England cruise past Croatia 7-0!

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1:33Live from downtown London, it's the Totally Football Show.

1:42Today, England, sensations, the Croatians in the nation's league. It was Gordon and Tonic and 7-Up and Croatia on the rocks. We talked betting and brilliance and reaction to the action in Rijeka, plus other nations league, France, Italy, Norwegian Blues and a very lively parrot in this Toby Football Show. Hello and thank you so much for joining us on this Saturday evening if you're with us live on YouTube. Oh, there's one mobile phone that is across our live output. Just have that open for the responses. Absolutely. Because people like to send messages in. especially when, sorry, hi, Julian Laurence is here with us.

2:25Hello, Jimbo. Hello to you. Adrian Clarke is coming as well. Hi. Both come all the way in. I know. The nation's immediate. We're committed, exactly. Eye contact, always better, you know? Yeah, 100%. I was mentioning, anyway, people who are watching on YouTube like to interact with the show. We ask questions, they reply. Sometimes we ask this time, how many nations, actually, We put this out on our YouTube comments. How many nations have a better front four than England? And North will rise again, says the French run them close, but the French don't have a number nine like Harry Kane. Eh, Jaws?

3:04Julien Laurens: Yeah, it's true. Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, everything. I know who I would choose. Ho, ho, ho. So can Kylian Mbappe play centre-half? I don't think so. No, he can certainly run. Yeah. He's he. Isn't a patch on how he's he. Isn't a patch on how he's he. Adrian, you must be over the moon with what we just witnessed, tingling against Croatia. A proud Englishman tonight. I can't think the last time I saw England play that well, tear a team up like that, would be that third, fourth playoff in the World Cup, no? Again, that was against the B team, a bit French team. I think Adrian could play for Croatia tonight, by the way.

3:45Julien Laurens: Probably you, even Jimbo, and God. direct them yeah maybe not in goal because we've had to have a game I could do a job you could certainly be better than Voskovic and Vardio because that was embarrassing yeah I think they were four up at half time four up at half time against the French as well as tonight it's so true go back there you want to go back there true yeah you were one and up against Argentina or so if I can well come by the end of that lots of people getting in touch Tomas Schmore says that was dare I say it beautiful CUFC 247 as Kane is a one-cented generation player like a wine, getting better with age.

4:22England do like playing Croatia, though, don't they? At the start of the World Cup, they had that terrific performance, 4-2, and we all thought, wow, England are going to be great in this World Cup. And what happened next was the goalless draw with Ghana. But that said, tonight was something exceptional. With your very objective eye, Jules, what did you like? No, no, no, I agree, I agree.

4:40Julien Laurens: They were fantastic. I liked a lot of the movement they did, some of the runs, being available for whoever was on the ball, who always had two or three options. I thought Scott and Anderson were amazing in that midfield, that double pivot, especially when you play against granddads like Kovacic and Modric especially. I can't believe a nation like Croatia still think that it's okay to play Modric and Kovacic in a game like this. It's unfair. You can't start Scott and Anderson against those two. That's why England rest the dominant in the first half. if Perisic are left back, this is just ridiculous.

5:14He's too old for City, yeah.

5:16Julien Laurens: Yeah, exactly. But however, take nothing away from England still in the performance that they did, in some of the choices that Tuchel made. They were very clinical. It should have been 10 easily, to be fair, 10-1, because Kovacic has to score his chance. Yeah. But England could easily have scored even more goals. Yeah, we'll come back to that Kovacic moment. The Man City factor, you wonder, don't you? But Adrian, everything just came together. Jules mentions the choices. Did it start with Thomas Tuchel's team sheet? It was a good team. I think we looked at it at the start and thought, Kwanzaa in for Trent.

5:46It feels a little bit harsh on Trent Alexander-Arnold after he played so well the other night. But it worked. I love the midfielder. I've been wanting to see Alex Scott play international football. I think that he's so suited to it. He's a technician, isn't he? He just looked really comfortable. I thought it was nice that he was involved in that first goal where he scans a couple of little times just to see who's behind him, takes it on the back foot into Jude, Jude into Harry Kane, lovely little touch and finish from Harry. And from that moment on, England were just on fire. But it wasn't just the goals, and we'll get to them, I'm sure.

6:20But I actually thought the attitude of the team was perfect. And, you know, whenever Croatia had it, just absolutely suffocated them with the press. And England haven't been a brilliant pressing team, I don't think. They certainly weren't, I didn't think, under Gareth Southgate. But it's coming together. and in this game yeah they did they couldn't get out of their half when you don't have a functioning backline it's a good idea not to let your opposition have any shots on target till the 91st minute yeah that's true the attitude it's not that long ago that Thomas Tuchel was using words like repulsive about England players attitude but

6:57Julien Laurens: would you agree nothing but wrong down to pressing especially was really well when they lost the ball which was not that often because again I think Croatia let England play and England were far too good, far too sharp for this Croatian team. But yeah, I thought the attitude was great. Again, some of the tracking bags, I think that's why that left-hand side works so well too with Gordon and Lewis Hall. I agree with Adrian. I would have loved to see Trent starting. I think he deserved to start today. I think this was the perfect game to start him and see him more than, to judge him better than Czechia because Czechia were down to 10 men very early, so you can't really judge him.

