Juve 4-3 Inter, Barca hit six and the Champions League returns

0:00The Athletic FC.

0:30Pol Ballus: PSG's injury situation, Monaco restaurant recommendations and more in this Totally Football show.

0:44Pol Ballus: Monday the 15th September listener, thank goodness you join us just as we're about to start a new Totally Football Euro show. Today we've got James and Jules in the studio. Hello boys. Bonjour. Bonjour. Hello. And Seb Stafford-Blur's here too, Seb. What is happening? What are you doing, Seb? Why are you here? What's all this about? Just freshen it up. Nice. Start the post-transfer window period. Seb is not AI. He exists. They can do anything these days, James. Can they though? Can they though? You're hallucinating, AI Jimbo. Not only is Seb here in the studio, but Paul Beluse, who joins us on the line.

1:28Pol Ballus: Hey, Paul. Hello, hello. How are you? I'm very well, Paul. You're also heading to the British Isles. You're going to Newcastle this week. I am. I am on Wednesday. Yeah, and I strip up to Newcastle with the scale included because there are no direct flights from Barcelona. Scalo.

1:44James Horncastle: Ah, yes. Okay. You mean, yeah. You mean a layover. A layover. A layover, Jesus. A connecting flight.

1:51Pol Ballus: Sorry about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fine. Paul's going to Newcastle. Your first time, Paul, in Newcastle? Not really. I went there in a boxing day just because I wanted to see the stadium and just to leave a game in there. I wouldn't recommend that to everyone because it was freezing cold. I think one of the coldest games I've been in my life. Right, yeah.

2:11James Horncastle: It's torrential rain in Newcastle at the moment. Good. You're going to love it. That's what my sources tell me. Okay.

2:18Pol Ballus: Does anyone have any recommendations for Paul?

2:21James Horncastle: There's a nice Japanese restaurant called Miso in Newcastle, which I went to a few weeks ago. Oh, that's nice. Oh, the one you went to. No, that was the curry house. That's a curry house. Tonali's curry house. The curry house is a tonali. There's a restaurant by the same owners of the curry house, which I think is a Persian place called Duba or something, which is on the quayside. If you want some pub recommendations, Paul. How much time do you spend in Newcastle, James? Oh, Mrs. H is there. Of course. Well, up the road.

2:50Pol Ballus: Yeah, well, yeah, because she teaches. Of course. Of course. Well, there you go, Paul. Yeah, no, no. I was expecting some sort of banter with that reply, but I saw that James knows his game, basically. It's true. If anyone knows their game. Yeah. Well, there you go. So that's lovely. You went to Newcastle. Where are you going, Jules, this week? Going anywhere? I'm going to Manchester for much of the day on Wednesday night. Nice. And you're going to Manchester, James Horncastle, as well, for Man City Napoli. Yeah.

3:23Julien Laurens: KDB Derby. Yeah, it is.

3:26Pol Ballus: Well, I guess it's more strictly a derby for the likes of Rasmus Hoyland and Scott McTominay. True. Scott McDominay. McBarradominay. Yep. Keep them coming, Jimbo. Absolutely. Well, we'll talk more about that game, hey. McTominay. It's going to be a huge, huge opening round of matches for the Champions League, you know, the league phase. Before we get into that, though, it's been a while since we got together. So instead of a moment of the week, how about a moment of the fortnight? What you got, Seb? I've actually got a moment of the week. Have you? Yeah, because I didn't prepare a moment of the fortnight.

4:05So on Saturday, Wolfsburg were celebrating their 80th anniversary. And going into stoppage time, they were 2-1 up, conceded an equaliser, 90 minutes and about 14 seconds. Then went 3-2 up, Maxi Arnold with a free kick in 97th minute. 104th minute, Jakub Kaminski from Cologne scored an equalizer. Kaminski is on loan from Wolfsburg. So conceded a 104th minute equalizer on your birthday to your own player.

4:38James Horncastle: Wow. Kaminski and Sassba irre Wahnsinn 90 plus 14 Kaminski the Laichabe of the VfL is against his team Wow

4:51Pol Ballus: As a fan of Schadenfreude it kind of takes a lot of boxes He plays for Brentford of course that's the latest goal ever that's the latest goal ever in Bundesliga history Brilliant game if you only watch 14 minutes of football from last weekend just all 14 minutes of that stoppage time Brilliant Incredible 2-1 up 3-3 3-3 yeah wow

5:12Julien Laurens: Jules so a moment of the Fortnite you said

5:15Pol Ballus: yeah I mean we had a bit of

5:16Julien Laurens: argy-bargy between Deschamps and PSG during the international break which was not fun because Dewey and Dembele got injured especially Dembele and PSG said we told you we warned you that they were physically tired and fragile and yet you still play them so we're not happy and Deschamps was I think a little bit upset by how the whole thing and rather it's the old debate about club v country and who's the priority, who plays who, et cetera, et cetera. But my moment of the weekend, because I have one as well, is Presnel...

5:45Pol Ballus: What was that then?

5:46Julien Laurens: Well, no, you said fortnight, but we didn't prepare anything for fortnight. Oh, I see, right. No, okay. For this weekend... Did you say fortnight? I did say fortnight. Yeah. Is that Presnel Kimpembe is leaving PSG after 20 years. 20 years? Yeah. He arrived at 10, he's now 30. He had a lot of injuries the last two and a half years, so he hasn't played much, but he's still very much a child of the club and the child of Paris winning everything if you count the Champions League that you know he didn't win say it Jules what Paris Bonamide you mean thank you yes where's he gone he's gone to Qatar really how many PSG players are going to Qatar I don't know Verratti yeah Draxler yeah they must love PSG players over there I don't know why wow that's incredible exactly but yeah it was a very nice tribute from the club Marquinhos crying I think Kimpembe and a lot of his family crying and it was very nice and very emotional that's a beautiful story

6:38Pol Ballus: Paul, you also had beef between a club and a national team over Laminia Marl over the international break, eh? Yeah, so basically you are spoiling here my moment of the week. I was about to say that my moment of the fortnight was... I'm queuing it up, brother. I'm fluffing you. No, so I just was about to say that my moment of the fortnight was the 1st of September when the transfer window ended, basically. So that was my best moment of the fortnight. You're a classic correspondent.

7:05James Horncastle: They don't do anything in the transfer window anymore. They have no money. yeah but i mean you still like have the likes of fermin living the staging you don't want to be in barcelona for a transfer window unless you love this sort of stuff of course but it's a

7:19Pol Ballus: it's a messy place to be in okay apart from that what's your moment of the indeterminate period of time no so my moment of the week was basically on saturday morning when i was ready to take on a full display of Hansi Flick's dual treatment on the press conferences which tends to be the case normally but it was possibly the spiciest press conference that he's ever conducted as a Barcelona manager because he took a full swipe on Luis de la Fuente and into Spain management really over the handling of La Minya Mal on the international break basically La Minya Mal came back to Barcelona this week with a groin injury, a groin injury that Spain didn't really take care of because he played in both games of the World Cup qualifier against Bulgari and against Turkey.

8:07He played over 70 minutes in every game. Easy game for Spain. They basically battered both teams with Lamin-Yamal being a main part of it. And yeah, Flick was basically fuming by the fact that Lamin-Yamal went to Spain. He didn't even train with the national team. He played both games. He took painkillers to play in those games. And then he comes back and he's injured and he cannot play against Valencia. while Hansi Flick's Barcelona had never won a league game without Lamine Jamal since the German manager took over. But his bitterness, in a way, went beyond that because, of course, there's been a long history of Barcelona, young players, how they are being handled, if there's an overusage of players at this young age, this sort of stuff.

8:52So, yeah, that was my moment of the week and something that is going to linger on for some weeks, I would say. How did Barcelona get on without him, Paul? I think that they did quite well. if I'm honest, because they win easily against Valencia, 6-0. 6-0. 6-0. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

9:08Pol Ballus: And they're heading to Newcastle just as you are for Thursday night. James, a moment of the week or weeks?

9:17James Horncastle: I've seen a lot of goals. Yes. Italy 5, Israel 4. Yeah. And at the weekend, I was there for the debut Italia. You were there. I was. What an incredible game that was. I met the Juventus cat as well. Did you now? I did. What's it called, the event? It's a cat. Juve.

9:34Julien Laurens: I mean, that's very original.

9:36James Horncastle: No, so the cat at the training ground, because I was there to do a couple of Vince views, there's a nice story about the cat. Okay. Which is very Italian and very Antonio Conte, in that the cat was a stray cat. And, you know, one day he showed up at the training ground. He's been there ever since. And Conte would not leave. Apparently, this is a legend. Conte would not leave for a game until he saw the cat who's that superstitious.

10:03Pol Ballus: Right. He loves the old lady's pussy.

10:11James Horncastle: I was just setting that up, queuing that up. I was being a flopper for you, James. Wow.

10:19Julien Laurens: Great story to start this show. Really a game changer.

10:24James Horncastle: We are not going to judge here. It was a magnificent game.

