Jamal.

22:28Pol Ballus: And the guy likely to replace him is Luka Dean. And the last time he came up against Lamin Jamal was in the World Cup semi-finals and it It did not go very well. Luca Dean, whose missus has been speaking out. She has, yeah. Yeah. Which I was kind of surprised by, mainly because I've always felt that Luca Dean looks a little bit like a CRS, like riot police copper. Oh, yeah. I can see that. Yeah. And it turns out his wife is actually, you know, drawing upon her Instagram post, quite a left-leaning person. Quite radical. Person, yeah. You know, kind of throwing her support behind the youth and the protesters.

23:09Pol Ballus: Unlike Manu Petit. Manu Petit, he tried to present a more nuanced perspective. He doesn't look like a member of the... He's certainly... I think you probably have to cut that ponytail off if you wouldn't fit in the helmet. So, I mean, it's practical consideration more than anything. Anyway, PSG taking on Barcelona on Tuesday. but you might feel, as I perhaps do, that Napoli-Bodo is a game of more significance. Bodo-Glimt, who beat Borussia Dortmund last weekend, oh, last midweek. Napoli, who very much didn't beat, bottom of the table, Venezia, a team who'd lost all of their fixtures until this weekend, defeating Max Allegri's side 1-0.

23:50Pol Ballus: How much pressure is on Allegri as they go into this Champions League clash? There's a lot of external pressure at the moment

23:57James Horncastle: because Allegri for the last, I'd say five years, has had this reputation of being someone who stands for a football from long ago, I suppose. And he's always tried to be an ends justify the means kind of coach. So you may not like this style of football. You may think it's backward, but look at my medals. But the reality is in five years, he's only won a Coppa Italia. he was sacked by Milan at the end of last season for failing to qualify for Champions League if you don't take a job immediately afterwards and you're kind of on the shelf I think then a lot of people would say who would hire this guy he's finished oddly Napoli immediately decided to to hire him and look Napoli were limited in what they could doing the transfer window because they were sort of under a sort of embargo enforced by Serie A for cost controls from January.

25:04James Horncastle: There were players that had been loaned out, sort of players that Conte didn't really like, that they signed, Noah Lang, Lorenzo Luka, who came back. And so you could say that Allegri has been working with what he's got rather than being able to shape the team but however I mean if you look at his last 17 games in Serie A 6 wins, 2 draws, 9 defeats this is the worst start to a season that Napoli have had since they were actually in the second division at the turn of the century under Gigi Di Canio I think at this moment in time they will they will give him until the international break I think it would be expensive to get rid of him I don't think they would want to pay the money that it would take to get rid of him But after Bodo Glimt, who of course won on their last visit to Italy, they beat Inter at San Siro.

25:55James Horncastle: Of course. They love playing Italian teams, having beaten Mourinho's Roma 6-1 at the Arctic Circle.

26:06James Horncastle: Napoli then play Roma at the weekend. And if there's one team that you don't want to play against at the moment, it is Roma. I know that they lost 4-3 to Real Madrid, but for 80 minutes of that game they were magnificent. and yeah I didn't feel that they lost to Real Madrid I felt they lost to three corners in the last seven minutes of that game but to come back to Napoli to play Roma after Bodo is not ideal because Roma look like they are a genuine contender to to go all the way with Inter for the Scudetto this season

