Real Madrid pick Inter’s pockets + who will win the Ballon d’Or?

0:00Hi, I'm Jack Cravici, Kramer host of The Best One Yet. At T-Boy, we're always talking about small decisions that can have an outsized impact. One of the simplest is staying hydrated. Whether I'm traveling, getting a workout in, or heading into a busy day, I keep Liquid IV on hand. It's clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone and contains three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. It's an easy addition to your daily routine and helps support hydration when you need it most. Shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you.

0:32Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT. With AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new Workday. This summer, JBL is on a mission to help you tune into what you love. Audiobooks, podcasts, and everything in between with JBL's live headphones. These headphones are perfect because of their high-res sound, making your fave stories and voices come alive with so much detail, exactly the way they were made to be heard. Plus, they have 80 hours of battery life, so you can binge without pressing pause all summer long.

1:11Find your pair at jbl.com.

1:16Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show with Tuesday's Champions League opening games.

1:25Pol Ballus: Martinez on the rocks against Real Madrid Summer feeling the heat in Aston Villa defeat A dismal night for Interkeepers past and present A mixed one-two for the Mbappe brothers We're rounding it all up with wins for Real Madrid, Man City, Dortmund Aston Villa, Betis and AAK2 on this Totally Football Show Wednesday the 9th of September Hello to you, yes it's an early Totally Football Show because we're here for Tuesday night's opening games of this season's Champions League campaign. Woof! Goals and talking points galore. And with us, Duncan Alexander. Hello, James. Welcome back, Duncan. Thank you.

2:02Pol Ballus: Good holiday? Reasonable. Excellent. Julian Aranz has returned as well. Hello, Jimmo. Hello, Duncan. Hi, everyone. And you're well? Very well. Thank you very much. Super happy to be on the show again. Love that shirt, Julian. Yeah. 2000, 2001 Juventus third kit with obviously in the back if you can see. Oh, David Teresagay. What a lovely chap he was. Of course. Yeah, indeed still is. I imagine. Hey, Paul Belouz joining us. How are you, Paul? Here I am. How are you? How are you? Yeah. Did you have a good Tuesday night? I did, I did. I enjoyed it quite a lot. I think a good night of football overall.

2:37What was your favourite bit of the entire night? I would say my favourite bit was Troy Parvodwina, if I'm honest. because I sort of didn't expect Real Betis coming back two times. And then a third one, basically, to score the winner, Troy Parrott, with, I don't know, the week of his life because he's had a pretty good moment playing for Ireland. But a pretty decent week after scoring the winner against Real Madrid and giving Real Betis his first Champions League win in over 20 years.

3:03Pol Ballus: What a game that looks like it was. 3-2, I didn't see it because I was busy watching the Real Madrid-Inter affair. Duncan, what was your standout moment on Tuesday night? Well, like Paul, I enjoyed Troy Parrott playing up front, not off the shoulder as he often does. But, yeah, I think probably the launch of the new ball. Did you like the new ball? No, I like the new ball. No, I didn't know that. I knew you were going to think that. Sometimes you like a new ball, sometimes you don't. And when I saw the ball with its slightly tutti-fruity colour scheme, I thought, Dunker's not going to be having that.

3:31Pol Ballus: Well, I wasn't at first, but then I looked. It looks like it's vomit-flecked. Well, do you know what it is? Per Adidas ball manufacturers, they said it captures the theme of the quiet morning mist where hard work is put in before the big game. I'm sorry, what? The quiet morning mist. Yeah. Drifting over a training pitch. You know, that could be in Coburn. Which element of their design captures the... I'm not entirely sure, but, you know, a few players did miss with it. So there you go. Bingo. Two fine moments of the Tuesday. Jules, anything stand out for you? I was going to go a bit rogue, but actually I keep that for later.

4:07so I would pick Seru Gerasi who became the first player in Champions League history to score a brace and an on goal in the same game

4:13Pol Ballus: is that right no one's ever done that before nobody ever before him it was last night for Dortmund against Villarreal he scored two one tap in on a cross by Fabio Silva one penalty and then after that an on goal a very unfortunate on goal it's not like an Adamo Troare on goal or the on goal that we saw yesterday as well in the in the league cup this one is very much cobalt pushes the ball on his face and then the ball goes in but yeah nobody had ever scored two and an own goal as well in the same game. Wow. Looking forward to your rogue entry later on. What will which game is that in? I've got two really nice ones on that Villarreal.

4:50Oh yeah? The normal Villarreal game. Okay excellent.

