Macclesfield cause biggest FA Cup shock ever while Wrexham knock out Forest

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30We round up all the round three stories, plus Acon, Aussie Airborne and Morocco on a roll. We count down to the semifinals on the Totally Football Show.

0:43Sunday, January the 11th. Hi to you if you're following us on YouTube. And hello indeed if you're enjoying this as a podcast. It's the Totally Football Show today. with lashings of insight from, well, Adrian Clark, who's here. Hello. Hi, Adrian, with your What the EFL hat on. Valuable knowledge of all these. Hopefully it will come in handy. I'm sure it will. We've got Daniel Storey. He's going to be invaluable. He's been to literally every ground featured this weekend. Eh, Daniel? That's a very good point. I have indeed. Yeah, indeed. And Tom Williams has mostly spent his season eating cheese in France.

1:20Yes. Hello, James. That is mainly what I do. Excellent. All right, then. I'm professionally obliged to confirm this is everyone's favourite weekend of the season. Oh, of course it is. Like Christmas? Oh, big time. Even better. Even better. Even better. So many stories, Adrian. I mean, you were getting into the studio while Man United-Brighton was going on, but that was one of them, Brighton knocking out Man United, who are now out of both cup competitions for the first time since, remind me? 1981-82 the first time they've fallen at the first hurdle in both domestic cup competitions and now facing their shortest season in terms of matches played since 1914-15 or something which I feel should have been a little bit shorter anyway because events reasons yeah that's how bad it is yeah 30 games played so far we've got Liverpool still to come they are playing Barnsley on Monday and then there's also Salford-Swindon which was held over from Saturday on Tuesday but any broad themes standing out to you Daniel well just loads of goals 123 goals in 30 games so an average of more than four a game wow uh and not just you know I was present at a thrashing to skew the numbers but not just because of thrashings you know we had four threes a four three shock we had three or draw between two premier league teams we just a brilliant brilliant FA Cup third round weekend, which kind of caught me off guard because after all the midweek Premier League rounds, I kind of thought we're going to get a real rested team and everyone's going to moan about nine or ten changes.

2:55But the results and the narrative sort of overrode that, thankfully. No VAR, of course, this weekend. Did anyone miss it? No, really. Was there anything egregious that occurred that you thought, ooh, maybe VAR? I don't think there was. Yes, there was. There was at Hill Dickinson Stadium. There was a genuinely horrendous decision given for a penalty. Everton late on where it's the smallest of little nudges and then the player dives in the box. Late equaliser goes to pens and then justice is done with Sunderland winning the shootout. But yeah, that one would definitely have been overturned. And yeah, had Sunderland gone out, They might have been a little bit upset about it.

3:39Instead, they won in one of the many dramatic penalty shootouts that occurred in this third round of the FA Cup. Let's get a quick round-up of some of the salient headlines. We had some big outfits making an early exit, most of them at the racecourse ground, as Ryan Reynolds kept doing his constant costume changes. Things began there in style on Friday, with Championship side Wrexham beating Nottingham Forest on penalties after a remarkable 3-3, First time Wrexham have beaten top-flight opposition since 1999. Hold my beer, though, said Saturday, and promptly unleashed the biggest shock in FA Cup history, with sixth-tier Macclesfield knocking out the holders, Crystal Palace.

4:16Wow. National League North, John Rooney, isn't it? Macclesfield, though, the only non-league side to survive the round. Weston's Super Mayor, who were away to Grimsby, twice pulled level but eventually lost 3-2. And Boreham Wood was summarily dispatched by Burton Albion at Medapart 5-0. Elsewhere, Liam Resenia's first game with Chelsea saw them put five goals past Charlton. 5-1 the final score there. Man City scored twice that, though, in their 10-1 against Exeter City. Antoine Semenya with a goal on his debut and Daniel was there to see it. Semenya's former club, Bournemouth, meanwhile, went out on penalties at Newcastle after a 3-3 thriller.

4:54That's seven goals in two games now for the Magpies. Penalties were needed as well at Everton Sunderland with Robin Roos saving all three. of the Toffees spot kicks. The Blackhats going through, while in the day's other all-Premier League affair, Villa saw off Spurs 2-1, but Spurs did try a bit. Elsewhere in this busy weekend, Brentford beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0. Fulham fought back from a goal down to beat Borough 3-1. Bottom of the table, Wolves, were 6-1 winners over League Two, Shrewsbury Town. Jürgen Stastran, Larson with a hat-trick. And second from bottom, Burnley, were also big winners, 5-1 against Millwall.

5:31What does it mean? Not sure. We'll come back to that, maybe. Among Sunday's games, you had Leeds beating Derby 3-1, Arsenal winning 4-1 at Pompey, Mansfield in that 4-3 victory that Daniel was referencing before against Sheffield United, West Ham getting past QPR 2-1, and Man United going out by that scoreline to Brighton. They, Forest, Everton, Palace, Bournemouth, and Spurs are the Premier League casualties, with, as mentioned, Liverpool-Barnesley and Salford-Swinds, still to come. We're going to begin, of course, at Moss Rose. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

6:09It's a miss keeper now, Dawson, will have the last kick, and how fitting is that? Macclesfield of National League North have knocked out Premier League Crystal Palace, the FA Cup holders. It is the biggest shock that the world's greatest cup competition has ever Scenes at Moss Rose in the third round game for this and many a season. Macclesfield, five divisions and 117 places below Crystal Palace, knocking the holders out in their first appearance in this year's competition. The FAO's Palace big time, no? That's back-to-back massive upsets they've been involved in. The final last May and now this.

6:53Yeah, I guess so. But yeah, this was a great story, wasn't it? because of what happened to Macclesfield Town. Obviously, they sort of went bust, didn't they, in 2020? So this is a Phoenix club playing at the old ground. In essence, it's the same club. And it's been a really, really steep success curve for them since forming promotion after promotion. But even so, you just didn't expect it. You didn't expect Crystal Palace to fold. But once I saw that pitch, the 3G, 4G, what do you call it? 4G pitch. It didn't look smooth, the way that the ball was running. I love the attitude of Macclesfield. They got in the faces of the players.

7:36And yeah, they deserved it. Yeah, fantastic performance. Daniel, you were at Macclesfield, I think, a few days ago. Yeah, I did a piece on them last week reflecting both, as Adrian said, the rise, three promotions in four years, but also the fact that they're finding it quite difficult in the National League North they're 18th in the league they spent quite a lot of money to get there had Robbie Savage as director of football and then manager he left for Forest Green and took four players with him so they appointed John Rooney who was one of their best players before that and he's got a fairly decimated squad and the point of the piece was you can spend quite a lot of money to get somewhere but actually you suddenly realise that the finances of it mean that it's really hard to push on higher than that A couple of months ago, the owner and chairman said he was stepping back, which, you know, we can effectively translate as I just haven't got enough money to make this to take the next step.