26:44Pol Ballus: Alright Well let's talk about Wednesday's games and a side who had a spot of bother with a Norwegian opponent themselves last midweek were Bayern Munich, who you recall had that remarkable 3-3 draw with the Viking. Bayern this time around are taking on Arsenal. In between, they've spanked Leipzig to the tune of six goals. Seb, what's the state of play with Harry Kane and the boys? So they've played good now. So heading into that Leipzig game, Jimbo, there was a little bit of disquiet about Bayern's standard performance this season so you mentioned their 3-3 draw in Norway when made a few mental mistakes obviously Michael is so guilty of an emotional one too which is going to cost him a place against Arsenal he's suspended but then they came back to Germany to face what looked like a really awkward game against Leipzig on Saturday night a Leipzig who just thumped Eintracht Frankfurt 6-0 the week before looked in brilliant brilliant nick yeah buy and put them away completely put them away and it was not only the best collective performance but the best individual performance for all sorts of players at least say outstanding kane outstanding um alex pavovich played very very well luis diaz hat trick or dryer pack as the germans would say won't have him as a hat trick with goals and different halves um and there was a real rhythm to it um the trouble is so at least he drops out against Arsenal which means all that chemistry that you've just seen that dissipates Lenny Kyle comes in is Saibari going to start because that's an interesting question because a lot of the chemistry and attacking dynamism last season depended upon very direct players around Harry Kane Saibari good player really good player probably lacks acceleration and speed to fill that role maybe Gnabry comes in instead we mentioned Noir and Urbic at the top of the show so we're going to see what happens there I think Urbic probably starts just because heading to the season the club's state intent was to put him into important games not just play him in Pokal matches or low stakes Bundesliga matches but test him he is the succession plan expose him to Arsenal set pieces and that's something to watch because if you if you saw the the game against Viking you'll see how lax some of the Bayern defending from set pieces was around Urbic so let's see how they deal with hello Arsenal who are pretty good at them right so interesting time I also just before not to wang on but Lenny Carl obviously this time last year we're all really excited about him about what he could be and I think that's still the case but there's been a little bit of a plateauing obviously he missed the World Cup due to injury and that same electricity that same excitement hasn't sort of he hasn't built it back since so this is a great stage had a very good time at the Emirates last season even though Bayern lost good and excellent goal big ass to come in and fill Aliso's shoes but also great opportunities so it's really exciting little subplots there Jimbo Alright and of course there's Harry Kane up against his former North London rivals Arsenal which is always a special fixture for him but meanwhile elsewhere on Wednesday evening you have among the other games Como against Man United a Man United team who've only won two games so far this season.

30:05Pol Ballus: Could they win a third against the Komatski? I'd be surprised, James.

30:12James Horncastle: I'm going along to this one. Oh. And it's probably the biggest game that the Senegal has ever hosted. A lot of doubt whether Koma could actually put on games like this at the end of last season when they qualified for the Champions League. But after their final home game, they knocked down one of the stands. They rebuilt one, so it's compliant with UEFA. They've added all kinds of amenities that you need to host these kind of games. We saw them play RB Leipzig on match day one. They didn't look like a team that was making its debut in the Champions League.

30:46Pol Ballus: What was that, 4-1, 5-1?

30:47James Horncastle: I can't remember, but they thumped them. They were magnificent. A little bit different, first away game last week in Rotterdam against Feyenoord. I think Cesc tried to rotate a little bit, took some responsibility, said if you want to shoot someone shoot me shoot not robert sanchez my backup goalkeeper who showed himself to be as bad at coma as he has been at chelsea i don't think they'll be making the same mistake of putting him in goal uh given how good john boutes uh the goalkeeper that coma signed 18 months ago has been for the club and they beat fiorentino at the weekend a lot of hype around fiorentina going into this season um yeah they spent more than 100 million it's the centenary and their Donald Trump style owner, favorite of mine.

31:33Pol Ballus: Who had an audience with Donald Trump last week.

31:35James Horncastle: He did, yeah, for a Italian-American event. Must be very disappointed. Team's second bottom after Como beat them at the weekend. Some lovely goals in this. Nico Paz involved in a couple of them. Wonderful assist for, I think, Duvicas, who did the kind of, not Cristiano, well, yeah, Cristiano Ronaldo step overs and then beat Davide De Gea, the former Manchester United goalkeeper, who's been going for Fiorentina. And then Paz has got a brilliant header as well. So back to winning ways in the league for Como. I just think there are so many layers to this team. Coach is so good. Everyone's so in sync that they may look like a small team, Champions League debutant on paper, but in reality they're a pretty big club, big operation.

32:25Pol Ballus: All right. Will there be pizza, you're wondering? in Senegalia. There we go, yeah. With Cesc Fabregas in the tunnel. Hey, United. Sorry, Tom. I mean, it is in Italy, so it would be even more fitting for there to be pizza than... It's not there. Where? Well, indeed.

32:43James Horncastle: Pizza famously not great in Lombardy, although the pizza's... Well, no, no, no, no. Pizza is Rome and Naples thing. What do they get wrong in Lombardy? Well, no, they're not getting it wrong anymore. That's the thing. It's a little bit like how London has become a kind of place where there are some top pizzerias. Milan has really upped its game.

33:02Pol Ballus: I think we had a very nice pizza together in Milan. We did, yeah. Huge pizza. Huge. Huge it was. But quality and quantity. Yeah.

33:11James Horncastle: But no, I mean, there's a few pizzerias. Pizza Stella in Milan at the moment. It's very good. A few others that... The pizza and the pint of Stella. Solid combat. Great Champions League night to be had. What else do you need? but no you'd agree with this James would I I'd say historically Milan not known as a pizza city no but it's changing that of course yeah

33:38Pol Ballus: anyway there you go that is Coma Man United I've totally ingrained that were we too detailed on that we'll get too into the weeds on the tactics let's move on because there's a bunch of leagues to get through before we can wrap this podcast our stop. Paul, you're up next with La Liga.

