Champions League semi-finals are here and a refereeing scandal in Italy

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2:02The Athletic FC.

2:09Totally Football Show, European edition. today. Refereeing scandal hit Serie A just when things were going so well for the Italian game. We've got the news on there. Rocky horror, plus word from elsewhere. Spain, severe difficulties and Real Madrid's Clasico nightmares. Bundesliga, a goal-tastic weekend in Ligue 1 and how about those Mets? And a look ahead to the Champions League semi-finals, Paris Saint-Germain against Bayern and Atletico Madrid against Arsenal. It's all coming up in this Totally Football Show.

2:43Monday, 27th of April. It's a big greetings from South Carolina for a special edition of this Euro Toti Football Show. We have James Horncastle. Hi, James. Hello, Jimbo. Hi. Tom Williams also in front of a really impressive set of books on the shelves. Thanks, James. Hi. Hello. Hi to you. Hey, Paul Bolus in Catalonia. I am. I am. Hello. Hello. How are you guys? and in the special remote edition, the one man in which he turned up to the office is Seb Stafford Bloor. Seb. Hello, Jim. But I found a standing desk and every audio booth at The Athletic now has a tree. Yeah. Which is strange in the background.

3:27Yeah. Is it a real tree or like a fake tree? Is it a real plant? It's a really well done fake tree, Paul. Okay, good, good. We've just been having a lovely chat about Tom Williams running in the London Marathon. only this Sunday. Tom, congratulations. Thanks very much. Yeah, my first marathon, almost certainly my last. It was simultaneously amazing and absolutely horrible. But the most important thing is I don't have to do it again and I can just move on with my life. So you haven't got the bug, Tom? I haven't got the bug. I mean, people tell you that you get the bug. I quite enjoyed the training, surprisingly but it's just such i mean famously such a grueling event who knew and that you you spend the vast majority of it just wishing for it to be over as quickly as possible not entirely sure i'm desperate to put myself through it again but good fun nonetheless excellent well were you given the weekend off from match of z day then well i kind of took the weekend off i requested the weekend off.

4:33So, yes, I was away from the studio in Paris for once. Oh, quite nice. Everybody else have a nice weekend? Paul? Yeah, yeah, cannot complain. I had a bit of an off weekend as well. So, yeah, I could... I mean, I've just followed the football and all this sort of stuff. I didn't have to work in the place. Yeah. I could, yeah, see from the sofa of my hometown with my dad how Real Madrid are just giving up on the La Liga titles, which is... In a Barcelona fan-based family, it's a pleasing view to have. My weekend's been unusual in that I was at World Strongest Man in Myrtle Beach. That's right, South Carolina.

5:17Did you win or can you not tell us until it goes on? Actually, I wasn't competing. No. You've retired, James. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I can't tell you anything about what happened. I knew that it was absolutely great. I mean, really just gripping your guts in the way that only sport can. Just twisting your emotions and highs, lows, hitting you in rapid succession. And then that aftermath. I think we all know the feeling. Anyway, net result is all this European football chat is going to be new to me because I've been a bit busy with the, you know, the guys. So I'm excited to hear about everybody's news from the continent, especially their moment of the week.

6:06Seb, why don't you start us off? Yeah, go on then. Okay, so we haven't had Alemania Aken in a moment of the week before. So they're down in the Drita Liga. And their goalkeeper, young 23-year-old Greek, former Greek youth international, Fotis Septis, made probably the best double save I've ever seen in their game against Duersburg on Saturday. So first one, people who haven't seen it, a little bit sort of Gordon Banks against Brazil onto the crossbar, but then Seftis up because Duersburg forward is first to the rebound, gets up, makes the second save. Absolutely brilliant. I am hoping producer Lucy can find some commentary.

6:47I've got some if she hasn't because the commentary is outstanding in a very, very, very German way. Josh Gooden, a team on the right side. Franke is not bad! What a safe! What a double safe! That's the double parade of the year!

7:22on it. Remarkable, Seb. Looking forward to hearing other tales from the various divisions of German football in the course of today's show and about Bayern Munich's chances against PSG in the big semi-final coming up on Tuesday. James.

7:37James Horncastle: Which scandal do you want, James? But I'm not going to pick a scandal. We're going to talk about those a little bit later. I'm going to talk about Daniel de Rossi, the general coach. His club, he owns a team called Ostia Mare because he's from Ostia, which is kind of Rome's beach. And Ostia got promoted and he came away from the dugout at the end of General's 2-0 defeat to Como. And he was already sore about losing that game. And then his wife, who was at the Ostia Mare game, texted him the score. He looked at it and was like all right we're not going up but she texted him the wrong score uh and then and then he went in the dressing room actually checked the score app saw they'd won they got promoted and they got very emotional about it because it's a passion project means a lot to him and he was quite tearful um which she ever such a a strong strong guy like daniele i could my favorite person in football was very moving.

8:43It certainly sounds like, where have they moved up to, James? I think they're in Ciliat-Chi. Wow. I think they've come up to Ciliat-Chi. Magnificent. Well, lots of other news to come from Ciliat as well, as James was hinting. Tom, in and around your exertions, what was your moment of the week? Going to go for probably the last significant action of the entire weekend. Marseille against Nice at the Vélodrome on Sunday night. Marseille are 1-0 up, desperate for victory, trying to cling on to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. But they can see the penalty. Who steps up to take it?

9:19Ex-Marseille centre-forward Elie Wai, now on loan at Nice after a completely forgettable six months at OM last season, during which he scored three goals. He had a running battle with the Marseille centre-backs throughout the game. Every single touch of the ball that he made was copiously whistled by the fans. Steps up, scores with a Panenka.

