Milan win the derby, Dortmund stop Bayern and Champions League returns

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1:30Totally Football Show, European Edition.

2:04Hey, everybody. It's Totally Football Show, European edition, on Tuesday the 3rd of November. Could be. Tom Williams is here in the studio checking his watch because it's still Monday for him. Yes, I was thrown by that. Hello, James. Also coming to you from yesterday, James Horncastle. That's right. Yesterday's man. Indeed so. And we're joined from far away Spain by Paul Belouz Hello, how are you? Very well, thank you And also, briefly, by Seb Stafford-Bloor Who's got to go and hang out soon with Mrs Stafford-Bloor Hey Jimbo Where are you heading Seb? It's going to be a surprise for my wife Oh, say no more That's your date You've been doing some top hobnobbing, haven't you James?

2:53At San Siro, at Milanello with Ricky Kaká. I did see Ricky, yeah. Had a sit down. Ricky was back in town because he was inducted into the Milan Hall of Fame. He still looks identical. Still looks about 13. Incredible. Exactly. He has not aged at all. And yeah. I think my moment of the week, James, would be him running onto the pitch in a suit. But it was, he raised his arms to the sky in his kind of classic I belong to Jesus celebration. And then when he received the silver plate from the silver Daniele Massaro, he was very tearful, wasn't he? His eyes welled up. It was very emotional to see. That's very lovely, isn't it?

3:45Paul, you've been hobnobbing just now. Have you been off talking to Barcelona players? No, he has not. He's been with somebody else. Have you been with somebody else? Yeah, I've been with somebody else. Yeah, yeah. Although I love the word hot nobbing. Do you have an equivalent in Spanish, Paul? I mean, it's the first time I'm hearing it, to be honest. So I don't know the equivalent right now in Spanish. They even made a biscuit of it. Tom, how was your weekend? You went to Paris. Who did you hang out with? I was hanging out with former Marseille and Bordeaux midfielder Gregory Sartic. And we had a very long Saturday.

4:22we had a very long Saturday we were on air from half past three local time until 11pm watching all the Premier League football but it was a good day alright that's excellent it's been a good weekend really of European action big big games the Milan derby of course which both Jameses were at and she was very very exciting strong James content at San Siro there was also Bayern against Borussia and loads of other matches as well and yes There's Champions League matchday four on the way. Seb, since you are heading off for your surprise date, we should get into your stuff nice and early. I noticed that Bayern are taking on Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

5:07How are Bayern looking ahead of that? How do they come out of their 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund? A little bit depleted, Jimbo, actually. So they lost Ismail Sabari to an ankle injury. He had surgery and is gone for four, maybe at best three months now. So probably the rest of the year. Serge Gnabry got injured about two minutes later. He's probably gone until Christmas time, we think. Max Abel says around that for his recovery. Better news about Michael Lise. So if you watch the Bayern Dortmund game, you'll have seen him limp off just before the end. He took part in Bayern training on Monday.

5:43So he is expected to make the trip at the moment. but yeah and there's also a question against Manuel Neuer who missed the missed the game on Friday that was described as being a day-to-day situation so probably he makes it against Atletico Madrid and he needs to really because Jonas Urbeck got a really really nasty couple of knees in the face from Connie Chukumeka so at nil-nil Joe Bellingham swept in a loose ball and thought he'd given Dortmund the lead the goal was disallowed because Chukumeka in the process of trying to hurdle Urbic, complete accident. He was trying to hurdle him and get out of the way and not interfere, given that he was in an offside position.

6:21But all he managed to do was kind of knee him in the face. And Urbic said afterwards he was OK, but he was a little shaken up, felt a little bit dizzy, which doesn't sound great in the modern era when you think about things like concussion protocols. So let's see. A little bit of a tenuous goalkeeping situation for Bayern heading to Spain. Well, they dropped two points here. They remain level with Dortmund on top of the table. Could have been a win maybe if Harry Kane with the scoreline 1-0 had actually converted the penalty with which he was presented, the Ballon d 'Or. Yeah, we saw him afterwards and he was super frustrated.

6:56He said, he was talking about the chances that Bayern had and he then said, quote, I probably had enough chances myself to put the game away. That being said, I felt as if Dortmund were probably worth the point, even though the XG says otherwise. Dortmund played very, very well. They were compact. If you take the Upamecano goal and the Kane penalty out of the chances that they presented Bayern, then that isn't so uneven. And Dortmund were resilient. They had a couple of really good chances before Bayern took the lead. Joe Bellingham played extremely well, brought out an excellent save from Urbic early in the first half.

7:33Had a very good game generally, actually, which was really nice to see, given that he's had a pretty tricky 18 months. and they did the thing that you kind of expect Bayern to do to them every time Bayern took control of the game or put the lead Dortmund punched back including that 89th minute equaliser from Fabio Silva which was a brilliant finish and also Silva Silva's another almost a reclamation project for Nico Kovac because he arrived at the club wasn't fit was seen as a transfer market error by former sporting director Sebastian Kiel and there was a sort of a chat around how can you spend 30 million euros on this guy he's not fit he's not good enough to displace all of a sudden you've seen he's able to play with garracy he's also able to take chances at critical moments and this was really well taken dropping ball on the half volley on the turn 89th minute allianz arena you could see by the reaction of all the Dortmund players the fans all the way up in the gods to the left of us it's a really big moment so for Dortmund to come through this to show resilience, to play pretty well, to cause issues, even though Bayern were a little bit depleted.

8:37Massive moment in the Bundesliga season. All right, we will see how much significance it has in the race for the title as the weeks go by. Meantime, Bayern taking on Atletico Madrid. They are level with Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga. Freiburg move up to third behind those two after they beat Augsburg, 2-1 at theirs. In fourth place are Leipzig, who will be facing Man City in the Champions League. Leipzig have not been doing too well in Europe, but they have a terrific record at home, don't they, Seb? Yeah, they're pretty good. And they come into this gym boat of Fortuna in Schalke. Interesting little story about Schalke.

9:14So just before we get to Leipzig. So ahead of the season, they hired a new stadium announcer, a Stadion Sprecher in Deutsch. And he's yet to announce a goal because they haven't scored at home yet. So he hasn't since he's taken over. So he's kind of redundant for now. Anyway, Leipzig played pretty well here. The very, very informed Antonio Nusa scored a penalty to give him the lead. And then Romulo, who had a funny old season last year, his first year at the club. He was, he's a very good kind of pivot forward. Doesn't necessarily score as many goals as he should do. Took a really nice one on Saturday to put Schalke away.

