Fermin fights back as Barca beat Atletico

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2:05Today, Barcelona firm in. They go behind to Atleti, but thanks to Lopez, find their better half. Como Chameleon, nine-goal winners midweek, but they can't lay a glove on Inter at San Siro. We'll talk about Jed Spence redemption, Lens week from hell, Roma's Old Trafford collapse, punchbacks and Big Daddy Kane, now a record-breaking assister. All that and more in this Totally Football Show.

2:56and Paul Belus in Barcelona. Hello, boys. Hello, Jimbo. Hello, hello, lads. Lovely to see you all. First thing to say is, last week, our show was recorded on Monday. We always record it on Monday. And shortly after we published on Tuesday morning, we got the news about the death of Jesus de Miguel following the terrible incident in the game between Tenerife and Andorra on the Monday afternoon. Paul, I imagine we saw tributes all over Europe this week, but just to quickly touch on that story and the fallout from it, the tributes in Spain were particularly full and effusive. I know that Tenerife have already made a commitment to the funding of de Miguel's family going forward.

3:47But what has been happening since the news broke on Tuesday morning there in Spain? Yeah, and also as you can imagine there's been big shock in Spain and everything that has unfolded I think that you could see the impact of the news from the very top to the bottom of the Spanish football Tenerife of course they didn't play a game in this weekend and they just used the stadium just to pay tribute to Jesús de Miguel there were parliaments from all the Tenerife players families were there, Tenerife of course made the commitment of funding the life, basically, and just to make sure that Jesús de Miguel's daughter doesn't miss anything up until at least she's 18.

4:32And yeah, basically all the shows of support have been quite public and quite well spread. In my opinion, I would have cancelled all the La Liga games, but the main reason why they weren't cancelled was because there are no available weekends to fit them in, basically. in the future. And La Liga, what they did instead was setting up a minute of applauses on the ninth minute of every La Liga game on this weekend, plus a special T-shirt in every game and a special protocol in every game just to show all the sort of support. But, for example, it struck a lot to me what happened after the Barcelona against Aston Villa game in the Champions League.

5:17Rafinha scored two goals. He didn't even celebrate the goals. and after the game, journalists asked him if he was angry at Fleek or if he had something going on. And he said, no, I just struggled to cope with the news, to be honest. I just woke up this morning, found out the news. Jesús de Miguel was just my age. I also have a daughter and it could have been any one of us. So I struggled to cope with it. And I, to be honest, didn't really want to play to that extent. Well, I know I have to because it's my job. So just to see that place that sometimes we put them above everyone else, to be that deeply impacted by something very human, as every one of us felt, for me, it showed in a way how impactful this was in Spain.

6:00Sure. I guess reminiscent in a way of when the news about Diogo Jota broke. The circumstances this time different, of course, because it happened during a match. I wonder, if it's not appropriate to ask, what is happening about the other person involved in the collision, the Andorra goalkeeper? So what we know so far, the only thing that we've heard about Jesús Obono, the goalkeeper, is a statement that he released through Andorra, through the football club, saying that it's been the worst days of his life and how he struggled. We've been in touch with people and entourages of players from Andorra.

6:40And basically they highlighted how devastated Jesus O 'Hona was in a way that one quote that was used was that he didn't barely know who he was, that he was locked down on his place and struggling a lot. And Dorar trying to help him and trying to cope with that. It's a difficult situation and let's see how he goes through this. Basically, there's still not been announced official punishment as we speak. We are on Monday right now, Monday 9th of November, and we don't know the punishment yet. But yeah, it's difficult to know how is he going to respond to that. But what we saw, which was quite despicable, to be honest, was a lot of racial abuse on social media.

7:24He had to turn down all the social media accounts. There was even other non-league players in Spain which had the same surname, Owono. And they had to release a statement saying, look, I'm not the player who was involved in that. Please stop abusing me. because that's beyond humanity. And yeah, there was a really nice tribute of like Jorge Valdano in El País, in one of the main newspapers here in Spain, saying that one of the quotes that I like the most was saying that the pain has been so big that there's enough with one big team. Don't make two out of it. Paul, thank you so much. We'll get on to the football news next.

8:06Sunday night in La Liga, big match as Atletico Madrid hosting Barcelona with the chance to go top a chance it looked Paul, like they might actually take the way the game began Yep that's absolutely right because when it began it felt like Barcelona had not learned anything about what happened to Atletico Madrid last season Atletico Madrid knocked Barcelona out of the Copa del Rey and the Champions League playing really convincing ties but yeah the game started, Barcelona were just all over the place and Atletico knew how to dismantle Flick's high line. And yeah, they got ahead with an opener from Giuliano Simeone.

8:47A good run at the back of Barcelona's defence and Simeone just crashed into the box to score the opener in the first half. Could have had other ones in that opening 45 minutes, which by popular consent they dominated. Barcelona, though, in the second half, coming back to take a 2-1 win, thanks to Firmin Lopez. What changed in Barcelona in the game? I think, well, psychological moment. I'm going full cliches here. But there was one of those goals that is a psychological goal which is in Spain. I don't know if you say that in England. When a goal is scored just before halftime, there's a cliche like, oh, that's a psychological goal.