9:55Nice level it up to make it 1-1. More drop points for Marseille. That's one win in the last five. why he's not an easy person to celebrate and he has a pretty problematic rap sheet and is probably or at least was at some point a fairly unpleasant human being but just a sign of how dismally OM's season is going that you know the one guy everyone was desperate not to score ends up scoring the goal that denies them another victory. Massé have now conceded 12 goals in the 85th minute or later which helps to explain why they're now down in sixth and looking increasingly unlikely to make it into the Champions League.

10:38Crikey. From James' favourite person in football to a deeply unpleasant human being. Paul, who are you going with?

10:44James Horncastle: Wow, what a segue to a hole. No, that's right. No, you're right. That does sound... Paul, who are you going with today? I'm going to possibly the biggest talking point in Spain right now which is in the Spanish second division. And what happened at the Aragon Derby, which basically faced Huesca and Zaragoza. It's a really heated rivalry in Spain. Both teams, as I was saying, from the Aragon Autónoma, from the area. They're both in the relegation battle. And they had a game with high spirits, as we could check in the dying minutes of the game. when basically the referee was going to check something in the B.A.R., to check a potential red card offence, on the way to the B.A.R., he had a bit of a discussion with the goalkeeper.

11:37Then the goalkeeper of Real Zaragoza pushed the Vuesca defender and he got sent off. The goalkeeper, let me put the name, of course, is Esteban Andrada, a 35-year-old Argentinian goalkeeper, former Boca junior goalkeeper, a long career with him. He's Argentine, is he? I would never have guessed. Yeah, I've just mentioned it. This was full Libertadores what happened. I'm not judging here. I'm just like laying out all the data and all the stuff. So basically his reaction to the red card was just to run at the play that he had a role with and just, yeah, basically punch him into the face in a full swing, a full blow.

12:22So that created, yeah, a massive brawl in the game. All the players involved, a huge rugby melee in there. The Westca goalkeeper was sent over as well for a punch to the Zaragoza goalkeeper. Three players ended up suspended, of course, and it's created a big chaos in Spain and in the Spanish football. Right now it's being discussed which is going to be the band, which is going to be among the biggest ever seen in Spanish football. I have the list here of the biggest bands in Spanish football. The biggest one dates back to 1965, which was the Zaragoza fullback, finally enough, which was Joaquin Cortizo, who had a big tackle to an opponent and received a 24-game suspension.

13:19What? For a tackle? Yeah, for basically a tackle that broke the Atletico de Madrid player's knee, basically. Yeah, destroyed the leg of the Atletico player, which was Enrique Collar. And then the second one, we go back to 1990, which is Risto Stoikov. Which basically he stepped on the referee of the game. He had a... Stepped on is like the right word in English? Stomp. A stomp. A stomp. He just stomped into the referee and he got a 12-match suspension. So Andrada, basically, the Zaragoza goalkeeper, is going to be among those frames. It's going to be difficult to see him playing for Zaragoza again this season.

14:06He appeared after the game in the mission and apologised for what happened. Zaragoza also apologised and said that they are going to look into it and take the appropriate action to the player. But even local politicians have expressed their opinion and said how So, yeah, how bad of a view it was for the local community in there, given that it was a local derby. Local politicians coming out. You know you're in trouble. Crikey, Paul. Well, not the only refereeing controversy we'll be touching on in the course of today's show. We're going to begin, though, with the Champions League semifinals that are coming up.

14:39Atletico against Arsenal on Wednesday. PSG against Bayern Munich on Tuesday next. This is the Totely Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Tuesday brings another clash between the European champions Paris Saint-Germain and their old chums Bayern Munich. Everyone's excited about this. Tom, how are they feeling in Paris? Yeah, I think there's a lot of excitement. I mean, on paper, it is a monumentally mouth-watering pairing of teams. I think the two standout teams probably in the Champions League so far, along with Arsenal perhaps. And yeah, I mean, I think the pleasing thing from PSG's perspective is that they've really grown into this defence of their Champions League title.

15:28Flashes of brilliance in the league phase, but then they ended the league phase in really disappointing fashion. Had to go into the playoff round, were really poor in the playoff round against Ligue 1 rivals Monaco and came quite close to being knocked out. managed to come through that very open first leg of their subsequent last 16 tie against Chelsea but from the moment they got their noses ahead in the first leg you know they didn't look back ended up winning that tie 8-2 on aggregate and I think what we saw in the quarterfinal against Liverpool was something much more reminiscent of the PSG that we saw in the Champions League last season.

16:14Good news on the injury front, they won 3-0 at Angers over the weekend. Luis Enrique shuffled his pack, played a lot of his second string players. Ashraf Hakimi started the game, went off at half-time with a thigh issue, but apparently it's not serious. Vitinha has missed the last two matches with a heel problem, but he has trained today, Monday, so he should be okay and is expected to start. So PSG are pretty much full strength and are looking more and more like the PSG who swept to glory in the Champions League last season. Right. Although how much of a setback will it be for the Prisons that they had to play a football match this weekend, Tom?

16:55Well, I mean, there is the risk that it will completely spook them because they are used to just putting their feet up and sitting around the weekend before a major Champions League tie. So yeah, the fact that they've had to go out and actually play a game of football, I mean, who knows what kind of psychological impact that could have. I guess we'll find out on Tuesday. The meantime, as you hint, a six-point lead now in Liga, which means that they can fully focus their thoughts on their Champions League campaign. They have suffered at the hands of Bayern Munich, apart from when they met in the Club World Cup last summer of late.

17:34Yeah and the last time the two teams met in the league phase in early November Bayern produced a really impressive performance 1-2-1 and in pretty convincing fashion pressed PSG really aggressively in a way that PSG aren't really used to the opening goal came from Deo up a Meccano winning the ball back on the halfway line and that was the pattern throughout the first half. Luis Diaz scored a couple of goals to put Bayern 2-0 up, then got sent off for a pretty horrible tackle on Ashraf Hakimi, who was forced off and spent the best part of a couple of months on the sidelines. PSG then dominated the second half with the man advantage, pulled the goal back, but Bayern were worthy winners.

