Kane rewriting records, Bellingham’s benched - and the end of San Siro?

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0:30much more in this Totally Football Show.

0:36Monday the 6th of October. Hi, listener. Welcome to our Euro show. It's just me and Jules in the studio today, right, Jules? Yes. Hello, Jimbo. Hello, everyone. Hello, all the people on the big screen. Of course, listener. We're not doing a show without Seb Staffer-Bloor. Hello, Jimbo. Without Paul Belous. Hello, hello. Como estamos? Muy bien. Gracias, Paul. Perfecto, perfecto. I always want to test your Spanish beats on top of each game. Bring it. No, no, it's fine. Venga, venga. Yo veo que estás en un buen momento de forma. Sí, por supuesto. And also joining us today, the AstroTurf man, a.k.a.

1:17the one and only James Horncastle. Not sure if there's a social clip. If there is, you'll see what I mean. James is a... 4G bitch. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Or a Hemman Hill. I'm not sure. Something like that. A grassy knoll. Yeah. Yeah. Don't bring them in the house. James, you look extra comfortable for a man who's sitting in an airport departure lounge. I like to travel in comfort, Jim, bro. You know? I feel like I'm well-traveled. I know how to do it well. Damn. He's always so organized, by the way. when we travel away. Well, he has to be. He has to be, but... Because he's here, he's there. Yeah. Yeah.

2:00And right now he's on the air. And James, you're in currently Milan on your way back from Juventus Milan. Yeah, that's right, Jimbo. I got the train from Torino this morning. Beautiful sunny day here. Don't know what it's like in the UK, but when I left on Friday, it was... Beautiful sunny day. Beautiful sunny day. It's almost like we're in the same time zone, more or less, give or take an hour. but yeah enjoyed myself as always James had a great pizza the other day six different flavors on one pizza what? hang on which ones? which ones? there was like anchovies terraccia and pesto for like two slices because I was in Turin there was oh so it was a multiple right where was this James where was this?

2:44this was a place called Sesto Gusto oh the sixth taste exactly yeah I think it's one of the top ten pizzerias in Italy so yeah there was the anchovia on two slices there was uh vitero tonato on another two because you're in turin which is the splotative feel of tuna i saw that place jimbo what he loved that oh he liked it i thought oh yeah yeah no no we're in agreement together yeah i love that i mean i feel sad for the baby cows but um anyway back to your pizza and then there was um prawn, some like some purple Gallipoli prawns. Really? Yeah, unusual to be on a pizza, but you know, they are in the top 10 in the top 50 in Italy.

3:31In fact, I think the table has just come out for the top 50 pizzerias in Italy. And what was the last bit in there? Ah, a bit of pata negra. A bit of pata negra was on there. Ah, really? That's nice. Which was your favourite slice? The anchovy. Anchovy, fantastic. fantastic cantapé you know there's a lot of spain on this pizza to be fair all fair play yeah yeah i can see it i can see that i wanted to ask you what's the general approach from this podcast on like pineapple in pizza oh for me there is no broader church than a bread-based savory dish you know you can take it in any kind of direction you want now if you put pineapple on it it's not going to be a traditional pizza but what the hell as james has just listed james has illustrated you can make magic in all sorts of way with a bit of pizza dough i'm just in this van wagon i don't want to answer this question i feel like it will it will lead to to social media come on let's hear it yeah we need that you love the pineapple no seb because then they clip it up and they put it out and it gets lots of traction okay so what we're going to use me as a sort of like a bit of human rage bait.

4:45Absolutely. That's how social media works. Did you not write the contract? In which case, I think, well, I deal with a piece with pineapple and sweet corn on. Sweet corn. And pineapple. Wow. Yeah, that is... That is too far. That is too far. You crossed the line here. That is too far. I'm going to tell you why. It's because if I lived in Italy... No, no. They won't let you in. They won't let you in. They won't let me in. But you have a certain level of quality control. In German, your pizzerias are not... There's no top 50 list of German pizzerias published every year. Right. So it's kind of a fail-safe.

5:18You're not going to have any dodgy meat. People can't do a lot wrong with either pineapple or sweet corn. Okay. Or pizza. You can't defend that choice. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten on a pizza, Jules? No, I mean, before that, I was told this week that Kylian Mbappe's favorite dish is the pasta carbonara. No problem. Except that he wants it with cream. With all the cream, right, James? Exactly. That's the... He wants it with the cream. He loves it with the cream. I'm sorry, Seb. That was the worst thing about Germany. That was unforgivable in my opinion. I was just about to say, let's not be pizza fascists about pineapple and pizza.

5:52But cream in carbonara is absolutely unacceptable. After two weeks in Essen, I decided that I would finally expense a nice meal for myself. And so I went to the best Italian restaurant in Essen with an Italian colleague. We ordered carbonara. and it came with cream it was it was an abomination it was it was revolting it was so bad also like bruschetta in germany is an absolute minefield as well because it's it's a there are so many different interpretations of it and there's just no there's no commonality to the dish so you can't feel safe ordering it and you know you're kind of your life well not your life but your your evening is in the restaurant's hands and also your pizzeria is generally run by a guy called Gunter.

6:40So that's your sort of your first tip off. Okay. Did you have a strange pizza? Not really strange, but when you go for lunch or dinner with James Horncastle in London, sometimes we go all together. Sometimes it's just me and him. Right. And he takes you to those incredible places that only he knows. You guys go on your own? Sometimes. It's never me and Paul though, is it? Sometimes. No, no, no. We're not available. We don't ever get to that. You're in Hamburg and Barcelona. Wow. Listener. Yeah, but that one day we had Nutella pizza. Oh, yeah. And that just blew my mind. Did it blow your mind? I love Nutella to start with.

7:12And this was just the best dessert ever. Okay. Paul, have you had a freaky pizza? I mean, I'm quite of a normal guy in that regard. But once I had this pizza, I mean, I have to tell that it was after a night out. I was coming back home. Yeah, in quite a state. So basically, like my friend ordered this pizza with like the kebab meat on it. Yeah. No, it was awful. I mean, one of the worst. Really? in my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With chips. With the chips on it as well, Paul. Yeah, and a bit of egg as well. I can remember. Tough to digest. Just like to put it mildly. For those undecided on their way back from a big night, that would tick a lot of boxes, I imagine.

7:54Well, when I came back from the game last night, in the Scenzi outside the train station in Turin, there are a couple of pops which just never seem to close. One is the L 'Huntsman. L 'Huntsman. The Huntsman. where you can just order a big steak or pasta in a pub, which just feels weird. But in Turin, it's the only place where you'll find pasta on a menu in a pub. But just down the street from there is one of two sort of if I haven't met institutions in Turin. One is called Ordaz. And that, again, is opened all hours. It's actually very good. So, you know. There's nothing the Italians can do. If you're in Turin, Yeah, when you're in your head, do as the Torrenesi do.