8:31So I was sort of setting it up as a this is an escape from the reality now and not with any thought that they beat Crystal Palace. And then at the end of the game, you see Smethurst, the owner, chairman, sprinting onto the pitch with the fans as part of the pitch invasion. And you kind of think, well, that's the ultimate justification, vindication for you saving the club. Because he did save that club. It didn't exist before they founded it. They have come a long way. They were so good against Palace. I was really glad that they won 2-1, not 2-0. I'm glad we got that horrible, sticky, nervous period of injury time.

9:06Because it was almost too comfortable at 2-0. It was like, this is a massive shock, but something's gone so badly wrong. So I'm glad we got that kind of nerve-jangling finish after the Pinot free kick. Yeah, all power to them. I really hope they get a really big away draw now because without the replays, how the FA Cup works is that you split ticket money 40 % each. And if they get a big away day, then that changes everything. It has been a remarkable rise after a really difficult period. But the difficulties, as I think everyone now knows, the club with tremendous tragedy in the last couple of months, losing one of their players.

9:43Yeah, Ethan McLeod, who died, he's a Wolves Academy graduate. He had come to Macclesfield, was kind of still making his way there. He'd made a few first-team appearances, was just kind of getting into it. And on the way home from a game against Bedford Town a few months ago, was killed in a road traffic accident. And I would urge everybody to seek out the post that Macclesfield did. I saw it on Facebook, but I think they did it on other accounts as well. But just kind of the perfect tone, the perfect symbolism and dedication to a young man. It genuinely choked me up when I read it. It was a remarkable thing to read.

10:24And obviously in the aftermath of the game, they did exactly the same. They said, you know, you're part of this. You should have been here. It's a club that's been through a lot of good and a lot of terrible over the last five years, It's almost like two decades worth of experience in five years, right? So I'm glad that they get this day and I'm really glad that they didn't, you know, they understood that Ethan was part of that. This wasn't just all about joy on Saturday. The draw is going to be 6.30 on Monday before Liverpool's game. It will be fascinating to see who they get next. Tom? Yeah, and so many different layers to this in terms of the context of the club and the sad loss of Ethan McLeod, as we've been talking about.

11:08But also for John Rooney, you would have thought when he launched his career as a footballer that it would be impossible for him to make a name for himself, given that he carried the burden of this most famous of English football names. But he's now got his own little slice of English football history. And he started his career at Macclesfield Town when they were still Macclesfield Town. I'd not realised this. He was on the books at Everton at the same time as Wayne, his older brother. didn't make the grade went to Macclesfield went over to the US he played for New York Red Bulls for a little bit and then came back to the UK he was at Wrexham for a while he was at Chester for a while finished his career at Macclesfield as Daniel was saying then steps into the dugout and then has this incredible moment with his brother watching on from the sidelines as part of the commentary team just amazing it was perfect wasn't it and they had their hero didn't they Macclesfield on the pitch as well in Paul Dawson the guy with a bandage around his head.

12:05I mean, it was a talismanic performance from him, wasn't it? I mean, this guy was everywhere. It was like there was two of him. Great goal, obviously, from the free kick, headed it home. But I was looking at some of the stats. He won 15 duels in the game. He also won eight aerial duels. And that's way above his sort of usual match average. And you knew within 10 seconds of kickoff that this was on. because... I think as soon as you saw the pitch. Well, the pitch, you know, little ground, low, slanting winter sun and all that, but Macclesfield kick off, boot the ball down the left wing and Paul Dawson flies into an aerial challenge with JD Cambo, the young Palace defender.

12:49Cambo heads the ball clear so there's a clash of heads and Dawson is left with a bleeding head. Has to get his head bandaged and as soon as that happened, you're like, right, this guy is definitely scoring. Probably going to be man of the match. And the chances of him leading his team to victory have now increased multiple times. And so it proved. It was the blueprint. There's a blueprint to beat in these teams. You've got to rough them up. None of this fancy passing out from the back. You get it forward quick. And when they've got it, you just hassle them with every ounce of energy that you've got.

13:21And they did it brilliantly. As Buckley Ricketts with the other goal. Daniel, when you were there, did you spend much time with John Rooney or indeed with his assistant, Franny Jeffers? No, I didn't. But it's a great story. It's funny because Rooney is actually under quite a lot of pressure for the league form because I think Macrosfield supporters, the ambition was certainly to be top half this season, probably a little bit higher, probably playoffs. And as I say, they're 18th. They've got a few games in hand because of their FA Cup run, but they have been underperforming in the league this season.

13:53And Rooney is under a bit of pressure. It's his first managerial job. He kind of stepped in as a, you know, nobody was wanting Savage to leave, but he took that promotion. and so he's sort of been filling time and wondering if he's going to be the right man for the job. Kind of an impossible situation. You hope they win a few league games now because if they don't, then they've got a really horrible decision to make because he has overseen this kind of historic day. And yeah, as Adrian said, they were just so relentless, both with the ball and without the ball, that Palace just kind of crumpled under it.

14:24From the sixth tier of football, knocking out the FA Cup holders, Palace, who are on a rotten run of form, did make some changes but had plenty of their FA Cup winning side actually in the line-up. They were also using a special ball. This is a first as FA Cup holders. And Chelsea and the women's FA Cup are privileged with a very special ball that only they can use. And Michaelsfield don't now inherit it. It just has disappeared from the competition. It's just gone, hasn't it? Yeah, it just gets the one run out this season. How much was the pitch, given that Palace have had problems with this in the Europa Conference League as well.

15:01How much was the pitch the key factor? I think you have to say it's a factor. You can't use it as an excuse. These are Premier League players playing against semi-pros. So there is no real excuse, but the pitch definitely wasn't helpful. You can practice all you like on the artificial surface, but I can tell you now the artificial surface that Palace would have practiced on would be much better, I think, than what we saw at Moss Rose. It was pretty bobbly, wasn't it? And if you're not used to playing actual matches on that surface, which they're not, then I think you are at a disadvantage. But look, let's not take anything away from Mac.

15:39That was magnificent. Daniel, your favourite football story of the year, we're only about 10 days in, but of the season? Absolutely, because the FA Cup gets a bad rap routinely. I understand why, I understand it struggles. But yeah, and without getting too mawkish about this, the perfect time for football to kind of do this stuff is when you least expect it. So, yeah, nobody really saw this coming. I think in a way that the kind of magnitude of the upset was slightly undermined by the fact that the name Macclesfield people still think of as Macclesfield Town and as a league club. They maybe overlook the fact that this is like semi-pro sixth tier.