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37:08Pol Ballus: So, Paul, Barcelona is still five points clear at the top of La Liga, five points clear of Atletico Madrid, who beat Espanyol this weekend. Real Madrid, six points behind after their 4-1 victory over Sevilla, which saw Kylian Mbappé in fine form, as you mentioned before. Yandir Mendy coming in for the suspended Vinny Jr. with an absolute belter of a goal. and a player who I think the Real fans have been looking forward to seeing in the starting line-up, really living up to the hype.

37:41Jimbo: Yep, Jose Mourinho praising him before and after the game, saying that he's a really good player, promising player, that he's doing all the right things, still needs to improve a lot. He mentioned his finishing as an area that he needs to improve and the decision-making in the final third. But if you look at the fourth goal of Real Madrid, I mean, you wouldn't tell that he needs to improve his finishing because the effort was an amazing shot, yeah. And yeah, I think that Diomande, to be honest, we've spoken a lot about the lack of balance that Ramde have when Binnie and Mbappe are playing together.

38:13Jimbo: And playing Diomande instead of Binnie provides a lot of that balance. The amount of involvement on and off the ball that Diomande has, how he tracks back, runs back, helps and makes better Marco Curella, who is on his same side. But yeah, it just, in my opinion, makes Round 3 just a better team, which at the same time makes me wonder why on earth they believed that it was a good idea to commit a new six-year deal to Benicio Junior last summer when they had a big offer from Arsenal. But yeah, that's just my opinion.

38:43James Horncastle: It's crazy, though. I mean, you're right. I mean, because when they signed Jan Diamande, what, for a club record fee?

38:51Jimbo: 130 million, something like this.

38:54James Horncastle: Same agent as Vinicius Junior? Younger.

38:58Jimbo: done like Vinicius Jr. Yeah, I mean it's strange to me

39:01James Horncastle: that if you're going to sign one player and you've already got Kylian Mbappe, why do you need to keep with Vinicius Jr.? I thought he was very bad against Roma. Vinicius Jr.? He gave the ball away for one of the goals. He was just, yeah, didn't affect the game in the way the best Vinicius can.

39:20Jimbo: He's been heavily criticised this season for just for that basically and for the amount of noise around him and for round-lead having the same problems that they had last season. I'm not saying that they were perfect against Sevilla because it was not the best round-lead we've ever seen. But it was a way more balanced team. I think that Arda Gula as well is a play that needs to be mentioned. In my opinion, one of the top two, top three players of round-lead this season easily. He's now being used more in midfield, more like similar to Modric, something like this. More like in this rounds of the game.

39:58Jimbo: And yeah, Artagula, of course, he opened the score. There was a bit of controversy with Kim and an elbow that he left to Sevilla's player, Peke, that could have seen him sent off. The referee and the VAR said that they couldn't see a clear image where there was a clear elbow and they decided not to have a second look at it. The Sevilla manager complained a lot about it after the game. He said that he didn't want to speak about the game because the game that he should be speaking was another one, one that they had to play against 10 players, not against 11 players. So that was a bit the takeaways of the game.

40:37Jimbo: A lot of the narrative and the talking points in Spain are being really focused on referees. I know it's been that way for a lot of time, but this season feels a bit worse in my opinion. Okay.

40:48Pol Ballus: Vinicius Jr. who is suspended for four games for pulling Nathan Saliba's hair after in the clash against Villarreal. Is it because of that decision, the four-game ban, that we now have this war between Javier Tebas and Real Madrid and Real Madrid television, which, according to Tebas, Real Madrid uses like the propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels for the Nazi party? It's an interesting comparison for the league chief to make.

41:18Jimbo: Yeah, I mean, it feels even too much for Tebas, knowing what Tebas is and how he likes to speak and to take social media and to put his messages across in the world. But it felt a bit too much. So basically, it had a lot to do with the Benicio's pull of the hair because what Javier Tebas criticised and labelled with the words that you used here is what the television, the TV channel of Real Madrid do, basically, which is after the game, criticise heavily all the refereeing decisions that go against them in a fashion that it's a bit too much. And I agree with that, that it's not normal to have a TV channel doing what they do because they put a lot of pressure on referees before and after the game.