9:51And Leipzig, interesting position because obviously there's a little bit of conversation. we're having a little kind of a boom and bust cycle with martin de michaelis because um he's mixed very good results with very very poor ones people remember the the 6-1 drubbing he took in munich a couple of weeks ago and he arrived in leipzig having done three months with majorca and uh it was sort of jokingly suggested that you know jürgen klokkaer liked him because he looked stylish he played paddle and that seemed like a good fit at the time i'm not sure that's entirely fair or true, but that's something that gets tossed around the German media.

10:29Anyway, as a result of that slightly patchy CV, as we'll call it, anytime there's a bad result, the conversation about his suitability to the job long-term comes up, as does Julian Nagelsmann. Of course, the out-of-work Julian Nagelsmann. I'm not sure whether that's fair either or that's particularly realistic, but it's a difficult time. And so, you know, if he were to win this game against Manchester City, that would really strengthen his hand. Really striking a sad. Well, their record at home is extraordinary. Five games so far this season. Five wins. 19 goals scored. None conceded at all. That's what City are heading towards.

11:07Seb, did you say Rob Lowe is now a football player? Romelu, I think. Rob Mule. Ah, Romulo. Rob Lowe, very versatile actor. I mean, he could play... Play on the West Wing. ...and the West Wing. So that's, you know... The centre-forward for Leipzig is not beyond his range, I don't think. That's my angle, James. Beautiful. Can you keep it posted on the stadium announcer who hasn't had any goals to announce yet? Yeah, that feels a little bit like the plot of a short film. But that's the thing, right? I love a good stadium announcer. And actually, I know this is the German section, but I had a question for James because I noticed the guy who used to do the goal announcements at the, what's now the Diego Maradona Napoli stadium.

11:49Decibel Bellini. Decibel Bellini. What happened to him? Why did he leave? I used to follow his YouTube channel. uh decibel well he's got a youtube channel um i don't think that's the problem but but decibel became a thing um and um napoli are i suppose very precious when it comes to image rights and who represents the club and how they represent the club and decibel was very much a added value wasn't he in terms of you go to the stadio diego amanda maradona and you get to not only see napoli but you get to hear decibel bellini doing doing his thing but um yeah decibel moved into podcasting and uh dj uh there was it was a couple of years ago i think he gave the impression he was his services were no longer uh needed and then he was brought back um and i think the impression has been given again that his services are no longer needed that impression is given on his social media channels and then he seems to come back so um it's a shame to see some of the characters who make up the whole i thought like that guy used to have the eagle for latshia whatever happened to him well he got his penis as he got a podcast it's not actually it's not an enlargement i don't think I think it was the opposite.

13:14It was... What a reduction. I'm not sure. Anyway, there were all sorts of issues with him. Before you head off, Seb, for whatever it is you're going to be doing, so Leipzig, Manchester City, Leipzig, yay? Leipzig, competitive. I don't know the full, you know, exclamation mark, yay, but let's see. they've got the tools to hurt Manchester City. Let's put it that way. So they're in fourth place currently and the team right behind them, and this was a surprise, almost equivalent to Seb's dinner plans, for me today, the team in fifth place are Werder Bremen. What's that about? And hang on, Nicholas Falkrug grabbed one at the weekend, another two midweek in the Pokal.

14:07Werder, how did that come from? Magnificent, Tom. Yeah, Werder Bremen. What a turnaround that they've had, because more recently we've been seeing them down the other end of the table. That's right. And not to be reductive, but so much of this is about Fugrug. And so this was the seventh straight Werder Bremen game in which he'd scored. And that actually equals a record set, and I think 82, 83 by Rudi Vola when he was playing for Bremen. So it stood for a very long time. And it's remarkable. It's even kind of kickstarted a, should Nicholas Fulker be playing for Germany again, which is probably an issue that Jürgen Klopp didn't want because he's 33.

14:47How valuable is he within the sort of the future tournament cycles? But he's playing Bethany, the other forward in Germany. And that probably includes Harry Kane at the moment, which is something to say. And yeah, it's great. And if you look at the finishes, there are a few penalties in there, but he's doing everything. Right foot, left foot, power, precision. He's playing fabulously well. He also, he looks healthy. He looks healthy and powerful. At his best, Nicholas Fulcrook has that very bullish energy to him, which I don't think anybody at West Ham or AC Milan ever really saw, unfortunately.

15:16But that was his trademark when he was in Bremen. And it's back again. And it's fun because he's a good character. When you speak to him, he's a very genuine person. There's no affectation. He is a kind of a little bit of a throwback footballer, someone that you used to find in the 80s and 90s. and yeah it's nice especially because things went so badly at West Ham and so badly in Milan that it kind of damaged not his legacy but his reputation so it's nice to see him restore it hey I've got another fun little bit before I go do you want do you want to hear about what the El Mala family did this weekend okay so everyone knows Saeed El Mala uh the uh the wonderfully talented dynamic cologne winger he has a slightly older brother who throughout his career malik has been he's the less talented of the two he's typically played at regional legal level or at dritta legal level um but they've always followed each other around so when side move clubs malik comes to they're represented by family members and malik has been kind of i mean whenever side is is connected with moves to England to the Premier League there's been a suggestion that he'll come along and he'll be loaned down to a kind of a League Two team so that the brothers can stay together anyway this weekend Cologne 1-0 down at the Alta Forster Rai against Union Berlin on comes Malik for his Öster Bundesliga debut seven minutes later he scores his very first Bundesliga goal it wasn't quite assisted by Saeed it was so he'd had played across into the box it sort of ricocheted off a couple of people and made its way to Malik at the back post you took his goal brilliantly well by the way but if you watch first of all Malik's celebration but how happy Saeed is on the near touchline to have made the goal for his brother it's really lovely it's a really really lovely moment and great for him because I don't think many people ever thought that Malik was going to become a an Erste Bundesliga player that he had that kind of talent but seven minutes to score his first goal good for him good for him good for you so what a lovely note to finish off with enjoy your evening.

17:21I've built it up to be far too much. I just had dinner plans. That's all it was. We had unexpected shenanigans. Exactly. Unexpected shenanigans. Lovely stuff. Unexpected shenanigans could be a podcast in itself. Yeah, very much so. Very much so. That's what we call the outtakes. It's how the best dates end. Yeah. Catch you soon, Seb. Thanks, guys. Seb's that for blah. Hey, you know... What we didn't do back at the start. A moment of the week, indeed. It's too late for Sab. We'll never know. I mean, it might be tonight, the moment of the week. Come on then, Paul. What's your moment of the week?