8:39Have a kebab. Have a kebab. Okay. Well, brilliant. Thanks so much, Paul, Seb, James and Jules. We'll be back on Thursday. International break. Oh, yeah, international break. It's fine. It's fine. We haven't even done Moment of the Week yet. Have we got time for a quick round of Moment of the Week, Lucy? Jules, you go first. Quick. I go first for the first time in 59 years to lose Warnermere at Lyon. And they were losing until the 87th minute. and Lyon were very comfortable. And then Emerson, the young Brazilian striker who just arrived in the summer, who hadn't done much really since the start of the season, scored two goals back-to-back, the second one in the 96th minute, for a famous win for Toulouse, the first one in Lyon since 1966.

9:22That's incredible. Incredible. Paul, what about you? I'm going to stay here in Barcelona, but I'm not going anywhere near the Camp Noua. I'm going to go to Espanyol's ground because that's where Real Betis managed to come back from the first goal that Espanyol scored. 96 minutes of the game, Betis was winning 2-1. Espanyol crossed the ball to the box. There was a dodgy action in there and the referee gave a penalty. 96 minutes, Espanyol had the penalty just to draw the game and just to get a point out of a tough picture. In goal for Real Betis, there was Paul López, a former Espanyol Academy product.

9:59He's played all his life in Espanyol. Javi Puado, Espanyol captain, he takes the penalty. Paul Lopez saves it. He turns to the stands and he puts his hands behind his ears and tells the fan, yeah, tell me anything that you want. He's been an Espanyol fan from all his life, but just the adrenaline of the moment, he just felt that he was the hero of the night. He was, in a way, because Betis got the win, they got the three points, but after the game, he was so sad about the moment that he asked just for forgiveness to the Espanyol fans. He declared that he was an Espanyol fan, that the moment got the best out of him.

10:34So he was sad after possibly the best moment that he's had in the last three or four years of his career, Paul Lopez, the goalkeeper that started the season being the backup, but he has earned a spot as a starting goalkeeper for Real Betis, who, by the way, are in a great, great moment. Real Betis is one of the teams to really enjoy in Spanish football right now. That moment of intense joy and release, followed by an inexplicable sadness. I don't know what you could compare that to. Seb, your moment of the week. our moments of the week is from the Zweidebunds Liga Jimbo so on Sunday there was a there was a terrible collision between Arminia Bielefeld's forward Joel Gradovsky and Loris Karras who's playing in goal for Schalke these days and just wanted to celebrate Nikola Katic's actions so he's a centre-half for Schalke he reacted quicker than everybody else because Gradovsky was clearly out cold on his back reacted quicker than anybody else to get him on into the recovery position and on came the fizziness and everybody.

11:31I just thought it was a great example to set an opposition player, making sure that an opponent was well. And so any kids watching, that was great. Well done, him. Thank you, Seb. And James? I'm watching Italian daytime VTV at the moment, James. La Volta Buona with the Donatello twins. I must say, it's compelling. I'm going to go with Game of the Weekend in Serie A. Lazio Torino. Three-all. A truly magnificent game where the lead kept changing. Torino went in front and Lazio made it back to 2-1. Then it was 3-2 Torino in the 94th minute. And in the 103rd minute, the bar says there's a check. Lazio get a penalty and Lazio score and it's 3-3.

12:15decisione finale calcio di rigore Cataldi in un recupero folle la Lazio fa 3-3 con Danilo Cataldi Maurizio Sarri is so overcome afterwards that he can't do the press conference he can't do media he's had a funny turn and he needs to lie down and so his assistant does the media and then Torino's coach Marco Baroni is in the press conference he was at Lazio last year, did really well for seven of the nine months, and then basically was told, not good enough, gets to Torino. And he's asked a question by a Gazette of the Sport journalists. And the Gazette guy says something along the lines of, that was one of the best Torino performances in years, Marco.

13:02And while the journalist is asking this question, other journalists start laughing. And Marco Baroni is like, I'm sorry, but a couple of your colleagues are laughing. and that's not very nice is it and turns out these colleagues were laughing at the Gazetta journalists framing of his question you know because Torino is 16 they lost their opening game 5-0 and they've only won once this season it was against newly promoted Pisa and yet the question after dropping points in stoppage time against Lazio was this is one of the best performances we've seen through Torino in a long long time and of course gazetta they are owned by rcs group which is a media group which is owned by urbano cairo who is also the owner of torino and so marco baroni calls out the guys laughing at gazetta's question and then when he opts and leaves from his press conference he sees these journalists start to get heated and there's reports that they had to be separated by a steward wow um and yeah baroni is just like you're a disgrace to your profession really because similar scenes actually on field ironically enough between Lazio and Torino and that most dramatic of games as you say that penalty right at the death taking about nine minutes to finally being taken with reviews and scuffles and all that if you read the gazetta you will notice a certain amount of spin should we say pro Torino spin there's a lot of Torino and gazetta you know for it being the pink paper of Milan, the national paper.

14:40A lot of Urbano Cairo, indeed. Excellent. Wow. We're going to begin our round-up of all the continental action with James because he's got a flight to catch. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Sunday night's big game in Serie A was Juventus-Milan. James Horncastle was there. Yeah, James, nil-nil. I enjoyed it James I thought that did you enjoy it I think that game could have been 3-2 with better finishing because Jonathan David who missed this absolute sitter in the Champions League the other night against Villarreal he had a good chance in the first half and just falls over and everyone in the press box and in the stands at Uvo was just kind of like oh my god what is this and it just feels like with him that I'm not going to say he's doomed already, but there's a sense that those two misses could well define him, regardless of the fact that his movement is really, really good, but didn't score.

15:45You then had Pulisic missing a penalty. Pulisic has been the form guy in Serie A over the course of this season. You had that incredible save from Mike Mignon on Federico Gatti. Gatti, the event center-half, who scored this bicycle kick in Villarreal, which was incredible for a defender. almost scores another spectacular goal, but Mignon stops it. And then Luka Modric. Luka. Luka Modric. I mean, Luka had put the ball through for Santi Amenez, which leads to the penalty that Pulisic missed. And then in the 90th minute, this 40-year-old dude just plays this reverse pass to put Rafa Leal through on goal.

16:28And Leal flops it. And so, yeah, it ended nil-nil. I think Milan deserved to win. certainly I think Allegri struck the right tone afterwards saying that they had Juventus in their hands and they should have killed them in a sporting sense and they didn't do it in a sporting sense they let them go and they should be angry because of it but Juventus booed and whistled off at full time which it was their fifth draw in a row in all competitions and some parallels with what happened last year when Thiago Motta started well but then started to draw too many games. And yeah, even Tudor said this today.