9:25That's going to turn the game around. So basically, Fermín scored in the 44th minute in the first half at Barcelona. We're far from great. and he was able to score a goal after a loose ball in the box. So yeah, he's in great form for me, one of the most underrated players in this Barcelona side. I think that now he's sort of growing and getting the appreciation possibly that he deserves. But as an attacking midfielder, the numbers that he's having are just amazing. And then in the second half, what happened for me was a winning tactical tweak from Hansi Flick, which he used Frankie de Jong as a right back, which is a person that he had never played before and he was surprisingly good really, really good because Atletico had been punishing Brian Farinas an academy player that was playing at right back because of the injury crisis and Brian Farinas was struggling a lot then you put Frankie de Jong in there and he didn't lose a ball he was really comfortable on the ball he played really well Barca stopped a bit Atletico, they pressed better and they find their way into the game.

10:30They were better in possession. And then Lamin Jamal, who I wouldn't say he had a brilliant outstanding game. Yeah, he made the difference with an outstanding pass, like a through ball to the box to Fermín López, who was running at the space behind Atletico's back line. He crossed it to the back of the net. Really good goal. And I think it's handy when you have a player like Lamin Jamal, who even when he's not at his best, he can deliver a beautiful assist to win a game at Metropolitano. 15 goal involvements now for Firmino Lopez in the last 15 games, which, as you say, pretty amazing. Not sure what Laminia Marl's numbers would be in that same period, but we hear a lot that he's not at his best but still does stuff.

11:15When was the last time you saw Laminia Marl really Laminia Marl it up? I would say possibly in the game against Real Betis. Real Betis against Barcelona he scored a worldie I think that's the last game I saw La Minyama like at the top of his game because the goal he scored is possibly the best that he's ever scored in a Barca shirt I would say that but that's like almost a month ago so yeah but even with that he's able to produce at rates that normal players cannot he's scored a brace last weekend though or weekend before last did he? I think Did he? He's definitely scored a brace recently. Yeah, yeah.

11:56No, no, yeah, yeah. I mean... But like you say, he can do that in third gear. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's it. Against Aston Villa, he scored as well. So, yeah, I mean, he's been producing a lot of goals. Against Alaves, he scored the brace. But if you ask me when I've seen the last time Lamin-Jamal at the very top of his game, I would say Gendrell Betis. Okay, excellent. Is this stat padding that you're talking about, Paul, just, you know, he scores goals without actually performing. Are we going to have a narrative like Laminya Mal is a flat track bully, like, you know, sort of Romelu Lukaku, you know, just scores all the time.

12:38But what do these goals really mean? I think that in a way we sort of normalise what he does by how good he is and that's not fair on him in my opinion and possibly I'm guilty of that here but when you think about Lamy Jamal you think about the absolute brilliance and the best thing he can do and the potential that he can fulfil but I think it's possibly the thing that he has upgraded more in his game the fact that he can deliver week in week out he doesn't need to be at the top of his game he knows how to save himself for the big occasion So as long as he keeps doing that, I think he's going to keep being a better player.

13:15Julian Alvarez, this was his first game against the club that he wanted to join in the summer. How were the fans with that then? I mean, I think that fans will not remember fondly the game that Julian Alvarez has because I think that he was very good at everything except finishing, which is a lot about his role in football. But he had about three, four clear situations to score a goal and he couldn't. And two of them were like running, one against one against Joan Garcia from the halfway line. And he bottled them, basically. So he was very good at just everything else, despite the scoring, which, of course, makes a difference.

13:48And Atletico fans are not going to be pleased about it. A lot of cameras and the spotlight was on Julien Alvarez. And yeah, I don't think that he will remember that game fondly. Couldn't bring himself to score against the club he so desperately wanted to join. I see. Real Madrid are now second, three points behind Barcelona. that's following their victory 3-0 win against Valencia, which is their eighth consecutive win. That Jose Mourinho, huh? Good old washed up old Jose Mourinho. Who thought he was going to do this well at Real Madrid? James did. James called it. Is there any proof of that, James?

14:25I think I haven't said it. He didn't say it, but I thought it. I thought it pretty hard. Go on then. No, because I thought his way of playing would suit this Madrid side, in terms of the players on the transition, having the best strike he's had in years in Kylian Mbappé. He's been helped, Paul, as we've mentioned before, by Vinicius' suspension as well. It feels like everything's clicked. He's been helped by Jude Bellingham's Calvin Klein advert, which people are losing their minds out of. Are they? Oh, yeah. What happens in the Calvin Klein advert? He's just in his underpants. That's enough for a lot of people.