18:02Yeah, among those things, I'm going to go to a Valencia derby, which took place in Elche. Elche against Valencia, which represented the first win of Javier Aguirre since he took charge of Valencia this week. And what I love the most, well, basically they won 1-0. A late goal in the second half from Umar Sadik, a tall, big leggy striker from Valencia, which is one of the most fun players to watch because you just don't know what to expect from him. He basically run, it was a counter-attack run by Arnaud Danjuma, the former Bournemouth player, down the left wing, across to the far post. Dan Juma had the tap in, but he chose to make it a bit more beautiful.

18:50And he could just dribble past the defender who slid for a hot dog, basically. And in an open goal, he slotted it in the back of the net and celebrated the goal like Michael Jackson in a thriller. Do you know the videoclip of the song? He was sort of dancing with his hands, doing like this, representing the videoclip of Thriller. not seeing the same thriller videos as you I don't think do the move for us again Paul? No I'm not going to do it again I'm not going to do it no no so basically he's sort of like this I can send you like the post that he did basically did he say that it was Michael Jackson in thriller yeah yeah yeah in his Instagram post after the game he revealed was it immediately obvious to you Paul?

19:41absolutely not Absolutely not. No, I'm not that into Michael Jackson and not trying to crack a joke in here. Okay. Yeah. Let's not. No, let's not. But what I wanted to highlight from this moment is what Javier Aguirre said after the game, basically, which it was his fourth game in charge. They asked him in the presser, what has changed from this game from the other game where you considered late gold and couldn't win some games? And he said, well, I don't know, because we were really close to get vaccinated, which is a Spanish idiom to concede a goal, in the dying minutes of the game because Elche had a big chance.

20:21And if that would have happened, I would have f***ed in the dying family of some of my players. But fortunately, it didn't happen. I have my b*** up my neck, but it's a happy ending. It certainly is. It certainly is. A weary ross of goal. The person on the bleep button totally is working overtime tonight. Yeah. Listen, I'm so sorry if you got any of that. It's interesting that he should have used that phrase about... Inoculated. Well, vaccinated, because the goal that you just described, Paul, reminded me of a famous goal that Diego Maradona scored at Barcelona, where he's got a tap-in and he cuts inside, the defender slides past for a hot dog and he knocks it in.

21:01And isn't there a song about Maradona vaccinating that player? Or am I hallucinating? it has hallucinating I'm lost now I'm lost I remember the goal and I think it might have been a control Madrid I don't know anyway that's quite the moment of the week Tom what have you gone? Groupama Stadium Sunday afternoon Lyon against Angers Lyon are 1-0 up and then Corentin Tolisso heads in the second goal late on makes the game safe runs over to the bench to celebrate with Lyon head coach Paolo Fonseca oh yeah And Fonseca gets all teary eyed. Minutes later, the final whistle is blown and Fonseca is very quickly in tears because he is leaving Lyon.

21:46Is that now confirmed? Yeah. Well, it hasn't been announced, but it emerged over the weekend that he has been contacted by Sporting, which is the club he grew up supporting. And he is jumping ship from Lyon, heading home to Portugal to take up the reins at Sporting. and so this was his farewell and it was, yeah, quite an emotional one. Is it unsporting of him to leave Lyon at this? I mean, you'd be forgiven for thinking as much. Because Lyon are third in the table, flying high in the Europa League. It all seems to be going well, but he is off-ski. There you go. James, I've already said it was Ricky Kakar's team.

22:26Oh, yeah, you had your Ricky Kakar thing. There were so many to choose from. What was your moment of the week, James? I don't know. There were so many to choose from. I did enjoy, producer Xavi sent a lovely goal that, ooh, former Sevilla striker Lucas Ocampos. Oh, that was really... Did you see that? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a textbook overhead kick. And he's got previous Ocampos. He's got a goal like that for Marseille back in the day. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was very lovely. That was for Monterrey in Mexico. In the Liga MX. Santiago Castro goal as well for Rom. Oh, yeah. That was amazing as well.

23:01I would say though just being back at San Siro for one of the 10 remaining league derbies at that stadium was a bit special the roar of the crowd and all that and yeah it was great it was really enjoyable and that was just when they saw James Richardson many thanks to everyone who got in touch by the way to say that they enjoyed seeing some Italian football on the television back on terrestrial TV and yeah maybe we'll do it again someday who can say Let's talk about today, though. We might touch on the new San Siro. It's not called that.

23:39We'll find out what it is called. And we'll also have a look at what we should be watching out for in this midweek of Champions League action.

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25:54All right, Champions League match day four. We heard about Bayern ahead of their clash with Atletico Madrid, who were victorious at the weekend. Paul will tell us about them perhaps very shortly. Barcelona, meanwhile, who put in another six goals this weekend, will be up against Aston Villa. Emery has a terrible record against the Catalans. How do you say Bet Noir? Is it Bestia Negra? Bestia Negra. Yeah. There you go. 30 times he's faced them with various different outfits, including Paris Saint-Germain, of course. He's only won three times, Tom. And one of those was the game preceding the Ravatar.

26:33And everyone was like, oh, my God, Emery Ball has arrived at PSG. Everything is going to be totally great forever. Not so. Not so. You've also got on Tuesday Man United Roma. Oof. Bit of a game, that, for Roma fans, I think. Bit of a game. Yes. Memories. Yeah. On Wednesday, then, Fenerbahce will be hosting Liverpool. Fenerbahce, who are now being interim manager by Dirk Kow. Interim managed by Dirk Kow. Liverpool, of course, who already faced Xabi Alonso at the weekend, so very much a former player run this for them. You've got Porto against Napoli. Napoli who are in trouble Porto who while flying in the Portuguese league Are very much not in the Champions League as well Leipzig against Man City as mentioned And yeah Any others that we should be keeping an eye out for Do you think?

27:30Or should we focus ourselves on those? PSG go to Virial PSG currently top of the league phase Nice League And handsome five-on-winners away at Lavre At the weekend A classic PSG performance. The big players rested, they go a goal down. Yes. Yeah, it was more of a blended starting XI than we're accustomed to seeing in domestic fixtures. The main headline being a hat-trick for Ashraf Hakimi from right back. Ran through one-on-one finish for the first goal, curled in a free kick for the second, and then a bit of a comedy third where he had a shot that came back off the goalkeeper, hit him on the thigh and went in.