10:29Pol Ballus: It really was. Wasn't it great? Yeah. Wasn't it great? Both those sides are in action in the Champions League. Yeah. Juventus and Inter have a tricky trip to Amsterdam. They'll be taking on Ajax. That's Wednesday. Juventus on Tuesday. Tonight, possibly, as you listen to this listener, are at home to Borussia Dortmund. Other games include Athletic Club de Arsenal, which has surely kicked off by now because it's the early game on Tuesday. Free-Hall Madrid against Marseille. Spurs are up against Villarreal. It's a big week for Anglo-Spanish clashes in the Champions League. You've also got Liverpool hosting Atletico Madrid.

11:06Pol Ballus: And, of course, Barca at St. James' as we've mentioned. Bayern Munich are up against Chelsea. That's huge. PSG, Atalanta. PSG with key players injured. And also the manager, Paul Luis Enrique, with his arm in a sling. And, yes, Manchester City against Napoli. Wow. Talk about all, I mean, I think pretty much all those games is in the course of today's show. Listen, if that's all right with you. And let's begin with Paul's trip to Newcastle and Barcelona and what's been going on in La Liga. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Rafinha, Dani Olmo como se gira creo que fuera de juego se queda Lewandowski la pica levantó la bandera en línea dice el mar así que Lewandowski celebra el doblete sexto del fútbol Barcelona there with that 6-0 win this weekend Paul almost as many goals as there were people watching because they had to play this one at their training ground you were actually there you managed to get in I was actually there so this was because the builders hadn't finished with the new Camp Nou.

12:13Pol Ballus: So they played it at the training ground, which is what, about 5 ,800 capacity? Yeah, like the top capacity is 6 ,000, but yeah, some seats had to be like saved for security reasons. So basically it was 5 ,800 people in there. And yeah, basically the reason why they were playing that is because the Camp Nou refurbishment has suffered some delays. They're still working on it. Barca are planning to come back to the Camp Nou on reduced capacity, but basically they don't have the licenses required from the City Council to host games in there. So they had two options, play at this stadium, at the Schoenkreuz Stadium, or go back to Montjuic, which is the stadium where they played the last couple of seasons.

12:55But they couldn't go back to Montjuic because there was a gig, a concert of Post Malone that was playing that weekend in Barcelona, and basically the pitch could not be in the conditions that you need for a La Liga game. so they had to go to the Johan Cruyff stadium. La Liga even had to make some concessions to let them play in there. I'm not going to say that the atmosphere was great. At the post-Malongue? Yeah. Well, I wasn't there, so I cannot judge in the post-Malongue. But yeah, it didn't have an impact on the players who, when you speak to them, they don't really care about where they play.

13:29They just go where they are told to and they play and they sort of prove a point because they had to prove a point.

13:36Pol Ballus: Barcelona kept out by the post quite literally this weekend, Seb. Paul, how was it that Barcelona were able to, presumably because there must be some restrictions about how big a ground you need to stage a La Liga game, how were they able to manoeuvre that issue? How were Barcelona able to get around the regulation, Paul? They've not had any practice in that. No, no, no, no. So basically, like, the way out from this, La Liga's rulebook say that the stadiums where they host games has to have at least an 8 ,000 capacity but this stadium was just lower but the same rule book has a way out which says that if there's just architectural or technical reasons that forced a game to be played like in another stadium they could grant an exception and basically both La Liga and Barcelona explained that it was an architectural reason yeah, the motive why the Camp Nou could not be the venue so that was the grounds on which La Liga allowed Barca to play in that stadium How mighty a performance was this?

14:37Pol Ballus: no Yamal, no stadium, but no problem for Barca ahead of their Newcastle trip. Yeah, no, no. It was an outstanding performance. The best game they've had this season. Before the break, they draw at Rayo Vallecano, and Flick was angry after the game. He sent a message to the players saying that they need to forget about their egos and just to play as a unit, and the team basically responded on that game. They were just a couple of levels above Valencia, and even with the second unit, because Rafinha didn't start, because he was late in a pre-match team meeting. So basically, Flick benched him because of that.

15:11And Bruni Bargi, the summer signing, the 19-year-old who started in his place. But even with the fact that they played with the second unit, Barca were just levels above Valencia. Great game for Fermín López. Rafinha came in at the second half and scored two goals. And then Lewandowski coming from the bench, two goals as well. So easy-peasy for the Catalans.

15:29Pol Ballus: So many positives here for Barca. The fact that they won a game without Jamal. They also had Mark Bernal back. after his horrible cruciate ligament injury. And basically, couldn't have set themselves up better, I guess, for Thursday's match. With the asterisk that Valencia might possibly not be very good, what do you think about the prospects against Newcastle? I think that Barcelona are the top favourites, of course. Champions League is pretty much a big target for the Catalan this season. I mean, they want to win La Liga as well, of course, but it's the trophy that gives more hope to the fans, the one that they really want to win.

16:09And it feels that they are going to Newcastle just to try to make a statement of what they want to do. Flick also could afford to rest some players because Frankie de Jong didn't play. La Minha Mal, as we mentioned, didn't play. And yeah, I think that the mindset now is focused on Newcastle because the Champions League, as I said, is the top priority for Barcelona this season.

16:28Julien Laurens: Do you remember the last time that we had a Newcastle-Barcelona game in the Champions League? Of course.

16:33Pol Ballus: Of course. I mean I wasn't around back then but yeah what do you mean you're too young to remember that but I've heard 1997 1997 that's a pretty hat trick yeah I've heard about that I've heard about PSG's trip to St. James do you remember that one George no when was that was that before

16:50Julien Laurens: we were European champions or after

16:52Pol Ballus: it was well before was it well before well before Luis Enrique was in charge was he 4-1

16:59Julien Laurens: that's when he was really stubborn and not very smart was it yeah yeah there you go That's a different era.

17:04Pol Ballus: But it just goes to show that big teams can go to that big ground and come away with some pretty surprising results. And that's, I think, what the home fans will be hoping this time around. After that PSG victory, subsequently lost at home to Dortmund and Milan in that group stage, the Magpies. So who can say? They've certainly not looked as impressive as Barcelona in these opening rounds of the season.

17:27Julien Laurens: They're good against Liverpool, though, with 10 men. They should have got a point, at least. and the physicality is really what is going to be a battle for Barcelona.

17:35Pol Ballus: Right. So what are you anticipating on Thursday then, Jules?

17:39Julien Laurens: I think if Barcelona can just keep the ball and avoid all those physical duels and everything that Newcastle midfield especially is going to put on, then I think Barcelona should win. But I'm not sure if Barcelona are ready right now for such a battle.

17:56Pol Ballus: Love that. Love that. If I wasn't excited before about this game, I am now. I'm really interested to see Nick Valdemar against Barcelona just because when English eyes first set on him, everyone thought, right, 7 '6", forward, you're a target man. But he's a really technical player. He's not someone that thrives in duels. He's not someone that really competes, strangely, that well aerially. And yet you're going to expect him to kind of sit off. And I want to see how they deal with him because he's not the kind of player that you come across very often. So when you're defensive game planning, You're thinking, what do you do with this guy who's a physical threat?

18:31Yes, but also someone that can create, someone that's technical, someone can beat a man. That's the really interesting part of it, I think.

18:36Julien Laurens: I don't think he starts on Thursday. Yeah, Gordon, obviously, is suspended in the league, but not in the Champions League. I think the front three would be Gordon as a nine and then Murphy and Barnes.

18:46Pol Ballus: What are they saying in Catalonia poll? Yeah, no, basically, I think that people are a bit stubborn about what Newcastle is and what they can do. I think that Newcastle have some tools that can be really damaging to Barcelona in terms of what Julian was pointing out in the midfield because there's a lot of plodids and deserve plodids to La Minha Malbo. In my opinion, the most important player in that Barca team is Pedri, by a mile, by a distance. And I don't think that Pedri is used to play against such a physical midfield as Bruno, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali. So let's see how Barca cope with that.

19:20And yeah, I think that the view from Barcelona is that basically Barca are the top favourites and that they need to show that against Newcastle. And I honestly believe that it's a harder test than what the Catalan or Spanish media believe it is. So let's see what happens because I think that Newcastle have the tools, as you mentioned, with the game against Liverpool. Every time that they've played against a big team in England, they just cause so many problems and they can do that to Barcelona as well.

19:43Pol Ballus: All right. In the meantime, Barcelona are staying two points behind Real Madrid in La Liga. Real Madrid were 2-1 winners this weekend away at Real Sociedad, ahead of their Champions League clash with Marseille. Marseille, 4-0 winners against Lorient. Good at home, not so much on the road, which might be a concern given that they're at the Benoît Bayon.

20:02Julien Laurens: And Lorient went down to 10 men very early on. And Kylian Mbappé does usually very well against Marseille. I think he's 10 goals and 3 assists in the game. God, the smile on his face. I'm just saying. Look at this.