18:22I mean, that arrived at a moment in the season when PSG weren't really firing on all cylinders. So I think they'd like to think that they'll be closer to their best on Tuesday. But yeah, it felt like a bit of a wake-up call because both teams went into the Champions League campaign accompanied by a great deal of expectation. And on that night, at least, Bayern were clearly better. Okay. Bayern looking better this weekend as well, Seb, when they roared back from three goals down to beat Mainz 4-3 in the Bundesliga. yeah they sent out a rotated team Jimbo so no Kane no Elise no Mastiala no Ucmucanu at all and found themselves 3-0 down at halftime and Jonas Urbig who started instead of Manuel Neuer in goal he said after the game that Vincent Kompany was seriously seriously annoyed at halftime it was very much a kind of performance you give when you've won the title don't really have anything to play for you're kind of looking towards next week anyway Kompany came into the dressing room.

19:24Obi didn't tell us exactly what he said, but he hinted at the tone of how he said it. And he was none too impressed. Anyway, they sent on the reinforcements after halftime and eventually won 4-3. A real, real show of power. It's very impressive in its way, in the kind of the mentality sense, because like I said, you know, yeah, I mean, you can have high standards as a club, but the reality is the title is won. You're not playing for anything. And some Some of the players that came on, particularly Kane, Alise, Alise, who scored an absolutely brilliant Aaron Robben-esque goal for the right side.

19:56Beautiful, beautiful goal.

20:04They still, I mean, it was 100%. This was not a day out in Mainz. So very, very impressive. a little bit of a cloud on the horizon particularly given kind of how much trouble Bayern's pressing gave PSG in that first game as Tom referenced Serge Gnabry is out for the season he'll also miss the World Cup so there's going to have to be a reshuffle you'd think for Tuesday night that Jamal Musiala will come in Musiala definitely playing better regaining some form over the recent weeks but his threat is very different to Gnabry who the virtue in his role has been he's been very direct he's provided the avenue and the outlet for that big long diagonal that Josua Kimmich likes to play Miss Jala of course prefers to front up a defense and play in the pocket as a more of a traditional playmaker passer dribbler so let's see let's see how that works out let's see how it alters the dynamic because I would I would say that the great success for has been the chemistry in those attacking for between those attacking four players so as soon you disrupt that even by bringing in a world-class player like Messiaenla it's going to be different in some ways so could not be more excited but also intrigued by how company tweaks this.

21:15Seb how much of a trauma are they having in Bavaria over their dismal recent record in two-legged semifinals? You have to go back over a decade to see them successful in one of these two-legged affairs the only exception was that Covid campaign which saw just a single match in Portugal yeah I would say before the Real game very much so because they were I mean in talking about knockout games um more broadly um I think those dragons were slayed over the course of those those two games and I think there's an acceptance now while still taking PSG for what they are which is a reigning European champion and an awfully gifted football team really well coached this is a very different Bayern to the one we've seen um really probably since that COVID season um in all sorts of ways i think bayern in previous seasons have got through to to kind of the latter rounds of the champs league but they've always had an obvious flaw whether it be the center of defense um a lack of attacking power particularly in that season after robert levendoski left and sadio mane came in it was a bit disjointed the midfield has been perceived as an area of weakness at times i don't think now you would look anywhere in that buying team and say there's a weakness i think they're still capable of bad moments um they had a couple against Real Madrid wasn't wholly convincing in the second leg Manon or had a terrible night he looked 40 that night um but this is a I think the prevailing attitude is this is an opportunity to go and win the competition and so when that ego reinflates and takes hold I think that becomes the the dominant energy and that's the sense that I get now excellent all right that's coming up on Tuesday night then on On Wednesday, we've got Arsenal taking on Atletico Madrid, who the Gunners defeated 4-0 at the Emirates back in the group phase.

23:00Paul, what's the mood in Madrid? The mood might be a bit better now because they won on the weekend against the Athletic Club from Bilbao. If you look at the recent pictures of Atletico, in all competitions, they had won just one out of the last seven games that they played through all competitions before this weekend. So that was a bit of a concern. But yeah, with that win, Simeone also, he rotated some key players, but a pretty decent line-up was put in display against Athletic Club. Only Julian Alvarez was rested, but people from Atletico have confirmed that he's perfectly fine. Ademola Lukman was rested as well because he's injured.

23:40He picked up an injury after the Copa del Rey final, and he will be a doubt for that first leg at the Metropolitano. But, like, for Atletico's delights, Alex Vainab was really good. And he was the big name of the game, feeling that he's been a player, that he was a big signing. He has not been possibly at the level that he was expected to. He's seen as the Griezmann replacement when Griezmann leaves. But if you don't have Ademola Lukman on the left flank, and if you have a top Alex Vainab, maybe he can be a suitable replacement. So that will be on the cards when Simone thinks about his lineup.

24:14But yeah, basically, Atletico are playing their biggest game of the season. The Copa del Rey was a failure for them. La Liga, we know the position that they are in. They are in the fourth spot. They cannot get into the third spot. But the Champions League is pretty much guaranteed. And they face it with the highest spirits. The worst note is that Pablo Barrios, which is a fundamental player, he got injured again in the game that he was returning from injury. And he's going to miss the whole tie. He's going to miss the season, basically. Arsenal, whose options for glory have narrowed of late, coming into this on the back of that 1-0 win against Newcastle.

24:50Are we expecting quite a pragmatic match between Simeone and Arteta here? I don't think so.