28:10He also set up the other two goals. And this is a game that has had quite the fallout because Didier Diga was promptly sacked as La Havre head coach. And the president, Jean-Michel Roussier, and the sporting director, Demba Bar, both resigned. Wow. You'd think that getting stuffed by PSG was kind of a par for the course because it happens to literally everyone in France. But La Havre and their American owners, Blue Crow, have had enough. Had enough? How are Villarreal looking ahead of this? What are the odds of them upsetting the Champions League holders? Not great, I would say. They lost on the weekend against Espanyol, who had a caretaking manager, former club legend Sergio Garcia.

28:55And Espanyol looked quite OK and Villarreal quite poor. I think that they had some good games before going to Anfield in terms of results and finding a bit more of the form under Inigo Perez. But now they are a bit in a setback. And I don't see them having many chances against the PSG side. That comes from beating Barcelona. And then, as you mentioned, resting in the Likhan. Which, by the way, it's a dig that Anthony Gordon has done against PSG this morning, actually. Because Anthony Gordon spoke before the Barcelona against Aston Villa game. And he went back to last week for Barcelona and said, well, PSG had a bit of a privilege because they played Man City, then they could go to the league, rest all the players, and that's a privilege that we cannot afford here in La Liga.

29:46But good for them. I'm not going to complain. And so that was a bit unfair for us. Right. You said that. Not going to complain, but actually... Not going to complain, but I'm complaining. But I will. All right. OK. Excellent. Paul, give us a second then when we talk about Tuesday's big game, Manchester United against Roma. Now, how big a deal is this for Roma fans, James? Like 2007, what was it, quarterfinal at Old Trafford? Yeah. We had Spalletti up against Sir Alex. You had... Totti is the first nine, which then United copied and Barcelona copied. Yeah. Want to talk about anything else, James?

30:27That's all that happened. The De Rossi goal was nice. De Rossi goal was good in a consolation, yeah. Yeah. Michael Carrick goal for Manchester United. He scored twice. He had Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo. Alan Smith. Yeah, Smith scored as well. Big Chris got two. But yeah, it was a humiliation that I think an epic one. Which, as so often when Roma lose games like this, kind of doesn't come out of nowhere, but this one started a trend because they would lose like this to Barcelona a couple of years later to Bayern Munich a couple of years later. Although Liverpool was a Champions League semifinal.

31:03Right. But like it kind of almost became part of Roma's DNA. But the thing is, Roma would go into all of these games, maybe with the exception of the Barcelona one, on a real high and believing that they'd arrived. Not arrived mentally that they took the game for granted and thought, oh, we're going to Old Trafford, we can do this. Right. But the sense that they had confidence and the fan base had confidence that they could maybe actually pull something out of the bag. And then to lose in the way that they did was very painful. 7-1. 7-1.

31:37But I must say, as it was Roma go to Old Trafford this time, the boot, she is on the other foot. Well, they do have the striker who in Europe's top five leagues, if that is a thing, and I don't think it's a thing, but people use it as a statistical marker. They do have the striker who scored the most goals in those leagues since the turn of the year in Daniel Marlon. they're very dangerous from set plays particularly headers no one's scored more headers than the Roma in those top five leagues which are not top five leagues but still and they scored five at the weekend against Udinese does look like a Roma team that can contend for the league title and they have a manager who's had success in Europe in winning the Europa League with plucky little Bergamaschi fairy tale Atalanta.

32:30Yeah, Gasparini, did he? He had success in England playing Champions League football before? The 3-0... 3-0 Anfield. Yeah, he did like to go to Anfield in Champions League and Europa League and have some famous nights. Didn't get on so well, I think, against United when Atalanta hosted them. But at the same time, I think what's encouraging about this Roma team is that even though they have injuries, so Manu Kone has been out, Paolo Dybala has been out, it hasn't phased them. They've kept rolling on. Their goalkeeper, Miles Vila, has been out as well. And so I think a lot of people in having their minds, the big three of Italian football, Juventus, Milan and Inter, when they come to Old Trafford, it feels like a big occasion and maybe there's more expectation on those teams to get a result.

33:26so it feels quite strange that a fortnight after Como beat Man United and kind of went into that game as quiet favourites another team from outside the Italian Big 3 is going to our Old Trafford this time Como played them by the lake but another Italian team is going to play against Man United and is not part of the Big 3 but is probably a favourite well is a favourite going into this game Alright Roma who are actually third right now in Serie A point behind Inter but fully four behind these surprise leaders, the identity of whom we'll reveal later on in the show. But in other Champions League fixture news, you've got Barcelona against Aston Villa.

34:08Paul, you're going to that game. I am. The last time Aston Villa played Barcelona, the villains were European champions and they won over two legs of the 82-83 European Super Cup before any of us were born, of course. This time around, Barcelona coming off defeat in the Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain but looking back to their goal machine best at the weekend? Yeah, sort of. I don't think that you can take massive conclusions out of this because I don't think Alaves is one of the toughest oppositions that they are going to face in the coming weeks. But it's something, at least to, as we say here in Spain, lamer las heridas, to lick your own wounds.

34:53that you've made to yourself in the past. Wounds, yeah. 6-1 the victory against Salovez. Yeah, 6-1. Really good performances from Fermin and Rafinha. Frinke, the young, played as a centre-back, which was a bit of an experiment because Flick has no one available. Everyone is injured. Another youngster made his debut as a right-back as well, Brian Fariñas. He played the whole game and he might start tomorrow against Aston Villa. might be the surprise call from Hansi Flick. And yeah, beyond that, I would say that midfield and the attacking line is going to be as good as it can get for Barcelona, who has a massive week ahead of them.

35:33They lost their two games against PSG and Real Madrid, but now this week they have Aston Villa and Atletico de Madrid, which are possibly a step below that sort of Real Madrid and PSG level, but still a pretty decent one. And two games that they need to win a bit to validate their candidacy to everything. Absolutely. Very nicely put. Atletico, who are their closest rivals in La Liga? Three points behind? Exactly. Two. Two points behind. Wow. And Atletico, who themselves have a big game on Tuesday as they host Bayern Munich. Seb was telling us all about Bayern and that 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund.

36:09What about Atletico Madrid? A 2-0 victory for them against Levante, which saw Diego Simeone going equal with Luis Aragonés as the manager with the most wins in La Liga history. Yeah, absolutely. And he will surely set a new record in here for the amount of years that he's been at Atletico Madrid. Atletico, I would say that they look the best they've been this season so far. I think they've been unbeaten in the last nine games across all competitions, eight wins. Julien Alvarez is starting to be Julien Alvarez again. We spoke about him apologising to Atletico fans last week. He's starting to get things going.