7:34Julien Laurens: And I think Trent is going to start now on Tuesday against I guess Czechia and I'm just not sure what's the point of that. I would have loved to see him today but apart from that I thought 2-11 was spot on and I agree as well that Scott deserved this chance and I think it took him marvellously. Okay, you were upset when Trafford was picked ahead of Pickford for the Spain game but he could have played it. As you say, he could have played me in the game. I could have played all of us. Or no more than all of us. Yeah, in the first half okay, the coverage change doesn't count but there's a ball where Kwanzaa goes a bit airwalled and then there's through ball and Pickford he's very aware goes straight in gets the ball I think before Baturina and that's all he had to do really OK let's talk about the goals Adrian OK so Harry Kane opens up the scoring and this was your friend this was your friend with the what you were talking about the scouting first and then Bellini Scott to Bellini and Bellini to Kane love a little delicate touch with the outside of his foot from Kane just to knock the ball in front of him and he lifts it doesn't he in the top corner It was a picture book goal.

8:37So easy. Yeah, so easy. The second one was when Saka crossed to Gordon, and it was an outrageous sort of touch, wasn't it, for Gordon? I mean, how good is he at the moment? But what I preferred ahead of the touch was actually the choice of cross. Because it was a little bit of a lucky touch, like it took him to the byline, but he didn't even look. He didn't need to look. He just drilled it back on the diagonal for Drew Bellingham, who slid in to score. That was great. Who knew? he'd made the run even before well that was the feature of the game wasn't it the feature of the first half was Jude Bellingham because when you've got a striker like Harry Kane who wants to go everywhere he never really stays occupying centre halves you need the other three guys to cause chaos and we saw Gordon get into the box we saw Saka do it but particularly we saw Bellingham make run after run after run and that's what you've got to do if you play at number 10 and he did that for that goal if I can continue to the third because the ball comes in from Kwanzaa.

9:37And we were talking about this when we were watching it, right? So how often do you see a cross bounced into someone to score with their head? It doesn't happen very often. And now it's happened twice in two games from two different England right-backs for the same player, Anthony Gordon, who isn't usually very good at heading. I just thought he controlled those crosses brilliantly. So, yeah, it was just so much fun to watch, wasn't it? We wish England played like this all the time. Well, play Croatia all the time. How much of a factor do you think was the setting for the game, the seaside stadium of Rijeka, filled with kids?

10:17Julien Laurens: Yeah, 6 ,000 of them. I mean, minus 100 England fans who were able to be there. But there wasn't a usual atmosphere away to Croatia. Do you think maybe the Croatian players just didn't fill up for it because the crowd wasn't there? I mean, we were talking about this and producer Charlie mentioned the fact that back in the days of the pandemic, ask you folks, we used to see all sorts of strange results, a lot more away successes because you didn't get that intensity of home support. And perhaps the players didn't feel... It wasn't hostile, was it? Certainly wasn't hostile for the opposition and maybe it didn't whip up the home side quite as much.

10:50Julien Laurens: It's not the reason why Vardjol made that poor pass on the first goal after five, after eight minutes or something, which is a terrible... There's not even a Croatian player, nowhere near where his pass is even going. So I don't know. And that's not the crowd. I just, you know, I think this is an average Croatian team. Like I said, ageing, so many wrong things from Bidic and they paid for it. The Guardiola pass, the Kovacic miss later on when it was 3-0, I think, at that point. There's this story going on at the moment. You've probably read about it with Manchester City being in all sorts of trouble.

11:24Yeah. And Thomas Tuchel was actually mentioning the fact, I think he seemed to be quite open about this, that this is something that the players are talking about all the time. Why wouldn't they? How much is that affecting, do you think, Man City players? Haaland didn't score against Wales the other night. I mean, it's a small sample.

11:43Julien Laurens: Yeah, because Anderson was very good today and he's a City player as well. Shecky was good last night with Fran. Woldy, yeah. Donnerville was pretty good, wasn't he? Donnerville was excellent against France. So no. It might be for some. I don't know if Vardjot today, Felte or Kovacic, but for others, definitely is my... I think that's when we need to judge it, is when they're together. When they're talking about it as a dressing room, that's how they react as a group, is how they'll affect. It's a fascinating thought how the City players are going to be talking with the non-City players in England dressing room and the other dressing rooms.