24:57James Horncastle: Yeah, me neither. I don't think so because I think there's more to this Atletico side. Yeah, they are not the Atletico of Diego Costa and Diego Godin. yeah they can beat you in lots of different ways um i think one of the things that i was impressed by when i got to watch them with paul was even when they're under pressure they can play out from pressure with skill and elegance they don't hoof it and run the channels they have some really nice patterns where Gresman comes short, relieves the pressure, kicks it out to Julian Alvarez, and off they go. So I think whilst in both boxes for corners, it could be quite fun, tasty.

25:49James Horncastle: I think there'll be a lot more football played in this tie than people expect. It's interesting that though, isn't it? Because it's interesting how long the perception lasts, even after a lot of the kind of the main characters from that original Atletico Madrid are long retired you still get this idea when they come over oh it's just gonna be nil-nil isn't it two sets of nil-nil and a terrible extra time and then a gritty penalty shootout um it's funny because that's like a decade old as a perception isn't it be interesting to see how Arsenal approached this I was really struck by the way they went after Manchester City in the game at the Etihad the weekend before last obviously finished on the losing side but I think there was an expectation given that a draw would have been a good result for Arsenal that they would just seek to spoil it as we've seen from them you know quite frequently but you know they they were really bold in their pressing cause City a huge amount of problems I interviewed William Saliba last week for Canal Plus and spoke to him about that game and the approach they'd taken and whether it was enjoyable playing that kind of football and he said that you know it was for a centre-back you want to be on the front foot and I think particularly given the amount of nervousness there is around Arsenal at the moment being the team that kind of seeks to impose itself in that way you know could be a way of helping the team to gain confidence and yeah you know as James was saying we know that Atletico are a very dangerous team with the ball at their feet so having enjoyed a degree of success with that kind of very aggressive front foot pressing at City I wonder whether we'll see a similar thing from Arsenal in this game Alright especially having won 4-0 at the Emirates just a few months ago Well very good those games coming up Tuesday and Wednesday of course on Thursday there's Europa League and Conference League Forest against Villa and Braga Freiburg at the Europa League semifinals Raya Vayakano against Strasbourg and Shakhtar Donetsk against Crystal Palace in the Conference League poll.

27:52Yeah, no, I was about to mention that I'm going to Braga this week. I'm going to go to the game. So if you need a special report from there, let me know. Excellent. Excellent. Next up, let's move on, though, to the weekend news from the various leagues and a quiet weekend for James Horncastle.

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30:18This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. James, Italian football is in a state of shock.

30:37James Horncastle: Yes, that is a statement of fact, James. Yeah, tremors rippling through it. I mean, already this time last week, there was this scandal about a PR and events agency in Milan being an alleged front for the facilitation and exploitation of prostitution. and within the kind of warrant to place four people under house arrest, it was noted that the clients were prevalently football players, although no football player was placed under investigation. And so already there was a lot of talk about that. and then the news on Friday that the referee designator in Serie A, so think of your kind of Howard Webb-style Pogmol figure, had been placed under investigation for alleged sporting fraud.

31:45So specifically, the charge is that he influenced the decision-making of VAR, which almost feels within his remit, But more specifically, that he piloted the assignment of referees for matches to favour certain clubs, or one club in particular, which would be Inter.

32:03James Horncastle: Yeah, and we should say that Inter and no one at Inter is under investigation. but to those two points brought up by prosecutors in milan one is the allegation of violating var protocol which i think to our listeners they're like what's the big deal with that well the var once they enter the booth to var a match should have autonomy of decision making and a video emerged from a game last season between Parma and Udinese in which there was a handball incident. The VAR, you can hear him talking and he seems to think that it's not a handball and then you can hear in the background a knock on the window of the VAR booth and he then appears to change his mind and recommends that the referee come for an on-field review and give a penalty to Udinese.

33:14James Horncastle: It's alleged that the person who knocked on the window was the referee designator Gianluca Rocchi. So a lot of people just sort of rolled their eyes at that and thought, well, that's not a big deal. It's just a referee designator looking over the shoulders of the VARs making sure that they do their job correctly. But also included in the explanation from the prosecutors to place Rocky under investigation, it was this allegation that at San Siro, on the day of last season's Coppa Italia semifinal first leg, he colluded with several persons who are unnamed and unaffiliated with any club or organization and allegedly agreed okay daniel doveri he will not referee the copper italia final and he will not referee any of inter's upcoming games or remaining games of that season and it's alleged that it was also agreed that a referee, Andrea Colombo, would referee Inter's game against Bologna.

34:36James Horncastle: That was one of their remaining games. Now, Inter didn't reach the Coppa Italia final. Inter lost to Bologna. Ultimately, the result is irrelevant because if there is an attempt to make conditions favorable to one club over than the other, then that's enough to constitute sporting fraud. Now, Rocky, of course, denies all of these allegations. His lawyer said yesterday that he's never known a case in which someone is placed under investigation for collusion with several people who are unnamed, as I said, unaffiliated with any organization and not under investigation. So that is one of the oddities about this.

35:35James Horncastle: Inter's president, Beppe Marotta, came out before their game against Torino, which going into the weekend, they could have won the league against Torino if Napoli hadn't got the result that they got against Cremonese, a 4-0 win. and Madotta said you know we we found out all about this from the newspapers yeah we've always acted with the utmost integrity we don't have a list of referees we like referees we dislike absolutely not and we are completely extraneous from this matter now and we won't be drawn into it in the future. So we have to wait and see what the prosecutors in Milan come up with.

36:18James Horncastle: The investigation is still ongoing and Gianluca Rocchi on Thursday will have to submit himself to questioning in Milan. Okay. 20 years ago, we had Calciopoli, which featured similar accusations and a variety of other offences, largely implemented by the triumvirate at the head of Juventus. Is there any suggestion that this is a thread that once they pull on it could lead to something of that kind of scale of magnitude? Back then, Juve sent down to Serie B, Milan and Lazio, also penalised Inter with the side who came out of that as the victims, but this time more in the eye of the storm. The honest answer at the moment, James, is nobody knows because in 2006 you were already getting wiretaps leaked to Giseta della Sport and other news outlets in Italy which once reported kind of created a momentum and left people able to sort of understand in what direction the prosecutors were going.