20:13Pol Ballus: I mean, if Real Madrid want to spank them, I'm all for it, you know? Okay. He was in form at the weekend, scoring one setting up the other, I think. In a game which saw Dean Hoyssen sent off Real Madrid upset about this poll, but let's not get bogged down in this. He laid a hand on the opponent and saw red. Their neighbours, Real Madrid, their neighbours Atletico, who have a trip to Liverpool coming up on Wednesday, actually went and won a game this weekend. How much fun was that? Yeah, the first win that they had. I think that it was pretty much a deserved win. I think that the results have not been too fair to Atletico.

20:53I don't think, I've repeated a lot of times, that I don't see them fighting for the title in Spain. But I think that they've played better than the three starting results that they got in La Liga. And they were a far better team against Villarreal. Simeone did some changes in the starting line-up. Koke played really well, an old dog in there. And then Julian Alvarez, who I love, I think, in the first half. He was key for the first goal. but he was taken off at halftime because he had some minor problems. He should be fine to play in the Champions League but Atletico de Madrid had some players in the injury list.

21:28Thiago Almada, another new signing, is not going to be available to play and Janko, the centre-back, was injured as well.

21:35Pol Ballus: Perhaps precautionary for Alvarez. Chos, you had strong views about Newcastle-Barcelona. What do you think about this Liverpool side who have been giving up a lot of chances in their games since the summer. Their prospects of keeping the likes of Alvarez and your friend Griezmann out. Raspardori. Raspardori, yeah.

21:56Julien Laurens: I just think that Simeone will do a Simeone and just play super deep and defend. And I just don't think this is the idea. I think you can get at this Liverpool team if you want to. It's risky because they can obviously hit you when they recover the ball. But I think you can get at them. And I don't think Atletico will do that. This is not what they do in Europe away from home, especially so early on. If he was a second leg of quarterfinals or last 16, maybe it would be different, but not this week. So I can see Liverpool being quite comfortable.

22:28Pol Ballus: OK. And we might see Alexander Izak make his debut for Liverpool. Atletico Madrid currently way down in 11th, but their campaign boosted by those three points, which came, as you say, Paul, against Villarreal, who, yes, are taking on another Premier League side, Spurs. What did you make of that one, Paul? I think I pointed at Villarreal as my team to watch at the start of the season outside, of course, the big three, and I still maintain that. I think that they have a great squad. Every position really doubled up. Marcelino is a manager that you don't want to face because his teams are really well worked.

23:03He played with the 4-4-2. It's really difficult just to go through those teams. and I think that they added an extra layer of quality with the signing of Mikko Tadje and they have really, really good players and I think they could upset Tottenham Hotspur, why not? Although Marcelino was quite vocal in the build-up of this game he did an interview with El País, I think it was this morning basically criticising or just being sad about the financial difference between the Premier League and La Liga and he highlighted the case of Jeremie Pino who left Villarreal to John Cristal Palace and said that they couldn't even afford to battle for Jeremy Pino.

23:38So, yes, he highlighted this sort of difference. In a way, I think that is a narrative that Martellino always likes, to be sort of the victim or the underdog in games. He's right, though. But, yes, it's a sort of way that he approached that game.

23:51Pol Ballus: It would be unusual for Thomas Frank to be on the other end of that financial underdog narrative, but that's very much the case as he takes Spurs into his first Champions League game. Paul before you leave us there's one other big Anglo-Spanish clash in the Champions League and it is Athletic Club de Bilbao against an Arsenal team hungry hungry like the wolf yeah very much that would be the or like the country the simile I'd use

24:21Julien Laurens: and Mikel Arteta going home really

24:23Pol Ballus: so many of that Arsenal squad going back to the Basque country very true

24:27Julien Laurens: yeah

24:30Pol Ballus: Nico Williams not going to be there to work on them. Is that right, Paul? That's a huge miss. Exactly. He got injured playing with Spain. And yeah, I'm not too optimistic about Athletics Club's chances here. They lost in the last weekend in a bus derby against Alaves. They didn't play really, really well. I think that they haven't played amazingly so far this season. And not having Nico Williams won't help. So let's see what happens. But yeah, Athletic Club is starting with possibly one of the toughest games that they have so far in this Champions League league phase. And I think that Arsenal should win that.

25:07Pol Ballus: Arsenal themselves with absences, not just Alexis Hlipma and Saka, but also Martin Udegaard going off in the course of last Saturday's game against Nottingham Forest. What a shame after what a great week he'd been having. He was a key part of Norway's. Insane. 11-1 victory over Moldova. As was another player who we'll be talking about a little bit later on, Erling Haaland. Paul thank you so much lovely to see your place getting a little bit of furniture in it it's been an absolute pleasure I'm going to try to buy some more things for the next week so we can keep this game up excellent every week a little item enjoy your scale and your trip to St James's and we'll catch up with you next week

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27:15Pol Ballus: in last weekend.

27:16Julien Laurens: I mean, just before you go, I didn't think there was that many great games this weekend in Serie A, but some of the goals were just wow. I'm just saying. Hey, I have a question, actually. After the Napoli game, when Kevin De Bruyne and Scott McTominay were having their interview, they were holding little, what looked like little panini stickers of themselves. Oh, yeah.

27:35James Horncastle: Why? Why? Well, it's one of the marketing and partnerships that Serie A has got. So you'll see, you know, when a goal gets scored, the ball gets taken and put into like a nice little kind of velvet bag because it's a collectible that used to be with a crypto kind of company and then the Panini sticker is there Panini are a partner as well right okay so it's one of those okay okay okay

28:01Pol Ballus: I hope it's the interviewer as well like a name tag or something anyway you wouldn't see that in Germany

28:07Julien Laurens: an interviewer getting the wrong name oh still still stewing over it for three weeks we'll talk about if she ever had a panini sticker oh okay yeah there you go but the panini sticker would still have looked a little bit like Robin Koch I used that

28:24Pol Ballus: actually when I I mean nobody needs to know this but when I first started going around Italian training grounds in the early 90s there was no internet and I would go around with a sticker book and the Guerin Sportivo's season preview which had pictures yeah and you'd be astonished how little resemblance there was So there would be an enormous amount of me staring at the Gwadensportiva and then staring at the field and going, I think we need to film that one there. And someone would come out of the changing room and I think, can I say Mr. Rossi or whatever? I'm sure once or twice they must have gone.

28:58James Horncastle: No, I had this as well at the World Cup in Qatar where I think I went to Argentina, Poland, and the desk wanted us to do a piece on what it's like to face Messi or something. So they were like, go downstairs. and talk to Matty Cash in the mix zone. And I was like, I don't cover the Premier League. Oh, come on. I don't do pinnini stickers. Best hair in the league. So I was like, Matty Cash, okay. And you say best hair in the league. So again, Google, sort of what's it like. Right, right. I was there with like Simon Peach, Pichu from the AP, one of the news agencies. I was like, when Matty Cash comes through, will you point him out to me?

29:41James Horncastle: I think that's which is no offence mate I just don't cover your league in detail and people look different after yeah

29:49Pol Ballus: so there you go okay on Saturday James you were gazing blindly at another group of players running around Juventus against Inter last season this had been a 4-4 and this time around it came pretty close didn't it what a massive what a massive match it was yeah

30:10James Horncastle: It was a lot of fun before, during and after the game. Because before the game, there was just a really good atmosphere. I was talking to Seb earlier about a bit of positivity around Juve for the first time in a while, really. Because they've gone five years without them in the league. COVID, points deductions, thrown out of Europe by UEFA. And last year, when they spent loads of money and hired Thiago Mota, it just didn't go well. And Igor Tudor, at least as an ex-player, represents the club. understands the culture. Some of the players that were signed last year have settled in and seem like they're in the right positions.

30:49James Horncastle: And there just seems to be that good compromise between Allegri and Motta, where Allegri was too negative, supposedly, and Motta was too sideways. And Juventus on the two-door are a little bit more front-footed, a little bit more direct, and they fight. And the game was good for that, because Inter dominated for large sections of the game. But Juventus got in front. Threw Lloyd Kelly. Threw Lloyd Kelly with a great first-time left-foot finish set up by his centre-back partner in the opposite box. Bremer, who is such a big part of Wight.

31:23Pol Ballus: Lovely assist as well.

31:24James Horncastle: Yeah, because I don't think Denzel Dumfries expects Bremer to hook his leg around him and put the ball back into a really good area for Kelly to just first-time left-foot, boom. bottom corner, slotted at home. And so that was a bit of a surprise because it was one of the first times Juve had got forward. And it was like, well, how are Inter sort of going to deal with this? And you did see that Inter were a little bit, yeah, they reacted well, but there was like, how are Juve in front here? And I think, you know, for Christian Kieber, the Inter coach, it is this kind of like, lads, just keep doing what we're doing.