12:17But anyway, that's the subject maybe we can explore further on down the line. 4-0 before half-time was Bukana Saka. It was Bellingham who absolutely roasted Modric. Modric's found himself in a very uncomfortable one-on-one, didn't he? I mean, you don't want to be up against Jude Bellingham at the moment. This guy's on fire. There's only really Anthony Gordon that's on his level at the moment. It's extraordinary. So two players in La Liga who have really stepped up their game. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they've both been sensational. Obviously, Bellingham didn't play the second game really, but Gordon has been outrageously good.

12:53And I just think that with Gordon, I think he's taken, his confidence level has grown massively. He just feels taller. He feels bigger because he's a Barcelona player now. I definitely think that's a factor. But also when you train with Humal, you train with Rafinha and all these other guys, Pedri and Rodri, you've got to be good. Otherwise, you're going to look silly. So he's had to, and that's the whole point, is he's sort of levelling up, isn't he? He's going up. He's quickly getting accustomed to their level. And it's improving England massively. So, yeah, I'm really happy for Gordon because most people, myself included, thought, really?

13:32Barcelona? I didn't see it. But now I see it. And I think we all do. Indeed so. Tonight we saw Harry Kane get another. The second half got underway. That was 5-0. Then another from Saka. And then Morgan Rodgers, which meant a rare goal schooled by not one of the England front four, because they've got 27 of the last 31 goals for England. I mean, that is what they're there for. But still, it's pretty impressive stuff. Jules, hard to draw any conclusions, I guess, from what you're saying about the opposition that they were facing. But did you look at that and think, oh, England are finally...

14:11Julien Laurens: Yeah, I think there's certainly a lot of positives, I think, and things that, again, we used to have a debate on the left-hand side, Rashford, Gordon, even leading into the World Cup, even at the World Cup. I think this is sorted. Again, that number 10 position, we had it before the World Cup, Rodgers, Bellingham, and even more recently, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden. Do you play Bellingham a bit deeper? Play Bellingham in that number 10 position behind Kane, that works. I was not too happy with Kane in both the games remember we talked about it a little bit after the Spain game I don't think he was involved enough in that game Czechia was also a little bit it was a bit mad I thought and tonight I thought against a team like that again I think he's perfect for those kind of games when he's so open like literally I mean the stadium was open it felt like the Croatian team was open everything was open late in a tackle Croatia in this game like it just wasn't physical was it it was no it was near them Yeah, it was like watching a Premier League team against a non-league team in the third round of the cup.

15:12Although you should see a bit of fight. Well, yeah, actually, at least they would put a little bit of physicality. They didn't have a shot, Crochet, until the 91st minute on target. So I guess the big question that we did have, certainly from the Spain game, about England's ability to form a resistant bat line goes unanswered. however yeah I just think England the best form of defence is going to be attack for England England need a lot of the ball now because you want to get that front four which I would lock in now just lock them in like that is your front four we need the ball in the opposition half where they can do the damage we need to keep it away from the centre backs and the full backs to a degree Lewis Hall's come in and done well everyone played well in this game but I do think against elite opposition you saw what Spain did to England they did slice through very, very easily.

16:05France did it in that crazy game at the World Cup. So that's the Achilles heel. We can't suddenly find a brand new centre-back partnership, England. So we've just got to, I think, look to outscore the opposition and play with a little bit more freedom. And you saw tonight, when this team plays free, they're very impressive. Very impressive indeed. As for Croatia, is it a question of the Nations League not being a priority for them? Is it something to do with Slavon Bilic returning, taking over from Dalic from the World Cup? They are an aging team, but they are still one of the top ranked teams in the world.

16:43Yeah, yeah. To see them play with the lack of, I don't know whether, was it intensity? Was it ability? Was it hunger? What would you say?

16:51Julien Laurens: Yeah, intensity certainly. I mean, desire even wasn't there. I do think, again, I love Luka Modric. I think we all do there's a time where this has to stop it's the same for Cristiano it's the same for Modric with Soja at the World Cup I cannot believe he's starting another two year cycle to go to I suppose to go to the next Euros when his 40th birthday is later this month I just or something like that I just can't I can't understand it and why Bilic would think it's a good idea on the ball sure he can still do it with Soja a bit with obviously Milan but without the ball he's just a passenger he's like a ghost you go through him like it said about the one-on-one with Bellingham okay this is not many players can take on Bellingham one-on-one anyway but with him and Kovacic they were just not there and it was far too easy for England and when you know how much this middle of the pitch is important now in current football because everything goes there it's where the intensity comes from it's where you know everything you just for me it was unbelievable that they started like that yeah they got to the young centre-backs I mean, young, expensive, highly rated centre-backs in Voscovic and Vardio.

18:01I suppose they were exposed, weren't they, in this game?