37:28this time for now there does not seem to be any wiretap evidence now it might

37:35James Horncastle: it might come to light that they have but we haven't seen anything and again prosecutors in Milan have not placed any club or any employee of a club under investigation the only people under investigation at the moment. The referee designator for City Auxilia B. Gianluca Rocchi and the VAR supervisor Andrea Gervasoni, who also denies the charge that has been brought against him. So it's very much watch this space at the moment. I would say that what we do know is, after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup, there were already calls from people within government that there needed to be government intervention or a intervention at the Italian Football Federation to guide and shape the future of Italian football.

38:38James Horncastle: Now, the threshold for that kind of intervention, which would be headed by the Italian Olympic Committee, which is the kind of supreme sporting body in Italy, is very high. You have to be able to show that institutions are not working, that rules have been broken. And I think in this case now, there will be arguments made saying, well, the referee institution is not working. There's no president of the Italian Refereeing Association. There is no designator for city and city of referees. the Italian Football Federation's federal prosecutor opened the disciplinary case into the tap-tap on the window of the VAR boove in the Udinese Parma game and decided that there was no wrongdoing and so closed the case.

39:27James Horncastle: That has led people to point fingers at the adequacy of the sporting justice system within Italy and whether all of this can be used as a pretext for the Italian Olympic Committee to come in and stage this intervention and essentially take control of the next phase of Italian football reform, which, you know, over the last few weeks since Italy failed to qualify, you've had two guys, Massimo Malagor, who delivered the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina, and Giancarlo Abete, who used to be the FGC president, now the head of the non-league. They have been canvassing for support to be the next president of the Italian Football Federation.

40:15James Horncastle: Elections that are due to be held on June 22nd would not be necessary if, in this case, Coney basically comes in and says, lads, you need help. We're going to sort this out and take care of it. So that's one of the things that's very interesting in the background. It's kind of political context to what's going on as well. Remarkable. As you mentioned, Inter with a 2-2 draw this weekend with the events on field. They are 10 points clear, but didn't manage to seal the title with that draw against Torino. Napoli then, closest challenger with a 4-0 victory over Cremendese, which featured a goal from Kevin De Bruyne.

40:59How has he been since his return from that lengthy injury?

41:02James Horncastle: He had a poor game against Lazio last weekend. He had the lowest pass completion rate on the team. people were surprised De Bruyne is meant to be a player who can take risks so his past completion rate doesn't always have to be the highest but it was very astonishing that it was so low but yeah he was great Napoli back to winning ways and back to normal I suppose after those defeats to Latvia which kind of the defeat to Latvia on a draw to Palma, which kind of killed off their title bid. Napoli looking good for the Champions League place. They're two points ahead of Milan, who had their usual nil-nil draw with Juventus.

41:48Juve still in the top four, but Como and Roma are both three points behind them. And Roma, James, there's news of their ongoing battles off the field.

41:59James Horncastle: Yeah, I mean, this was going to be the biggest story of the week, really, until the scandals that I named. because we've spoken about it before, how before the Pisa game, Claudio Ranieri came out, senior advisor to the Friedkin group, and basically said, Giampiero Gasparini, I don't like your style. And that shocked Gasparini and the Friedkins have tried to get them to reconcile. There's no reconciliation. And Claudio Ranieri was unilaterally told, it's time for you to go and you know sort of be a pensioner and look after your grandkids he wasn't exactly told that but again before what happened over the weekend with everything I outlined with Rocky being placed under investigation and and how that plays into this what is the future for the Italian Federation yeah people were beginning to think okay timing of Claudio Ranieri sort of leaving Roma, you know, could he be the next coach of the national team?

43:09James Horncastle: Might he be a technical director for the national team under one of the candidates who's basically looking to become president? So as always, James, plenty of dietrologia, as they say in Italy, so behind doors-ology, lots of stuff people assume going on behind the scenes. well Roma responding to that vote of confidence in Gasparini with a 2-0 victory over Bologna as I mentioned to move them back within the frame for a top four finish with four games to go three points to the margin of Juve's lead over the Giallo Rossi and Cesc Fabregas' combo alright then Paul Tales from Spain next

43:58La Liga, where Barcelona are now a narrow 11 points clear of Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish title. Barcelona winning this weekend. Real Madrid dropping points again on Friday against Real Betis of Seville. Paul, 11 points feels a pretty huge margin. It's a lot. It's a lot. I think that we spoke last week that Barcelona needed to keep a margin in top of La Liga of between 6 points and 12 to get into the classic. with the chance to clinch the title. Now there's the feeling that they are in a position to clinch it earlier than that because after what Real Madrid did against Real Betis, you really got the feeling watching that game that Real Madrid players did not care that much about winning La Liga and that they could possibly prefer not to step into the camp now with the chance of their opponents winning the title in their faces.

44:55So basically, let's kill it all before the game happens and let's spare us all this sort of acrimonial. Yeah, whatever it is. So do you think that Real Madrid players would actively seek to not get points just to make sure that they don't lose the title at the Camp Nou? Yeah, that's just a bit of a theory in my head. Equally, would Barcelona be busy losing their next game so that they can win the title? No, I don't think that this will happen. But Barcelona are going to go to Osasuna, which is a tricky pitch to go to, with Osasuna still with a real chance to make it to European spot in La Liga.