42:02Jimbo: And they feed this conspiracy theory around them that the referees are against Real Madrid. But yeah, Javier Tebas replied to this sort of a strategy that has been going on for years at Real Madrid, making this comparison that, yeah, was not fortunate enough.

42:19James Horncastle: It's not the first time he's used language like this. I remember at the Financial Times Business of Football conference a few years ago, Andrea Agnelli, the Juventus president at the time, was in the front row. Tebas was on a panel and just looked at Andrea Agnelli and said, and called him the Vladimir Putin of football.

42:42Pol Ballus: Good Lord.

42:42James Horncastle: which the eventist delegation got up and left. What did he mean by that?

42:49Pol Ballus: Well, I guess that's a question for another day.

42:55James Horncastle: I mean, on the one hand, I admire Tebas for calling stuff out in the way that he does. But the language he uses is... He's not afraid to call a spade a Nazi. he's just

43:15Pol Ballus: straight talking to me isn't it perfectly possible to make the point that Paul just did about the channels going too far the conspiracy stuff without putting a name on it although we're all talking about it because of that nasty comparison so yeah yeah maybe there you go anyway Vinny will be able will be eligible to play in is it Wednesday night's Real Madrid game when Real Madrid play RB Leipzig who are the club of course that they bought Jan Diamande from. So will Diamande get to start that game,

43:47Jimbo: do you think, Paul? That's a good question. I think that he might be rested. Benitez will for sure start, Mbappe will start as well. Hendrik, who played brilliantly at Rome, as James might know, started over the weekend. He didn't do much. He played on the right wing. You could see that he was possibly not in his best position. I don't think that he will play midweek, so maybe that's a spot for Jan Diamande. But again, Real Madrid have a lot of players who can be there, like Brahim Diaz, even Arta Guller, you can play him in there. Or like Fede Valverde, who now is returning to the right-back position and is being amazing in there, and now seems happy to play in there, not like on the Xavi Alonso.

44:28Jimbo: But yeah, I think they have plenty of options, and I would like to think that Mourinho is going to give minutes to those who have not played much over the past weeks.

44:38Pol Ballus: Okay, all right. you certainly would hesitate to make any kind of prediction about Real Madrid after what you saw them do to Roma last week was it 83rd minute they were 3-1 down and they ended up winning 4-3

44:50James Horncastle: that is the score James yeah it was quite remarkable because I would say that for 80 minutes they were terrible and even the goal Kylian Mbappe scored to get them back in the game at 1-0 I mean kind of a great Mbappe goal like the ones that we saw at the World Cup where he takes it on from distance and scores but quite heavily deflected off Jadimozo. And there are Roma fans that I'm friends with who have seen their team kind of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But even by Roma standards, they were like, a very good friend of mine has been going to Roma games since like the early 80s and he said, I've never seen Roma concede three corners in a game, let alone in seven minutes.

45:45James Horncastle: Right, and then failed to defend any of them, really. Well, I think the thing with Roma is that in that game, they were, without their first-choice goalkeeper, Mules Villa, they had Pierluigi Golini in goal, il rappa con i guanti, the rapper with gloves. Yeah, the Texas back.

46:06Pol Ballus: Yeah, from Atlanta days.

46:08James Horncastle: Who has released some rap. He's dropped some tracks over the, dropped some bars and crosses over. He's not the most physical when it comes to coming for crosses, which, you know, we saw Real Madrid do over and over again. You know, Manu Kone, Roma's best move field player, go off after 17 minutes. Cristante wasn't there. Dybala goes off at halftime. and then gradually in the second half, one centre-back after another goes off, Mancini goes off, Hermosa goes off. And so it was a little bit like Jenga with Roma where you keep removing these pieces and, you know, can it stand Walter Jenga? Is that enough?

46:52Pol Ballus: No, I just said, you know, yeah, Jenga. Or Jenga. I'm not sure where you stand with that. Is it Jenga or Jenga? I'm guessing it's probably Jenga in Spain. At home it's Jenga. Jenga. Jenga. Yeah, Jenga. But anyway, collapsing like a block of wooden pieces has had one too many structural elements removed. I hear you.

47:14James Horncastle: Rather than it be down to Real Madrid actually playing well. Endric came on and did play well, helped change the game. Arda Goulet as well was fantastic. But ultimately, the game turned on three corner kicks rather than anything that Real Madrid did in open play. This would be my analysis.

47:35Pol Ballus: Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Roma, this week have Slovakia and Bratislava, which should provide an easier fixture for them. Paul, before we move on from La Liga, what about Villarreal and their visit to Anfield?