16:19Yeah, an extraordinary story. As I say, I really hope they get a Premier League club away from home and the whole town gets to go away and do its thing. I saw Exeter get battered on Saturday, but they had 8 ,000 in the ground. That's kind of the good stuff, where you go away from home and do it. So I hope they get to do both. Excellent. We'll come on to that Man City-Exeter game very, very shortly and also hear about Friday night's cracking cup story between Wrexham and Nottingham Forest next.

16:52This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. Horace Fait lies in the hands of 21-year-old Amari Hutchinson. Saves it! And Tom Flo saves it! and Wrexham in the championship knockout Premier League Nottingham Forest in the third round classic yeah Friday night Adrian you've been all over Wrexham of late did you see this coming this victory over Nottingham Forest yeah victory on penalties but still yeah no I did well on the last what the EFL podcast I said it would be 2-2 was my prediction oh yeah so I wasn't too far off no and I think I even said Wrexham to win on pen so I was kind of on it extraordinary they yeah I saw them three times over Christmas They're in really good form.

17:47They're actually really exciting to watch, play better football than I imagined they would, because you see some of the stats, they're quite direct, but they can play through the lines. They're missing Kiefer Moore, who is their big go-to striker that's virtually unplayable when he's on song. So their form is terrific. Oli Rathbone keeps popping up and scoring goals. You've got Nathan Broadhead, who's a lovely player to watch between the lines. And they're a team with great spirit. They're a team that never gives in. And I think they're a team that have great standards. And that is because you have to have good standards to go back to back to back with promotions.

18:29No matter what league you're in, you have to have a great dressing room that sets the bar high. And they're clearly continuing with that this season. And, yeah, they ran into a Forest team that was much changed. and yeah, I fancied them to rough them up. They've faced the most shots in the Championship, Wrexham. So they are not watertight, as we saw in this game. But they can score at any point in any game. They carry a real threat going forward. I genuinely think in an Open Championship season, they could get into the playoffs. And yeah, if you get into the playoffs, you could get into the Premier League.

19:04Well, they're just a point off the playoff positions as we speak. They led 2-0 at halftime in this game with the Forest fans voicing their disquiet, possibly Daniel at home along with them. Then Sean Dyche makes some changes. Morgan Gibbs-White, Nicholas Dominguez, Nico Williams coming on. Forest Eagle-Jesus makes it 2-1. Wrexham then restored their advantage with only 15 minutes left on the clock. But then you get the Callum Hodson-Odoi brace, the second of which is very delightful indeed. Yeah, one of the goals of the weekend. Yeah, indeed. Daniel what were you making of all of this from a Forrest perspective?

19:43Yeah I mean you know going out on penalty fine the FA Cup is not Forrest's priority this season as it is to say it was kind of the worst of both worlds in that the first half was so bad that Daesh felt obliged to bring on some key players who did change the game but then Forrest went out anyway I thought what was really interesting is after the game Daesh basically hung a few players out to dry and said you know some of these fringe players knocking on my door asking to why they're not playing and then they play in a game like this we told them what to expect and they were nowhere near the levels required I don't think we need to read between too many lines to know that he's talking about Oleksandr Zinchenko whose loan spell has been an absolute calamity and I hope he's cancelled this month if that's possible and James McAtee who's a different case in that he's a young player who was probably signed with one eye on Morgan Gibbs-White maybe being sold down the line and him stepping in, but has just offered absolutely nothing.

20:40Forrest thought he might be able to run games. I've not seen him run a move yet. He doesn't seem comfortable on the ball. He doesn't seem to be able to pick a pass. He dwells on it. And him, Zinchenko and Diambacua, a young French winger who Tom will know more about than me, probably, but they all came off at half-time. So when the manager says the first half wasn't good enough and the players who are asking to play weren't good enough, it's no secret that he's talking about the three brought off. half time all right tell us about the Wrexham keeper Arthur Oconquo who you'd mentioned previously for his mishap away at Swansea but he redeemed himself here yeah all the way along in Wrexham's promotion bid he's been there a while he's been this kind of goalkeeper of moments he does make bad decisions occasionally he has a tough asking that he's generally asked to not very direct but also have to be very accurate balls to a larger striker which is not necessarily his Forte.

21:35He came through Arsenal, so he's a kind of passing goalkeeper, really. And he makes these high profile mistakes, but he was, yeah, he was excellent in the shootout. I thought that both penalties missed, both by Igor Jesus and Amari Hutchison were pretty telegraphed. I mean, I guessed which way they were going. So Okonkwo is more of an expert than me and he clearly had done his homework as well. But yeah, fair play because that mistake against Swansea was in the last minute of a Welsh derby and it was the worst goalkeeping mistake I've ever seen live so fair play for coming back from that excellent through they go to the fourth round we'll see again on Monday who they get but you reckon having beaten a top flight opponent for the first time since 1999 that they could be facing them a lot more often next season perhaps I wouldn't write off the possibility just because I think they're as good as pretty confident stuff though well they're not going to get top two, Rex, and they're not a rounded enough team, but this season's championship isn't the greatest standard, and I think that they could sneak into the playoffs, and they could therefore win the playoffs and get to the Premier League, which would be just a stunning story.

22:44Incredible. I mean, Ryan Reynolds was talking about the reaction when he talked about the Premier League, when they were still a non-league side at the time. three straight promotions if they were to come up it would be four Lyle J in the comments on The Athletic saying can Reynolds and Matt please buy Spurs because yes they've spent more money than anybody else but they've spent it well and the team plays good football What they've done really well is that they've understood that for the club to be successful off the pitch they need to go global so last year for the first time in English football history a club released its revenue figures and more than half its revenue was generated outside of Europe, which in this case, pretty obviously is the US.

23:26So they understood the need to do that. How did they do that? Well, the documentary doesn't make the club any money directly, but it showcases the club. It's a huge superstar success in the US. And the US loves two things. Firstly, it loves a perceived sporting underdog story. And it also loves little English or little British towns and cities. So they got that spot on. But what they did is they realised that with that, if it was going to work in terms of generating something sustainable, they had to pursue this hyperlocalism, which is invest in the local community, take the fans with them. So you go to the town, city, I should say, because I'll get shouted at, you go to the city and it's just Wrexham everywhere.

24:06You know, every shop, every cafe has got Wrexham stuff in the window or Wrexham stuff outside on the sandwich boards. They've taken the city with them and the people with them. Last season, when I went to Every Ground, I've not been anywhere where you see more people in match day wearing the shirt of the home team than I have in Wrexham. So people think, oh yeah, that's people coming over from America to watch games. It isn't because you can't get a ticket. It's local people who are enthused by what's happened in a part of Wales that got, you know, est on by governments and the lack of industry for many, many years.