45:36And Barca without La Minyamal, which has been one of the biggest news in the week in Barcelona, because La Minyamal is not going to be playing for the club this season anymore. He will be in the Spanish squad for the World Cup. He's not expected to be missing the World Cup. but yeah let's see how he joins the Spain squad how he feels with his muscle but he has a big muscle injury so Barca are a bit depleted in that final part of the season nothing that puts the title chase in danger in my opinion so a hamstring injury for Jamal without him Barca still managed a 2-0 winner Hitafe with goals from Firmin Lopez and Marcus Rashford how many goals is there now for Marcus and how happy are they with him in Catalonia?

46:19yeah so Well, Rashford is a bit of a tricky spot at Barcelona right now because in numbers, if you look at his season, it's not bad. It's quite good, actually, because in, let me check now, but in 45 games that he's played this season, he's had 26 goal involvements. It's quite decent. But the feeling is that the numbers are possibly a bit above of the feelings on the pitch because sometimes when he plays, he's looked a bit disconnected from the whole Barca system and the whole Barca connections. So yeah, the interest from Barca in retaining him has cooled a bit over the last weeks and months. They know that Rashford is really willing to stay and he wants to stay and he would do a lot from his side to stay.

47:06But Barca are exploring the market. They know that United don't want to scale back from that 30 million buy option that Barca have. But Barca are considering his chances because paying this money for a player who's going to turn 29 next season, who is potentially not going to have resale value and who has a big wage. Yeah, Barca are having doubts. Plus, I think that the Atletico de Madrid tie in the Champions League had a toll on the reputation and on the consideration that Barca people has on him. Because, yes, the numbers are good. But when you're at Barcelona, at Barca Madrid, one of those clubs, you have to deliver in the big occasions.

47:46And there's the feeling that against Atletico de Madrid, he didn't do that in the first leg. He started, he was okay, but he wasted a lot of chances. And yeah, that's basically seen as a thing that has defined a bit what can happen with Rashford in summer. If you ask me my opinion, I say difficult that he stays next summer, but you never know with Barca's transfer business and how the club operates. Okay. Meantime, in Sevilla football, while Real Besers were getting that 1-1 draw, thanks to a 93rd minute equaliser from Hector Bellerin against Real Madrid on Friday. This weekend also saw their neighbours Sevilla slip into the bottom three.

48:26Things are getting pretty desperate down there, Paul. Yeah, yeah. It looks a disaster in place for Sevilla, if I'm honest. They changed the manager three weeks ago, if I'm not wrong. Luis Garcia Plaza took over, but he's not been great. They lost in the 99th minute of the game against Osasuna, with Sevilla basically fighting for relegation. Osasuna with all the job done and the Sevilla manager complained after the game of the other time like so much other time so much extra time and the people from Sevilla were like well we were fighting for our lives a bit of other time was good for us but instead we conceded a goal and they are in the relegation zone but there's a game playing on Monday night as we speak which is Levante playing against Espanyol and if Levante wins Sevilla are going to drop even further to the second-last spot in the table.

49:19So, pretty dangerous situation for them. I would say that right now they look like a likely candidate to get relegated from La Liga, which would be astonishing. And that is still, of course, the Sergio Ramos bid to try to buy the club, which is still in place and trying to see if it goes through or not. But big days and critical days for Sevilla here. Which, yeah, because this season there's the expectation that the relegation battle is going to go up to a lot of points. All the teams down south in the table, they are winning games. And yes, Sevilla have a tough schedule in the last run of games of the fixture because they have to play Real Madrid.

50:02They have to play Villarreal. So, yeah, let's see how they sort it out. OK. Meantime, Atletico are going to be taking on Arsenal on Wednesday. The other Spanish side still in Europe is Rayo Vallecano, who will be up against Strasbourg. How are they looking, Paul? Yeah, Rayo Vallecano. And really exciting team to watch. But I think it's fair to assume that they are not the top candidates in there. I think a big part of the tie is going to be what happens in Vallecas. Because Vallecas is a really special pitch. It's really tiny. It's a place where, like everything that goes there, you struggle if you go there.

50:38You really have to get used to that. The atmosphere is amazing. And they've made it a bit of a fortress in this competition. so in the quarterfinals when they played Aika Athens in Vallecas they took them by surprise and I think that it can happen again with Strasbourg that's all what they hope for but at the same time it's the biggest scope of their season and what they are putting their biggest focus but yeah Rayo Vallecano an exciting thing to watch a manager that is going to go up in the future in Hugo Perez he's been linked with Villarreal next season so let's keep an eye on him and a really exciting thing to watch And an exciting manager lining up against him, Gary O 'Neill.

51:18How's it going with Gary and Strasbourg, Tom? Yeah, they had a good win at the weekend, 3-2 away at Lorient. Lorient, who we know are very strong at home, and he went 2-0 up. Strasbourg came from 2-0 down, equalised in the 92nd minute, and then won it in the 99th minute with a goal from Republic Valid international Andrew Omobamidele. and that was quite a timely win for Strasbourg. They had that incredible comeback win against Mainz in the previous round in the Conference League, lost the first leg 2-0, stormed back to win the second leg 4-0. They then rested a bunch of players for their subsequent Ligue 1 game at home to Rennes and lost 3-0 and that was partly a reflection of the fact that they'd had that big game against Mainz but also, and perhaps even more so, to prepare for their Coupe de France semi-final last week against Nice.

52:23They were at home to Nice, strong favourites to go through, dominated the game but lost 2-0, which was a real blow. And there was a feeling that in kind of pursuing their objectives in the Coupe de France and the Conference League, they might end up losing ground in Ligue 1. So yeah, back to winning ways at Lorient at the weekend. although I don't think they're going to be at full strength. A few players missing. So yes, looking better than they were prior to this game, but perhaps not absolutely flying. Gotcha. Paul, anything else from Spain before we move on? Yeah, well, if I can add a couple of things, as in, yeah, just to highlight how the battle for relegation is right now, like Sevilla is in the 18th spot with 34 points.