15:01Showing off a lot. I guess he has a lot to show off. but there's a lot of shutting off alright let's go back to the Vinny point so the first of that run of 8 games 8 victories is the one in which Vinicius Junior gets sent off against Villarreal he hasn't played in La Liga since when they were 3-1 down at Roma he gets hooked what's the final score there? 4-3 Real Madrid incredible it was 2-2 against A.K. Athens when he's taken off. They win 3-2. Leipzig, he gets replaced by Diamandio, goes on to score and assists. It's remarkable. No, I mean, if you want to be cheeky, you can state that possibly the best moment of Mourinho since he took over Real Madrid was winning at the Camp Nou, but the second best was Vinny pulling Nathan Saliba's hair.

15:57That's been actually a turning point in his time at Madrid. and now I'm just eager to see how he handles this in the future because Vinny is going to come up soon. He's going to come back soon. And let's see how he handles this situation because let's not forget that he signed the new six-year deal last summer. Delica, Delica, what do you think is going to happen, Paul? Will the club be looking to move him on in January? Will there be some kind of awkward cohabitation? Or will Jose find a way to make it all work? I think that Jose will have to find a way to make it all work I don't know how but he will have to I think that Diomande being this good will help in a way that possibly Binney will not be that untouchable right now but I think that he will have to ease him in at least until summer I don't see a way of him living in January and then on summer let's see what happens Not a good afternoon for Javier Aguirre's Valencia.

16:57They're very much in the bottom three still. And the defender, Pablo Maffeo, who was asked to do a half-time interview. Did you see this? Superb. The referee, sorry, the interviewer asked him about the first half performance. Pablo replied, I really don't feel like doing this interview. I think it's **** when I'm ****. This interview has no place here. We're playing a game. And you have to agree with him. I mean, you can't not agree. I mean, like every time you watch one of those interviews, when are they ever insightful? When do you ever learn anything from them? Every player who ever does them is just trying to get to the dressing room as quickly as possible.

17:30So hats off to Pablo Maffeo. I was watching at this live and you could see as soon as the journalist was starting to pose the question, the face of Pablo Maffeo was like, oh, this is coming. OK, something is coming here. He was like saying no with his head and just his jaw just trying to crush his teeth. Like, oh, there's something coming in here. And then, yeah, he just exploded. What was the reaction in Spain to that? Do people agree with him? No, I mean, I think that the reaction was that it was a brutal head loss, that he was really harsh with the journalist who didn't deserve that. And there was a tweet from Marcelo, the former Real Madrid left-back, just criticising Pablo Maffeo for the amount of anger that he allegedly have against Real Madrid.

18:20because Pablo Maffeo has had a lot of episodes against Vinicius Jr. in the past, just insulting themselves, having banter. Maybe you could put it as banter, but no, it was a bit more than banter on the pitch. And yeah, he was elected as having this sort of anger against Real Madrid. And he had to apologise afterwards and he made a statement through social media apologising for his behaviour and what he said. Something else I wanted to ask you about, which is Real Madrid's deal, or verbal agreement at least, to sign the 16-year-old JJ Gabriel from Manchester United. Has that made a lot of news in Madrid?

18:57And what's it going to be like for him there with the Marengues? It has. It has generated a lot of news. There was one of these trademark Spanish media sort of episodes that was Diario Marca going at somewhere's door in a place where JJ Gabriel was. They just go out and speak to him. They gave him a front cover of Marco with his face on it and just took a picture. And it was the front cover of the day after. So in a way, yeah, JJ Guerrero could have a taste of what's Spanish media in that regard. In that sort of exchange with the Marco journalist, he said that he, well, I prefer Ramerite over Barcelona.

19:37That's crystal clear. So sort of giving hints of what's going to happen. But yeah, no, it's a big move. let's see how it all sits down at Ramadarid Academy because of course he's going to be given a sort of preferential treatment in terms of training with the first team more often than other players but playing with the second team there's no plans right now that he plays with the first team really in the very short term and let's see how it all sits down because the case that has been remembered a lot around Ramadarid comparing him to JJ Gabriel has been Martin Odegaard, a player that he was 16.

20:16He joined in a similar situation and he struggled to adapt, to get settled into the club, to cope with the expectation. And in a club where there were teammates of him in the beating of Real Madrid that were not particularly happy about dealing with a teammate that was given preferential treatment ahead of them. Paul, Malus, many, many thanks for that. Best of luck to Spain. Spain have got England. One last thing then. Spain playing England on Sunday? Sunday, next Sunday, yeah. At the Metropolitano. Oh, yeah? At the Metropolitano. Oof. Yeah, yeah. It's going to be a big game. We've had the confirmation today that Lamin Jamal and Mikel Yarzaval are going to miss their next game, which is on Wednesday or Thursday, I don't remember now, against Czech Republic.