32:04James Horncastle: Just don't lose your heads. And Cella and Oluv got them back into the game. I mean, Cella scored a brace. Two incredible... The second is ridiculous. The second one is the best goal of the game. She's saying something because the ones from Yieldies and the winner from Adzic are amazing. Yeah, I mean, the one in between from Yieldies is compatriot. It's pretty amazing too. But the one that drops over his shoulder and just controls it, it's a ridiculous level of skill. Yeah. And like, there's nothing Di Gregorio, the Juve goalkeeper, can do, I don't think. Because it also just bounces right in front of him, which is a really difficult thing for a goalkeeper to get down to.

32:39Pol Ballus: And then you have the Turan brothers.

32:41James Horncastle: And it was really great to see the kind of brotherly competitiveness going on. Because before the international break, when Inter played Udinese, Kefren Turan went to watch that game with his brother. And in the media, that was like a Juve player going to watch an Inter player and sort of thumbs-upping and all this sort of thing. They were like, no, no, you can't do that in Italy. And so this was like the exact opposite because Turam puts Inter in front 3-2. And doesn't celebrate. He did celebrate. He kind of... No, he did celebrate. I was in the stadium, James. Okay. No, because the camera's cut away.

33:19James Horncastle: Ah. Yeah, so immediately after the header, he stays in that box and then everybody comes on hand.

33:24Julien Laurens: Right.

33:24James Horncastle: And then he walks and then he starts popping his collar. Okay. And thumbing down on his surname on the back of his shirt. which I imagine if you're watching it on TV they cut away from it and they're showing replays when Marcus Turam is doing that I think we saw that bit

33:41Pol Ballus: but he looked so stony faced when it first went in there was none of that usual celebration I thought is this because of his dad's history with Juventus that he grew up supporting Juventus or something like that but then his brother certainly did celebrate

33:53James Horncastle: yeah and he does exactly the same celebration to say I'm the real Turam here and start pointing and so that was

34:01Pol Ballus: Daddy Turam was in the stands

34:02James Horncastle: Daddy Turam was in the stands yeah and Daddy Turam he dresses like he now always carries these like sort of trilby hats and like this quite plush sort of I'd say what kind of a jacket is that but he looks like a very he looks like an inspector from a French crime drama that I would love Netflix to basically go ahead and commission he looks brilliant and so you just see him like thumbing the the rim of his trilby hat as all hell is breaking loose downstairs between Marcus and Kefren. And the other great thing about the brothers was this was the first game in Serie A where they used ref cam. And I think if there's any way you should use ref cam, it's Italy.

34:48James Horncastle: Because the protests from the players, the hand gestures, the faces that they pull, so good. and there's one where the Chiran brothers come up and they look like they've basically been caught by their mum doing something they shouldn't be doing and they're like whoa what do you mean ref and all this sort of thing it's great can you name another game

35:10Julien Laurens: where two brothers scored against each other in the same game so not playing against each other just scoring against each other would it be involving the Botengs no they played against each other but never scored in the same game against each other there's one in the Premier League one in France and another one in Italy a long time ago so not the levels

35:27Pol Ballus: is it the Maradona's Diego and Hugo no

35:31Julien Laurens: good shout but no in the Premier League like Aston Villa vs Swansea oh Andre and Jordan oh good one then the Bolli brothers in France Basile and Roger Bolli in 1992 Lens against Marseille and then I think 1949 oh ok the Nires brothers in Italy ah it's Van Nires yeah and another one in Italy as well the Insigne brothers

35:55James Horncastle: ah yeah

35:56Julien Laurens: Lorenzo and Roberto Napoli against Benevento

35:59Pol Ballus: yes

36:00Julien Laurens: yeah

36:01Pol Ballus: wow Jules so not that uncommon basically well

36:04Julien Laurens: four is that four did you prepare anyway

36:06Pol Ballus: well no I was curious watching the game

36:09Julien Laurens: on Saturday I was curious to see if that was often or not

36:13Pol Ballus: alright I hope you weren't so buried in the books Jules finding out that you missed the extraordinary winner scored by the extraordinary Vassal Antic yeah well I really

36:23James Horncastle: enjoyed about this game Was it? I thought it was a lovely goal.

36:27Julien Laurens: Didn't you think Sommer should save it?

36:28James Horncastle: Sommer should save it. It goes right through his hands. Sommer's been So it's not actually The story is that

36:32Pol Ballus: Sommer's now been summarily removed from the team as a result of that performance.

36:38James Horncastle: Yeah, I mean I find that an overreaction. He was the best goalkeeper in the Champions League last year with Donnarumma. I'm pretty sure he'll be back. He could get his hand to both Yieldies to Adzic's goal. But Adzic, 19. Born on the same day as the verdict of the Calciopoli scandal, which relegated the Juventus, revoked two titles and gave one to Inter. I mean, talk about the man of destiny. Also, OK, you could say Sommer should save it, but it's a hell of a strike.

37:25James Horncastle: It does move as well. It moves. And also, I don't know, from the stands. It was one of those things where you could see him winding up. And then it has that really pleasing lift. It's quite true. The trajectory is just straight up. And, yeah, a great moment for a 19-year-old that Juventus signed from the middle of nowhere in Montenegro last year. Their youth scouting over the last five years has been one of the success stories of Juventus, be it with Yildiz.

37:56Pol Ballus: Particularly for Bournemouth, yeah.

37:57James Horncastle: Well, yes. Or, you know, I mean, so Hoyssen was found by them. Matisse Souley, another place for Roma. They've done really, really good scouting. The reason why they sacked the sporting director, I think, in the summer was because, lad, like, what are you playing at? Getting rid of some of those players. But yeah, so Juventus won 4-3. Tudor was brilliant afterwards because he was like, you know, that could have gone either way. Draw would have been a fair result. We'll take the three points. real spring in our steps now Juventus won 3 from 3 but what I was encouraged by with Juve is the team looks like a team everyone is in their right positions even players who are maligned online like Lloyd Kelly left foot centre back left side of that defence works Bremer's brilliant best centre back in the league and they've got loads of options up front Jonathan David, Vlajevic, Upender Yildiz Consisau when he comes back Kefren Teram gets everywhere in midfield I think they could challenge Napoli but I also the thing that I was worried about with Inter is at the end of the game Tudor said my players knew they could get at Inter they knew the game wasn't over they knew they could win I think when a team is that confident but also sees vulnerability in an opponent that good in Inter it's a bit of a worry I think for Inter

39:17Pol Ballus: Inter currently lying in 11th place they as we mentioned are going to be in Amsterdam playing Ajax midweek while Juventus take on Dortmund who are looking good under Niko Kovac looking solid not spectacular Sarah Gerasi scored against Heidenheim in a 2-0 win on Saturday that was his that was his 53rd goal on 61 Bundesliga games which is really interesting because Gerasi like Gerasi is one of those players who depending on your perspective of him kind of gives you enough ammunition to keep fighting the fight, depending on what your belief is. If you think he's outstanding, he does enough outstanding things in a game to kind of reinforce that image.

39:58And if you think he's not the most efficient forward, despite that record, he will make enough bad decisions or miss enough chances also to kind of back you up.

40:08Pol Ballus: Is that why he's the only Bundesliga striker who wasn't bought by the Premier League this summer? No, I think it's age. I think it's age. And I think also he's so important to Dortmund and has become so important to them that the fee required for a player of that age, late 20s, and with not the very best injury history, just wouldn't be worth it. But his numbers are crazy. I mean, you mentioned there, he's top goal scorer last season in the Champions League, five goals this season in his opening four outings. He's scored in eight Bundesliga games in a row, I think. 53 goals in his last 61 matches.

40:41Julien Laurens: I think only Kane, Haaland and Mbappe have scored more than him since the beginning of 2014. And also the caveat there is that this is not a guy playing for a dominant team. Yeah, exactly. Like I know Dortmund had a good run at the end of last season and before that finished second with Stuttgart, very, very good side, but they're not dominant in the same way that a Bayern Munich are, a Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid. And so that record really is impressive. He's an odd team. There's nobody really in Europe that I compare with him in terms of having that predatory goal-scoring ability, but also the technical ability that goes with it.

41:11and he does so many things off the ball in combination with Adiemi, Bayer, that it kind of sums up where Dortmund are. I mean, they've become much more solid under Kovac. They're a lot more hardworking than they were under Nuri Shaheen. But a lot of their invention, their chance creation comes from what they're able to do through Gerasi or Adiemi because there isn't a lot else in that team. And by design, that's the way Kovac has set them up. I think Dortmund had become pretty flimsy before he got there. I think the idea of an overarching philosophy had dissipated and was sort of been replaced by who was the most impactful individual that we're able to field at any one time, whether it's Bellingham, Haaland, Sancho going further back.

41:53But they'll be a tough nut to crack. They don't have the flourishes that they've had in past years, but they're not a team you're going to want to play, particularly in Dortmund. Okay. This one's in Turin. Yeah. They do have a Bellingham.