53:10And then if you go up to the 11th spot in Rayo Vallecano with 39 points, so just five points, separating them. And then I wanted to mention the case of Espanyol, like the Barcelona side, which I can remember that when they faced Barcelona earlier this season, we were sort of making comments of when was the last time that Espanyol finished the season above Barcelona. They've been in Champions League places this season, but they have not won a single game this year. So basically, their last win is in 2025. And they play tonight, and if they lose, they're going to be a in that relegation battle and they played Real Madrid next week.

53:49So there's a bit of tension around the Espanyol and they've had a meltdown that nobody could see coming. But yeah, a bit of a heated thing in the relegation battle here. Very nice. All right. Loads of drama in store then in the weeks to come in La Liga. Next up, we're away to Germany.

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56:54You'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. All right, Seb, the title's already sewn up. Leipzig looking good to take up the third place of the four Champions League spots and the ongoing battle to see who else can get into Europe's top cup competition. What else is news in the Bundesliga? Well, let's put a bow on the Champions League places because you're quite right, Leipzig won. They beat Union Berlin 3-1 on Friday night. And by virtue of Hoffenheim and Stuttgart playing each other next weekend, Leipzig can confirm their return to the Champions League by beating Leverkusen next weekend, if that makes sense, if you're following that.

57:43still unsure yet whether Germany is going to get a fifth Champions League spot that's going to probably hinge on obviously what Bayern Munich do but also what Freiburg do against Braga Freiburg who I think this is actually I mean previously in European competition the furthest they've got was a pair of last 16 games against West Ham and Juventus in the Europa League a few years ago so this is already uncharted territory so a final would be a magnificent achievement for them and Ian Schuster so that's interesting I think the real drama Jimbo is still down the bottom because heading into the weekend we had a situation where if Heidenheim didn't beat St.

58:23Pauli at home they would be relegated but they did they did they did they won 2-0 they're still four points adrift so very much kind of odds on for relegation but Wolfsburg failed to win they drew nil nil with brisham and gadbach which means they're still 17th some powerly is still 16th in the relegation playoff remember with that game against volsburg on the final day of the season still to come that looks like it's going to be an amazing occasion awful for everybody involved but still amazing and then above them you've got a cluster of teams which just can't separate themselves from the relegation picture so hamburg they lost to uh lost hoffenheim cologne lost the Rheindarby to Leverkusen over the weekend and Gladbach is still in the mix there as well so it's pretty congested and maybe you could also make a case for Union Berlin being not quite safe yet under Mary Lou's Etter they'll probably be fine because by virtue of the other teams just not being able to put on put enough points on the board but still really exciting lots to play for still.

59:24Excellent Union Berlin currently six points clear of the relegation playoff spot with what three games to go? Yeah, we've got three left, yeah. Union do look relatively comfortable then as they wait for their first point under their new manageress. Meantime, last midweek, we saw the Pokal Cup final places decided with Bayern beating Leverkusen 2-0 and Stuttgart beating Freiburg to set up a final encounter with the Bavarians in late May. Yeah, an almighty controversy in that Stuttgart-Freiburg game. so 1-1 into extra time in the 91st minute Lucas Hoyer goes through kind of a shoulder to shoulder challenge with the last defender goes through and scores and it was one of those where had VAR looked at it been absolutely fine because I think on second inspections no problem at all unfortunately the referee blew the whistle at the point of what he perceived to be the foul meaning that it couldn't be then subject to VAR review and yeah Freiburg not happy as you'd imagine also a nice little bit of kind of corinthian spirit here from dennis undav who said afterwards he was he was asked about the refereeing decision and he was very forthright he says yeah bad decision i'd be so disappointed if i was them which is a really nice change of pace i thought because so often you you kind of get the one-eyed assessment of refereeing performance it's only a big deal if um if if it affects your own side but uh undav spoke well um but yeah that'll be a that'll be great final so Stuttgart have the opportunity to defend their Poker win from from last year they they uh they beat Armenia Bielefeld in uh last season's final bit of a different proposition this time around uh with Bayern Munich who uh yeah they're through after after beating Leverkusen so yeah that'd be a great occasion absolutely fantastic Bayern chasing a treble crikey all right Seb anything else from the Bundesliga yeah a couple of other things we mentioned dennis undav we've had this strange situation bubbling away between him and huelen nagelsman so go back to the last international break and undav was called up for the games one of which the ghana game was at his home stadium in stuttgart and so it was very much kind of dennis coming back we want him to start you know there's a he's very very popular in that part of the country a lot of people outside of it think that his scoring record uh warrants him a place in the national team anyway he's uh only harry kane has scored more goals in the bundesliga anyway spends the evening on the bench then comes on late and scores the winning goal really nice finish very undavi you know very predatory finish right at the back post good finish and then afterwards nagelsman's asked about it was like oh you know wasn't that nice to see dennis undav score and didn't he do his world cup chances good and it's such an easy own goal just to go yeah fantastic and then everyone goes home happy particularly the local journalists your nagelsman says yeah but the thing is if he played for the previous 70 minutes i don't know if he's able to reach that and that's something we've got to consider for the summer which read in a certain way feels like a little bit of a dig at the players conditioning um and it created a kind of mini media saga up until uh a conversation happened between nagelsman uh and and of last week we said uh nagelsman said i i was too harsh he was speaking on magenta it's one of the world cup broadcasts in germany uh speaking um you know home to my wife who said i think i've been too harsh on dennis i should call him and she said yes you should definitely do that so thanks to mrs nagelsman uh the rift has been healed everybody's happy uh and off we go to the world cup hopefully where you know what uh still waiting news on that kai havert's injury at arsenal um not quite sure how serious that is or whether in any way threatens his world cup participation but uh could be a big chance for undav if he uh if he is injured.