47:53Jimbo: Villarreal, I mean, they seem to have improved over the past few weeks with Inigo Pérez. They signed this young, next-big-thing manager from Spain, from Rayo Vallecano, who drove Rayo Vallecano to the conference league final against Crystal Palace. It seemed to be a perfect match for Villarreal to build on their new project. They struggled at the start of the season. They struggled to win. I think they didn't win in the first four games of the season. Inigo Pined went to one press conference and said, look, I'm doing something wrong because I'm not clicking with the players. I'm not connecting with them.

48:26Jimbo: I have to improve. Then they got better after the break. They started winning games. They won in the Champions League last fixture. But then they were not able to continue with this form over the weekend because they draw nil-nil against Elche, a team that is tipped to go down from La Liga this season. Fair to say they've rotated quite a bit, so they are going to play with the A team, to say something, against Liverpool. let's see. I think they are a team that can give you a battle. And I think that Liverpool are not a finished product and they could struggle to beat Bidder Real. But again, I don't think that they are the best version that this team can be.

49:11Jimbo: There's interesting names like Nicola Pepe, I think he's not going to be available because he is injured. But Alberto Moleiro is a really interesting talent, one that can be in the Spain national team in the near future. Mikau Tadze up front really good striker Georgian striker he's been quite criticised in recent weeks because of his visits to the casino but hopefully he lives like the like the cards and games just like a side to both Is he winning losing?

49:41James Horncastle: What's his record Paul?

49:43Jimbo: I'm not sure about this but I I didn't I didn't get the sense that he's winning a lot out of it because the criticism that he's getting it makes me think that he's losing

49:54Pol Ballus: interesting interesting thanks so much Paul next up let's check in on what's going on at the top of the Bundesliga after hearing about what's going on at the bottom France and of course more from Italy

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53:16Pol Ballus: Bayern are back on top of the Bundesliga after Dortmund only drew this weekend and Freiburg, who were in the lead, went and lost. They lost to Bayer Leverkusen, Seb. They did, Jimbo. They took the lead. Derry Shahan gave them the lead and then goal from Ibou Mazza and then Patrick Schick. Hey, if you see that Patrick Schick goal, look at the piece of skill Ibou Mazza produced to create it. he kind of nutmegs two players with one touch absolutely beautiful is it six six six goals six games for schick yeah that's it yeah schick six six i'm gonna neatly segue away from that and say hey the tennis balls are back so uh before this game at the by arena right at the beginning of this game the freiburg fans were protesting against what they felt were overly authoritarian authoritarian stewarding methods which prevented them from bringing materials into the ground so they chucked tennis balls onto the pitch stopped the game people cleared up the tennis balls the game started was about to restart more tennis balls to the point where Julian Schuster the Freiburg head coach had to come around under the curve and say to them can you stop it please and then the game restarted and it did Schuster looked pretty annoyed by it um not quite sure the specifics are they the ultras have have released a little bit of a statement but haven't gone into which uh particular materials were not allowed in um but they were pretty upset but yeah we um tennis balls presumably weren't on well tennis balls tennis balls seem to come in in dozens they there was no shortage of those yeah so that was interesting um do you want to talk about stuttgart just ahead of their game against atletico madrid okay so last season they had a really rough time up in hamburg they came to the volksbark stadium and in the 94th minute they were drawing 1-1 and had a man advantage half of our player sent off and had a free kick right on the edge of of the home box great chance to win the game uh cross across the area a pass across the area was left short half of our broke away and scored and won the game 2-1.

55:26This year, Samiru Mouhaim, who you will remember from last week's Moment of the Week, he's staging his own competition for the Puskas Award. Scored another absolute screamer, this time in the 88th minute. Flew into the top corner, won the game 1-0, so Stuttgart have another really bad time up in Hamburg. Heading into this game against Atletico Madrid, a few concerns. they're not scoring goals they're creating chances but um so far this season through six Bundesliga games the only player to have scored more than once is Josip Agneman who's a right back Denysh Gundav is without a Bundesliga goal so far uh it's looking a little bit ripey good football no end product so let's see how they get on against uh Atleti but um yeah they they

56:11Pol Ballus: they're kind of stumbling into this yeah and Alicco Madrid team are on a run of six straight straight victories. A quick shout out to Elversburg, you recall, come from a smaller German town than Forfar is population-wise in Scotland, and racked up their third victory of the Bundesliga season this weekend to move up to sixth place. It was a 4-3 win against Augsburg. They are not going away just yet, are they, Elversburg? No, they're playing some really good football also, particularly on the counter-attack if you over commit against them they will break away at pace uh and they've got some good technical players at the top of their formation they will punish you as Augsburg found out uh Augsburg of course last week uh took a point from Bayern so um not a mug team hey before we leave the Bundesliga let me give a tip of the hat to Loris Karius so him and Schalke lost at home this weekend to Mainz but Karius is absolutely outstanding it's probably uh certainly the best performance he's given in the Bundesliga this season might be the best performance he's ever given in the Bundesliga.