18:04Julien Laurens: There was no midfield, you know, so you could have Beckenbauer and Maldini there, Barres even if you want. With a midfield like that, there's just nothing they could do. 11 goals conceded, is it, in the last two games now for Croatia? One wonders what the reaction is going to be like over there. Spain, obviously, on Tuesday. And they play so in on Tuesday. England are going to be taking on Czechia at Wembley. Spain are currently in action against Czechia as we speak. Don't know what the score is on that. Nil-nil, I think. Literally just scored, the Spanish have. There you go. Reclaiming if that scoreline holds.

18:39Top spot in the group, although second place with this year's version of the Nations League is enough to get you into a quarterfinal two-legged affair. The other game that's going on as we speak is North Macedonia against Scotland. Score update on that? Scotland have literally just scored.

19:00Julien Laurens: Yeah. Yeah. Another Scottish, Scottish Serial. They're all. I know, Bowie just scored. Oh, right. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Excellent. All right. Well, we'll get on to more of the Nations League action that's been taking place both today and in the days that have followed our most recent podcast next.

19:23Oh, quick update on the Manchester City story. Jules. Jules in Scotland.

19:26Julien Laurens: Yeah. It's Andy Robertson's 100th cap tonight. Yeah. He's only the second player in Scottish football history after Sir Kenny Dalglish to reach that level. So, well done to him. Well, well done to him. Because he's going to listen to this after the game tonight or tomorrow morning. Wouldn't that be great if he did? So, well done, Robo. That's lovely. It must be great. 100 caps for your country. Yeah. He's a lovely chap as well. As well. Yeah, yeah. And he would have had more caps had they qualified a bit more regularly for big tournaments, you know, because you miss out on a few more caps in that way.

19:56So true, so true. Manchester City, just a quick note on them again. Of course, it was confirmed on Friday, yesterday, that they are appealing those 114 guilty verdicts that they're facing. Interesting article from The Athletic's Jacob Whitehead who details how this story actually began. I must admit, I'd forgotten all of this. Basically, a seemingly innocuous email, as so many of us have. Anyway, this email popped up purporting to come from UEFA, containing a link to a financial compliance report, and the city official clicked the download button, and that was all it took for Rui Pinto, the Portuguese hacker and activist, to gain access to thousands of emails and documents, and the rest is, well, history.

20:45Rui Pinto, meanwhile, in the headlines at the moment, because this story that he's no longer going to be a protected witness in Portugal and suggestions that he might come to this country, to the UK, and help with other investigations and indeed with the ongoing Manchester City story in exchange for protection from threats. I mean, I don't know the background of this, but yeah, anyway, it is a huge story. Jules, of course, we're all shocked, but you must be especially shocked to see a team who've been elevated by huge amounts of spending from a Gulf state, winning titles all the time. Sure. I mean, it's just, yeah.

21:30Paris, is anyone looking over their shoulder a little bit nervously there?

21:34Julien Laurens: But I think UF have sanctioned them in the past before. I mean, like City, they didn't get it overturned by Cass, for example. So I don't know if it's still the case. I think certainly in recent years, there's been a different way, I think, of doing things within the club, including with players trading, for example, which City did too. It's not just PSG. So there might be more. I really don't know. But, you know, like, at first my players. I wonder if other clubs. Perspiration, I'm hoping that I know that. As you say, they've been under the microscope. Yeah, I think UFR have done a lot of work, and the French Financial Fair Play, the NCG, which as you know is very tough, and very strict.

22:26Julien Laurens: I've looked a lot into the PhD's account, so for certainly what CT have been accused of there was never any kind of daz that PhD would do the same system that CT. That But the main sponsor of PHD came from Qatar. And the links with QSI, sure. But the way City have done it and the way they did that, you talked about a lot, I think, in half before. I don't think PHD have got there or sent it that far. Very good news. Nations League. Nations League. Now, Northern Ireland are top of Group B2 after their impressive 3-0 win against Ukraine. that was played in Slovakia. Not an island yet concede. Oxford defender Kieran Brown with a brace.

23:16Those are his first goals for his nation. Second of which was that from the Ukraine keeper. He had an absolute stinker. But what I loved about it, for anyone that hasn't seen it, it was a long ball from the keeper, flicked on by Kieran Brown. And it goes through the goalie's legs. And McConville, who's the other centre-back alongside Brown, could tap in. for his first ever international goal. And he doesn't. And he basically gives the goal to Kieran Brown, which I thought was an unbelievable act. You are exactly the same. He let the ball roll in. What a good team, mate. So was that because he thought he might be offside?