42:04Pol Ballus: They have the Joe Bellingham. Yeah, he was left out on Saturday. They played, I think, about 30 minutes in Heidenheim. I mean, nothing really to take from that because Heidenheim had had Manstead off early in the first half and Dortmund had that game won by half-time. I mean, Bellingham doesn't have a natural right to a place in that side at the moment. I know we had the business with his dad at St. Paulie on the opening game of the season, but he's not a shoo-in. He wasn't bought to be the sort of talisman for that side. You could very well argue that Felix Demetra and Pascal Breus are the number one choice or you could play Branton there when fit, potentially.

42:41Sally Oostjan is still at the club. Emery Jan is not fit at the moment, but could play midfield. So there's a lot of competition there. Good player, really good player and potentially an excellent one, but you have to compete for his place. OK.

42:52Pol Ballus: 97, Champions League final. Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, of course. Lass Ricken. Lass Ricken, love. Now the CEO for sport. Prudzioff is lying.

43:02James Horncastle: Yeah. It's one of those, along with the Real Madrid final that followed, were Mihatovic's offside.

43:10Pol Ballus: All right, then. We won't stir all that up. Instead, let's talk about Napoli at Manchester City, which should be an absolutely smashing game, I think, on Thursday. Napoli, who are still ahead of Juventus on goal difference at the top of the table. Both teams off to perfect start. Napoli, Saturday night, with a breezy 3-1 victory in Florence over Fiorentina. Rasmus Hoyland make his debut, and to no one's great surprise, within 15 minutes scoring exactly the kind of counter-attacking goal that he just somehow couldn't for Manchester United.

43:43Julien Laurens: And missing a big chance as well.

43:45James Horncastle: Yeah, he was a little bit behind him.

43:47Julien Laurens: Well, I still...

43:48Pol Ballus: Against David De Gea, by the way.

43:49Julien Laurens: Yeah, true, which you expect.

43:51Pol Ballus: Napoli missed... They had a lot of chances to extend their lead in that game and they just looked very, very comfortable against a decent Fiorentina side. How are they going to fare on their trip to the Etihad? Do you think, James?

44:04James Horncastle: Conte being quite coy, and basically saying, look, we weren't in the Champions League last year, we weren't even in Europe last year. We're going to go and face the Masters, we need to be good pupils. And, you know, maybe one day the pupils will learn to beat the Masters, but don't expect too much too soon. But I think this is a very interesting phase in Conte's career. I'll probably write this column this week, it's the new Conte. Conte is changing. like last year I think having Kavaratskelia at least for five months made him think okay I can't play 3-5-2 yeah I've got to come up with something different and they played 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and they won the league that way and you know when this opportunity to sign Kevin De Bruyne came around he had a decision to make because it's like well I can't I'm not going to do what Carlo Ancelotti did with Badger at Parma and basically say no sorry you don't fit my system Robbie I'm not signing you we're going to sign Kevin De Bruyne even though my three midfield players were our three best players last year and on paper signing De Bruyne means you have to leave one of McTominay, Anguissa and Lobotka out and he's like no not going to do that we're going to find a way to play them all together and so they play this very kind of fluid 4-3-3 and you know we've got people in Italy talking about how Conte is now a relationist which isn't anything to do with his marriage James it's about it's it's relationism this kind of online cult of some new-ish form of tactics in in the world where this is a very connective Napoli side play very not compact but lots of players close together, bouncing off each other.

45:54James Horncastle: Like PSG, basically. Very few reference points. Is it what it sounds? Because when people bring this up, I kind of nod along and pretend to know what it means. Yeah, it is. No, I don't. Literally, but no. It's with Enrique's PSG.

46:05Julien Laurens: But what is it, like, practically in kind of layman's terms, what does it mean? It's not position play like Pep. So it's ad-libbed. It's fluidity within your structure.

46:12Pol Ballus: In relation to your teammates.

46:14Julien Laurens: In relation with each other. But isn't, right. That's why.

46:17James Horncastle: But the interesting thing here...

46:19Pol Ballus: So your position relates not to your position on the pitch, but your position in relation to other teammates. Yeah, he's still less rigid than your position. I mean, that sounds like kind of basic common sense, but...

46:29Julien Laurens: Well, no, because for a long time, Pep taught everybody to stay in your position, the ball will come to you. Right. And your...

46:35James Horncastle: Yeah, that's why Jack Grealish, for example. Exactly. Right. Was like, Grealish wanted a bit more freedom.

46:40Pol Ballus: If David Moyes are relational...

46:44Julien Laurens: No, he hasn't gone that far. But what makes it new? is like you've had coaches in the past who've put like flair players out on the pitch and said, right, we'll give you solid back four and now just go and do what you want. Like what's the new aspect of it?

46:59James Horncastle: I don't know what's new about it. I don't know why I'm asking you. It's almost like someone came up with a term for something they were seeing and now I've like kind of pushed it and it's got a community online. But the interesting thing with Conte is Conte is probably the coach that people think they know the most. They're like, you're the guy with the 3-5-2 on you. you're the guy who doesn't do it in the Champions League you're the guy who always plays two strikers he'll come up against a lot of these stereotypes this week, people thinking they know what they're going to get from a Conte team

47:28Pol Ballus: surely not on English TV there'll be a fully expert panel of pundits ready to

47:33James Horncastle: but I don't think look, I'm not predicting they'll beat City I think they still go into that game as underdogs

47:40Pol Ballus: they've only conceded one goal all season

47:43James Horncastle: this is Champions League and they're coming up against a team coach by Pep Guardiola which has spent millions and millions on itself.

47:50Pol Ballus: A team that's already lost this season against Brighton and Spurs.

47:53James Horncastle: Yeah, in the Premier League, which everyone says is the best league in the world. So, you know, I mean, context. But, like, I do think Conte is evolving. He's updating himself. I think he learned a lot from his experiences, you know, having Christian Eriksen at Inter and then trying to put Square Pig into a round hole and it working in the second half of the season. And then even his period at Spurs. I think, you know, with Son, where it's like, okay, do we make this more of a 3-4-2-1 rather than... And I think gradually that progression from Ericsson to Son to Kavaratskely and De Bruyne has brought him round.

48:31James Horncastle: And he's talked about, like, you know, football doesn't stand still. You have to change with it. And I think that's it. It's to his great credit that he's trying something different and it's working. So, yeah, I will probably write that this week.

48:46Pol Ballus: excellent

48:47James Horncastle: just to

48:48Pol Ballus: play the podcast yeah just put the transcript

48:51Julien Laurens: and then they're going to get battered by City and then you know he's going to go back to the 3-5-2 maybe

48:56Pol Ballus: maybe Jules no no no

48:58Julien Laurens: I think James is right

48:59Pol Ballus: big game anyway Manchester greats like Kevin De Bruyne and Scott McTominay back what were you going to say no I was just going to say

49:06Julien Laurens: quickly on City they're not they're not at their best right now either the Pep Linders kind of new pressing system and things he's not working great so I think there's a good chance for Napoli to do something they might lose at the Etihad but I think if there's a good time to play against City I think it's now for Napoli it's now for Arsenal the weekend as well

49:26James Horncastle: Also one last thing Hoyland his finish is a great finish against David de Gea who conceded through on the night was probably still Fiorentina's best player with Dodo I've mentioned this before Conte loves to take Man United players and basically show what Man United could have done with these players you know I also think in terms of him updating himself and showing a different side to himself you know the criticism of him where it's like you know well Gary Neville always say we don't want that guy near our club and some of it being down to character or that sort of thing I think that's overblown but a lot of it is down to this idea he's tactically rigid in a way that Ruben Amorim is tactically rigid he's not he's showing he definitely isn't I think with Hoyland his idea is that okay when we have Lukaku fit he works for some games but when we're playing away from home as they were in Florence and granted they take the lead early Fiorentina have to chase the game and they can break on Fiorentina and Hoyland in space is really really good I think in the Champions League and at the Etihad equally having someone who has that pace and strength the way Hoyland can hold up the ball outside the Premier League is impressive I think he's a really useful weapon for them to have away from home in the Champions League

50:43Pol Ballus: no doubt Man City have kind of weapons on the break as we saw oh yeah not bad at the weekend yeah they're pretty good and a very good goalkeeper as well that was so demoralising but even if you're not a Manchester United fan you're seeing that game and you think there's some vulnerability here it's fragility and then that's saved down to it's right it's like the Mortal Kombat character Jax with his metal arms it's like that it's his strongest wrist in world football ridiculous there you go

51:11James Horncastle: he's the Mortal Kombat character I don't remember I remember Scorpion I never He Sub-Zero Sub-Zero Yeah I like Sub-Zero Great great character Always Tech

51:20Julien Laurens: Street Fighters Really Street Fighter was great Also great Hayuki Hayuki We're going to We're going to take a quick break More of a sagat

51:27Pol Ballus: In the sort of If you're going Street Fighter While they're discussing Mortal Kombat Finish it We will Come back after this

51:41This is the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network

51:46Pol Ballus: City Hour the round is spilling into two parts this week Jules Oh yeah Surprised Because there's been so much happening

51:53Julien Laurens: Oh okay okay Not just because it's Italian football for you too