1:03:00Excellent. Seb, thank you so much for that. Tom, take us home with some Ligue 1.

1:03:13Tom, Paris Saint-Germain back on for the title. Yay. Six points clear with how many games to go? Four? With four games to go. Yeah, which includes that game in hand against Lens. Right. Lens, who will almost certainly be second place. And then it's all about the chase in Ligue 1 as elsewhere for the Champions League positions. What's the latest there? Yes, it looks like PSG have definitively now set up the title. Six points clear, four games to go. Good weekend for Lyon, who won 3-2 at home to Azar. A couple of goals for Roman Yeremchuk, their Ukrainian centre-forward, who arrived in January and is starting to find his feet.

1:03:54and a goal from Corentin Tolisso, who came off the bench. Good weekend for Lille, who are in fourth place, level on points with Lyon. They won 1-0 at Paris FC. Mathias Fernandes-Pardo with a goal from the penalty spot, keeping his scoring run going. Also a very good week for Rennes, who beat Nantes 2-1 in the derby on Sunday afternoon. Valentin Rangier, former Nantes midfielder, scoring the penalty and his move to Rennes last summer was very controversial because not only was he a born and bred former Nantes player, but he used to really enjoy winding up Rennes and Rennes supporters every time there was a Nantes-Rennes game.

1:04:47and various tweets and social media posts of his were exhumed last summer with him kind of, you know, dismissing Rennes as a bunch of goats. That's a slightly curious one, but that is the go-to definition for a hopeless football team, a bunch of goats. And Valentin Roger had quite frequently dismissed Rennes as a bunch of goats. And now he's playing in the hand colours and has actually settled in very well, scored the winner in stoppage time, didn't celebrate it. So that's eight wins in 10 games for Franckes as end coach. as discussed bad weekend for Marseille who were pegged back late on at home to Nice also a bad weekend for Monaco who were on a really fantastic run of form but have now gone three games without a win they had that surprise 4-1 defeat at Paris FC a couple of weeks ago they then drew at home to Ozer and they drew at Toulouse at the weekend And their difficulty of late has been starting games too slowly, letting in too many early goals and having to, you know, fight their way back into the game.

1:06:07They appeared to have sorted that out on this occasion by going 2-0 up inside the first 18 minutes at Toulouse, only that they then just stopped playing completely. And Toulouse came back into it and ended up equalising at the death. So yeah, Lyon and Lille both on 57 points in third and fourth place and Rennes in fifth on 56 points in really strong positions for the Champions League qualification battle. Marseille are now four points off the Champions League places and Monaco are two points further back. So it is looking trickier and trickier for OM and Monaco. Ooh, loads of goals this weekend in league.

1:06:5134 in nine matches, six of them in Brest, where Elan Saint-Maximin scored a last-minute equalised Valence, who came from 3-0 down to make it 3-3. Also, there was a 4-4 between Le Havre and Metz on Sunday. Yeah, and a pretty incredible, I mean, you know, 4-4's a pretty rare scoreline in football anyway. But Le Havre went in front four times, and every time Metz equalised. and Mets knew as well that if they lost their relegation would be confirmed. They've been bottom of the table since the beginning of the season pretty much. They are comfortably the worst team in France and they've been clinging on by their fingernails and it looked like, you know, Rav were about to push them through the trapdoor leading to Ligue 1 but they managed to call their way back in each time.

1:07:43Gautier 1 with a couple of goals including an 84th minute equaliser So Mets survived to live another day But yeah, I don't think they're going to be able to escape the trapdoor to Ligue 2 for much longer Excellent, what else from Ligue 1, Tom? Yes, we have our first promoted club confirmed for next season Troyes from the Champagne region, just south-east of Paris Confirmed their promotion with a pretty impressive 3-0 win against Saint -Étienne who were second at kickoff. Troyes who have been in Ligue 2 for the last three seasons and are part of the City football group. So good news for the City football group, I guess, and good news also for Troyes and, you know, visiting fans who enjoy trips to the Champagne region.

1:08:34Because, of course, with Haas also in Ligue 2, there hasn't been any need to go to the Champagne region this year in Ligue 1, which, if you like Champagne, is, you know, sad. How did they celebrate, Tom? i mean as as you would expect poppin do you know i don't actually know but i'm assuming there was just champagne everywhere i mean it's like water if you've grown up if you've grown up in that part of the world um you know turn on the tap running through your veins almost literally does it retain its novelty if you grow up in that part of the world do you not choose something else to celebrate with i don't know i will ask robber pierre the next time i see him for instance yeah for a special treat, yeah.

1:09:14Or maybe they're all really into their Cava and their Prosecco. Just a bit of difference, mix it up. Looking forward to hearing more about that Tom soon. Is that it for Ligue 1? That is it for Ligue 1. Yeah, and just I don't know briefly whether you want to touch on the Coupe de France. Yes. As discussed Nice surprising Strasbourg in the second semi-final. And Lens who had another incredible home game in their semi-final against to lose stad bolart completely full incredible atmosphere flares the works they won 4-1 floyd and tovin superb again and answer maxima scored a really nice goal as well and big pitch invasion at the final whistle some fantastic pictures just like scenes of complete joy so they'll go into that final against nice a strong favorite and of course they have never won the Coupe de France.

1:10:07They are the only French league title winners never to have won the Coupe de France. So they will be favourites and I think they would make for pretty popular Coupe de France winners as well. Excellent. That final coming up on the 22nd of May. Fantastic. Lots to be decided in the league in the meantime. And of course, Champions League coming up Tuesday and Wednesday. We return in a week's time with the latest from around Europe. For now, many, many thanks to Seb, to James, Paul and Tom and to producer Lucy and yourself, listener. Do join us again on Thursday for our regular Totally Football Show.

1:10:47For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye. You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For other great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic in all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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