23:55Maybe. Maybe. I thought that's a sign of good spirit, isn't it, in the camp, definitely. And to be fair,

24:00Julien Laurens: he's one of the youngest teams in the Nations League. He's 22.6 month average. is Kieran Brown the only player over 24? I believe he is. He's 28. But yeah, if the average age is 22, there's a few teenagers in there, of course. Isaac Price, who's one of the older players at 23, scored a good header, really good header. He's got 11 international goals already. Let's be honest, Northern Ireland don't score lots of international goals. He himself has got 11. I think that's a tremendous achievement. For a guy who's not a striker, this is an attacking midfielder he plays for West Brom so yeah Northern Ireland under Michael O 'Neill are doing very very well Dan Ballard was not playing so he would have put that average 8 because he's 27 a bit higher but still I think the point is that he's a very good generation he's quite young a lot of them are going places where like they could be going to the top tier of the Nations League maybe about Roche Charles doing a full hand for example for such a young player in the Championship there's a few who are doing really well too so it's a good time I think for this generation Excellent Republic of Ireland they're scoring goals Troy Parrott is anyway he got two in their 2-2 draw against Austria they were 2-0 up against against the Austrians but they came back but the brace from Troy Parrott the first was from the spot as I recall but the second was absolutely sensational It was all the season so far Do you think 100 % on his own against four players there's a nutmeg there's a little hook finish his grade it was like Troy of the Rovers wasn't it?

25:36Troy of the Rovers Troy of the Rovers love the little double nutmeg the first nutmeg then he changes direction pulls the defender then he goes through the legs to the keeper Parrots has got five goals in the last month I think two big goals for Betis and obviously three for Ireland as well I mean I didn't see this coming

25:57Julien Laurens: well it was good with the right man we had two in the area division and I'm sorry And qualifying for the World Cup, he scored five years. Yeah, I didn't see it coming, say, three years ago. Like, in the last two years or so, he's been very good, hasn't he? Right. Marek got a cracker or something like that. Yeah. Work to do on that. Oh, Ronaldo left Portugal after not featuring in their second game. They're really missing him. After he chrissed off, they went to Copenhagen and beat Denmark 4-2. Gonzalo Ramos, I think he got a brace in this, did he not? One goal, one of the six. Just one. One and a one of the six.

26:38He's scored 10 in... Yeah, sorry, right. He's scored 10 full-ball, and they've won all 10 matches. And Jean-Felix is on three for three. Three goals and three matches.

26:51Julien Laurens: This game, he came on and did really well. But Bruno was outstanding as a 10, coming back to the team after the little injury. Leao wearing the number seven of Cristiano. Very quickly, I thought. So I was not too happy with, you know, whether Cristiano, I mean, it's not whether he threw his toys out of the prime. Is that what you're saying? Yes, yes. And we've talked enough on the show about where do you stop as a professional? Where do you stop your whole career? Where do you stop international level? Not to go for one game too many or one international break too many, because that could tarnish what you've done before.

27:24Julien Laurens: and I think this will always be remembered as the international break when Cristiano, when all these shambles happened because it is shambles for him to leave like that, like a sulky kid, take his private jet, you know, call the private jet to come all the way there to bring him back to Madrid. I don't mind the private jet. I think that's... No, but like, you know, I don't know, you're not happy. You're going to leave. What are you going to do? Yeah, but like, you were down on your team, right, because you were told you were coming on against Norway again before you didn't. That's clearly wrong.

27:53Come on. That's clearly wrong. Having said that, it did feel quite cold how quickly his number seven shirt was on. Yeah, that was bad.

28:01Julien Laurens: The armband, it's normal you have to give it, and Bruno, I think, is legit. The number seven. Because it's not 1-11 these days, so Raffaella didn't have to take that. So it's quite interesting that he wanted to take it so soon. I don't know what that tells you about the dressing room dynamic, but I don't think Cristiano will forget that, and I don't think he'd be very happy with it. But I'm with yours completely on this. I think that it's so out of order from Cristiano Ronaldo and it's just not the behaviour of a leader, someone that's supposed to be the team's role model. It's awful. Jorge has been asked repeatedly whether he feels the players are still with him as if he was the one who provoked Ronaldo's departure and thus that he would somehow face some kind of mutiny from Ronaldo's former teammates.

28:47Julien Laurens: But they seem to be pretty happy with life. Maybe, but only one who could complain. It's not so bad. I've heard people say, you don't do this to Ronaldo. There's certain players you don't do it to. You don't make them warm up for the second half and not bring them on. I'm not having that. I'm not having that. You've got to just be a team player. Messi's kind of retired. He's going to have this one send-off game, isn't he? Yeah, on Tuesday. So maybe that's where we'll be with Ronaldo. Maybe? I don't think he's going to win as well. There's no return for Cristiano Ronaldo anyway with Portugal this is it you think it's done yeah you can't I mean even they'll give him a game surely they'll give him a game yeah maybe but then I mean this will be the last game you know but come on you know there's no point now yeah and probably that's right for all concerned happened four years at Portugal going forward by the way like with Ramos was like little flicks and tricks you had runners the dynamism of Portugal inside the final third was chalk and cheese to what it was at the World Cup and what's the difference oh yeah Portugal are taking on Norway on Sunday night.