51:57Pol Ballus: How could we not discuss Milan beating Bologna 1-0 with a goal from Luka Modric He's 40 you know turned 40 last week. As he put it, having become the oldest midfielder to score a goal in the history of Serie A, beating the record set by Nils Lidon, the legend, also with the Rossoneri back in the 60s, as Modric said afterwards, can you please shut up about my age? Poor chap. Anyway, lovely goal. Lovely. Milan in fifth spot, just outside the top four, which features Cremonese with Jamie Vardy, who'll be playing on Monday night. Don't know what happened in that game. Elsewhere The Roman sides Warmed up for next week's Rome derby By both losing 1-0 Latvia at Sassuolo That's now Two defeats in three Under Maurizio Sari While Roma Were beaten 1-0 at home By Torino What a strike By Giovanni Simeone That was gorgeous Yeah that's lovely Oof And Dybala picking up an injury For a change Oh

52:56James Horncastle: That's harsh James

52:58Pol Ballus: Is it? The guy's

52:59James Horncastle: Well Last year he played it a lot He did But Yeah Yeah, I mean, he started in this game, Gasp went strikerless, which when you've got Evan Ferguson and Dolph Bick, look, he made these excuses saying they've been away on international duty. He didn't want basically to rush them back. But being strikerless didn't really work, no matter how many nice touches Dybala and Sule had. And yeah, it was a surprise that they lost. Although the other surprise of the weekend was Udinese won their second game in three games. And Udinese are... Are the surprise. Are the surprise. with Ica Bravo up front.

53:34Pol Ballus: Ica Bravo. Bravissima. Very nice. Very nice. Gasparini's former side, meanwhile. Atalanta got their first win under their new boss, Ivan Juric. Yeah. A mighty 4-1 victory as well. It was, admittedly, against Lecce, but a very handy time to get a win because who have they got next, Jules? PSG. PSG. Or what's left of them.

53:56Julien Laurens: Or what's left of them, yeah.

53:58Pol Ballus: Atlanta going into that game Presumably still without Adamola Lukman Who is back with the club But didn't make the journey to Lecce Because he wasn't serene As it was put in Italian His head wasn't right After the transfer saga

54:14James Horncastle: Yeah, this is Adamola Lukman If we want to central cast him Is to Serie A What Alexander Isaac was to the Premier League this summer Except Isaac got his move To Liverpool and Luckman didn't get his move to Inter. And so you have this alternative reality of what would have happened if Izak had stayed at Newcastle. Would he have been reintegrated? Would he have played at the weekend? Would he have scored? Or would he have not? Would he have stayed out in the cold? And that is the situation with Luckman at the moment where they had a meeting at the end of last week, chief executive, sporting director and a coach, and they ended up coming to the decision that we're not going to call you up Ademola because in their words, and Ademola hasn't given his version, his mind's not right, he's not committed to the club they've drawn the first two games, they need people who are all in and so as Ivan Jurek said, and Ivan Jurek as the Italian said doesn't have hairs on his tongue everything just falls out and so he was like, cazzo he's not he's not selected and it's a really unpleasant situation we are where we are and we want 4-1 James when they say they're not going to call him up is that for the foreseeable future or just for the short term so they they've included him in the Champions League squad but they decided not to select him for the squad that went away to Lecce no they played at home against Lecce he was not involved in that match day squad so it's more a case of I think this is we'll treat this game by game

55:53Julien Laurens: and it's probably not physically ready to start a Serie A game anyway he was there but waiting for his move in the summer so probably didn't have a proper pre-season and fitness wise it's just not really a bit like Isaac

56:04Pol Ballus: didn't we have a similar situation with him what was it the start of last season

56:07James Horncastle: yeah this time last year well not this time last year in the transfer window he he felt that the club had promised him to move away and they were like no we'll let you go next year that's what he heard and so he stayed and basically was reintegrated in the squad had a great season but there was There was talk of PSG. PSG were interested in him for that. Yeah, I suppose. For the role that Kappert-Skelia ultimately took. They were looking when Napoli had turned them down last summer. Yeah, exactly. PSG spoke, I think, to Lukman's agents. And so Atalanta said, no, it's late in the transfer window.

56:47James Horncastle: We'll let you go next year. And, yeah, Adamo Lukman, I think, always felt that that was a promise made to him. but in Atalanta's telling the promise was we'll let you go but it'll be to go to a team abroad not to a domestic rival not to a Napoli not to an Inter we don't need to sell you so we'll choose go and find a club outside of Italy and I think the only one at the moment is Galatasaray although I think the Turkish transfer window is closed yeah it was yesterday so there you go

57:14Pol Ballus: there you go well hopefully they can sort something out Atalanta in the meantime in the French capital yep midweek Jules PSG got the win on the weekend against Lens yeah lost another player perhaps with Kvalaskelia going off

57:31Julien Laurens: yeah three even Kvalaskelia Kangen Lee and Lucas Beraldo

57:34Pol Ballus: you got Desiri Dui is already out yeah Rosman Dembele yeah so how's it looking

57:40Julien Laurens: Fabian Ruiz who's also not fully fit I think he is going to be a bit thin for this game I think Beraldo is the one they're most worried about I don't think he's what they're hoping it's not that serious or that bad for Kras, Kelly and Lee. The Vembele thing really annoyed them a lot because I think this one was avoidable. Dwayne, so much he started, he was fit, yes, he was tired, but yeah, they're wondering if it's something to do with the club world cup, if it's a bit early to say or not, I don't think we will ever know, but it's not the first club who was at that competition and went quite far to lose players.

58:19Julien Laurens: You know, Chelsea lost Colwell and Palmer already and the lap. So they don't know, but yeah, it's not ideal when you start the competition like this that you're the holders.

58:30Pol Ballus: PSG, Atalanta coming up. Also in the Champions League midweek, we mentioned some other huge games like, for example, Bayern Munich against Chelsea. A Champions League final rematch itself. We'll get on to that in a moment or two. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Andre Onana has joined Trabzonspor. He did slide through that closing door of the Turkish transfer window. Anyway, he's at Trabzonspor. They played Fernabashi this weekend. Fernabashi are now being managed by Domenico Tedesco, the former Belgian boss. Edison was in goal. Yeah, so it was Onana against Edison.

59:16Pol Ballus: And the score was? 1-0. Ferdinand Baccio there you go not the greatest bit of goalkeeping from Inanna was it not not terrific not a clanger but he made eight saves as well yeah he didn't have a bad game but it was not his very best moment on the goal I don't think Steve Cooper had his first match as manager of Brumby what they beat yes Steve Cooper this has passed me by last week what on the same day that Nuno went at Forest oh yeah no away fans at the Copenhagen derby. Why was that? I don't know, but they're still banned. Neither derby has home fans. Okay. It was a derby. They were playing FC Copenhagen.

59:57Pol Ballus: Yeah. And they won 2-1. They did. So great stuff, Steve Cooper. In other international news, Thomas Muller. Thomas Muller. What a game he played for Vancouver Whitecaps, his new club. It was a huge victory for the Whitecaps. 7-0 over Philadelphia Union. which is the side with the best record in MLS I think that's a record defeat for the third of it very nice very nice whitewash whitewash capped with a hat trick what about Messi's penalty

1:00:30Julien Laurens: did you see that the panenka I mean of all people the greatest player of all time just like there's a crazy weekend in

1:00:38Pol Ballus: yeah in MLS and they lost 3-0 Atlanta were 5-0 down came back to 5-4 you also had did you see Minnesota United to Nick Tarius Triantis What is this? Gazeta Football America? Rights are available. Scoring from the halfway line. But anyway, that's all MLS and other things. The fifth podcast of the week on its way. Let's return to matters more European. I mentioned Bayern against Chelsea. How about it? How about it? Seb Stafford-Blo rematch of the 2012 Champions League final. Yeah, also Bayern playing really, really well. This weekend. This weekend, yeah. Well, they've been playing really well all season, haven't they?

1:01:20Pol Ballus: I'm just adding this up yesterday, and I can't remember what numbers I got to. I think it's 19 goals they've scored in the five matches so far. They've won all of them. Five of them they scored this weekend against Hamburg, and looking in scary form. Yeah, there have been a few moments. I had a difficult time against Wim Wischbaden in the DFB Pokal, and they went through, thanks to the 94th-minute hurricane goal, and they nearly threw away a 3-0 lead against Augsburg. Sandra Wagner's Augsburg, by the way. He's head coach there now. But they were great. I haven't written my column for the Athletic yet, but when I do, it will say something along the lines of, I think sometimes when Bayern improve in small increments, it can get quite easy to ignore because beating Hamburg 5-0, given the history between those two sides, it's not a remarkable result.

1:02:07Hamburg have a terrible, terrible history against them. I think the last time they beat them, they had goals from Rafael van der Waart and Paulo Guerrero. Remember the Peruvian? so really quite a long time ago and relative to some of those results 5-0 is actually a pretty pretty decent outcome on the counter attack one looks so dangerous the interplay between Kane, Gnabry, Diaz has been absolutely excellent at least yeah the combinations there are really really exciting like if you look at some of those goals and the architecture of them forget it's Hamburg and forget their limitations and their naiveties and the fact they're newly promoted This is just really good attacking football they're playing.