21:04But they are expected to be back against England. We'll see. We'll preview that game in Thursday's edition of the Totally Football Show. Paul, thank you so much for being with us today. Been a pleasure. Paul Belus. Of course, before that England-Spain game, they've got the match with Croatia coming up on Thursday night. We'll be doing a special live edition of the Totally Football Show straight after that game. Bit of history there. Reflecting on that and Italy's game against France, which will be taking place Thursday night at San Siro. Speaking of Italy, it's to City How We Go next.

22:18We'll be right back.

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23:19Serie A, let's have a look at the table. If you're on YouTube, here's what it looks like. For those relying on an audio version, let me tell you that the top three are separated by just two points. They are Lazio, Inter and Roma. It's the first time ever that the two Roman sides, Lazio and Roma, have been unbeaten this deep into a season. Milan are in fourth place ahead of Como with Frozionini, still challenging despite their defeat this weekend to Caleri. James, two very much key games on the Sunday. First of all, we had Napoli halting Lazio's excellent run with a 1-1 drawdown in Naples. Huge game for Allegri, I imagine, especially after what happened to them midweek against Porto.

24:04And then that was followed by the Inter-Como, which saw Inter very much halting Como's momentum after their incredible 9-1 win last week in Lens. Where do you want to begin? I suppose there's been a lot of drama around Napoli. We haven't really gone in deep on that. But they played against Porto in the Champions League in midweek. They got battered. And the fallout from that game was pretty spectacular because during it you had Lorenzo Luca, your favorite striker, turning around to Kevin De Bruyne and kind of complaining about service, mistiming his runs and that sort of thing. And De Bruyne is alleged to have told him to F off.

24:53which every Italian lip reader were like yes he's had a go at him there that's not good and then after the game Matteo Politano one of the wingers came out and said yeah it'd be really nice if it wasn't just the Italian lads who came out and did interviews I think simultaneously or shortly after that Scott McTominay did CBS where he was furious like I mean if you haven't seen that interview he's he's kind of almost pulling his hair out with how angry he is um and then so they they go back home there's a training camp allegory doesn't do a press conference before the como game and so before the uh lazio game sorry before the lazio game and it means the owner de la rentis has to come out on x and say uh it doesn't mean i'm sacking Allegri just thought you know they're in a training camp they need to focus reflect and a press conference yeah these pre-match press conferences what do they mean you know all this sort of stuff anyway they go up they play Lazio league leaders have only dropped two points all this season Lazio take the lead play really well for most of the first half it's a lovely sunny day down in Naples but the mood was grey cloudy if you like and then Napoli came back they played actually quite well to the point where Lazio's goalkeeper Mandas was man of the match it was still only a 1-1 draw but at the time of recording James it looks like Napoli had no intention of changing Allegri even though they're sort of down in mid-table 10th I think, yeah and for their centenary year where they've got lots of things planned they certainly had other ideas of where they would be right now Indeed.

26:44All right. Inter-Como then. Como, who had had that extraordinary performance midweek against Lund's, the 9-1 win. Inter, who themselves had been victorious away at Feyenoord, 3-0 in the Champions League, but who in their previous league game had been embarrassed by Milan in the derby. How did they stop Como so effectively in this game? well Inter are Como's bogey team I mean you could say that about a lot of teams that play Inter because Inter have been the best team in the league for a long time now but I think Inter have always beaten Como since they've since they've been up so they've got their number and then Como gave the game away quite early to the point where Cesc Fabregas said look we were giving the ball away in areas we never usually give the ball away Inter are a really good team on the transition.

27:37First goal comes from one of Koma's best players at keeping the ball, sort of uncharacteristically giving away. Koma go up the other end, Inter go up the other end and score. And I think there are a couple of things in that first goal which are quite telling. One is Jed Spence, you know, who is beginning to get a run of games in this team and certainly offers something different to Andy Duve, who was playing there. Andy Duve, who has, for my money, the best nickname in football at the moment. His teammates call him Il Calcio. Il Calcio. They call him Andy Football Duve. He is the football. Can't get much better than that, can you?

28:20Wow. But Duve was signed to play as a kind of eight, number 10 kind of player. But he's been playing as a wingback and it's made into really fun to watch. He's kind of two-footed, cuts inside, but he cannot defend. We played left back for France in Zinedine Zinan's first international break. And it was not a resounding success. It's fair to say. So Juve was benched for this game. Spence came in. Ah, right. Because Juve had played in the derby. Yes. And then there's Marcus Turam. We were talking about Lamin-Yemal and someone else's numbers earlier. Oh, yeah. Firmin Lopez. Firmin Lopez. Well, yes, but you were talking about goal involvements, James.

29:06And I think Marcus Churam has got 16 goal involvements in his last 17 games. And even though he didn't play particularly well in the derby, he's really stepped up to the plate this season. It's kind of been lost, I think, on people, partly because Inter kept going 2-0 down and then coming back and then lost the derby and were disappointing in the Champions League against Club Bruges and such like. but Inter in this run of, between the international breaks, have won six of seven games. Without Lautaro Martinez. Without Lautaro, without John Stones, Curtis Jones, who've yet to really make an impact.