57:12He was brilliant, even though they lost and was included in Kicker's Team of the Week, which is a lovely moment for him, I'm sure, given the many peaks and troughs of his career. But he really was excellent.

57:23Pol Ballus: Excellent. Many thanks, Seb. Oh, Tom, I mentioned the menage à cinq, which is undoubtedly what they're calling it in France. Oh, yeah. Situation, meanwhile, on top of Ligue 1, where no less than five teams share the lead. Essentially, they are in goal difference and goals for order Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain, Paris FC, Lille and Monaco and then you've got Rennes, Rennes only one point behind next week Paris Saint-Germain will be taking on Lyon so two of those five going against each other in fact four of those five going against each other because Monaco hosts Lille yeah, yeah very congested at the top Lyon top of the pile and in the same way that Luis Enrique rotates between European fixtures, Paolo Fonseca is doing the same thing with Lyon.

58:17Pol Ballus: But in the case of Lyon, it actually works. Every time Paolo Fonseca has sent out his second string this season, be it in the Europa League or in Ligue 1, they've won. Same thing happened against Nice on Sunday night. Pavel Schultz on target again and then USA's Tanner Tessman with a fantastic header to put them in front. Nice had gone ahead through L.E.Y.E.L.E.Y.E. And yeah, Lyon away to PSG on Sunday. Lyon dropped points at home to Brest. Olivier Giroud with the equaliser. A textbook. Unsavable penalty. Top left corner, hit the crossbar and went in. Unsavable. Monaco lost for the first time this season in all competitions.

59:03Pol Ballus: one nil away to Lorient. Marseille won again. Marseille won again. Two wins on the spin for the first time this season, 5-2 at Angers. So they had that run of five straight defeats in all competitions. I wrote a piece about them during the international break, kind of looking at their problematic start to the season. But those games that they lost domestically, at least they were against teams who you would expect them to struggle against. Both Paris clubs, Monaco, and I think it was Rennes. And the fixture list coming out of the international break on paper looked a lot kinder. And so it's proved 5-2 win away to Angers.

59:43Pol Ballus: So they're up into the top half of the table for the first time. All right. Lovely stuff. Hey, with all of that, let's wrap it up today with another dip into the crazy world of Serie A. Serie A, where currently it's Inter and Lazio. That's right. Lazio sharing the lead. Roma behind in third place with Milan currently rounding out the top four and then a classic top-of-the-table teams like Como, Frozionini and Cagliari before you get down to Juventus in eighth place and then Napoli in ninth. Juventus, who were beaten 3-0 at home by Lazio in a defeat which has the smack of the pivotal about it for their manager Luciano Spalletti.

1:00:28James Horncastle: it does James because Juventus look I mean they've got a financial fair play straight jacket on although you look at how much money they spent in the summer again and whether they allocated their resources wisely you know sort of spending all that money on Colomuani and this kind of doubt that Colomuani is a striker Volta Marder arriving late and just the general sense that Juventus don't have a block of Italian players don't have any leaders in the team. And I mean, this is their worst defeat to Lazio since what I call the Jimbo years, between 92 and 2002. Last time they'd lost 3-0 at home to Lazio was in 1995.

1:01:14James Horncastle: And you have to say that Lazio didn't fluke this in any way. It was a deserved win. and they didn't end the game as, for example, if you were to go to the Juventus Stadium the last 15 years. Remember, this was a real fortress. If you were in the lead, you would invariably concede, draw, lose, but there would be a real kind of assault on your goal for the last 15, 20 minutes. It was a real back against the wall kind of job. Not for Lazio. And I think this is probably the most damning thing that you can say about this current generation of Juventus players is that Lazio kept going. Lazio maybe could have scored a fourth, they could have scored a fifth.

1:02:03James Horncastle: And after the game, the club's effective most senior player, captain Gleisen Bremer, came out and was asked, are there any leaders in this team? And he was very harsh. He said, there are people in this team who hide which is kind of one of the worst things you can say about your teammates and that as a leader in the dressing room there is only so much he can do you know you can lead a horse to water you can't make it drink everyone is their own person unless they really buy into this then you know what more can I do than what I'm doing already and it was then that Spalletti was asked you know do you think the team is following you right and he kind of like quite flippantly said, well, we won quite comprehensively on Thursday night in the Europa League.