17:10It's the same team, lads. This is who we are. Wow. It means that Napoli and Roma are now clear on top of Serie A with Milan two points behind them and then a point behind the Rossoneri. You have Inter and Juventus. Napoli beat Genoa 2-1. Came from behind after Jeff Eckert of Genoa scored. He did a Zola. Yeah. 18-year-old though. Really, really promising. Tell us more about him, GF Eccator. I mean, this is the only thing, James, good about Genoa right now, my boy Patrick Vieira, who's under serious pressure, right? Yeah, I mean, that academy at Genoa has been one of the best performing academies in Italy for decades.

17:50You know, I mean, it's given us the likes of Stephen El-Shawari, for example, Mandragora, Rovella. You know, one of the best players in Serie A this season, revelation really was sold by Genoa to Atalanta in the summer. A guy called Honest Ahonor who was signed to be a wingback so he's been playing in the back three and this 18 year old Italy had been waiting for him to turn 18 so they had been basically giving him a passport because he's playing really well but Eccator Jimbo says Zola, I say Crespo just a magnificent backheel goal to give Genoa the lead lead and yeah had he be air in a little bit uh of pressure really but in a really difficult club because remember that club was one of the triple seven clubs and all of a sudden it's got this romanian owner who nobody's ever heard of and they didn't really spend a lot of money in the summer so difficult job for patrick and you know when you're coming up against rasmus hoyle and jimbo in this form.

18:57You know, non ce n 'est pas une. Non ce n 'est. No, it's typical for anyone against Rasmus at the moment. No tripe for the cats when Rasmus is in town, especially when KDB comes on and serves him up on a plate, as we've seen. Yes, so they come from a goal down Napoli with Anguissa and then Rasmus Hoyland with his third goal in two games. And there they are, Napoli, level on top with, Surprise, surprise. Gasparini's Roma. Now, we'll talk about what Roma did on Thursday in a second or two. But this weekend, they also had a come-from-behind 2-1 victory. This time, away at the Artemi of Franci against Fiorentina.

19:38Moise Kane opening the scoring with an absolute thunderbolt. His first goal of the season. Yeah, and seconder Pioli was saying afterwards that it's hard to score against Roma. It's hard to create against Roma. where they had the best, I think, defensive stats in Europe's top five leagues going into this game. And that was largely because of their goalkeeper, Emile Spilher. And Spilher got to this shot from Moise Ken, but he was struck so powerfully that he couldn't keep it out. And it was Ken's first goal of the season. He's been unlucky, really, so far this year. He hit the post in this game as well.

20:13Another strike for Jorantino, Roberto Piccoli hit the bar. But as you mentioned, Roma came back Mathias Souley and a wonderful stoop-hitting header from Brian Cristante to give them the win. But Fiorentina's worst start since 1978 was still winless after six games. This comes after they finished six last year which was their best performance in 11 years. But the coach Raffaele Palladino did not get on with the sporting director of Fiorentina Daniele Prade. Prade was asked to resign by the fans. He didn't. They spent 90 million. And here they are, in all kinds of bother. And they go into this international break, taking some positives from their Roma game, from the win against an unknown Conference League Czech side called Sigma Olomouc or something like that.

21:07But they play Milan when the international break finishes. Which for Pioli, I mean, the curtain on his second spell at Fiorentina could come down against his old team. Well, is there some suggestion that he might not even be there for the return to San Siro? We'll have to see. I mean, he said, my future is not the problem, results are. And it was like, yeah, they have an influence on your future, Stefano. So, you know, I mean, he's maybe helped by the fact that Fiorentina's owner, Rocco Camiso, has just had back surgery. So he's presumably on a lot of pain with him at the moment. And I think watching Fiorentina, you're just pressing the morphine button at the moment.

21:48So we'll see. I think they might give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, but once he's a minor touch, you never know. Well, let's hope so for a purely sick. Fiorentina currently lying just outside the bottom three on goal difference. Genoa, as you mentioned, in trouble. They are in penultimate place. Fiorentina got the win on Thursday, as you mentioned. Roma very much didn't in their clash with Lille. Incredible. What an incredible match. Like I've never seen, I know Martin Palermo missed three penalties in the same game. So we've had those kinds of incidents, keeper saving multiple penalties in the same game or in a penalty shootout.

22:25But to see the same penalty technically being taken three times, which is what happened with the Roma players. And we were together with James on Thursday night, but the game was the early kickoff. So it was after the game. We just could not believe it that Ozer, the Lille Turkish goalkeeper, who just arrived in the summer to replace Lukas Chevalier when he went to Lille, who was a very promising young player. I think started in Turkey at the age of 16 or 17. It was really big and then had a big move to one of the big Istanbul clubs and didn't work out for him, but still very good even now at the age of 24, 25.

22:58But first saved the Dov Big penalty that was retaken. Saved the second Dov Big penalty that was retaken. Then there was a third one because he was off his line or something like that. Macias Sule took that penalty and also saved it again twice on his left, once on his right. Incredible. but I've never seen anything like this. Roma, after the international break, will be returning with a clash against Inter who had a big win. They're fifth in a row, actually, in all competitions. Putting together quite the run of form, the Nerozuri. This weekend, they beat Jamie Vardy's Creminesi 4-1. Jamie Vardy coming on as a sub in the 58th minute.

23:36He played a part, actually, in Creminesi's goal, the Bonazzoli goal, the consolation effort. but yeah. It was a sort of give and go from him but he didn't get it back and Bonaccioli scored. But yeah, a lot of people are getting very excited about Inter. I'm already talking about how they're better than they were under Simone Inzaghi. Actually, that's rubbish. I think they played really, really good football under Inzaghi. They've played some good football so far this season including the defeat against Juve in the debut Italia. But if you look at this five-game winning streak it's against Ajax, Klavia Prague, Kalleri, Sassuolo and Cremonese.

24:17So two of the three promoted teams, two teams you'd expect them to be in the Champions League. But the big difference between this season and last season is that when Lautaro and Marcus Churam were either injured or needed a rest last year, the backup strikers didn't score. They were ineffective. Medita Ramey and Marco Arnaltovic. They've now got a kid who's come through the academy PO Esposito who loved to play some part in Italy's World Cup qualifiers against Estonia in Israel. He got his first senior goal against Cagliari and then he got Anjouan Boni a French striker who trained at Parma. It was the big summer signing.

24:56I say big, quite modest really for Inter. I saw him score in his debut against Torino in the 5-0 win and then he was involved in all four goals against Cremonese. So those guys are really playing their part and I think that's why people are quite excited about Inter at the moment because we've mentioned strikers missing chances so far in this podcast, be it Jimenez, Leal, Pulisic, Jonathan David, Dorfvik, the teams that are at the top. Inter have no problem with strikers scoring goals. Hoyland's basically stepped in Kulikak and is doing really well. And yeah, I suppose Romer, the only exception of this, with Evan Ferguson.