24:41And they found something and given it some life. So for all the kind of anti-fairytale, look at the money they spent stuff, they've done it incredibly sensibly and smartly. And Wrexham is traditionally the seat of Welsh football. That was where the Football Association of Wales had its first headquarters. We tend to think of the gravity or the gravitational pull in Welsh football being towards South Wales because that's where you find the two biggest clubs in Cardiff and Swansea. But I know this because I'm a North Whalian lad myself but it is real football territory. So it's something quite pleasing about the fact that Wrexham as a place with a proper football heritage has now got this real beacon of a football club.

25:24Indeed. And that's the oldest still active football ground in the world, isn't it? The race course? Something like that, yes. So they say. And Wales have got an incredible record at the race course. Have they? And should probably start playing matches there. Not that they're doing badly at the moment, but Wales have beaten everyone at the race course. When was the last game they played there, Tom? They played there not that long ago. I remember writing a piece about when they played Spain in 1984 or 1985 and Mark Hughes scored his famous scissors kick against then European champion Spain. So I think they've played there within the last 10 years.

26:05They've played there every now and again. All right. Just lastly, very final point on Forest. There was a clip that emerged at the end of the game that I found quite amusing. and it shows the Forest players going over to the travelling fans to applaud them. And the Forest fans respond by chanting what the f***ing hell was that at their own players, which is usually a chant that is only ever used ironically to mock the opposition. Someone has a shot from 30 yards and it flies over the crossbow. What f***ing hell was that? Or like a club does some sort of twee pre-match display of some kind. you sing that.

26:43It's very rare to hear it being sung with genuine anger at their own players. But that's how irate they were. I think that was half-time, actually. Oh, was that half-time? Yeah, I think when they had every right to be. Oh, no, this was at the end. Maybe they did it both times. Yeah, yeah. Maybe they did it both times. We're doing it both. We're reclaiming it. Yeah. We're reclaiming it. Very, very nice. Except for Forrester, of course, who can now focus on their league campaign. Daniel, meantime, you've never seen a 10. Sorry, tell a lie. It was half-time. It was half-time. I should read my TikTok captions more carefully.

27:17Daniel, you'd never seen a 10. You have now seen a 10. Courtesy of Manchester City Saturday afternoon and their 10-1 victory over Exeter City. Woof. Yeah, I mean, woof is exactly the right word. So it was 2-0 after 42 minutes, whatever, and City were uber-dominant, although Exeter had the best chance at 0-0. and Exeter scored, so Man City scored twice, including an own goal in the last few minutes of that half, 4-0 at half time. And then you could sense it from the moment the second half started, partly because City scored really early in that second half. And also because Pep Guardiola or Carlo Torre or Pep Linders, whoever was making those decisions because we didn't see Pep at all, just kept bringing on a player every now and then, or one or two players every now and then, who were better than Exeter players, who were motivated to be really good when they came on.

28:09And you just, yeah, you really felt for Exeter because City were relentless. Normally on these occasions, you get to sort of five or six and everybody agrees to just pass it around for a bit, which is basically City's MO, right? But they really were not up for doing that. They were just constantly driving it and constantly shooting at poor Joe Whitworth. The numbers are astonishing. I mean, they scored 10 goals from 10 shots on target, albeit two own goals helps that. They scored 10 from 2.26 XG, which is absolutely ludicrous. Some of the goals were, I mean, were outstanding. And yet the best goal of the game, I think, was scored by an extra player, which is really nice.

28:44So there was this really nice moment. And without going too deep on extra, I've got a piece out on them on Monday about their fan-owned model. But at that 80 minutes, there was a small section of City fans who chanted to carry on Tom's theme, why the F are you still here? And I kind of thought I could write 10 ,000 words on why that annoys me, that you're chanting to 8 ,000 fans of a League One fan-owned club why they're still here to watch their team. for that team to then score in the last minute and their fans go absolutely mad as if it was 0-1. And then almost all the ground stood up and gave them like a standing ovation for doing it.

29:16I know it sounds a bit twee when I recall it back to everybody else, but it was just a really lovely moment. And then City being City were like, well, if you're going to score, then we are going to score double figures, sorry. So they just went up the other end and scored again. The first English top flight side to score 10 goals in a match in any competition since 1986. Remarkable. among the scorers Antoine Semenyo who got a goal and an assist on his City debut it's mad that it's taken that long for a top flight team to score 10 goals given that you get 9 do you remember they got Salford City they put 8 past yes they put 8 past you get the odd 8 goal win or the odd 9 goal win but it's incredible that there is such a barrier between 9 and 10 not anymore not anymore one day ago one day and counting but for Semenyo I think it was a good idea to play him wasn't it because he gets the first goal already.

30:08He's got the first assist already. So the pressure has been alleviated to a point instantly. It was a good goal as well that he scored. How did he compare sort of in the flesh, playing on the left to Jeremy Doku then, Daniel? Because that's who he's in competition with, clearly. Yeah. So the difference to my mind is that whereas Doku takes on and beats the man, Semenyo looks like he's going to give and go to beat a man. So he would get the ball a little bit deeper. But you know how Doku sort of runs and then drops back and then drives forward again. Semenyu was just pass it, run past the man, get the ball again.

30:45It kind of reminded me a little bit, albeit on the opposite flank of Jadon Sancho at Dortmund when he was doing really well, where he would just get the ball. The defender would be so scared of him running at them that he would just sort of sit off a little bit. So you can just give it and go and get him behind. And that's kind of where the goal came from. That's where the assist came from. he looked really good albeit against a team that was struggling from minute one obviously I don't really know how they both go on the same side but then I kind of looked at Arsenal's attacking options on the bench last Thursday at the Emirates and I thought well I can see why City want another one just to just to almost sort of keep up the pace of the Joneses in that front because if Doku does get an injury they haven't really got a natural winger because I don't think they fancy Savinho Foden's been playing out there so yeah I get it he looked really good He's not going to do that one-man counter-attack thing he did at Bournemouth, obviously, but he's got different ways to hurt you.

31:36City have multiple competitions. Of course, they've also got the League Cup, the semi-finals, which start on Tuesday, and we'll see them at St James' Park against Newcastle, who were involved in a particularly thrilling encounter on Saturday. After that, Man City face Man United at the weekend, so that'll be fun. Shall we get on to some of the games involving those sides like Man United, Brighton? We touched on it at the start. They're out of their second cup competition after the exit from the League Cup at the hands of Grimsby Town. I mean, first of all, Brighton, well done. This is their fourth win in five visits to Old Trafford.