1:02:56James Horncastle: What do you think was happening there? But certainly in the league, the performances have been very disappointing. You don't really see the hand of the coach in how they play, which is strange because Spalletti is very inventive. The team is usually very fluid. It was towards the end of last season, but we haven't seen any of that.

1:03:12Pol Ballus: Yeah, this is the, I mean, certainly the Gazette this morning making the comparison because Lazio, also managed by a recent Italy manager, but one who has effectively reinvented himself since those dark days of Reno in charge of the Azuri. Lazio are a team who know what they need to do and how to do it. And Juve can speak to see neither of those things under Spalletti, who is now better at talking than he is at managing. I'm quoting the newspaper here.

1:03:39James Horncastle: Yeah, look, I think very interesting reading. They feel that Italy broke Spalletti. Yeah, they do. And look, I mean, some of his, I followed Italy throughout that in person. And some of his press conferences were completely preposterous. I mean, there was one where in Leipzig, Italy got the result they needed against Croatia to qualify from the group. And it was the last moment of euphoria I can remember with the national team. Zaccani scored late. Everyone went bonkers. And yet you thought the manager at that moment would come downstairs and kind of just drink it in a little bit and enjoy the moment.

1:04:23James Horncastle: And instead, first question, he was like, there's a mole in the camp, isn't it? Who's telling you this? And just like this kind of paranoia that I think most people associate with Mourinho in his first spell at Real Madrid at the end was there and seemed to completely consume him. I don't think he's finished as a coach. I mean, when he came in last November, really up until the last month of the season, Juventus were the second best team in the league in terms of points per game.

1:04:59James Horncastle: And Spalletti, we shouldn't forget, won the league with Napoli for the first time in 33 years. And I would say Conte in some respects when he then won the league a couple of years later benefited from a lot of the work that Spalletti had done. But Conte is a word that we're hearing a lot associated with Juventus. Yeah, although when I spoke to him, I got the impression that his sights were maybe set elsewhere. But certainly I think for the Italians, it's like you need to get Conte back. I think the issue with Juventus is it's less the coach. It's yes, the coach you can focus on, and Spalletti certainly gives you a lot of things to criticise in the way he handles himself in the media and these latest set of results.

1:05:43James Horncastle: But the reality is that since Andrea Agnelli resigned and looked towards the end of Agnelli's reign, there were lots of things that were going wrong with Juventus. But really, the management ever since then, above the coach, has been deplorable, in terms of changing the executive team, changing the coach. The thing that's gone viral over the last 24 hours has been a Thiago Mota press conference. I think a lot of people have forgotten that Thiago Mota was even the coach of Juventus the season before last, where after a defeat he says, you know, we should all be ashamed, everyone should be ashamed.

1:06:20James Horncastle: And kind of really captured not just the moment, but this era at Juventus as they slide into, you know, they haven't won the league since COVID, you know, when Maurizio Sarri was in charge. And we're getting towards not an unprecedentedly long spell of Juventus not winning the league, but certainly it looks like that period, what, between the late 80s and early 90s when they went nine years without winning a league. Before Lippi. Yeah, which for Juve is an eternity. And I think as much as it's very easy to point the finger at this very combustible Tuscan in the dugout, the reality is that you have to look above that and say, you know, what's going on?

1:07:06Pol Ballus: Lazio though are they there for the long run do you think?

1:07:11James Horncastle: I think you have to give a lot of credit to Gattuso because you mentioned how he sort of I wouldn't say reinvented himself but like sort of shown that he's not a schmuck after losing that playoff to Bosnia where they were 1-0 up until they went and down but yeah they lost to the Coppa Italia to Mantegna in his first game and everyone thought oh, okay, Lazio look terrible. They've got this idiot as a coach. They're not doing any business in the transfer market. The fans aren't buying season tickets because they hate the owner. You know, maybe Lazio can go down. And instead, this is the best start Lazio have ever had.

1:07:54James Horncastle: Wow. To be honest, I do think that environment around them has galvanized the team in the way that when they lost to Mantua in particular and everyone is predicting this team could go down. I think a lot of the players were looking at themselves and saying, hang on a minute, haven't we been in Copa Italia finals? Haven't we always been there or thereabouts in Europe? I think this group of players in particular is benefiting from being away from Maurizio Sarri because I think Sarri is a really good coach but every training session with Sarri is like, being in goodwill hunting and having one of those impossible equations to sort of solve.