25:38I don't think yet to really click. Boni Paris Bon & Bread, by the way. Is he? Of course. Boni Senna should have been the headline. You should work for Cairo. Yeah, go on. Well, you know, put us in touch. The other bit of news we should mention comes very much off field, but concerns perhaps the most famous field in Italian football, the Giuseppe Meazza San Siro, which the story of its redevelopment or otherwise has been going back and forth for years and years and years. Last week though, something potentially very decisive took place. Yeah, the two clubs, Inter and Milan, have agreed to buy the stadium off the city council.

26:26But the uninitiated, nearly all grounds in Italy were built in kind of fascism by the states. They belong to the city a lot of them have running tracks because they're multi-purpose. Back in the 30s, not in the last couple of years you mean? Yes, yes. Yeah, exactly. There hasn't been that incredible stadium reform in Italy over the last few years now. So the clubs have bought it. It doesn't mean that there are not going to be hurdles thrown up in front of them, people chaining themselves to the gates of San Siro or there being appeals to various things that will probably come through in the plans for the new San Siro.

27:08But over the next six months, we'll see the new architects, Norman Foster and Manica, basically put forward their designs and then they hope to start building between 2027 and 2030 and then open the stadium in 2031. One of the reasons why they bought the stadium is because on November 10th, part of San Siro becomes a listed building and they wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. And so this gives them a little bit more wriggle room. They'll still have to retain elements and reclaim parts of San Siro, but don't expect any of those parts to be part of the new stadium because the new stadium is going up on a car park next door.

27:55So if anything, it'll be equivalent to the, let's say, the Highbury Flats or something where parts of the old hybrid stadium have been used in, you know, parkland or for building purposes. But yeah, big moment in Italian football, Jimbo. Yeah. James, thank you so much for that. Next up, what say we head to Espana?

28:24This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. All right, Paul Belus, tell us all about what's going on with Barcelona. Back-to-back defeats for Hansi Flick's side. Back-to-back. Which one was the one before Sevilla? Well, the one before was PSG and everybody went, wow, PSG are really strong. They've just beaten Barcelona. But then a couple of days later, Sevilla turned up and did them 4-1. To be fair then. Yeah.

28:58So what happened on Sunday 4-1?

29:08Disaster class from Barcelona. Their worst performance of the season so far. They were really bad at the back in defence, but in a way that speaks a lot about the forwards as well, because the pressing was not on point. And Sevilla under Almeida are a really high-pressing team. Almeida is a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa. on the coaching department. And yeah, this sort of high-pressing, high-intensity system, they were really focused on nullifying Pedri, who touched basically half the average of touches that he registers per game. And it all piled up together to see Barcelona basically bottling it in a bad, bad way.

29:47And it's now the second consecutive international break that they go in a really negative note. Because if you forgot about it, like on the last break, They had a draw against Rayo Vallecano before going on the break, and Flick was really harsh on the plays and on the egos killing the success of the team. Now they go to Sevilla before the break, and they lost really bad. Flick was not happy about the team performance, but for what you read about Flick's world after the game, he knows that the team was a bit knackered as well. A lot of injuries at Barcelona. The squad is not that deep, because a lot of plays were coming from injuries as well, so he could not rely on a lot of substitutions.

30:28And yeah, Barcelona were basically outplayed by Sevilla. There's been controversy about the penalty that Sevilla were given to score the first goal, but I don't think that Barca can hold on to referees to explain what happened on the pitch. And it was sweet revenge as well for one of the favourites of this podcast, which is Alexis Sanchez, who scored the first goal from the penalty spot and enabled Sevilla to have their best performance of the season. Good Lord. Alexis Sanchez there opening the scoring. He's at Romero doubling the lead. Then Marcus Rashford pulls one back. He's been involved in seven goals in his 10 games for Barcelona, which is pretty good stuff.

31:05And this was a lovely goal too. Yep, brilliant goal, brilliant goal. I would say that he was the best attacker from Barcelona in the pitch of that game. And he's been quite consistent. I think that if you ask all the fan base, they are really, really happy about the way that Marcus Rashford has been settling into the group. I think he was good against PSG as well on tilt. He was just like too tired to keep going. But yeah, Marcos tries for a big impact so far at Barcelona. Then Robert Lewandowski had the chance to make it 2-2 with a penalty of his own. But once again, he missed it. That's it. And that tells a lot about the story of, as well, like the difference between Barcelona and Sevilla.

31:44Because Sevilla, despite having their best game of the season, they were like in a big risk to get a draw by Lewandowski because he had a penalty with 15 minutes to go. Lewandowski missed it. If he would have scored, the scoreline would have been 2-2. And then who knows what happens in there. But Lewandowski, as we said, missed it. Ronnie Vargi missed a couple of big chances as well. And then with Barcelona all-out attack, Sevilla just killed the game. At the counter-attack, a Sevilla team, which has a lot of cold heroes in here, because we have mentioned a lot of Alexis Sanchez. I think that Cesar Azpilicueta was amazing as well.

32:19He's playing as a centre-back in there, and he was amazing. And then another Premier League misfit. Well, not that Al Filiqueta was a Premier League misfit, of course, but a Premier League misfit suggests Odiseas Blachomidos, the Greek goalkeeper, was outstanding as well. Outstanding. And players or not? No, I think I'm lost here. Oh, OK. It doesn't matter. Seb, you had a question. Yeah, Paul, I was just going to ask about Rooney because obviously just after he moved, previously he'd suffered that terrible injury when he was at FC Copenhagen. and I remember I think you and I talked about surprise at him sort of making that kind of move a bit of a quantum leap in in the game what's been the reception to him among the fans no I think that the receptions have been quite good fans I'm not going to say that they did not care too much about the move but they see in Bruni Bargi a move that was below the Rashford's below the John Garcia's he's a player that is playing with an academy squad number okay so in a way he's seen as a more like a rotation option.

33:21He basically played because LaMillemale was injured and because all the other players were knackered. And he had this 30 minutes cameo in the second half. So not a lot of pressure is put into him, but he had the chance to make an impression and he failed to capitalize on it. So I would say that when LaMillemale is back, his playing chances possibly are going to get slimmer and slimmer. What's the long-term plan with someone like that? Is he there to save the legs of someone like Yomel? Or is he a technical fit to the side? We could develop him and then financially he becomes a bit of an asset two or three years down the road.