29:53That's tomorrow, for us anyway, that evening. Wales will be up against Denmark. Wales, who got their first win in the top tier on Thursday night when they defeated Norway. 2-1. Norway gone down to 10 men. Hannah didn't score. What can you tell me? You're a big Wales fan, Jules.

30:13Julien Laurens: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mrs. L, obviously. So we watched, I thought they deserved to win as well. They were outstanding in the effort that they put in how much they could prevent and pressure as well. Norway forcing them to make mistakes. That's how the goals came. Forcing the red card because Hagem is late and then James is far too quick. It's a problem with Norway. We've seen with the two centre-backs, not just in this game, but in the previous one as well, where they are heavy and slow defensively. And I thought it was a really good game plan from Craig Bellamy to use it that way. They needed this win because they started badly, really, in this Nations League.

30:49Julien Laurens: So this is a great win for them. Okay. Yeah, that burst of pace from... So basically, Higgum's running back towards his own goal, isn't he? Thinks he's got all the time in the world. And then James just put the afterburners on, got nipped in and he took him out. Yeah, it was a place he saw, but Thomas, who's obviously just moved to the Premier League, the Hull City, but he's been very reliable in the Championship for two or three years now as a brilliant crosser, one of the best crossers outside the Premier League. And his ball in for James was good. and that free kick from Nico Williams was a really clever one, wasn't it?

31:21It takes a bit of confidence to go the side of the goalie and you've got to really trust the whip that you put on the ball and yeah, that was class from him. So he's a very underrated player, I think. Yeah, I agree.

31:33Julien Laurens: When you think of the mistake defensively that nowhere made against Portugal, you know, Nylund in goal and all of that, and again, those mistakes, as good as they were at the World Cup, for them to go to the next level, these have to disappear. Whether those centre-backs are good enough or not is another matter. But even if you're not very good, don't make those mistakes. It's just as simple as that. Maybe they're struggling to find the same intensity for these Nations League fixtures as they did for their jaunt around the United States. Over in Group 2, Greece is certainly not lacking in motivation.

32:03They are currently leading that group. Remember, that's the one with Xavi Hernandez, his Netherlands, and Jurgen Klopp's Germany, who Greece beat for the first time in their history in Jurgen Klopp's first home game. They then faced Netherlands on Thursday, went 2-0 up. The Dutch fought back through Virg van Dijk and Tijani Rinders, another City player who's... Didn't they do a triple change? They were poor in the first half.

32:33Julien Laurens: Greece were really good for the money. Solis doing well, getting injured though. Solis getting injured, how grave is it? I don't know, it looks like it's the hamstring. I saw the quotes from the head coach saying that they wanted to take him off. He wanted to stay on the pitch. And I don't know if that had an impact in the end or not with the injury. There might not be much. And, you know, Arsenal play obviously Leeds on Saturday. It's next, so in the weekday. After that, there's the Champions League coming back too. So let's hope it's not too serious. Yeah, they don't have too much cover, do they, in that position?

33:06Also, Kai Havertz picking up an injury for Germany. they got a victory against Serbia. I think that was 2-0 that game. They led 32-1 on shots, which tells a story. And just on the Arsenal front, Declan Rice, not featuring for England again. I would have thought that was a precaution. I don't think it would be too serious there. But yeah, Klopp's Germany. Lots of new faces. And Florian Wurz. Yeah, it was a good guy. Well, an amazing bit of play when he hits the post and that sets up the first goal and then he scores the second.

33:46Julien Laurens: The first touch, the fact that he still takes the information in the box when there's people around you to know where the defender is before doing the little, it's just remarkable. And again, it's not one for now going back on what he's done at Liverpool. Can he do at Liverpool in the Premier League? The price they paid for him, all of that. But just this goal shows you how talented he is. and he might not click at Liverpool or he might click to a certain extent or a certain level but don't tell me he's not good it's not possible he's an incredible player Is it a confidence thing? Is it a role in the team thing?

34:18Julien Laurens: Yeah maybe a bit of everything I do think that Iraula's style suits him far more than whatever slot tried to do last season so I'm hoping really for him and Liverpool that he would click I think it will he's too good not for it to click and I quite like a little partnership with Volta Mada obviously I know it didn't work out on Newcastle but it's something about Volta Mada that I like I think he's capable of magic isn't he and there's a pairing he managed to make that chance disappear which is quite remarkable yeah I mean it's always the right kind of matter Greece take on Germany again on Sunday night while the Netherlands take on Serbia that group currently sees as I mentioned Greece top of the pile on seven points Netherlands second on five Germany in third spot Friday in Paris Jules oh yes Friday night in Paris was the game of the week.