1:02:45They made mint meat of them. They sure did. Hezvaard had a terrible, terrible time. But also, look back at the game against Ebi Leipzig, the first game of the season. 6-0. 6-0, and Ebi Leipzig are not a bad side. They're very good against Stuttgart in the Super Cup. Before, they almost collapsed against Augsburg. They played very well. What do you think they'll look like against Chelsea? I think they'll be dangerous. I think if you look at the first goal Chelsea conceded to Brentford at the weekend, the counter-stacking goal that Kevin Schade scored, that is exactly the kind of move that bine have been putting together for quite a long time in the company and because company is not a strongman coach because he's not a big tactical personality in the way that someone like tuchel was nagelsman hitsfeld van hall someone who whose personality is very three-dimensional can become easy to ignore the improvements and to ignore the little coaching tweaks that him and his team have have implemented and how they've evolved the side and and really the Diaz addition I know they probably overpaid for someone of his age but they look lethal they really really do and I don't think they're quite strong enough I don't think they're deep enough in squad terms to be a Champions League contender they're definitely good enough to beat Chelsea especially in Munich Chelsea's form not that impressive

1:03:59Pol Ballus: 2-2 with Brentford at the weekend they did beat Fulham but that was kind of a narrow victory even though it was 2-0 and with a bit of VAR asterisk against it as well 0-0 against Palace at the start of the season but then again probably we thought PSG were going to do Chelsea in the World Club Cup final and then Chelsea do have the ability and the players, Cole Palmer that day who came on to great effect at the G-Tech at the weekend so you wouldn't ever rule them out Do you think they'll take the Champions League seriously

1:04:28James Horncastle: being world champions? That's a question, isn't it? I think we'll see if you're a team who are going to chase ball dominance wherever you go, which I imagine Chelsea will even in the Allianz arena. You do leave yourself very vulnerable to those sweeping moves, which the ball moves forward so quickly with Bayern at the moment that it's, I mean, if you haven't got a kind of a dependable defensive structure, you've got problems. You've got really big problems. And yeah, so certainly Chelsea have the weapons to cause an issue for Bayern because there are still a few issues in defence midfield and in the centre of defence.

1:05:03But both those areas are still improved. They've improved at full-back as well, even with Alphonso Davies not there. There's a lot to like. And yet you kind of always have Bayern, well, it's the Bundesliga, well, they're running over teams in Germany, so it doesn't really count. It's kind of the PSG problem. But it's still relevant if you're Chelsea, I think.

1:05:21Pol Ballus: We shall see. Bayern currently top of the Bundesliga. They're two points ahead of Dortmund, Kuhn and St. Pauli. Can I ad-lib on the St. Pauli detail? Well, yeah. I mean, we mentioned the Kuhn thing, but go ahead on St. Pauli. So St. Pauli came from a goal behind at the Minnetour on Sunday to win 2-1. And the winning goal, actually, and I didn't realise this until it happened, but it featured my new favourite noise in football. Because in the Bundesliga, they place a lot of emphasis on broadcasting production and making sure the product comes through, all that kind of stuff. Archie. Exactly. They still have that 360 cam.

1:05:59They still have that. And they place the pitch side microphone very, very close. so Daniel Sinani's free kick wins the game it deflects in off a defender just in front of Findam and the Augsburg goalkeeper but because of the microphones you get the kind of you get the free kick you get the nick and then you get the sound of the net being hit and then the celebration so you get this kind of that sequence of three

1:06:22Julien Laurens: try to do it again no absolutely not try it just try it like a snickometer it's kind of a it's more of a and then the noise

1:06:31James Horncastle: boom clap it's not

1:06:38go and find it

1:06:40James Horncastle: it's a Charlie XCX

1:06:42Julien Laurens: she just got married by the way

1:06:46James Horncastle: yeah but anyway

1:06:48Julien Laurens: I guess you didn't know she just got married and we're saying also in St Pauli did you marry Charlie X? she's a lucky woman yeah anyway St Pauli if you think of their last two years So Herzler gets them promoted from the Zweite Bundesliga, then goes to Brighton. So you have a situation where Alexander Blessing comes in. He inherits somebody else's team at the midpoint in preseason. He doesn't have a huge budget. I mean, when teams get promoted into the Erste Bundesliga, it's not like in the Premier League where you get his£100 million, go and spend it. Keeps them in the division. And then over the course of this summer, the technical quality of the side, which is the work of Andres Bornemann, who's the chief of sports in Pauli, Some of the players he's brought in are this guy called Matthias Pereira-Lage.

1:07:36He's played for Brest. Sensational footballer. Joel Fujita.

1:07:41Julien Laurens: In Ligue 1, he was just average. But in the Bundesliga, because it's a week of league, obviously, he looks amazing. He's not from Paris, no. I think he was born in France, but represented Portugal under 21 level. But with him and others like him. With him and others like him. And this is business done on a very small budget. So Joel Fushita, who came in from Belgium as well, a Japanese midfielder. These are sort of one, two, three million euro signings that have come in. And with the coaching of Blessin, who did a wonderful job last season. Gigan Blessin. You remember him? Yeah.

1:08:18Pol Ballus: Fantastic coach. They've started the Bundesliga season without losing any of their first three games for the first time ever. Yeah, including a 3-3 draw with Brissett Dortmund of the Bellingham family drama. Right. Yeah, of course. they've been very impressive well done to them that's lovely isn't it there they are in fourth spot quick mention for Christian Eriksen who signed for Wolfsburg didn't get on the pitch but yeah he was on the bench he wasn't in that Kuhn game well he was but he was on your substitute so he was there and he was yeah he was part of the saga all right Bayer Leverkusen have made a brilliant start to life under Kasper Hulman they got their first win in his first game and it was a big one as well they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 what was particularly impressive about this was that when they were 2-1 up, they then got two red cards, but with nine men proceeded to score another goal from Alex Grimaldo, one of two glorious free-kicks that he scored in this match.

1:09:12Pol Ballus: Was this just to show how bad Ten Hag was? No, we'll get some scent off.

1:09:16James Horncastle: We'll keep scoring. The game that got Ten Hag sacked was the 3-0 draw against Werder Bremen. And afterwards, Robert Andrich, who was his captain, said afterwards, you know, our guys are playing for themselves. everyone's got to play as a team. Then he gets himself sent off in this game for a ludicrous second yellow card, which actually, as our friend Archie Ryan Tutt pointed out on TV, matches the tattoo on his calf, if you look that up. What is the tattoo on his... It's basically, it's of a sliding tackle. It's a De Rossi. The tackle, yeah. It's the tackle that he got sent off for. Right. Which took them down to 10 men against a really talented Eintracht.

1:09:54And then they held on. Equi, Fernandes got a second yellow card for what the referee interpreted as a bit of petulance. So Casper Holleman's version of it was that Fernandes was trying to get rid of something from the pocket of his shorts or something, and the referee saw it as some sort of dismissive gesture. Very strange. Germans and their gestures often.

1:10:18Pol Ballus: Grimaldo. Grimaldo's free kick technique. So a couple of years ago, I went to South Felden to their pre-season training camp, and one of those afternoons Grimaldo was just there taking free kicks with his knuckleball technique and the sound that comes off the ball oh yeah because it's South Eldon boom clap it's like a if like if one of us was to go outside and kick a football it would make a sound we all know what that sounds like when a professional footballer kicks a football like that it's unlike anything it's bizarre and also because South Eldon is right in the kind of the cradle of the Austrian Alps.

1:10:58So you sort of have good acoustics there as well. But it's a... The hills are alive. Yeah, it's very much so. It's very much so. But it's... Yeah, he's... Go on that tour. I dare you.

1:11:10James Horncastle: Tour? With your men. Nice.

1:11:14Pol Ballus: Nice. So anyway, in and amongst all of that, he scored two beautiful free kicks. The second with his team down to nine men. And everything's rosy again with Bayer Levin, who's brilliant I am alright well only his first game in charge quickly to mention that the Gladbach relegation scrap klaxon is sounding again after they got beaten 4-0 by Werder Bremen at the weekend they haven't scored a goal since last season at Borussia Mönchengladbach that's over 450 minutes of football they haven't won since March and we'll come back to that next week because we've been going on for a while we've been going on for a while and we haven't even got onto Ligue 1 yet My favourite bit of the show and yours, listener.

1:11:58Pol Ballus: So we'll round things up with a bit of Lee Gun next.

1:12:07You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy seeing glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show.