32:14Remarkable. It is remarkable. Yeah, but they're a brave team, aren't they? They'll take it to most opponents under Fabian Herzler. When I saw them at Arsenal not so long ago, I thought they were a little bit not themselves. They were low on confidence. The energy wasn't right. But I think that was just a little period they went through. And now they've got it back. You've got to consider here that Brighton rested quite a lot of players. They rested the goalkeeper, but Bart Verbruggen, who has prevented more goals, according to Opta this season, than any other goalkeeper. 5.4, even more than Robin Roofs, who has the best save accuracy.

32:53So they arrested him. They arrested the two centre-halves, Duncan Van Hecker. The midfield unit is one that Hinsherwood and Gross, that I don't think it's first choice. Mitoma was on the bench as well. So this wasn't full-strength Brighton, but they took it to United and I think they deserved the win. The goal from Welbeck is the one, isn't it? I mean, that was beautiful. That was a thing of beauty. Even if you could sort of pick up on a fair amount of defensive slackness from probably Dorgou, Ugarte and Jorou in the build-up to that, it was still a mega hit, wasn't it, from Danny? Loved it. And United picked quite a strong team.

33:36I feel like Darren Fletcher picked the kind of 11 that most United fans would have picked and he stuck with a back four. Is his insistence on a back four costing this team? Well, I suppose the good news now is that with no European footballer, no cup competitions, you know, were someone to want to introduce a brand new formation mid-season at Manchester United, you will never have more time to work on it during the week. But yeah, he picked Kobe Meynou alongside Ugarte in midfield, which allows Bruno Fernandes to play a little bit further forwards. I think the problem for United is that although the idea of Fernandes being further forward is quite an appealing one because he's United's best creative player, when he's in that number 10 role, he gets on the ball a lot less.

34:17And so his impact is diminished. Seshko got another goal. So that's three in two games for him. Perhaps the only bright spark of the very short-lived Darren Fletcher era. and the only other bright spark has been Shea Lacey coming on in both of those games and giving quite a good account of himself but then getting sent off two yellows in the space of I think it was two or three minutes, the second for descent and so Darren Fletcher now bows out with a draw at Burnley, a home defeat in the FA Cup and no real sense of forward momentum at all in the early days of the post-Rubin Amarim era. Right, well I mentioned the Manchester derby coming up Saturday lunchtime.

35:01We don't know who's going to be in charge of the side for that. They should have Brian Mbwemo and Amad Diallo both available because Cameroon and Ivory Coast are both out of AFCON. They've only got a race for top four stroke five. They are only three points off fourth, but then equally they're only five points off 14th. So, hmm. Anything could happen, couldn't it, for Manchester United? I think the least likely is that they finish top four. I just don't see them as being good enough to do that this season. I would say that Darren Fletcher didn't pick the best side here. I agree with the point on Fernandes, even though I've said previously that when you play him central midfield, it leaves you vulnerable to runners.

35:44Putting Kunja and Mount as your wide players in a 4-2-3-1, I don't think that's the best balance, because they've both drawn in field, aren't they? and it puts a lot of onus on Dorgou and Dalot to provide the width. And Dalot's quality lets him down too often. And I think that Dorgou, his positioning defensively wasn't good in the game. So, yeah, I didn't think it was the best selection from Fletcher. There you go. United out of the FA Cup. Problems continue for them. We'll see if they increase next weekend, but we'll have ample opportunity to look ahead to the derby with City in Thursday's show.

36:24Newcastle, though, who will be facing Man City before that in the Carabao Cup. The new entertainers, Daniel, after that 4-3 with Leeds on Wednesday, a 3-3 here with Bournemouth. Cherries went behind, then they scored two in five minutes to take the lead. With 94 minutes played, they were going through only for that penalty, converted by Anthony Gordon to take it extra time. And there, it was Newcastle who, with two minutes left in the 120 in the extra time period, looked like they were going through only for Bournemouth to come back and somehow conjure an equaliser. And then we went to penalties.

37:01In amongst all of that drama, what else did you enjoy about this game? Yeah, you say the entertainers. They must be the weirdest football team in the Premier League. They started this season with this bizarre run of not scoring or away from home. They had three nil-nils in a row, I think. And now they are three threeers or four threeers. There's this apocryphal story about Brian Clough that when a Forest player back in the day banged his head, Clough gave the immortal line of like, tell him he's Pelé and throw him back on. And there's a thing with Newcastle where just tell them that they're one nil down or they need a goal or that it's nil-nil with five minutes to go and they're the best football team in the country.

37:41Give them a lead and they're appalling. their game management for some reason is so bad and actually I think it should be good because they've got this sort of S-housery in midfield that means you think they'll be really good at defending a lead because they can sort of break up the game and get in your face a bit and they just don't seem to do that and yeah this was kind of well this and the Leeds game were basically the ultimate epitome of them it should be said that they've won the penalty shootout to go through and they beat Leeds in the last minute so there is clearly a mentality there of we will get this done whatever happens but it must be a really odd football team to manage at the moment because as I say they started the season by being dreadfully dull they're still bad away from home they're leaky at home and yet they never lose at home either so yeah it's a really odd team this will lurch in one or two ways but you know Adrian just said about United not finishing top four Newcastle have got a real chance to get back in the Champions League because I think they're probably the team I've looked at from the first half of the season and said there's there's more potential there and they're sixth now so they really can do that and yeah they just need to kind of work out why everything's gone so weird both in in both boxes basically yeah eddie howe knocking his former side out bournemouth here with a bit of a tactical innovation adrian yes your new well newcastle went for volta marda as the number 10 in behind joan vissa and i think it's probably a setup that Magpies fans wanted to have a look at.

39:07And I think it looked good. Obviously, from an attacking point of view, you've seen the beautiful assist that Valtemada put through outside of the footpath for Harvey Barnes. You know, the most cultured number 10s would have been very, very proud of that pass. So that's something to think about because Valtemada, his height in the box is sort of, he's all around play. I think warrants a place in the starting 11, but Visser is your fox-in-the-box guy that is clinical in key moments. So if they can find a way to get those two working together, it's going to be a big boost for them. On the negative side, Bournemouth had 13 shots on target.

39:4813! So that's 19 shots Newcastle's goalkeepers have faced in the last two home games, which is a lot. Okay. They knocked Bournemouth out in that All-Premier League affair. Man United were made their exit at the hands of Brighton in another. While Saturday tea time, it was Villa putting out Spurs in a 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Their second 2-1 win there in the space of, what, three, four months? Because they did it in the league. Villa, Tom, looked so good in that first half. They looked fantastic and they looked in such complete control. It felt like every time they decided to go through the gears, they would just cut through Spurs and they did it twice.