33:57Yeah, I think that the second option that you mentioned here is the way that Deco envisaged this move. Basically, it was a signing that he didn't see much room for losing money in there because the worst case scenario is like in three years, just selling for the same money that you paid, which was$3 million. and in the best case scenario, he develops into a good player that you can sell for big money and reinvest in the club. So that was mainly the plan that Barca had for him. Barcelona's 4-1 defeat here is their heaviest defeat in La Liga for 10 years, but perhaps the worst aspect of it, Luminio went out with that pesky groin strain and he's a potential doubt, well, he's a doubt essentially, for the upcoming Clásico on the 26th of October, but aye, aye, aye.

34:43Real Madrid, you recall, a week ago, were smarting from a spanking at the hands of their neighbours, Atletico, in the Madrid derby 5-2. This weekend, they came bouncing back with a 3-1 victory over Villarreal, while Atletico came back down to earth with a bump, drawing 1-1 away at Celta Vigo. Yep, yeah, yeah. I think that the Real Madrid game against Villarreal was more, like, tied than the result tells you. Villarreal had a decent chance to go at Real Madrid, Real Madrid had Benicius. I think that Benicius had a really good game in really good form. He was a bit lucky with the first goal because it was deflected from a defender and then the game changed from there.

35:22Then they scored a second from a penalty kick that Mbappe was the taker designated by Xavi Alonso but he went to Benicius and he gave the ball to Benicius just to shoot it. So it was a nice gesture from Mbappe to being here. And then in the last stages of the game Mikko Tadde scored for Villarreal and then Real Madrid scored the third one. So, yeah. And Mbappe went off towards the end of the game. Is he going to be turning up for France? Yeah, he's there and Deschamps said this afternoon just before we started the show that it was OK. OK. There's a little ankle strain but nothing too serious. Right.

35:58No start for Jude Bellingham, I see, Paul. No start for Jude Bellingham, I think. And if you ask any Real Madrid fan, they will all agree that him starting against Atletico de Madrid it was a bit rushed, taking into account the sort of injury that he had and that all the players in that role were playing really good, such as Arda Guller. And yeah, the last couple of games he has not started, but he came in from the bench. And I think that it possibly was the best performance that Jude Bellingham has put in this season in a way that was good for the team. Let's see if he keeps progressing from that and he keeps entering into the team with more involvement in that regard.

36:35Excellent. Top of the table then sees Real Madrid. Two points clear now of Barcelona with Villarreal in third place. Real Betis in fourth spot ahead by two points of Atletico Madrid. Their 1-1 draw with Celta Vigo. Atleti's 1-1 draw with Celta Vigo is Celta's sixth 1-1 draw of the season. Six out of eight games. That's remarkable. That's mad. There's the unismo. It's like the way that it's being called here in Spain and more particularly like in Vigo. the way that Celta have managed to win six games with the same scoreline. And yeah, a game that was defined in a way by Lenglet being sent off. Atletico de Madrid scored the first goal thanks to a known goal from Carla Starfeld.

37:18Really good move by Pablo Barrios, who is going to go with the national team now. Good player to keep an eye on. And then when Lenglet was sent off, I think that Celta was very much in the top of the game. Both High Glaciers had a couple of chances. And in the end, it was the same guy as ever for Celta de Vigo. Olliao Aspas, the club legend, the most important player in the club history, who scored that goal. And Atletico, in a way, were looking not to concede the second one. If you want to look for a funny thing, like go after the match, and what Diego Simeone said on the Flash interview to, I think it was Das Zon, the broadcasters, where he basically was so pissed with the referees and with having his players sent off and how the game unfolded that he used the same code to respond all the questions that he was asked.

38:05He just said, no, I'm very happy with my team and with the performance that they put, especially with 10 men. And he was asked four different questions about different subjects, and his reply was just the same. No, I'm very happy with the team and with the effort that my players put. So yeah, you could tell that it was not the best day at the office for Diego Simone there. It's a very valuable point, because how have been the circumstances of the game. I'm very happy with the work of my players. And the truth is that it's been a huge job. What do you think of Expulsión? I'm very happy with my players and I'm very happy with them.

39:01you take into account that he went to Liverpool, not for a long time, and that he went to Sevilla as well. I mean, you could imagine that he could even have made those figures even bigger. But yeah, he's the top goal scorer in the club history. He will become next week, well, not next week, but in a couple of weeks, the player with just more appearance. So yeah, big shout to Iago Aspas, who is a player who is annoying to play against because he's like speaking all the games, talking to referees, but he's really good. He's really good at doing his thing. How old is he now? 37, I think. Okay. I think it's 37, but I'm just making it up a little bit.

39:36Yeah, I'm going to check now. Excellent. Yeah, last pass. 38, 38. After international break, Paul, Barcelona will be taking on Girona. Who? Girona. That's right, Girona. Lovely town, just up the road in Catalonia. Very nice place. And they're still in the bottom three, which is not a nice place, but they did get their first win of the season this weekend, 2-1 against Valencia. Anything else we should know about from La Liga, Paul, before we international break it? Yeah, I wanted to mention a bit the case of Real Sociedad because they've been in the Champions League for the past couple of seasons and they are bottom of the table right now, tied with Mallorca with five points now.

40:20And yeah, let's see what's happened with the manager, with Sergio Fernández, who comes from the B team. Al Wazil, the manager, last few seasons, he went to Qatar. The sporting director also left, Roberto Lave, who is now joining Aston Villa, of course. And in this new era of the club, it seems that it has not started on the right track. A lot of players who are underperforming. Take Kubo, who is a special player, he's not even starting. So let's see what happens. And the funny thing that I wanted to mention about them is that there's been the Copa del Rey draw this week. And they are going to face a team which is from the sixth tier of Spanish football.

40:59They are from Galicia. And they are called Sociedad Deportiva Negreira. So this is a football team that if, like, by some chance, they manage to get through against Real Sociedad, they will be in contention to face Barcelona, which will be a really fun game to see Barcelona facing Negreira, which, of course... Remember the referee? Ah, right. Okay, okay. Just for anyone like me who wasn't up to speed with that, do you want to just explain, Paul? Yeah, so Negreida basically is the former referee. He used to be the chief of the refereeing committee in Spain who has been, well, there's an investigation going on basically with Barcelona paying this man, Negreida, just for influence or just for something in the refereeing committee.

41:45Yeah, and it's been an investigation over Barcelona, Spanish referees with a guy that had this surname, which is also the name of a town in Galicia, who is now on the spotlight because they are playing the Copa del Rey. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Well, before I go to the gate, I know your way this week. I'm not going to this place right now, but are you going to Benghazi to watch Interplay Atletico in a friendly in Libya? in this international way. No, no. I think I'm not planning to go. Yeah, yeah. If I go there, I'm going to send you a bit of a report of the game. If you have any food recommendations in Libya, let me know.