29:46Without Mkhitaryan, who's 73. And with these wingback positions sort of been in flux because Di Marco hasn't maybe played as regularly as people thought he would. They've had this juke experiment going on at centre-back. They've been without their two most kind of grizzled man markers, Achebe and De Vrij, who left in the summer. So you had Bastoni playing through the middle of the defence in this game against Como. Como didn't really create anything. So maybe I do think as good as they have been at putting a great performance in the Champions League and matching it on the weekend in Serie A because Como went into this game on a run of six straight wins.

30:31I think the ninth game in a month, maybe, and particularly the opponent and playing at San Siro, I think maybe it was a bridge too far for Como. Right. How popular is Jed Spence now in Milan? I've seen kind of social media accounts saying, we need to apologise to this guy. He's actually really good. Yeah, I think an element of that was because when they signed him, They tried to sign Marco Palestra, who went to Chelsea. They then tried to sign the Arab-Israeli guy from Unian Sinan Shandjoar, Khalili, who went to Palace. And he had an issue with his medical. So it felt like Spence came in and was more or less like, you know, sort of third choice, really.

31:22And then he didn't play at the beginning of the season. he just like turned up in the VIP boxes at San Siro with you know Serie A Twitter account saying Aura you know sort of like that sort of thing so it's taken a while for him to to get going but he watching him at the weekend you felt for the first time like oh okay he has he has some of the Dumfries about him which was not so much just running down the wing and carrying the ball but giving it to someone else and then going into the box and acting like a second striker so you know naturally it takes a little bit of time for you to adapt and integrate to a new club new league even though he played on loan for Genoa but it looks like he's he's slowly beginning to get what Kivu wants from him.

32:17Okay. A couple other things I wanted to ask. One of which is, what was the reaction in Rome to events at Old Trafford last midweek?

32:32Why does this keep happening? Yeah. Because of the Real Madrid game we talked about earlier. And not only that one, but yeah. And then obviously, yeah, all the baggage from previous performances is at Old Trafford. But I think sort of rationally, and it's hard to be rational in Rome, as you know, they kind of looked at it and said, this team is clearly better and supreme for an hour. But at the moment, and I got quite a lot of flack for this on Twitter because when they were 2-0 up, I put, remember, this is a Roma team with its third choice goalkeeper in at the moment because Sfilas out, Gallini got injured in the build-up to the game.

33:18They were also without Cristante, Pellegrini, Dybala and Dicca was on the bench, I think. So it was not a second-string Roma, but not Roma at its full strength. Manu Kona missing as well. And you can see that after an hour, when you don't have the depth that they would like to have, that they don't just fade. They just completely exit the scene. Right. The penalty didn't help. No, and to be honest, like it was a soft penalty to begin with. Encroachment, come on. And I do think, I mean, when I saw Vasquez make that save, I was like, oh, this is Roma's night. Roma are going to win this. But I did find it kind of quite amusing afterwards that that win for Man United was celebrated as a turning point without any of the context of being a team that has shown in the Champions League this season the last 20 minutes of games just doesn't have it and it is a team that is without several of its best players to which United fans well we're without several of our best players as well it's like you are Man United and you make about 300 million more a year than Roma do so you know There you go well they bounce back with a clean sheet this weekend 3-0 victory against Sassuolo the other game which would be remiss of me not to mention is Fiorentina-Juventus which is a historic grudge match at least for Fiorentina Juve always feigned indifference to their trips to Florence What's the hunchback thing?

35:06Who calls who hunchbacks in that one? Fiorentina call, well, the fans call... Juve hunchbacks. The Juve, the gobby. Gobby. Gobby. On what grounds? Well, a couple of grounds. I mean, there's a story about them playing Juve, I think in the 50s, and Juve had this kind of laced up shirt collar. And it would, when players would run, the air would flow around the back and create a hump. Is that right? That was one of the stories. So it allowed them to say like these are Gobby hunchback. But Gobby in Italian folklore get lucky, don't they? Yeah, they do. You rub the hump of the humpback. I was curious, therefore, that Fiori and Tina fans should call the club that they hate the most the Gobby.

35:53I'm not sure why. It's because they feel they always get lucky. Oh, I see. They get lucky. They get lucky with decisions. Right. The layers to this. Right. Well, it's funny. And that is very much the view. And that's indeed the Liam Brady penalty is one of the decisions which is most deeply etched into the kind of folklore of this rivalry. But this weekend, they very much didn't get the decision, I would say. Fiorentina 2, Juve 2 was the final score. Fiorentina did have what would have been a winning goal disallowed. But Juve equally had what looked like a pretty clear hand ball by Fiorentina in no way sanctioned by referee or VAR.