35:10It was. France against Italy. So it was Zinedine Zidane making his home debut as France manager in the Stade de France where, correct me if I'm wrong, he won the World Cup against Italy, who, correct me if I'm wrong, ended his career. He ended his career and lost the World Cup finally. I see. And I mean, we got excited about Italy's performance against Turkey, but especially after seeing how they collapsed against Belgium, I thought, when they go to France to face that French attack. There's not going to be any tripe for the cats, as the Italians. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. However, there was tripe for the cats.

35:52Yeah, and I thought it was really good. Yeah. First of all, there was an amazing goal from Michael Olesey,

35:56Julien Laurens: as usual. And I don't know if you prefer, if you've seen it, that one, that free kick that they play short with Cherky or the one against Belgium a few days before where he literally runs the whole pitch pretty much. and then slots it past Lamens. He's an incredible player, which we knew. But what's interesting for me is that Deschamps had moved him from the right wing into a number 10 position for the World Cup. Which is what you prefer, I think, no? Which I was not too sure because my point was at the time, and he had a great World Cup, so like, you know, fair enough. I was like, why would you move him from that right hand side where he's got all the bearings, where he knows exactly this is his best position, he's one of the best in that position in the world, to play him as a 10.

36:36Julien Laurens: Zidane has decided to change that again and move him away from the 10 into back to that right wing position. And I think he's even better there. I do. I think he's better there. Yeah, I do. Because he's just got that dreamy left foot. He's impossible to stop, isn't he? When he drops that shoulder and comes infield, he can do whatever he wants. I liked him in the World Cup, but when you see, he produced some good assists, he played well. But when I think about it now, did he underachieve a bit of the World Cup? Because you've seen what he's producing in the Nation League. It's next level, isn't it?

37:11I mean, it is Ballon d 'Or level play. This is a guy that I think is going to be considered top three in the world for many years, really. There are not many players I'd rather watch than Michael Alisse. I mean, he's got so much great. During the game, yes. Post-game, not so much. but the incredible line-up of talent with Mbappé when he's fit with Dembele Ryan Scherky Bacalao Douai whoever else is up with them but the goals weren't free-flowing under Deschamps and they're not yet under Zidane

37:47Julien Laurens: one per game so far one against Italy one against Belgium one against Turkey partly that was because Donnarumma had an exceptional night seven or eight saves he made in the second the first half was really pulled from the French in terms of the ball circulation and it was a bit slow and sloppy, lacked a bit of verticality and Italy defended well. I think Gazeta's front page today is like, this is Italy. And I think, again, it was great to see Bastoni defending the way he did and Calafiore, all of them as a team. And then France on a counter attack and Mosey Kane should have scored earlier on too, on a counter.

38:20Julien Laurens: Second half was much better from the French. I like the fact that Zidane wants to see Scherke in the midfield three and have that kind of number eight role where you have to do a bit of everything instead of having him just as a turn or wide. And the second half, the French were much better. But in the end, they made a mistake. The pass from Rabiot for D 'Acuna is not there. And then D 'Acuna's first touch is a poor touch. And Bastoni make them pay. Bastoni runs in, anticipates, collects, and finishes the second goal in two games. Redemption for Bastoni. He was very much the villain of the piece when Italy failed to qualify after his red card against Bosnia.

39:00Is Truffaut going to be a regular, do you think?

39:03Julien Laurens: He's been outstanding against Italy. The game before that, too, really, really good. And it was interesting that Jacque played. Obviously, there's no Saliba at the moment, but yeah, that could be quite the battle, right? It will be, I think, because two games that Jacque played against Italy and against Belgium, outstanding. Really outstanding against the likes of Pio Esposito, for example, but even against the de Quetelet or those kind of strikers, he was incredible. And I think the question already and the debate back home is, okay, Saliba is going to come back in November, December. So think about March and potentially a quarter final of Nations League.

39:38Julien Laurens: You will have Upamecano, Konate, if they all fit, Saliba and Jacquet. So four, potentially La Croix 2 if you want, so five for two positions. Who do you pick? You know, when, what is Zidane going to do? Is it Saliba and Jacquet? Is it Jacquet and Upamecano? do you go up a Meccano and Saliba because they were there the World Cup and at the Euros before and have more experience than Jacquet who let's remind everybody has only played one more game than all of us in the Champions League in his life for example so it's all that taking consideration but to see such a young player 21 making the step up like that was really impressive okay were you also surprised by Italy as I was they drew 1-1 I don't think we ever mentioned to school before but uh but yeah 1-1 it finished absolutely yeah i thought the belgian game to start with was maybe a little bit naive from mancini of trying to do something where they should have gone back to basic a bit right the turkey game turkey are just not very good right now uh but at least against turkey you saw a bit more of okay let's make sure that we are a unit a proper unit which they were not against belgium right certainly not in the first half it'd be better in the second half and against the french i thought collectively they were outstanding standing out of position especially.