42:25And the restaurant scene. Exactly. It's a curious thing. Italians obviously have history with Libya in a football sense. They played Super Cups there. But it's interesting. At a time when, you know, clubs have started going to Qatar or Saudi or whatever thing to see Benghazi. back on the football calendar is quite something but they must be paying into an Atletico very good money so there you go they are absolutely you hope so very good James you're heading off to get your flight bon viaggio grazie and Paul thank you so much for that Spanish roundup still to come we're going to check on some of the big European stories in other leagues and get the latest from Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga

43:16This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Sunday night, Juve Milan wasn't the only 0-0 in a big game in Europe. There was also the superclass go between Porto and Benfica, which saw Francesco Farioli, who's been doing incredibly well with Porto, finally dropping points at the hand of who? Jose Mourinho. with Benfica who produced a I think I've seen it described as attritional performance Benfica had one shot on target in the whole game he basically shut the game down he did although Kivio hit the crossbar in the second half that almost won the game for Benfica but yeah it was very cagey as you would expect Faioli and Porto had won every single game in all competition this season which now leaves Seb and his friend Vincent Kompany and Bayern Munich as the only club in Europe who won every single game in all competitions this season.

44:11But the best thing about the Porto-Benfica game was that it was almost postponed because of a virus within the Benfica camp that left a lot of their players not feeling very good. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and finally they kept the game and Mourinho was booed and heckled through the whole game. But he got the result he wanted. By the Porto fans? Yeah, yeah. Considering he's a Porto legend, maybe the greatest manager they've ever had, yeah, they were not happy to see him back with Benfica. extraordinary did you see his press conference performance as well jules afterwards where he was there's a journalist who started asking a question about he basically said you know benfica are paying a lot of money for you to for you to coach them marina cuts him off and says yeah and what and like what do you earn let's talk about that it got quite adversarial very very quickly which was obviously last week when benfica came to to play chelsea there was much delight in the british press call when Mourinho remembered a few names and hugged Moose from TalkSport and he's a changed guy, he's just a lovely man he remembered my name, it's fantastic and then reverts within four days fabulous.

45:17It leaves Porto still top, three points clear of Sporting who also dropped points this weekend and Benfica a point behind them in third Elsewhere, Jules, have you been following the fortunes of the remarkable Mialbi of Sweden? Yeah, absolutely Jimbo, yeah they're about to win their first ever title or 85 years after they were founded. They're a club from a town of 800 people. 800 people. Although they are bigger towns or cities or towns, whatever, next to the players and the staff. The manager lives in the town of 15 ,000 habitants not far from Yalbi. But yeah, it's an incredible story, really.

45:55They could have wrapped the title up this weekend. However, second place, Hammerby, managed to get a win away at Gutenberg. So 11 points between them with four matches to play next weekend. Mialbi can take that first ever title in Ragnarok. The assistant coach, Dr. Karl, has a PhD in scanning, as in football scanning. Oh, right. Okay. He's got a PhD, not just a degree in scanning, but a PhD in scanning. It's very, very interesting. Yeah, his status was on. He analysed every player in the Euros under 17, under 19, in the Premier League, in a couple of other leagues, to see the scanning patterns, who was scanning, who was not scanning before receiving the ball, getting all the information before you get to the ball.

46:46Right. Yeah, he's a fascinating guy. We spoke to him recently with Horny, and it was amazing. Ah, he was on your EuroLeague show. Yeah, on the radio show, yeah. It was great. Magnuson. Have you spoken to Johnny Heitinger of late from Ajax? No, but I wonder if the people above him have because... Oh, hey. Well, they're still unbeaten in Ajax, but they are already six points off the top of the table, the Eredivisie, where Feyenoord are currently leading. Last two games have seen Heitinger become only the second Ajax manager over the last decade to see his team ship at least three goals in consecutive matches.

47:25they had a 3-3 draw with Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday but of course in the Champions League last midweek they were beaten 4-0 by Marseille George yeah destroyed by De Zerbi and Marseille who were excellent especially in the first half against the poor poor Ajax team and if you want to stay Dutch very briefly it was also a very good week for the Kluwe family because on Tuesday on Wednesday sorry Shane who is the youngest of Patrick's sons scored for Barcelona in the youth league against PSG, a really lovely goal. Great goal. Yeah, great goal. That was Wednesday. On Thursday night in the Europa League, Ruben, who plays for Lyon, who's a centre-back defender, scored against RB Salzburg in the Europa League.

48:08And obviously Friday night, Justin Kluver scored a World D with Bournemouth against Fulham. So, yeah, I bet Patrick was pretty happy at the weekend. I imagine he was. Well done to him and the Clivots in general. It was a good week for French sides, with Marseille doing Ajax, Monaco getting the draw with Man City and PSG beating Barcelona. Let's touch on the situation in Ligue 1 next. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Yeah, a lot of excitement, Jules, about the Champions League performances last week. Yeah, it was good. We mentioned Lille as well winning away at Roma, which is in itself pretty good.

48:45Trasbourg won two, despite a vintage first-half performance where they scored two goals with one shot and an expected goal of 0.12. But hey, they all count, I guess. But yeah, it was a pretty good midweek, although the Monaco City performance from Monaco was good and Adi Hutter, followed by another 2-2 draw against Nice in the derby on Saturday or Sunday, put him under a lot of pressure. And by the time you're listening to this, listeners I think Adi Hutter would have been sacked by really yeah within a week of of holding Manchester City to control yeah they're just not very happy not that they're doing too badly because they're still in the top four in France but not it's not exactly what the club were hoping for expecting they sign some good players in the summer they still have a lot of injuries so that's not on him but it's obviously a problem so yeah I think I think Edin Terzic, to go back to set, is one of the leading contenders for that job.

49:53That'd be interesting. Yeah, he's been searching for a chance for a really long time. He's kind of been, since he left Percy Dortmund, he's been putting together his staff, spending a lot of time around the continent with different coaches. A smart guy, Edin. So it'd be good to see him back and to see what he does next. Is this going to have a huge impact? I'm bringing that to the Barcelona perspective here. But I'm thinking about Dan Soufati, because he's having great numbers in here. like people around the player told us that Adi Huta was key on him wanting to go to Monaco I don't know if that's going to have like a big impact on Ansu Fati Yeah, we'll see although Terzic is pretty good with young players, isn't he?

50:28He was a huge coach so I don't add considering the form that Ansu has showed lately which is great to see it's not back at his best but he's not far he's got two goals on penalties Yeah, but still he's good and Paul Pogba is supposed to be back on the pitch after the international break so we're hoping probably for the game against Angers to see a bit of Paul certainly on the bench that might change if Terzic or somebody else comes now that you know if Adi Hutter is definitely sacked but we'll see but it's not it hasn't been too bad for Monaco in that second half against City I thought was decent I think it's a little bit harsh on Hutter to sack him they're currently laying fifth Jules is it a style issue with Hutter I don't even think so Seb because they're not bad to watch.