36:32Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're seeing this in the Premier League as well. There's this kind of injustice league, you know, the kind of the fans who, it feels very familiar to me, but see like fans of Premier League teams listing all the decisions their team didn't get. I think we've been used to that, James, in Italy for at least 20 years. And so, yeah, it's been quite, it was quite funny to see some Juventus fans with a checklist of all the decisions that haven't gone their way so far this season. But Spalletti afterwards, I wouldn't say Spalletti gets a pass for comments like these because every now and again he says something and it raises eyebrows.

37:14But I do sometimes wonder if Conte said this, what would the reaction be? So like he said yesterday, we have this habit of drowning in a glass of water. We just make mountains out of mohills. We've actually played pretty well throughout the game, but we've given up a silly corner kick in which there's a free header to their best player or their striker, Matteo Pellegrino, and the nearest guy to him is Volta Marder, the tallest guy on the pitch. Why are we conceding that?

37:49Juventus' performances are sort of getting better. So like Spalletti choosing to play both Colin Mojani and Valdemada, one who set up the other for their first equaliser,

38:04this feeling that they continue to be undermined by silly individual mistakes. Right. Valdemada is becoming a key fixture, as you say, of Spalletti's line-up and scored his first league goal this weekend. There you go. All right, James. Would you like to head off and lemse it up? I will, yeah, if that's okay. All right, nice one. Of course, we'll catch up with recent events in France and Germany next. Next.

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41:47Tom, Ligue 1, what's the table look like? Well, Paris Saint-Germain, this is exactly the same, isn't it? Paris Saint-Germain, two points clear of Lille, who have Liam Rossenia's Paris FC one point behind. Oh, but here's a change. Who sat in fourth place? Olympique Marseille. What's happened there, Tom? Incredible. Did I read that no club in Europe, no club in Europe, between the last international break and this international break has put together a better run than Olympic Marseille? It's true. The only clubs who can match this run of form are something like... Real Madrid? Possibly Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.

42:33Wow. So up there with the big guns. And lest we forget, Marseille went into the last international break on the back of five straight defeats in all competitions. They've come out of that international break, five straight wins in Ligue 1. And all of a sudden, all is well. It was a really interesting game because they were away at Lens. This is Lens' first game since the historic 9-1 shellacking that they received at the hands of Como in the Champions League. Not only that, but that 9-1 came hard on the heels of a defeat in the Derby. In the Derby. Yeah. So did they start this game really well?

43:09Yes, they did. Flew out of the traps. So the first thing to say is that the Lens supporters made their feelings known prior to kickoff. There were various angry banners displayed around the stadium. The most noticeable of which was an enormous banner held up right in the middle of the main stand opposite the TV cameras. that said, You are a disgrace to 120 years of history. Wow. And this is what the players walk out and see as they come out and line up before kickoff. The fans are still holding that. They haven't started taking it down. And at this point of the game, the Lens Ultras are on strike.

43:54Right. They decided that for the first 10 minutes, they weren't going to applaud, they weren't going to cheer. Right. They were going to turn their backs to the play. Oh dear. So they missed. What happened in the second minute was that Lens fell behind with a piece of defending every bit as calamitous as what we'd seen in that game against Como. Lens are kind of trying to knock the ball between themselves at the back. Jonathan Grady plays a pass towards his centre-back partner, Samson Beidou, but hasn't looked to see where he is. The ball runs past Beidou. Robin Risse, the Lens goalkeeper, has pulled out to the left-hand side of his area, anticipating a pass that doesn't come.

44:30And so, Amin Gouiri, the Marseille striker, just runs in and knocks the ball over the line from a distance of about two yards. Worst possible start, Lens did equalise through the inevitable Florian Thauvin. But then Marseille got the winner through Kélène Abdallah, who's had quite an interesting start to the season. 20 year old winger graduate from the OM Academy and I've spoken on the pod before about the historic difficulties that OM have had bringing players through from their youth system he came into the team early in the season and this of course is in the context of Marseille's very severe financial problems not being able to recruit any players made a really big impact but then earlier on in this run of wins he came off the bench when Marseille were 4-0 up at home to Le Havre that was the game where they ended up conceding three goals in the last 13 minutes and Bruno Genesio the Marseille coach called him out after the game he was like when we bring these young players on in a game like that even if we're comfortably in the lead they need to show humility they need to work hard I didn't see that from you know the players I brought on and so Abdallah was frozen out, sent back to the reserves and he hadn't featured until he came on in this game at Lens on Sunday night, comes off the bench, scores the winner with eight minutes remaining and yeah, OM up to fourth, five straight wins and have turned their season around completely and basically the squad is very thin, there's very little room for manoeuvre in terms of being able to rotate but when Genezio is able to get his first choice starting XI onto the pitch.