40:48Yeah, the mentality. That was the real difference. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that even when they went behind, they were still... And even at the end, when they were 1-1, they were still going for it. They could have won. They were playing against 10 men by this point because Opa Mekano had been...

41:00Julien Laurens: Yeah, yeah, 82nd or something. Yeah. No, I thought it was really good, really positive. And now, you know, we still have to keep it up against Turkey, which I think they will on Monday night. All right. We'll have to see who's going to be in charge of Turkey because Vincenzo Montella was already facing pressure after their heavy defeat by Italy at home. And they then went and lost 3-0 to Belgium on Friday. Yeah, Mark Van Bommel's Belgium. Kevin De Bruyne, by the way, their second goal of that, of that break. It was such a Kevin De Bruyne-esque goal, really, at 35. He might still not be able to run like he used to, but in those kind of situations, it's wonderful.

41:41Lovely to see. France leading that group. Yeah. Belgium a point behind with Italy a little bit further back and Turkey on absolutely nothing yes Monday night France Belgium and Italy Turkey Nations League I like it you like it I don't international friendlies were they're boring they are boring there's no atmosphere the players find it too easy to pull out of them the managers just automatically go into friendly mode and just swap eight players at once or whatever like it's not good was the Nations League. You saw in this game, even this game, where England are like 4-0 up, 5-0 up. Tuchel didn't make loads of changes.

42:21It's like this is a competitive game. I want to absolutely smash Croatia. That was his attitude. And I think even though it's not mega competitive, there's not that tension on it, because when it was said and done, it doesn't matter that much if you qualify or not. I think having that competitive edge is brilliant. And it's getting the best players, to play for their countries. Adrian, savor these last few days of Nations League before we have to put it on hold. What a trend. Go back to club football. Curses.

42:53Julien Laurens: Until November only. Until November? It's not a longer one. Is it another three weeks or in November? No, it's a shorter one. There's only two games this time. This has been long. It's felt a bit long, you know, but the last Premier League weekend was a long, long time ago. Yeah. Maybe a bit too long even. Well, it was a different world. It was before that. Yeah. And when we come back, it's just going to be... I know. Dear Rose. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we'll talk about that in Thursday's Totally Football Show when we'll be previewing round... Is it round six? Round six, I'm hearing, of this Premier League season.

43:32But in many ways, round one of a whole new Premier League paradigm. Anyway, do join us on Thursday for that, if you so choose. Before that, We'll be getting the gang together for another of our Totally Extras. Only this one you can call a Totally Beckstra. Because we're going to be talking about David Beckham. Yeah. So I was away for much of the Beckham years. And when we do these Totally Extras, you look back on all the old footage. And I find myself going, this Beckham guy. The guy that I keep seeing in the adverts could play a bit, you know, by the way. No, I'm not going to name drop it here, but I've known Beckham or Bex since we were kids.

44:15Really? Both of them as kids, we were the same age. No way. Yeah. He was at Ridgeway Rovers, a good club in East London. And I played for Redbridge United and we were rivals. You know, like sort of two of the best teams in London. And was he already known as... So yeah, Beckham was really small. He was tiny, like compared to most kids at that age. But he was the skillful kid. He was the little kid who had all the techers. and it was like he's at manu he's at manu like everyone no i was asked there's a few players at different clubs um and it was like yeah like he's at manu like apparently they say he's going to be like six foot when he when he grows up like they've done the test how do they know they've done they did the test can you do a bone test yeah yeah yeah so they did all that and um but he's yeah he's really really nice loud enough so i didn't see him for a couple of years and then we got in the England Under 18 squad together.

45:07Oh, nice. And he'd just gone from being like this five foot six kid to being six foot strong, powerful. And I just thought, oh, yeah, he's got a little bit about him, you know, because he always had the technique. Once he had the physical side as well, there was no stopping him. So, yeah, he was really, really nice. He always used to ask after me at England squads with Gary Lewin. You remember the physio? Yeah, he'd go, oh, Bex is asking after you. And we weren't like best mates or anything, but he was really thoughtful. So I'm a big Bex sort of fan. I'm not, you know, I'm always on his side. Excellent.

45:43Well, we'll be doing David Beckham, the sham of his career. No, no, we're going to be celebrating a man who's now passed way beyond his footballing career. So it's almost worth going back and just checking a little bit on what actually he did to become Beckham. Good. that'll be out on Tuesday morning. Jules, many thanks for coming in. Look forward to seeing you again soon on the Toadie Football Show. Adrian, thank you for making it in tonight. And everyone who joined us on YouTube will be live, of course, next Sunday after the Premier League return when it's going to be Liverpool-Man City, the first Superstar back.

46:22Boom. Anyway, loads to come before that. Many thanks to Jake and producer Charlie as well. That's it for this evening's show from all of us here. It's goodbye.

46:37We'll be right back.

47:01Thank you.

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