36:48Pablo Barrios, the midfielder who, for me, is like top class, one of the best midfielders in La Liga, is finding his mojo and staying injury-free, which is good for Atletico. And yeah, let's see how it goes. But I think that Atletico are pretty pleased with how the season is going right now. And yeah, it's a tough game for them. I think that the most important game for Atletico is the one on the weekend. because if they win, they're going to get top of La Liga. So I wouldn't be surprised if they rotate a bit. James Holmcastle's friend, Jonathan David, didn't start on the weekend, so he might have a great night midweek.

37:26Who knows? But yeah, let's see how it unfolds. OK. Paul, since we're on the subject of La Liga, before we let you go, let's just touch on one or two other stories from Spain and the wonderful world of Spanish football. football. First of all, how is it that Kylian Mbappe has managed to get Spanish football cancelled in China? Wow, Jesus, how to explain that in sensible words to not get cancelled myself? So, bro, like basically, I don't know if you've been aware of the memes in the internet of Mbappe being framed as a dictator. So basically, the picture that is being used is a picture of Mao Zedong with the Mbappé face in there.

38:12So Mbappé, on an interview, he admitted that him being named a dictator and framed in this picture was the favorite meme that he laughed the most about. And he sort of made fun of it and said, yeah, I love it. It's funny. So basically, Chinese people got offended by that, by the fact that Mbappé called Mao Zedong a dictator. And it got offended so many people that it made the Chinese broadcasting TV station. So put on hold all the Real Madrid games that they broadcast in there. And Mbappé had some business cancelled. Yeah, he's lost four sponsorships, which impacts Real Madrid as well because they take their cut of all of that.

38:57And this weekend, there was no Liga on state television in China. And I believe all the previous rounds, the highlights, have been removed as well. So this is quite a serious thing. Do you think it's just a temporary measure or are they waiting for some kind of... I'm not sure. What do you think will resolve this? There's been apologies. There's been apologies from Mbappe. There's been a statement from Real Madrid as well. There's been a statement from Javier Tebas. That's one of the coaches that have united Tebas and Real Madrid, which is money. Yeah. So in a way, I think that everyone will play the diplomacy card at the strongest point possible to sort of amend a regime that has been broken.

39:44But from Mbappe to Real Madrid and to Tebas, they surely they all want to prioritize this sort of rebuilding the bridges that have been broken by a meme on the Internet. Yeah. The question being asked in France, where heads are being scratched over this story, much as they are elsewhere, is about the timing. This is a story that broke on Monday night into Tuesday around the same time as the Ballon d 'Or ceremony, which we all remember having sat through it in its entirety. James, you were on the red carpet, weren't you? No, I wish. I was in a bunker of the adjacent hotel and then I was up in the gods watching.

40:27suspense in the room was really incredible actually because Laminio Mao won best young player then Kane won best striker and then when the original Ronaldo came on stage you just thought wow this is how Mbappe would want this and so my editor said James that thing you wrote about Mbappe over the weekend can you update it so I was sort of scrabbling around and then when I heard Kane's name I threw your laptop into the air he threw my laptop down from the balcony um but Tom you were saying because the clip itself was filmed in April oh yeah so Mbappe gave an interview to his France and Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Choumeni's YouTube channel The Bridge and pre-interview he's sitting in the makeup chair and is being filmed for socials and is asked about his favourite memes, etc.

41:19This is the point at which he mentions the Mao Zedong meme, although he doesn't mention Mao Zedong by name. And the first time anyone had ever seen it was when this story broke, Monday into Tuesday. And so the accusation, in France at least, is that one of his Ballon d 'Or rivals is somehow behind the timing of this. Because it is kind of curious that this video clip that has existed since April only emerged into the world at exactly the same time. But how would that help his Ballon d 'Or rivals? Well, you know, it's a bit of... Disparage him. I mean, not necessarily that it's... Yeah, but the voting finished in September.

41:55It's true, but like, they should have brought it out before. Not necessarily to impact the, you know, the outcome of the Ballon d 'Or vote, but to tarnish his reputation. Imagine Mbappe had won the Ballon d 'Or and then wakes up on Tuesday morning to all these headlines, as it was he didn't win it and then he woke up to all these headlines anyway. Yeah. Paul, it's a very regrettable situation. Out of interest, What did the audience in China miss this weekend beyond the results you mentioned before? Real Madrid, for example, had what I've seen described as their best performance of the season. I wouldn't say so because it happened last weekend at the Camp Nou, in my opinion.

42:35But what they missed was a really soft penalty from Kylian Mbappe, who did a great effort that sort of... I'm not going to use the word diving, but I believe he was a pretty good effort at diving. And he got a penalty given. One of the most funny things about this is that Jose Mourinho, weeks ago, he said, don't worry, because when a referee makes a mistake in my favor, I'm going to tell you guys at the press room. I'm going to tell you here. And after the rushing the Santander game, they told him, well, the first penalty in the opener was a bit soft, wasn't it? Do you have anything to say here?

43:10and he said well what I have to say is that Racing de Santander is a great club they have a great fan base which I love they are really vociferous they are loud they protest everything and I love it and yeah I like them a lot but yeah they complain about every single move in the game wow and that was it that was it that was it six straight wins I think for for Jose now with Real Madrid he got goals from as you mentioned Kylian Mbappe Jubelium and then an absolute worldie from Jan Diamande. Another one. Another one. Paul, has this clicked since Vinny Jr. has been out? I mean, you've said it, not me, but I do believe the same thing.

43:53I do believe the same thing. At least Jan Diamande is a really dangerous attacking threat from the left wing who also tracks back, which is something that the beneath-use package didn't offer. So do you think Vinny would get back into the team or not? right now if you ask anyone around Real Madrid they do believe that Benicio should not go back into the team but the thing is like how do you manage that in a player that has been given this sort of a star of dome treatment with a new six year contract and yeah a status of a player that cannot be even substituted sometimes so it's going to be as we say here in Spain I love Spanish teams today patata caliente hot potato for for Joseph Mourinho to do.

44:40Wow. How is it that hot potato has become the byword across Europe for any kind of difficult situation to handle? Were hot potatoes so very, very popular? You have to pass the afternoon somehow back in the dark ages. In France, is it le patate choux? Patate choux, yeah. Really? Patate choux. Wow. Okay. Excellent. They're in third place, Real Madrid. Three points behind Barcelona. and in fourth place Manuel Pellegrini once again with his Real Betis what did he do this weekend? 2-1 against Malaga yeah good win against Real Malaga Marc Barter and Pablo Fornals Malaga are bottom of La Liga they are struggling hardly but yeah Betis even was able to rotate a bit look into the Champions League and another game that I wanted to highlight before leaving or like stopping talking about Spanish football was the past derby it was the past derby Athletic Club against Real Sociedad was a big night in San Mames because they celebrated Unai Simon Award as the best goalkeeper of last season so there was a big reception at San Mames beautiful scenes and then in the game yeah I would say that more of an atmosphere than super quality football Athletic got ahead thanks to Iñaki Williams Real Sociedad decolized through a penalty And then Alex Berengue, who had missed, I think he missed like three open goals.