1:12:18Pol Ballus: Here's an email from Jack. Jack says, I'm writing as I hope the chaps can help me. me and my dad are going to the Monaco v Mets game on Sunday the 21st of September is there a bar stroke restaurant the team would recommend we frequent prior to the match also Jules which players shall I tell my dad to look out for to show how great my French football knowledge is merci beaucoup adds Jack he's very polite yes that's nice

1:12:45James Horncastle: Jules is going to say

1:12:46Pol Ballus: the Casino Royale yeah yeah

1:12:47Julien Laurens: casino for you to lose your money Jack and your or your dad's money

1:12:51Pol Ballus: yeah is there a reasonable place in Monaco that one might where the

1:12:55Julien Laurens: locals go I only go out in Monaco there's that nightclub called the Prince Chandel that's your favorite place in Paris so what happens if Paris stays in Paris

1:13:08Pol Ballus: if you are in if you are in Monaco perhaps you could take the train across to Nice Nice all that lovely place was it Jean is it what's the one in between that thing there's a lovely town there Christ I was there the other day Cassis

1:13:24James Horncastle: I was there the other day I love it and he hold on James listeners should know his domicile in Monaco with Sir Jim Ratcliffe yes

1:13:34Julien Laurens: and and the Royola Villefranche-sur-Mer oh Villefranche-sur-Mer yeah you could get the train

1:13:40Pol Ballus: along to or Eze's lovely as well no yeah I'm feeling that Eze's that place up there up on a hill are you flying to Nice Jack

1:13:48James Horncastle: that's that's another question yeah he would fly to Nice probably

1:13:50Pol Ballus: and then getting the chopper across to maybe he's mooring up Jimbo wings yeah I don't know anyway sorry Jack I don't know that we've been how about the second part of this question which players

1:14:04Julien Laurens: Magnet and Clioche of course Paris Born and Bred but Jack you can tell your dad about Minamino remember him from Liverpool he's probably Monaco's best player right now he's called the Liverpool of the weekend yeah they're quite good you won't see Paul Pogba because he's not going to be back until after the next international break but you might see him in the nightclub that I mentioned or at the casino but it's a good Monaco team it would be better when Pogba is back if he's back at a good level and Mets very much

1:14:33Pol Ballus: not a good Mets team not a good Mets they've got into no

1:14:37Julien Laurens: although there's a player who used to play for Mets now in Monaco called Lamine Kamara who is the next big midfielder coming out from Ligue 1 and English club whatever that is that name again Jules Camara, Lamine Camara. Very, very good in midfield, yeah. It's like a baliba type, those kind of guys. Okay.

1:14:57Pol Ballus: Is Luis Enrique okay after a cycling accident?

1:14:59Julien Laurens: He's the collarbone. Is that how you say, collarbone? Yeah.

1:15:02James Horncastle: What do you call it in French?

1:15:04Julien Laurens: No, I think he was just on epaul, like shoulder. But we don't really say the epaul.

1:15:11Pol Ballus: Yeah, I misheard that. But yes. What did you hear? Broken nipple. What?

1:15:18Julien Laurens: It's you today.

1:15:20Pol Ballus: It's a nipple. Really? A nipple. Because the colorblind is round. It's nipple adjacent. Yeah. Would you wear a sling for that? You're very pert. I think I would.

1:15:34Julien Laurens: You're very sensitive with your nipples.

1:15:36Pol Ballus: And I'm quite well developed as well.

1:15:43Julien Laurens: Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure you are. So, yeah. Yeah, I think you're okay. 40 minutes. He was in the stands for the first half and then back on the bench for the second half. Okay.

1:15:55Pol Ballus: All right then.

1:15:56Julien Laurens: Who do Monaco have?

1:15:58Pol Ballus: In the Champions League they have Club Bruges. Club Bruges. Club Bruges.

1:16:06Julien Laurens: Hans van Aken missed the Champions League. Nice.

1:16:10Pol Ballus: PSV play Atalanta as we mentioned and Marseille are at Real Madrid and Marseille fantastic result of the weekend. a 4-0 whenever Lorient but the home form's never been the issue for them it's away from home George

1:16:23Julien Laurens: yeah and it's Roberto De Zerbe's return to Europe where it didn't really go that well either with Shakhtar or with Brighton or being a different competition it's a tough game to start obviously although Real Madrid are not maybe at their best or the best level that they can reach or will reach later under Xabi Alonso because outside of Kylian the rest I think still is very much in transition so there's maybe something there for Marseille 4 ,000 fans Aubameyang standing up front Mason Greenwood still their best player Angel Gomez scored a lovely goal at the weekend really nice with Kondogbia in midfield and Hoiberg is he a bit too lightweight maybe but I think I could see Marseille doing something interesting though really I think in terms of

1:17:09James Horncastle: coaching matchups this is one of the things that I'm this is one of the games I'm most excited yeah I agree

1:17:14Julien Laurens: it'd be a good game to watch really really good on Tuesday

1:17:18Pol Ballus: this evening for many people for many people yesterday for the rest of the year Union and Senghoro are making their Champions League debut as well on Tuesday couple of teams Kyrat who are away to sporting Union and Bodo Glimt as well

1:17:31Julien Laurens: Bodo Glimt Union and Senghoro are going to

1:17:33Pol Ballus: be in Slavia Prague I mean it's just wall to wall excitement isn't it Senghoro have another forward Ralph Florex the Australian scoring loads of goals they just replace them every single year there's another the one they find from somewhere. What's that, producer Lucy? I think we've got to wrap that up.

1:17:49Julien Laurens: I've got a few more stories. Quickly, Kylian Mbappé was now the only Mbappé to score this weekend. Etan scored the winning goal for Lille. His first ever professional goal at 18. So, had a lot of injuries last season. And hopefully, he could have a decent season this year. So, well done to Lille.

1:18:15Julien Laurens: And the goal is to be a puppy!

1:18:45Julien Laurens: Nobody's going to sign him because Strasbourg will never going to sign him to anybody but Chelsea. Why are you announcing now him with a photo with a Chelsea shirt when we are in September?

1:18:52Pol Ballus: And the fans and the player are not very happy about this.

1:18:56Julien Laurens: The fans especially. So we had banners from the ultras who already don't like Bluco and this whole fact that we are the sister club of Chelsea. The banner said you're a pawn of Bluco? A pawn? A pawn. Did you hear something else? No. No, because your sexual mindset today I'm not sure. No, I thought you were going to say, oh, sorry, I heard porn. So you're a porn of Blue Co. After nipples and the old lady's pussy. I just thought you were going to do the hat trick. Yeah, so now that you've swapped shirts.

1:19:27James Horncastle: Yes.

1:19:29Julien Laurens: No, I knew you were going to give your armband back, basically. Which apparently Omega was quite upset. Liam Rossini are going strong after saying it's unacceptable for fans to do this. I'm disappointed. He's devastated. All that kind of stuff. I think Ultras have the right to say what they think. Yeah, me too. Maybe it took it too far, but I find it really weird that they announced this transfer in September, really, for next summer again. If you think you're just there to facilitate what Chelsea do in the market and then something like that happens, it just reinforces your view, surely. Well, yeah, it's not a good look.

1:20:04They were just there to be subservient.

1:20:07Pol Ballus: Well, they're up in fifth place in the table, so in many ways that relationship's working well for them. Next weekend, they're going to be visiting Paris, but not that Paris. Just across the road at Paris FC. They've got their first win away from home. Yeah, against Brest. And I'm not saying anything.

1:20:24Julien Laurens: First away win in the top flight in 47 years or 48 years. We've got Marseille PhD next Sunday as well. And Lyon, first defeat for Lyon. And Tyler Morton's red card. Arendt on Sunday night. Oh, Jules. So many good things. And we have Argy Bargy on the bench as well in that game. No. Yeah. I'm guessing we spent all that time talking about Sirianne. Oh, f***ing Bundesliga as well. 15 minutes. That was one of the disappointments of the weekend.

1:20:49James Horncastle: Yeah, that Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe played against each other. But they were like, oh, we texted each other. So nothing to see here, but what about the beef on the bench?

1:20:58Julien Laurens: So no, but he didn't shake hands though at the end of the game. Jonathan Rowe only came on for the last 15 minutes and I was watching and there was just no handshake, nothing. Apparently the Lyon bench, and this was the last game where Fonseca was in the stand, so Georges Martial, his assistant was on the bench, said that Habib Bey was too happy to celebrate his team's goals and you should be gracious when you lose, but also when you win, to what Habib Bey said. Tools is like that. I don't care. Absolutely. I'll put it in their face. Bey said, I don't care what he says, I'll sleep really well my team won.

1:21:34Julien Laurens: So here you go. Can't wait for the, you know, the return. Rematch. Yeah, exactly. well

1:21:42Pol Ballus: many many thanks everybody for being with us today enjoy your busy week of football and we'll be getting together in a week's time to you know check in on what's happened in those games have we got Champions League again next week or is it Europa League look ahead to Europa League and everything that's happened in the in the leagues thank you Seb Jules James producer Lucy and you listener and do join us thanks Jack as well for the questions sorry I didn't get the answer you'd get a poll as well yeah anyway that's it from all of us here it's goodbye you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for more great podcasts just like this one including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places we're also at the Totally Football Show on Insta and at the Totally Show on YouTube.

1:22:40The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

1:22:50Julien Laurens: The Athletic FC