40:31for the two goals that they scored, both of which were beautifully constructed. Donial Marlon teeing up Emi Buendia to slam in the first and then a really nicely worked move from the right-hand side that culminated in Buendia flicking the ball to Morgan Rodgers who curled in and the halftime whistle goes and Spurs have not laid a glove on Villa and you felt like Villa would quite possibly run away with it And Spurs did rally. They played a little bit higher up the pitch. There was a bit more aggressiveness and intensity to their pressing. And Wilson Odebeir pulls one back early on. They didn't give Villa that many sort of shaky moments, but the crowd at least got back into the game.

41:18And there was some semblance of a revolt, but ultimately Villa were more than worthy winners. And it's very painful for Spurs to be so comprehensively outdone by a club like Villa, because Spurs should be doing better than teams like Villa. Obviously, Unai Emery is doing incredible things at Villa. But, you know, you look at what happened last summer. Villa barely had, you know, two quid to rub together. They bring in a reserve goalkeeper in Marco Bizot and a bit part forward player in Evan Gesson. And two loanees, Jadon Sancho, Harvey Elliott, who've done next to nothing. Spurs spent£100 million plus on two players, Xavi Simmonds and Mohamed Koudis.

42:03Koudis, who was absent yesterday. Simmonds, who actually played quite well for once. But they are a million miles away from Villa at the moment. And, yeah, I mean, that first half would have been pretty painful viewing. Speaking of painful, Paul Richarlison has done his hamstring, adding to the lengthy Tottenham Hotspur injury list. And after Brennan Johnson departed for Crystal Palace at the start of the year, they have now lost, well, the top scorer for this season and last season's leading marksman in just over a week. But Dominic Salanki is back. That was the one bit of good news in that he's been out pretty much all season with an ankle problem.

42:40So, yeah, unfortunate that they've lost Richarlison, but they do at least theoretically have someone who can fill in for him. But then Spurs have lots of players who can theoretically fill in for someone else and they don't tend to fill in for them all that well. We shall see. Next Saturday, is it? Yeah, next Saturday, they're going to be at home to West Ham, which could be a delicate fixture for both managers. Well, they're the two favourites, aren't they, with the bookies to be the next manager? Yeah, by some distance. Frank is now the favourite to lose his job next ahead of Nuno. So we'll see how that one pans out.

43:16But, yeah, it was interesting to see the little fight at the end. I just thought with Paulina. I thought it's easy to show that fight, isn't it? Like, you know, at the end. Where was that before? Where was that when Villa sliced through the third for that first goal? Should have roughed them up, Adrian. Yeah, absolutely. It was very passive and poor in that first half. A question many people will have been asking, and Take a Fanatic, hello Take a Fanatic, is doing just that on YouTube, is why did Spurs have their names off their shirts? Tom? Because players are so embarrassed by their performances that they no longer want to be identifiable by TV viewers.

44:00Or the actual slightly less interesting reason is that it was to commemorate their 1901 FA Cup triumph, which made them the first ever non-league team to win the FA Cup, although, as you remarked, pre-record, James, at a time when there were only about 10 teams in the league anyway. How big an achievement was that? Also, if you're going to do a retro kit, why not go, we feel, knickerbockers. If you're going to do a 1901 kit. A woolen blues on, one of those hats with a little tassel on. Boots with steel toe caps. It was a really bad commemorative jersey, wasn't it? Like it was. I liked it. I quite liked it.

44:35You can still see the sponsor. There was like a patch over the back. That might have been contractual. Yeah, but the patch over the back. I quite liked it. I was on board with it. It didn't disturb me in that way. Also, they had shirt numbers on the back. You didn't have shirt numbers in 19... In them days. In them days. Yeah. Yeah. Back to the drawing board. In more ways than one. All right. Daniel, you got any strong views on that, or should we move on? Preston did an anniversary kit. I guess it would have been their 150th anniversary maybe a couple of years ago that was yeah like it was how Spurs it should have been it was white but with black collar and black laces smoking pipes as well as they took the field no sir alright then West Ham anyway did get a win they were up against QPR this Sunday afternoon and came through 2-1 winners there we go now mentioned that Newcastle Man City game in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday on Wednesday it's going to be Arsenal up against Chelsea we'll finish off our FA Cup round up with a quick look at what Arsenal and Chelsea got on this weekend that's next

45:56you'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 seeing glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Yep, Arsenal-Chelsea on Wednesday or possibly Chelsea-Arsenal. Chelsea-Arsenal I'm hearing. Both teams dispatched struggling championship outfits this weekend. Arsenal with a 4-1 victory over Portsmouth. Adrian was commentating on that or some of it. Chelsea mean one with a 5-1 win at Charlton. 5-1 at the Valley. That's a good start for Liam Rosenia. Although I did notice that his replacement as the The Strasbourg boss got an even better start in their cup competition, beating Avranche 6-0.

46:40A veritable avalanche of goals against Avranche. Nice. Anyway, what did Resenia do different? The line-up was a little bit different. He said, didn't he, pre-game, I don't have much time to work with the players and I think they're doing a lot of things well, so we're going to keep things largely the same. So it was a kind of, you know, evolution rather than revolution. Some new names, though, possibly because it was the FA Cup rather than his desire. Oh, yeah, a bit of rotation, inevitable. And Jamie Gittins on the right, which I thought was interesting, because Jamie Gittins, like a lot of modern wingers who favour their right foot, has tended to always operate from the left.

47:22But Ressinia put him on the right and he's actually got a decent left foot. I hadn't realised before, but he used it more than he probably would ordinarily because he was cutting inside a little bit more. So, yeah, that'd be an interesting one to follow. Okay. Wednesday, Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge. Arsenal, Adrian, you were watching them beat Portsmouth 4-1 with a Martinelli hat trick. Yeah. Yeah, no, I was pleased for him because he took a lot of stick and I know that he shouldn't have done what he did and he accepted that. Bradley Cooper's having a... I've got the wrong one. I keep calling him Bradley Cooper.

47:58Poor chat. Anyway, he's having a knee operation. Conor Bradley, yes. Conor Bradley's having a knee operation. Yeah, no, it's a serious injury. No one knew that at the time. He obviously assumed that he was time-wasting. He obviously did, but yeah. Yeah, whatever. He got a lot of stick for it. So it was nice that he came back with a hat trick. I mean, a really unusual hat trick. No, I say it was nice because it was a disproportionate amount of abuse that he got. I don't think it was. I think he gave Conor Bradley a disproportionate amount of trouble. I think it was such a bad game. The only person I want to see get a hat-trick is Conor Bradley.