46:08He finally scores from the penalty spot as well to give Atletic Club the win. So a big win on the Basque Derby. And yeah, that would be basically the main things in La Liga this weekend. Paul, when Unai Simon won the best goalkeeper of the year award, a lot of people were like, this is a disgrace. It should be David Raya. He's not even the best Spanish goalkeeper, even though he's won the Euros with Spain, he's won the World Cup with Spain and David Raya can't dislodge him. As someone who watches, I think, more Unai Simon than the people saying it should be David Raya, what's your opinion on that?

46:48I think it should have been David Raya. I think that last season, Unai Simon was not particularly excellent with Athletic Club. He played with the national team because he's been really good with them. And he has the trust of the manager, Luis de la Fuente. And he's an important figure in the dressing room, character-wise. And then in the World Cup, he was good. I mean, he's been always very good for Spain. But if you ask me to evaluate the whole season, David Rayo was more impactful than Unai Simon. Even Joan Garcia from Barcelona was more impactful than Unai Simon last season. There you go. There you go.

47:22Very nice. Paul, have yourself a lovely evening. And we'll catch up with you soon on the Totally Football Show. I will try to. All right. Yeah. Been a pleasure.

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49:45Tom, quick update on Ligue 1. We heard about Paris Saint-Germain winning earlier on. Does it now look like our only hope of a challenge to them is Paris FC of Liam Rossegna and Olivier Giroud still with Lille? Yeah, I suspect a title tilt will probably prove beyond both of those teams, but they are both moving in the right direction. Paris FC with a very impressive 3-1 win over Monaco at the weekend. Lassine Sinioko scoring twice, making him the first African player to score eight goals in the first nine games of the season in the French top flight since a certain George Weyer back in 1991-92.

50:34Sinioko also set up, I think, another? He did set up the other goal for Pablo Pagis. So Paris FC going pretty well. Four games without a win for Monaco Although following Balogun Did get off the mark His first goal since the Everton business Since the business in the World Cup Meanwhile Lille are now up to second After a 1-0 win over Lens Lille-Lens, that's the spy camp derby Lille-Lens Yes, indeed Olivier Giroud still doing the business 40 years old and all his teeth as they say in French. Came off the bench with his teeth and scored the only goal of the game 13 minutes later. Big win for Davide Ancelotti whose Lille have been performing quite well in terms of picking up points but have been quite underwhelming performance-wise.

51:29Absolutely brilliant from start to finish in what is one of the biggest fixtures in Lille's season and appears to have settled on a system that he likes. French sports media are trying to make out it's the same Christmas tree formation or rather the four, not the Christmas tree, the 4-3-1-2, so beloved of his father. Albeit it's slightly different. It's basically a 4-3-3 with a false nine and two wingers rather than two centre forwards. Okay. Hakon Haraldsson, Icelandic midfielder in the number 10 role. But yeah, Lille's starting to look a bit more like the finished article and they are PSG's closest rivals at the moment.

52:15Excellent. Nice one, Tom. Meanwhile, not sure if you're keeping track of events in the Netherlands, but some ridiculous scorelines this weekend. Currently in the Eredivisie, you've got Feyenoord on top. Only a point behind them are Ajax. And then level-on points, third and fourth, PSV and 20. PSV this weekend beat Willem, I think it's five, I think it's Willem's five. 7-0. What? 7-0. Who mein Beerdschicht Ewervast said, hold my beer, that is, said FC20, quite possibly, because they then took on Excelsior and beat them, Tom, 9-0. 9-0. What? Yes, 9-0. VoteVeghorst got four. Of course he did. including a bit of a special one where he does a give and go and then he does it well he starts off with a back heel I think and then he does a give and go and then he does another give and go and then he puts it away but yeah Vuvikasos four goals in a nine goal thriller anyway there you go great potential for Roman numerals based banter if you put a load of goals past Vellem Tvai so true if you're a fan of numbers you'll enjoy the stats from the game which saw El Celso with precisely no No XG, no shots, no corners and nine conceded goals.

53:37That's got to be a record. Anyway, that's the crazy world of the Eredivisie. You mentioned, James, all of those goals in the Eredivisie. And I agree with you, it is remarkable. But you then look at the top five leagues, which are not the top five leagues, but opt to use this as a way of... As a metric. It's a metric. Are you going to mention goal scoring this season? I am, James. Do you want the classifica, the ranking for the goaliest leagues amongst the top five? Should we do it in reverse order? Alan Freeman style. Reverse order, bottom and fifth is the English Premier League. 88 games played, 241 goals.

54:32That is 2.74 goals per game. 2.74. Sounds pretty exciting. But who's in fourth spot? In at number four, James, it is, and that's why Paul's gone, La Liga. La Liga. 105 games played, 314 goals scored for an average of 2.99. Wow, that's pretty exciting. Third spot? In at number three, it is Tom Williams' Liga. Come on, the farmers. 76 games played, 230 goals scored. Very respectable. Yeah. 3.03 goals per game. More than three goals a game. So the goal fest. Yeah. In second place. In second place, it is the beloved Dolmio Italian Serie A. Games played 93, goals 298 for 3.20 goals per game. And that is up, at least before Sunday's games, that is up 40 % on last season.

55:33This has been updated to include. No, no, I know yours, but my 40 % was from Saturday morning's newspaper. So maybe it's up even 60%. Probably even more. And top. Yes. Seb has gone for a date with the Bundesliga Yeah, they're scoring and he is I mean, no, let's move on Maybe he is Games played 70, goals 246 Yeah That is a whopping 3.51 goals per game Well, we saw four goals in the first half of the Manon Derby It was absolutely terrific entertainment We should also talk about the team who contributed a vast number, particularly of late, of those Serie A goals, and that's Lazio. Last midweek, after our last show, went up to Sassuolo and scored six and took 10 ,000 fans with them as well, which was the remarkable thing because we talk about Lazio and how the fans boycott the home games, what I'm calling a lotito-vito.