51:16That's what I was going to say. Yeah, it's just a little bit of inconsistence in terms of results, but also in terms of performance at times where you watch them and they can be very good. And then, I don't know, 15 minutes later, it's just not the same team you're watching and thinking like, how is that even possible in a way, you know? So that's a bit of an issue. And already a year ago, pretty much, they thought about, they just wondered if he was the right guy to be there for the next three or four years and take this team this young team forward again and i think the answer is no now wow they're currently lying fifth in league there are only three points off the top of the table though because paris and germain following their victory in the champions league last week followed that up by dropping points again in league and this time away at lille pep genezio's lille yeah had lost two straight coming into this game and psg started it in fine fashion with that incredible free kick from Nuno Mendes.

52:14Woof. Yeah, and there's nothing that Nuno can't do at the moment. We saw against Barcelona with the assist on the first goal and then doing well defensively against Lamine, suddenly after maybe a bit of a shaky first 20 minutes. And that, this free kick, kind of Roberto Carlos-esque, top corner, after just coming on because it was the C team that Luis Enrique started, a lot of youngsters to rest people and still a lot of injuries and I think PSG thought they'd won that game but we had a special goal scorer in Etan Mbappé who came on so this is Mbappé's younger brother who was a PSG player yes and he came on in what 73rd, 74th minute yeah and then four minutes after he comes on the pitch he sweeps round from the right and unleashes a shot yeah he's like a little shimmy yeah and a good overlapping run to be fair and then he gets a little bit like he goes between the legs of Pacho.

53:18And then maybe Lucas Chevalier should do a little bit better. Maybe Lucas Chevalier, former Lille goalkeeper, should do a little bit better, which we've been saying a lot when PSG control goes. Maybe although he was good against Barcelona, I thought he was saved a couple of times on his line, once by Hakimi, once by Zabani. but still I think he was distant especially in his distribution and the pressure. He would have felt a lot of pressure going back to his home club and his home city. In Lille there was a lot of talk about him going back before the game. But yeah, I felt like you. I felt watching the game.

53:51Maybe he should have said it. But to be fair, the draw is probably a fair result. Okay. Yeah. Interesting that Etan Mbappé didn't celebrate but his brother certainly did. Yeah, and his dad. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, the whole clan was the Barista the hairdresser the barber yeah because he's Kylian's best friend often travel yeah there was a lot of them in the box and yeah but so you should so you should yeah of course of course I think Mbappe was very happy for Etan and rightly so maybe quite happy to see PSG lose I don't know because his friends still love them lose points I should say yeah lose points but it makes that you're right at the top of the table I think there's four points between first and six right between PSG and Lens.

54:34Three points between first and sixth and only one point between first and fourth. You've got PSG and then you've got Marseille, Strasbourg and Lyon. Marseille have had four straight wins. Strasbourg, Lyon lost this weekend, but Strasbourg had a 5-0 victory against Angers, who are not having the best of times of it down in the bottom three, but Strasbourg certainly are living it up. Yeah, young team, very exciting, playing in Europe in midweek and then just continuing that kind of form in the league. Liam Rosinho doing a great job, we said that. And now really the pressure would come from the fact that they are in contention to finish top three.

55:13Like outside of top three, I think, considering how good they've been, how good their recruitment have been, and they spent 100 million euros in the summer. So it has to be good. If they miss out on Champions League again, whether it's top three or top four, it will be a disappointment. Well, they're just one point behind Paris Saint-Germain. Jules and who do they play when they come back from the international break? PSG at the Par de France which would be pretty good because it's the kind of team with high intensity a lot of energy a lot of youth that when PSG play against those kind of teams it's usually a very spectacular game.

55:46Okay. Any fallout from PSG dropping points away at Lille? The lack of offensive firepower was that just about tiredness from the Champions League? Yeah, the only thing was Barcola was the the most senior forward if you want because again you had Mayulu and Bai and John Tu started the 18 year old the latest kid really from the academy that Luis Enrique is giving a chance to who also came on against Barcelona and once then the funny story was when he was 10 years old and playing for Paris FC at the time Conte and John Tu they had a football tour to Spain where they faced Lamin Yamal and Barcelona under 10 and Lamine and Barca won that game against the Paris FC under 10 of Conte and Jontu.

56:32But then on the Wednesday, he kind of got his revenge a little bit in that kind of rematch between the two 18-year-olds, which is when you play against somebody at 10 and then eight years later, you're both pros. And Lamine is obviously a much better player right now than Jontu and probably will always be. But still, you still face each other again. And there's a photo of them before or after that under 10 game eight years ago where you see them like baby faces and then they're in the Champions League eight years later. It's amazing. Grizzled veterans now. Yeah. Indeed. Speaking of Paris FC, I noticed that with this weekend's victory over Lorient 2-0, they're up in the top half of the table.

57:06Yeah, really good. Really good win for them. Excellent. Anything else from Ligue 1-Jours? No, that's perfect. Then it's off to Germany.

57:19You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy some glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Bundesliga Seb Stafford-Bloor. This weekend, Seb, runaway leaders Bayern had a big test. They were away to Eintracht Frankfurt. How did they get on? Well, 13 seconds in. They were already in the lead. No one can stop them, Seb. No one. The Bayern with the chance to build their sprint. Manuel Neuer, directly with the long shot on the head of Harry Kane. Robin Koch, kalt erwischt. Serge Gnabry schon heiß auf Tor gefahren.

58:00Luis Diaz, 1-0 FC Bayern nach 15 Sekunden. No, this is, I mean, 14 seconds to be atlantic there, Jimbo. That's been reclassified by some sort of official municipal employee somewhere who's timed it properly. But yeah, they were very, very impressive. Really muscular, dominant Bayern performance. There was, I mean, obviously went one up through Luis Diaz after 14 seconds. Then one won. Jean-Mathieu Bojoya scored, but it was disallowed. And there was an interesting moment because in Germany, we get referees coming out and being interviewed after games. So the issue was, it's crossed into the box by Ritu Duan, the winger, and lovely finish from Bojoya, but Duan was adjudged to have handled the ball by VAR.

58:43And when you look at it, I think you could make a case either way, but the referee was interviewed afterwards and he said, the issue in the rules for me was that the ball was going in a different direction and the use of his hand, although inadvertent, meant that Conrad Lyman didn't have a chance to make a tackle and that, in his opinion, had Duan not handled it in the way that he did, Lyman had a better chance of making the intervention. And so, at the end of it, you're kind of left with, well, probably not people changing their mind, but still understanding why the decision was made. Ultimately, though, Bayern very good money for a 3-0 win.