48:31I don't care about Martin Bradley. Fair enough, but it was such a bad game, the Arsenal-Liverpool game. Everyone needed a story, and that was the story. That's why it's disproportionate. It wasn't such a big deal. Anyway, good hat-trick, two near-post headers. Obviously, I don't think I've ever seen him score a near-post header, so that was interesting. It was good to see Kai Havertz come back in. A few of the fringe players did take their chance to impress. I think Ethan Waineri did well. Ezer didn't do so well. He was really quiet. So he could really do with an impact at some point soon. Otherwise, he's going to find himself getting less and less game time over Rich Ezer, which would be a crying shame.

49:13But no, it was a comfy win after what was quite a dodgy start, going 1-0 down after only three minutes. Yeah, indeed so. Noni Madiweki missing a penalty. What else was worth noting? You mentioned Kai Havertz coming on as a substitute. What a timely return he's making, Tom. Yes, and also, talking about Arsenal players who've recently returned from injury, very nice assist from Gabriel Jesus for Martinelli's second goal. But yeah, I think Havertz being back is a big one because we've seen that this idea to graft Victor Jocares onto all the good things that Arsenal were doing last season hasn't properly worked.

49:50And you do sense that in Arteta's ultimate conception of his team, it features Kai Havertz at centre forward I think all the moving parts just kind of move in greater harmony when he's there so the fact that he's now back at a time when Arsenal are top of the league, top of the Champions League still going in cup competitions is potentially ominous Yeah indeed, so Arsenal have decided to fine tune things even further are they actually engaged Liverpool's famed former throwing coach Thomas Grunemarck or is that just a rumoured move? Daniel, are you excited by that? Yeah, I think the story is they're going to look to exploit throw-ins more, which is a real relief to when all of us are so bored of seeing them score so many open play goals.

50:39I mean, why wouldn't you, I suppose? Nobody's worked out how to stop them from scoring it, from in swinging corners yet, so why wouldn't you try and do something else? It makes complete sense. The difference with throw-ins, obviously, is that if the long throw-in is the option, then sending both central defenders up is very rare. So it'll be interesting to see how they do that because I don't think Artes is a guy to do that. But yeah, it makes complete sense. Like we're in a stage of football at the moment whereby anyone appointing a throwing coach is big news because set pieces are big news. So yeah, why wouldn't they?

51:12Right, marginal gains and all that. So they're going to be taking on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and you've got Newcastle, Man City on Tuesday. Daniel, your thoughts on the League Cup semi-finals? I think the interesting one, the more interesting one for me is Newcastle City because Newcastle obviously won the competition last year. Eddie Howe has talked pretty brutally after the game at the weekend about having to use not fully fit players and how the squad is getting injuries that he can't cope with. Manchester City have obviously just brought Antoine Semeny and have just scored 10.

51:48I think that's, yeah, that's kind of, I suspect Chelsea-Arsdale to be quite a cagey game, whereas I think, understandably, and whereas I think Man City might really try and go at Newcastle. And as we've seen from the last week, when teams go at Newcastle, the games are generally absolute madness. So that could be any scoreline. Excellent. All right, that's on Tuesday. Look forward to that on Wednesday, as well as the League Cup semifinals. There's also the semifinals of the Cup of Nations over in Morocco. And we'll be finishing off today's show with a quick look at that with Mahir Mazzahi next.

52:27This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Totally Football Show European Edition will be back out first thing on Tuesday featuring, well, Madrid-Barcelona and the Spanish Super Cup final. That's going on as we speak. There's already been four goals in it. You've got Inter against Napoli in a huge title clash at the top of Serie A. You've also got the Bundesliga back and billions of goals being scored. I think it was five goals on average per game, and there were seven games. What, 35 goals across seven matches this weekend in the Bundesliga?

53:03Eight for Bayern Munich. So 16 games played in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich have scored 29 goals more than any other team, which is quite a lot. Quite a lot, yeah. Anyway, we'll talk about all of that and more in Tuesday's Totally Football Show European Edition. now. Friday and Saturday saw the quarterfinals of the Cup of Nations in Morocco, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt and Senegal all through to the semifinals, which will be held on Wednesday. To tell us more about all of that, returning to the show, it's Meher Mazahi. Hi, Meher. Welcome back. Hi, Jimbo. Thanks for having me on again. Not at all.

53:39Where are you joining us from? I am at the rooftop of the Onomo Hotel in downtown Rabat. That explains the music, but this is where the BBC are sort of headquartered. All right. So we're just doing some radio, so that's why you can hear maybe some techno music in the background. I can hear a little bit, can hear a little bit, but I can hear you as well, which is great, because first of all, I want to say, so sad to see your Algeria exit, Meher, in Saturday's quarterfinal. about what a Nigeria. What a Nigeria. I'm not that sad just because we were dominated in all aspects of the game, physically, technically, tactically.

54:18Physically, I mean, I think Nigeria won every single duel, whether it was in the air or on the ground. Tactically, we knew they were going to play their 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield, and it still gave us an incredible amount of issues. Then even technically, we were misplacing very simple passes, so Algeria didn't show up. Nigeria showed up and were as brilliant as they have been all tournament. They've scored 14 goals now, Jimbo. That's, I think, second or third highest of all time. Cote d 'Ivoire have the most when they scored 16 in 2008. So I expect Nigeria to break that record. They've been scoring about two and a half goals per game, and their attack is absolutely formidable.

54:50So well-deserved for the Super Eagles. And even people that have been watching and covering the team for decades have said this is probably the best iteration of this national team since the 90s generation. Which is what's so crazy, given that only two months ago they were failing to qualify for this summer's World Cup. Now, most people, I think, hailed them as the strongest outfit in this Africa, certainly of the four remaining. But we're going to get a pretty interesting test of that on Wednesday when they take on the hosts, who I think remain favourites, Morocco. Morocco, who were 2-0 winners over Cameroon on Friday, with Brahim Diaz maintaining his record of scoring in all five matches at this tournament.

55:30What do you think about Wednesday's game then, Morocco against Nigeria? It's going to be a very interesting game. Morocco have actually, Eric Schell said this, the Nigeria coach in the post-match press conference. He said they've been doing their homework for all 24 teams over the last two years. They've watched hundreds and hundreds of matches. They will absolutely be very well prepared for us. And that's the thing about Nigeria. They haven't changed their style of play from match one of this tournament until yesterday. And I don't think they're going to change it either. It's much more like we know what we are.

55:59We have a strong identity. Come and snap us if you can. And I think tactically, Morocco are probably the strongest team in this tournament. They have things like set-piece coaches, two of them actually, Moroccans, and they've scored the last two goals against Cameroon via set-pieces. You already know that they know Alexi will be dropped steep and tries to play balls through the lines. They already know that Adam Oluokman plays in the number 10 pocket, that Frank Onieka, if he plays, is going to be in more advanced positions and it helps them in their high press. Things that are obvious, they'll know and they'll try to devise a counter to it.