56:39But when they go away from home, almost to emphasise the point, they do travel with the team. And interestingly, when they played at home then on this Sunday and took the lead in Serie A, going three points clear with a victory over Caleri, their attendance had crept up from 10 ,000 to 13 ,000. So it does seem like things are beginning to change. Tom, sorry, you wanted to... The attendance is going up and up and up at Lazio. Oh, Tom. And Lazio are now three points clear at the top of the table, managed by the man whose previous most notable managerial achievement was failing to take Italy to the World Cup.

57:13Can they sustain this, James? I know from having spoken to people at other clubs who think that they should be title contenders, they wake up every day after a Lazio result asking exactly the same question, like, how is this happening? And particularly in this Caleri game, where they won at the weekend, they go behind and everyone's like, ah, the spell is broken. But Lazio, to their credit, came back, won. And they showed depth because the changes that Gattuso made really had an impact on the game. So a lot of people just think it's the starting 11 and that's it. But when he brought on Pedraza, Pinamonti, Baria Shiro, all those players contributed to a win.

58:13So I think people don't understand what it is about this team that means they've only dropped two points so far which came against Milan where Lazio were 2-0 up at halftime in that game because they look at the team and they think who is the outstanding player in this team?

58:37and they have had, I think it's double figures in terms of goal scorers already. So everyone's chipping in. So it's a real team effort. And I think it does show that, you know, even though they've got people who care about the club, like Davide Fratesi, for example, who signed for Inter. Fratesi came through the academy at Roma, but he's a Lazio fan. in the same way that Alessio Romagnoli, the captain in the past, he came through the Roma Academy and was a Lazio fan as well. You then got a core of Italian players like Zaccagni, like Cancelieri, like Romano Floriani Mussolini. Mussolini, who I would expect on the form that he's showing to have an Italy cap or to be called up.

59:29I would think so. and yes he's the great grandson of yeah and he's I mean he's got a very illustrious family tree not only Mussolini but obviously related to Sofia Loren as well and so I think there are a lot of intangibles at Lazio we've talked about the environment around them which doesn't seem the easiest when you're playing at the Stadio Olimpico which is a capacity of what 80 ,000 or so and there's 10 ,000 people turning out It's not ideal, as Cattuto himself has pointed out on more than one occasion. I think they've been mentally preparing for this since last season because obviously the fans, yeah, they've had a dispute with Lutito going back decades since he took over.

1:00:15But every now and again, it flares up. And it flared up again towards the end of last season where they were boycotting games. And then they all came back and I think they beat Milan. but the players at least the core group already kind of know what it's like to play in this atmosphere or lack of atmosphere when they're at the Olimpico but I think what was telling was in the summer everyone was saying predicting quite harshly given the quality of some of the players that they've got that this team might go down because they've hired this guy who became not pariah but was seen as a failure with Italy even though I would say is high point James as a manager was winning the Coppa Italia with Napoli which was in COVID and first game first round of the cup go out to Mantua a lot of their transfer business happens really late and I think all of that kind of galvanized Lazio because they were thinking this I think the players looked at the coach and they're like we really like this guy if you work for Gattuso it's hard not to like him so they're like all this kind of criticism and speculation about Reno you know we're going to go out there we'll run through wars for him then there's the kind of atmosphere that we've alluded to where it's hard to go outside I imagine if you're a Lazio fan when you're representing an owner if you like who the fans really don't like and so putting the best performances to that mean you can actually go out during the day in Rome.

1:01:55And then you also have to credit the Lazio Ultras with taking the Olympico on the road. Yeah. Which you mentioned the 10 ,000 at Sassuolo. I mean, I remember going to the Mape Stadium in Retro Emilia for the first game of last season, which was when Napoli were champions and it was their first game as champions, defending champions. and they took a lot of fans and the atmosphere was good. But I'm not sure when the Mape Stadium has had an atmosphere like that. And maybe when Milan won the league there a few years ago. But I think that also invigorates the players. And they've clearly hit onto a great groove at the moment.

1:02:44and I think when you are playing, they're not playing every three days because they're in Europe, but they obviously played a midweek round last week. I do think it's helped them kind of have that continuity and that sort of thing where they want to keep this feel-good thing going. So it's astonishing, really. And they have played some big games. You know, we've talked about them. They've played Milan. They've gone away to Juventus where they got probably the biggest result that they've had so far this season. They play Roma in December. Yep. But people are sort of thinking, is this going to be a little bit like 2000, 2001, where the two Rome teams are jostling for the league title?

1:03:30It could happen. Let's see, James. It could happen. Meantime, in terms of atmosphere, a pretty special one Saturday night at San Siro made extra piquant by the news that this was to be one of the final, can we call it? It's five years. To borrow the great man's words, five years, that's all we got. My brain hurts a lot. Who is the great man, James? David Bowie. David Bowie. Five years, yeah. Released just for the launch of this new stadium. Absolutely, absolutely. So Thursday, the club's presented their new project, and you're saying this has still not quite got the definitive go-ahead, but you feel that after so many false starts, this one is actually going to stick?

1:04:17Yes, because a year ago, the clubs bought the current stadium, Stadio San Siro, and the area around it for a little bit more than 200 million. So that kind of removes the municipality from being a party with some ownership of that area. You then have the fact that the two clubs are run by kind of American financial institutions. I mean, Oaktree in particular has more than 200 billion under management. So it does have the ability to get this done. Unlike the previous project, the cathedral. Yeah, that came undone because COVID happened. The mayor was up for election. and Inter's owners were in the process of going bankrupt, suing.

1:05:12Now you have two firms that own these clubs who are capable of doing this. And if you sell the naming rights, which was announced for the new stadium, which will be known as the Generale Stadium, if you sell the naming rights already for the launch, it's because you're confident that you can get this deal done. So the plan is to have it ready for 2031 so that it'll be in place for the Euros, assuming they take place as is the idea in Italy and Turkey. And when it is complete, adjacent to the current stadium, the current Giuseppe Miazza will come down. I think 90 % of it will come down. They have to retain some elements, but that element will not figure as part of the new stadium which you mentioned if you go to San Ciro at the moment you'll see the perimeter has changed it's much tighter to the stadium than it was in the past and that's because the kind of big car park space around it is where the new stadium is going to go up but the percentage of San Ciro that will be retained will be part of I suppose green space, commercial space, maybe even real estate space.

1:06:34Right. Because that whole area, I suppose, will be redeveloped. But the plans for that have yet to be released. They're going to pave paradise and put a new one up on a parking lot, in the words of the great woman. Almost. Anyway, so we were there on Saturday. You were hobnobbing with Kaká and other exciting people. And all of us enjoyed an absolutely terrific game, which wasn't a surprise in the sense that it was the fourth derby in a row that Milan had won. But given the form that the two teams were enjoying, given the way that Milan had lost midweek against Bologna, given the fact that it looked like they might get defeated and go to 10 points behind Inter, it was a huge result for their manager, one Ruben Amorim.