46:11They are a decent team and they're starting to get used to playing with each other. And another consequence of the lack of squad depth and the lack of new signings is that these players are just playing together week after week after week and they're starting to look like a reasonably decent outfit. Good Lord. On the edges of the Champions League places. As for Lens, what's the mood there? Is there any suggestion that with, say for example, beloved former manager Pierre Sarge, possibly not sure if we've got confirmation of this yet but possibly available again that they might be thinking to make a change i mean he burnt a few bridges with the manner of his departure because he had this incredible season at lance qualifies them for the champions league wins the coupe de france and everyone seems to be on the same wavelength and then off he goes to to crystal Palace and a lot of Lens fans were upset by that so it's not I mean you know at Lyon he remains monumentally popular at Lens he is one of their greatest ever coaches albeit having only been there for one season but you know he would need to do some repair work if he were to return but in the aftermath of the humiliation by Como the sporting director Jean-Louis Lecq gave an interview to l 'équipe and he said i stand by my decisions we're not looking at changing coach and of course the coach uh is yannick kouzek who was brought in after dino topmuller was fired after like six weeks in charge or something a guy with no previous top level coaching experience a guy who is like a childhood friend of jean-louis lec the sporting director both from corsica so even when he was appointed people thought it looked a little bit uh you know suspicious should we say can he manage of course he can well or can he but according to you know the sporting director there is no appetite to change um to change the coach but yeah i mean absolutely wretched lose at home in the derby historic humiliation in the champions league and then you know lose this game against against marseille so i wouldn't have thought we'll see a coaching change but were sarge to find himself out of work, which feels like a fairly strong possibility, I suspect there will be clamour for him to return.

48:32You may have Sarge news by the time that you receive this, listener. We're still doing this on Monday afternoon. Paris Edgermain, anyway, still top of the pile. They didn't make their usual six or seven changes to the starting line-up this time, possibly with the international break coming up. And it was a narrow win against Twa, but a win all the same. Yeah, a little bit late. but I mean they were dominant. Ferran Torres squandered four guilt-edged chances. He made that fantastic start to life at PSG. I think it was seven goals in his first six games or something. He hasn't scored since and he's, you know, certainly looking quite short of confidence in front of goal.

49:13Ilya Zabani, former Bournemouth centre-back, scored the only goal of the game with a header shortly before half-time. Teed up by Senny Mayulu, who is deputising for Ousmane Dembele in the false nine role rather than Ferran Torres and rather than any of the other superstar forwards at Luis Enrique's disposal. And we know that Luis Enrique has a very kind of singular conception of that false nine role. And so far, it looks like Mayulu is the guy who does the job, you know, the best out of Dembele's, you know, potential replacements. There you go. Excellent. We should get a word from Seb Staffer-Blo, who's been waiting patiently to tell us about the Bundesliga.

49:54Seb, are you there? I sure am, Jimbo. Hello. Excellent. Seb, you were just bashing out a piece for the Athletic. What about? Talking about Felix Dometra and goals celebrations, which are causing plenty of controversy over here in Germany. What's the controversy? It is because Felix Dometra scored twice the weekend against Elfersburg. And in celebration, he mimicked the taking off of a crown and the placing of it on the pitch, which is a gesture associated with the King's Return campaign, which is led by an organization called Ballers in God, which Nemecha belongs to. And there's an investigation over here in Germany into some of the beliefs held by fringe members of the organization, which can be anti-LGBTQI, anti-gender identity, anti-abortion.

50:52And so there's a conversation now going on. Bristol Dortmund's fan department released an official statement saying, absolutely fine with players representing their religion and showing their spirituality publicly, but not when it clashes with the club's culture around things like inclusion. So a long way to go with that one. Complicated issue. And also because obviously Nimetra is a German international, it's now also a DFB matter. So Borussia Dortmund are saying that they're in conversation with Nimetra about it. So are the DFB, the German Football Association. So that is what I've been writing about.

51:31Wow, nicely summed up for us there, Seb. but he scored both goals for Dortmund in their 2-1 win over Elversburg. Elversburg's late consolation was a bit of a special one though, eh? Sure was. Really, really nicely worked goals. Sort of a bit of a scissor kick. But Dortmund were very good, actually. Nimesha scored two fabulous goals in that game. And it's a shame, really, that we can't focus on those two because two long-range, very Yaya Torre-ish goals, I would say. And I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Jai Gatorov is a fabulous player wonderful technique the match should be the goalkeeper from distance on two occasions with two different types of finish so excellent and he keeps Dortmund on top well not quite on top of the Bundesliga but level on points with Bayern but just second on goal difference alone because Bayern score a lot of goals don't they but Harry Kane does and not to be funny but he hasn't scored since he won the Ballon d 'Or it's four games now four games a proper a proper drought and actually he missed a penalty against Dortmund, of course, on the Saturday after winning the Ballon d 'Or.

52:35But James, it is another week and another Harry Kane record. So he now has, I think it's eight assists in his first nine Bundesliga games of the season. That's a Bundesliga record. Also, it's what, today, the 9th of November, Bayern beat Mainz on the 7th. Kane registered his eighth assist of the season in that game, which already equals his highest tally in the Bundesliga, which I think he set it twice in 23, 24 and 24, 25. It's a little bit lower last season. Already equaled that. So it seems certain it'll have a new highest assist tally. So this is a great pivot towards being a creator and a provider.