56:32Plus, they have the home support behind them. Initially, in the first few matches of this tournament, the home support at the Prince Muley Abdallah Stadium, I thought, was very tame. It was much more geared to a middle class clientele, not really football fans that we associate with. You know, people going to stadiums every single week. Slowly but slowly, as they've gotten more and more sure that they're going to actually have a good tournament here, the atmosphere has sort of risen to a crescendo, and I think the atmosphere against Nigeria is going to be very, very good. So I think it's going to be a tight match.

57:04It's going to be 50-50. Nigeria have been the better side, but Morocco, I think, have all the intangibles to help them out. OK, and Wilfred Ndidi is going to be missing for Nigeria as well, which will force something of a rejig from Nigeria. He picked up a stupid yellow card as he was being subbed off. He knew he had a yellow card and just very, very dumb. Sorry to speak like that, but he's going to be a big miss. I think he's third in tackle, seventh in interceptions in this tournament. And he's the player that allows a player like Alex Iwobi to have so much freedom on the ball. And Iwobi's been maybe a top three or top four player in this tournament from that deep-lying playmaking position.

57:45So it will be a big miss, absolutely. But they have shown that they have a quality of depth as well. A player like Rafael Onyedica scored two goals last time he was asked to start a match for Nigeria in the third match of the group stage. So it's a big miss, but Nigeria will feel confident. OK. They've got Ozymane, scored again in this. Magnificent, magnificent hang time for that goal. And they've got Lukman as well, who's been one of the stars of the tournament too. What do you make of the other semifinal, which will be taking place Wednesday afternoon, as Senegal will take on Egypt? Mo Salah against Sadio Mane.

58:21Yeah, it's hard not to use that narrative. It's going to be an overplayed narrative. It's going to be one that every single media outlet talks about, but it has to be that narrative. There's no other way to frame this match, honestly. These sides obviously came up against one another in the 2021 African Cup of Nations final, a match in which Sadio Mane scored the winning penalty in extra time, or in penalty kick shootouts, apologies. And he lifts the trophy over his teammate at the time, Mohamed Salah and then a few months later if you remember in the World Cup playoff Senegal once again in penalty shootouts knockout Egypt and they're the ones that go to Qatar 2022 so Sadio Mane is 2-0 over his teammate Mohamed Salah and it's one of those things you know when they were playing together at Liverpool there was that competition there was that rivalry I think they like each other I think they respect one another but there were times I think it was a match against Burnley I don't recall very very well where like Mane just lost his cool he just exploded because he thought Mohamed Salah wasn't passing him the ball.

59:19And there's that thing where I think Mane feels that Liverpool catered to Salah more than they catered to him. Simon Hughes, again, a colleague of ours and a friend, he told me that one of the things that really changed things for Sadio Mane at Liverpool was when he had won the 2021 African Cup of Nations, he returned to Liverpool and all of the other Taranga Lions from Senegal, when they went back to their clubs, they all got, you know, a guard of honor and people celebrating them and congratulating them but at Liverpool I mean in fear of offending Mohamed Salah there wasn't any anything really for Sari Omani and he felt like so you're really taking his side over mine and so to speak so to this day I think they still respect each other I think they still like each other but I think they're real rivals and so this has to be the narrative going into that match okay beyond those two Egypt arriving from one of the games of the tournament the 3-2 victory over the the holders ivory coast with Motala scoring again in that.

1:00:13Yeah, it was a back and forth match. Egypt got off to a quick start, scoring in the first two minutes via Omar Marmouche. And the way they lined up, they lined up with seven defensive-minded players, five defenders and two defensive midfielders. And then just a number 10, his name is Imam Ashur. He's probably the best attacking midfielder in Egypt. He plays Adel Ahli. And then Marmouche and Salah has the two strikers. So they're going back to the formula that worked for them in 2017. and 2021, which was defender butts off under Hector Cooper and Carlos Quiroz, who were the coaches at the time, and let's rely on individual brilliance in attack to get us through.

1:00:48And it's working so far. The last two times in 2017 and 2021, they ended up failing in the final. Against Cameroon there was just one goal that separated the two teams in 2021, penalty shootouts, as previously mentioned. So, I thought that maybe Hossam Hassan, because when I watched Egypt during the World Cup qualifiers, they were doing the opposite. They were overloading their starting lineup with offensive-minded players to the point where they were playing Mahmoud Trezeguet, a traditionally a winger, as a left-back. But I think they tried that in the first match against Zimbabwe. They saw that they were conceding too many chances and they just said there was a complete overreaction.

1:01:23And they're going back into old habits. So that's what they did against Cote d 'Ivoire. They scored via counter-attacks, transitions and set-pieces. And I think that's going to be the game plan once again against Senegal. Okay. They raved about the quarter-final line-up being the strongest perhaps ever. Pretty good semi-finals too. Who's your pick for the winners? Who's going to be in the final? It's tough. I still think there's something to that factoid about North African teams in the tournament hosted in North Africa. I don't know what it is. At the same time, Senegal and Morocco, from the very beginning, have been favourites in the most predictable of all AFCON tournaments.

1:02:03And so I think it could remain predictable to the very end. They're playing in Tangier, which has been Senegal's home stadium. They've played every single match in this tournament at Tangier's. I think Senegal maybe over Egypt and Morocco over Nigeria for a Senegal-Morocco final. We shall see. Listen, I don't want to keep you any longer because it sounds a lot more fun just around the corner from you there. Our colleague just showed up. Simon Hughes just showed up from the Athletic League. Oh, nice. Hi, Simon. You're all right. so sorry you couldn't be here with us both of you athletic employee Simon Hughes sorry enjoy yourself there Meher thank you so much enjoy the games on Wednesday maybe we can't chat with you on Thursday if you're free from rooftop trance ads I would love that thank you James thanks Meher

1:03:00Meher Mazahi and we're back in the room Well, there you go. Lovely round up there. That's live in Rabat, by the looks of things and the sounds of things. Just looked fantastic, didn't it? Just looked fantastic. Daniel, are you still there? Yes, you are. I am still here. Yes, very patient. You are indeed. And indeed, you're fascinated, of course, you were by Mahers' brilliant roundup of the situation as we head into Wednesday's games. That's it, though, for this Totally Football show. As mentioned, we've got the Tuesday European edition coming up and then on Thursday we'll be looking ahead to a big weekend in the Premier League and backwards at all the Cup stuff that's happened Tuesday, Wednesday so I do hope you'll be joining us for that, for now it's many many thanks to Meher, to Daniel, to Tom to Adrian and in the booth Jake and producer Charlie and most of all you there, you there wherever you're enjoying the Totally Football Show, hope to speak to you again soon, have an app from all of us here, it's goodbye

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