1:07:19Yeah, I think it's interesting because he was unbeaten in the league going into that midweek game against Bologna. And my editor here, I think, had seen some buzz on social media saying, wow, look, Amarim's unbeaten. Is he doing well? Because I think there must have been some social media chatter around, wow, look at this guy. His results have been good. but I think in terms of performances even when they'd been getting wins like against Torino like against Atalanta for example I was feeling that the performances could be better that some of the old habits that we saw under Max Allegri there was muscle memory there when the team was ahead late in games the team would instinctively back off back off, back off defend its own penalty area and concede which happened at the Juventus Stadium when they were 1-0 up going to stoppage time and they conceded an equaliser.

1:08:16And then there was a sense that, is Amarim too rigid? We had this conversation when he was at Man United and he said, no, I'm willing to change. And if you watch the derby, they played with a back four. But there was this feeling, is he tinkering around too much? Has he written some games off too early? So the defeat to Bournemouth when they were down to 10 men, there was a feeling that maybe they could have tried to get more out of that game. likewise against Bologna you know when they were 2-1 up at half time and then swiftly concede two goals you know I think some of his late changes there was a feeling that you need to keep Gonzalo Ramos on for this game even though he's only scored two league goals you need to show some kind of intent to try and get back into that game and so that meant they went into the derby James with people expecting that Inter was something them.

1:09:14But this has been the story, as you mentioned, that statistic that Milan have won the derby four times in a row now. Yeah. And they're unbeaten I think in... In eight now. In eight. In the meantime, Inter have won two titles in that period. That is true and it's... I think whilst it's damaging for Kivu to keep losing the derby, he's lost all of the derbies he's been into coach for, you can lose battles if you then go on and win the war. Right. We saw with Milan's former coach Stefano Pioli that Pioli could win the league and get to a Champions League semifinal. But if Inter beat you in that semifinal and Inter keep beating you in the league, it really does damage your reputation amongst the fans and amongst the Milanese.

1:10:02So Kivu has to be careful. He has to sort of reverse this trend. But he's not going to be able to do that in this fixture until obviously the next one. The other big trend that he needs to reverse is the fact of them conceding the opening goals. They're usually going a couple of goals down. And then so many times this season, they'd roared back prior to the derby. They were unbeaten coming into the game. This time, it didn't happen at all. They were two goals down within the first 10 minutes. Christian Pulisic with the header, first of all. And then an audacious flick from Adrian Rabiot. Intended or not, do you think?

1:10:37I think I don't think I mean Ruben Amarim I think claims to work on set pieces but there's a feeling that they could do more from set pieces and that's been for a team that hasn't scored as much as people would have liked this season you have to then work on set pieces if you're not creating from open play or Gonzalo Ramos isn't scoring but it was a deft flick wasn't it oh it was like Deftson yeah and but both of those goals set up by the returning from injury I believe Diego Moreira. Yeah, and also I think with the line-up choice that Amorim made against Bologna, there was a feeling that he was not resting players, but making sure they would be ready for the derby.

1:11:19And boy, they were ready. I mean, because they started that game really well. You mentioned Inter keep going behind. This was the fifth time they've been 2-0 down this season. They've been behind in eight different games, which hasn't largely affected them, but how sustainable is that? But to be fair, as good as Milan were in that first 15, 20 minutes, Inter really piled the pressure on. And I think the man of the match for Milan, along with Diego Moreira, was their goalkeeper, Mike Mignon, who made one of the saves of the season against Jed Spence. but it was an interesting one for Inter because yeah for seven years they played with two strikers and when the line-up dropped you would have been surprised when you were presenting on the BBC James that Inter were playing with only one striker and the later later the game went on you were like when is Kivu going to go to Pio Esposito and and Joanne Bonny.

1:12:22But it turned out and Joanne Bonny had been puking his guts out until 4.30 that day. And Pio Esposito had had some kind of family emergency or something. But it was as disappointing for Inter as it was revitalizing for Milan because I think they have put in a couple of really mature professional performances this season. Away at Udinese a week ago where they didn't back off and they didn't concede late chances. And in the second half in this game, I don't think they really ever felt that they were under threat, which is good. Now they have to back this up against, I think, Genoa at the weekend.

1:13:07Right, Genoa are on a run of three straight victories. Exactly. Under Daniele De Rossi, and far from being in the bottom three, have leapt up to mid-table now. So, yeah, it's going to be a tough game. We'll see if this derby result proves more significant for their long-term ambitions than the previous ones. But a great start for Ruben Amorim. Anything else you want to tell us about from Serie A from the weekend? Well, I mean, only to talk about Amorim a little bit more. Sure. Because I think he feels that perhaps this is a job better suited to him than the club he keeps referring to as his previous club, his former club.

1:13:44He doesn't name Man United, but he does talk about his previous club quite a lot. And going to Milan, he obviously got a full pre-season, which when he got to United, it was in-season when he replaced Ten Hag. Joined a club that plays a back three. So maybe less to do in terms of this squad has actually been built to play this way. So that gives me a little bit of a lead on, a little bit of a jump on, for example, his experience at Man United. And while there are holes in this team, I think in January they'll look for another centre-back, they're not for a left-sided player and another striker.

1:14:27I think he feels like he's got a very strong relationship with the ownership, very direct relationship with ownership, and that he has the backing and support. to make more of a success of things at Milan than at Man United. But it is quite funny because Milan's owner, Jerry Cardinal, keeps bringing up Top Gun and saying that Ruben can be his wingman any time. And Ruben pointed out the other day that in the first Top Gun, Maverick's wingman dies. Goose. Does Goose die in spoiler here? I mean, the film has been out for a long time, James. But yeah, Anthony Edwards. Oh yeah, he buys it big time.

1:15:12Yeah, he does. He ejects and dies whilst ejecting. I see. So, I mean, Ruben doesn't want to go that way. No, of course not. There you go. Well, that's Serie A. We've got Champions League action to look forward to. And we'll be back with special Totally Football shows on Wednesday morning and then Thursday too to round up the previous night's games. Hopefully you'll be joining us for that. For now, though, it's many, many thanks. Paul Ballou, Seb Stafford-Bloor, Tom Williams, James Horncastle, producer Xavi and you. Look forward to seeing you again soon with the Totally Football Show. For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

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