53:12Okay. He also has been setting records with the size of his new deal. Very large. Yeah. So this is the, on basic salary, on a basic salary basis, not including things like bonuses and incentives. it's the highest uh contract ever written by Bayern Munich so it will last until 2029 that's signed and completed um yeah very interesting it's just great news for for the Bundesliga although it has drawn um has drawn some criticism from Didi Haman who has kind of pointed it and said oh you're sort of you're investing a lot of money in a player who's 33 now and kind of you know sort of the middle 30s of his of his career uh Bayern didn't love that Maxibor had a little bit of nibble back in response to that comment saying well diddy seems to find a lot of paraphrasing seems to find a lot of different things to be negative about when it comes to Bayern Munich um which is not an unfair criticism because he does like to do that but yeah I think it's a great moment for league and it's been a it's been a fun fun couple of weeks instead of in Bavaria um the uh lack of Harry Kane goals notwithstanding okay biggest new deal since Franklin D.

54:19Roosevelt oh yeah very nice Tom what they're saying I'm very nice that was an unexpected comparison yeah on their toes can i tell you about some other fun stuff jimbo from around the league always love the fun stuff yeah let us unusually let's start in paderborn where uh in stoppage time paderborn were 2-1 up against eintracht frankfurt uh eintracht frankfurt having a difficult day players sent off as well uh one last corner up comes noah atabolu the goalkeeper who's a big old unit so you know pretty difficult player to mark anyway cross comes in no one picks up atabolo kind of i think with with a sort of like it's the goalkeeper let him touch it let him squander the opportunity sort of mentality anyway atabolo wins the header knocks it down really well for for johnny burkhart to score a backheeled equalizer in the 94th minute so an assist from open play for no atabolo that was cool also let me if you haven't seen it already pointing in the direction of the Volksparkstadion on Friday night and this is hopeless Hamburg bias coming to the fore yet again but you'll remember a couple of weeks ago Mirimuheim was our moment of the week with an absolute screamer against uh against Hoffenheim anyway a couple of weeks later did the same thing against Stuttgart an even better goal to win uh to win a game in the 89th minute and another Muheim screamer uh this Friday against Gladbach which I think was measured at uh it's about 30 yards out 127 kilometers an hour hardest shot of the weekend was it even harder than the albert grombeck uh goal this is where we're getting to so apparently so the grombeck goal probably further out and a little bit more watchable because it just moves so much in the air and then just slams into the top corner and you can go down a rabbit hole finding different fan shot angles of that goal because there's quite a few of them doing the rounds but brilliant brilliant brilliant goals uh amazing uh couple of hits from the volkspark on friday night with uh with hasfield beating glad back 3-1 fantastic good result that for hamburg what else is worth mentioning oh freiburg with a tuna win over union berlin berlin remaining in third place just two points behind bayern and and borussia seb i've also got a question here from glenn hello glenn glenn says question for seb if i may i just wanted to understand what's going on in the Zweite Bundesliga this season.

56:43Looks like Hertha are going really well. Will we finally see them back in the big time? Danke, Glenn. Please, Seb, let's Hertha. A question about the Zweite Bundesliga. Danke to you, Glenn. Right, so what's going on with Hertha Berlin? Hertha Berlin, big city club, quote-unquote, they're unbeaten this season. That's her to believe. That is hard to believe. but they and also it very nearly um well they very nearly dropped points very late against volsburg so last season volsburg obviously relegated from the from the erstabundsliga and the expectation was given their resources and squad they had bounced straight back up uh hasn't happened that way they're i think they're fifth um so doing okay uh but they're not quite dominating her to are still unbeaten seven points clear in top spot and they won 2-1 on Saturday night.

57:36They survived a very, very, very contentious penalty claim very late on that I think looking at it Wilsk got pretty unlucky. It's pretty clear cut. I think it should have been a penalty but it doesn't matter. Hertha held on the Olympiastadion and going to the international break. I mean, it's the Zweig der Bundesliga so you never want to make too many assumptions in November but it's looking pretty good for that promotion, Glenn. So fingers crossed for you, I guess. Speaking of the Zweig der Bundesliga Zinedine Zidane has just called up a player who plays in the Svjde Bundesliga for the France squad Juve's Pierre Kaloulou has been ruled out by injury and he has turned to Sahil Khumbedi of Wolfsburg to take his place which is pretty unusual Hey, it's great for the brand It's great for the brand Excellent!

58:28Seb, thank you so much for that and thank you for your patience as well Glad you were able to make use of the time It's very productive Tom, thank you for being with us Get well soon to James Horncastle Poor chap And I hope Paul's enjoying himself I'm sure he is Wherever he is We're going to take a break from the Euro show next week But I do hope you'll be enjoying the international break And we'll get everyone back together again the week after To find out how the leagues have got back underway way for now. From all of us here, with a shout out to producer Chevy, it's goodbye.

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