1:08:41James Horncastle: Right. Rather than the bit with Robin Williams.

1:08:44Pol Ballus: Yeah. Not the fun bit. Not the fun bit.

1:08:46James Horncastle: Not the fun bit. Gattuso's the fun bit. He's Robin Williams. They've got all the fun that they've learned. They've got all the stuff they've learned from Sarri and then they've got the fun guy.

1:08:55Pol Ballus: Brilliant.

1:08:56James Horncastle: Yeah. Okay.

1:08:57Pol Ballus: I think Lachiu could go down in history if they continue this kind of form. Anyway, that's probably enough for today's... I kind of want to mention one other thing. Okay. Antonio Raimundo. Oh, yeah. Of Frozionni. Frozionni, what did we say? Sixth? Sixth, I think, now. Mm-hmm. He, classic, this weekend, Frozionni are playing Sassuolo, and before the game, he's given the September Player of the Month award. We know what that means. He scores a hat-trick. What? Incredible. Yeah, seven goals in seven games. is top scorer in the league. Yet another of these young Italian goal scorers. They're coming out of the woodwork.

1:09:36Pol Ballus: Well, yeah. The national team must be flying, James.

1:09:39James Horncastle: No, but honestly, the last week with Niccolò Tresoldi scoring against the Champions League. The German? Alfagic Cisse. What's his name? Niccolò Tresoldi. No, I'm saying

1:09:50Pol Ballus: the German for Niccolò Tresoldi because he's possibly going to be He's an under-21 player for Germany. He hasn't committed either way. Then Cisse

1:10:00James Horncastle: It's the Italians call him rather than Cissé scoring a hat-trick as well. He looks so good, yeah. Then Salzburg. And then the great Raimondo.

1:10:07Pol Ballus: The great Raimondo. Raimondo. Very good. Well, hey, Tom. Trivia answer, anyone? I was going to say, I wondered if Seb or James, because Paul's done one, have an answer. What was the question again all those years ago? So Esteban Le Paul this weekend scored a hat-trick of penalties in Liga. Only two of the players have achieved that feat in the 21st century in one of Europe's five major leagues. Who are they? Seb? Xavi. Producer Xavi has already got one of them. Oh, is he? Oh. How did he do that? Ricky Lambert. Mind Communications. Did he send you a text? No, Mind. He did, yeah. Okay. He wrote it on a piece of paper.

1:10:46Pol Ballus: He's been waving it. Seb? Robert Lewandowski. No. Oh, that's a great shot. One was in La Liga. Oh, yeah? The first one of the century. One was in the Premier League. The Premier League. Can you give us some clues for the slow ones at the back? The guy who scored the hat trigger penalties in the Premier League has a famous father. It's not Rory DeLapp, is it? No. Even more famous than Liam DeLapp. No. Is it... Not Lampard. What era are we talking about? The current era. Famous within football. Oh, is it Erling Haaland? No. Is it a red nap? It's not a red nap. Running low on offspring. And he has some footballing siblings.

1:11:32James Horncastle: Ooh.

1:11:33Pol Ballus: He has a footballing dad. He has footballing siblings. In his spare time, he scores hat-tricks of penalties. Oh, crikey. Tom, that sounds really, really obvious now. I bet the listener is shouting at whatever device you're using. Engagement bait, Jimbo. Is that the one that Shavi got? Yes. Okay, who is it, Shavi? because I'm getting beside myself. Justin Clive at Jimbo. Clive at for Bournemouth. Of course, Justin Clive. Against Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2024. And the other one, probably not going to get, has also played in the Premier League. Carlos Soler for Valencia against Real Madrid. November 2020.

1:12:15Pol Ballus: So both within the last six years. Is that COVID penalty hat-trick? Yeah, it would have been, I guess. Doesn't count. Yeah. Doesn't count. So there you go. Wow. What a bombshell on which to finish this week's...

1:12:28James Horncastle: That's what we do. No pressure if there were no fans in the stands for Carlos Soler there. True.

1:12:33Pol Ballus: Why weren't they all scoring penalty hats? Yeah, fair enough. Fair point. Maybe they weren't getting awarded three penalties to take. Because there wasn't enough pressure from the crowd. Round we go. Anyway, there you go. It's been another fun Totally Football show. Thank you, listeners, for being with us. Thank you, Seb, Tom, James, Paul, and producers Shavi, too. We'll be back with another one next week. Loads of totals in the meantime. From all of us here for now, it's goodbye.

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