59:16Second goal from Harry Kane, who everybody has seen from the behind shot that shows the curve on the ball. and Luis Diaz scored a lovely third, roasting Robin Cock and Barry into the top corner. A really, really, really good performance. And it's not just that Bayern being Bayern, playing with a lot of individual heft, but together that front four is playing so well as a unit. Brilliant to watch. So Bayern have won each of their first 10 competitive matches this season, which is a club record since their promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965. As for Kane, he's now become the first player in history to score 11 goals in the first six games.

59:5411 in six. First six games of a Bundesliga season. He's breaking all these records, just a new one every week. Seb, is there some chance that he might finally break the biggest goal-scoring record of all? Yeah, if he gets to the, he needs to get to 42 goals to break Lewandowski to 41. And I think, a few variables here. I think if you can keep that group together, they can stay fit. Because Bayern are a little bit thin at the top of the pitch. If you take one of those players out, you then become dependent on a Nicholas Jackson or a Leonard Karl, who's a sort of a developing teenager. If you can keep them together and you can keep Kane on the pitch, absolutely.

1:00:33Absolutely, I think he would beat Lewandowski's record. It's a very interesting situation if he does, because we spoke a couple of weeks ago about where he ranks in the hierarchy of great Bayern forwards. so you could have a situation where Kane does break that record but still doesn't quite occupy the same position in the kind of the psyche of the club because you know Lewandowski is associated with European Cup wins and Gerrmiller is Gerrmiller that's he has an unimpeachable position at the top of the tree there but um yeah it's absolutely on they're playing brilliantly it's not just a question of the Bundesliga being weak it is Bayern being really really good and I think that I I genuinely believe they're a Champions League contender this season.

1:01:14We saw what they did to Chelsea by way of a yardstick in the Champions League a few weeks back. After international break, they'll be trying to make it 11 wins out of 11, Seb, when they welcome their old friends, Borussia Dortmund to Munich. How's that going to be? Well, I think the game itself suits Niko Kovac's side because they're always more comfortable when they sit a bit deeper and depend upon their counter-attack. The mechanic works really, really well on Kovac's teams, and it has done this season, which is interesting because it didn't work all that well this weekend. They hosted Ebi Leipzig, drew 1-1.

1:01:47Leipzig took the lead, Christoph Baumgartner, equalised by Jan Cotto later in the first half. Never really got off the ground this game. It was very sort of 6-7 out of 10 for like a clash between heavyweights and sort of a battle between two contenders. It's pretty meek and mild stuff. Yeah, I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting big things, maybe too big, but yeah, I agree. didn't really get going. Didn't really live up to hype duels. And I think also it's a really interesting situation with Kovac at Dortmund because they're now unbeaten in the league since March. We covered this last week since they played Leipzig in Leipzig.

1:02:23And yet Kovac, because there are, there have always been these concerns about whether he truly matches the house style, whether he can coach in a way that is truly Dortmund, in quotes. He only ever seems to be like a slightly poor result away from that discussion beginning again because while he's winning, people are grinning their teeth and being like, well, you can't really argue with it. As soon as there's a setback, people tend to fixate on the slightly mechanical nature of the attacking football. The fact that, for instance, Joe Bellingham isn't really playing that well, came on as a substitute, didn't really make an impact, certainly made no further claim over a starting position.

1:03:00I think it's terribly unfair, but that's the situation at Dortmund. and yet after the international break they'll go to to Bayern and the record over there over the past few years there is pretty good actually has a couple of really excellent results but let's see this is a wholly different Bayern and I think also Dortmund are in a situation now where to be a contender for the whole season not only did they need to keep all their key pieces fit and that includes the three defenders Anton Schlotterbeck-Sule but they also need every player on that side to retain their form for 38 games and that's a 34 games sorry which is a which is a huge ask a huge ask and um being noted also sero gracie has been um a little bit hit and miss over the past three or four match weeks uh which is a bit of a concern because without his goals fabio silvers at the club now but hasn't played a lot of football certainly hasn't played a lot of football at this level looks very very um off the pace at the moment in his first few um appearances so let's see another really thin squad okay four points behind by an at the top of the table a shout out to hamburger seb who are now up in the top half the newly promoted side after a big four nil win over mince mince the gap very nice very nice this was a tonic for so the concern this season was whether melin pazina would be able to the head coach be able to find enough chance creation find enough goals to keep them in the division and heading into this game they'd only scored twice all season and this really came from nowhere i think what's interesting for for hamburgers since being promoted obviously they are literally back in the division but they haven't had that that moment they haven't had the the erst of bundesliga this is a this is a muscular performance this is us back where we should be but this was that and it was full of interesting weird little stories first goal was called by uh samuel conga joined from arsenal in the uh in summer transfer window ryan philippe who last season scored a lot of goals for eintracht branch fight in this fighter bundesliga and actually very nearly joined join minds minds kind of said in the summer bit too much money for us even at about three million euros uh he scored twice and a player you might know uh jean-luc dompail who he's had a fascinating career he's one of those sort of nomadic, capricious players who just has all the talent in the world.

1:05:23But his career has just wandered off course a little bit. He scored his first Osterbundesliga goal after spending, I think most of his career really, Sonia Hamburg has spent all of his career in the Zweibundesliga, but was in Belgium before that. And I had a couple of seasons in Liga. Yeah, he was a one-the-kid, like everybody saw a great future in him. Fabulous player. I remember him scoring, like it might have been a Toulon tournament. He scored a really good goal in a final of a youth competition in about 2014-2015. And he's still that player. He can be quite frustrating. He has a little bit too much expression in him at times.

1:05:57And he's done that thing this season where when you come up from a second-tier league, you still play like you would in that competition at the higher level. And it's cost him. This was different. He played brilliantly well, scored a wonderful third goal. And this is a very cathartic moment, I think, for Hamburg. It's kind of very reassuring. It's probably the better word, actually. can score goals, counter properly, defend properly, play with enough energy, with enough of a waspish press, and they can survive. But Mainz, a little bit concerned. A little bit concerned because I don't think Bo Henriksen can argue with the result.

1:06:33They were four goals worse. And if Mainz don't have that underdog spirit, that energy to them, I'm not sure what their future looks like in the Osterbundersliga. So, tricky time, but yeah, brilliant line in the Hamburg. Lovely stuff, Seb. Very good. It is an international break there next, which means we won't have a Euro show in a week's time, but we'll get together again in a fortnight. For now, many, many thanks to you, Seb, to Paul Belouz, to James Horncastle, earlier on in that lovely airport lounge, to Julia Laurent and producer Lucy, and you, listener, bless. We'll be back soon with a totally, actually on Thursday if you're around, but otherwise you're a show in about a fortnight for now from all of us here it's goodbye you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for 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 the Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production

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