4:53Pol Ballus: Tuesday also saw I believe the first managerial sacking in the 92. Duncan it's your very own Wiccan Wanderers. Yeah yeah not many people saw that coming although maybe they did if they looked in their hearts really one win in 13 if you go back to last season and yeah i think it was starting to go a little bit a little bit wrong i mean i mean i don't know whether this had anything to do with it but they michael duff was the manager formerly championship manager legend formerly student of sean dyche i think he took quite a lot of dycheian principles he took the players on a a pre-season trip to dartmoor where they slept out under the stars this summer.

5:33What time of year? So summer? Summer, yeah. It took me in the river, yeah. The players were interviewed by it. None of them looked particularly happy about it. So I don't know.

5:42Pol Ballus: When Graham Potter does it, everyone loves that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Although he tends to go to the Falklands now. But anyway, so yeah. Okay. One down, 91 to go. Indeed so. Indeed so. Well, one night of football down, I don't know how many to go, but quite a few in this Champions League with the new league phase and that, Let's check on the results from Tuesday night. Tuesday's early game saw A.K. Athens become the competition's first winners this year, beating Lask out of Linz with a spectacular free kick from Raz van Marijn. Goal of the night, for sure. Goal of the night. 1-0 the score.

6:17Pol Ballus: They asked them Villa. They got their first victory of the season. 3-2 away at Club Bruges, where Jan Sommer, Inter's old keeper, had a terrible night. In the 8 o 'clock, Inter's new keeper, Josep Martinez, did even worse. It was a 2-1 win for Real Madrid against into the first two goals. So, gift wrapped by the Nehra Zuri. Man City were two-nit winners at Porto. Erling Haaland with both of their goals, putting him on 59 successful scoring strikes from 59 Champions League appearances. Incredible. Encroyable, as they say, Jules. There were 3-2 victories for Dortmund and Betis. Dortmund 3-2 at home to Villarreal.

6:54Pol Ballus: And Real Betis at Lille with the winning goal, as Paul was mentioning, from Ireland's Troy Parra. His second winning goal in as many games after that strike against Real Madrid at the weekend. All very exciting. Let's begin, though, with the Benabale. Real Madrid 2-1 on Tuesday evening. Remember Simone Inzaghi's Inter, who would go right through to January without conceding a single goal in Europe? This isn't them. Who watched this game? I did. Yes. Everybody, apparently. 37 shots in total. I think the bulk of them for Inter, certainly the bulk of possession for Inter, and yet they were 2-0 down after 23 minutes.

7:37Pol Ballus: It was a disastrous start for the Nero Zuri. It was against a Real Madrid team with a lot of players missing. No Camavinga, no Arda Gulic, who are many not fit to start yet. So a bit of a makeshift midfield, especially with Trent in there alongside Valverde. so no real defensive-minded midfielder there, really. And then a front four of Brian Diaz and Bellingham, Vinicius Mbappé, all of that. And I thought Inter started really well and then it's just a shame that Bissek, who's not very good at football, let's be honest here, messed that up. Although I thought the pass from Curtis Jones to Bissek was not good in the first place either.

8:13Pol Ballus: It's Curtis Jones who in the Gazette this morning gets it in the end for this. Yeah, I can understand that. Although Bissek can still clear the ball if he wants to. He just can't sort out his feet. And then Mbappé scores to add to his own lobbying on the Ballon d 'Or, his quest of the Ballon d 'Or, saying, who would you vote for? For myself? Although we should point out, technically, these games don't count, do they? Which is such a weird thing. Because the voting's already in. No, no, no. This is the thing. You're supposed to vote on what happened between August last year and July this year. But you are still voting now.

8:45Some people would vote too. If you threw a treble hat trick in September. Yeah. And that recency fight. I'm going to go, wow, I didn't see it. Obviously, you know how much I love Kylian Mbappé? Yes. Obviously. There's a great book, by the way, just been published recently about Kylian Mbappé, if you want, in this country or many other countries. The Definitive Biography of Kylian Mbappé. It's a great title. But would you, if you were a contender to win the Ballon d 'Or, I mean, the golden wheel for Dunk, you know, he loves his cycling, and you would ask who should win the Ballon d 'Or, would you say yourself?

9:21Pol Ballus: If I was killing Mbappé, maybe I would. Because a lot of people seem upset that Mbappé said himself when he was asked the question, who would you vote for? He said, well, for myself. A lot of people seem upset. Maybe he's a Paris. Yeah, but when politicians go and vote in their constituency, they vote for themselves, right? Yeah, true, exactly. I don't think that's particularly untoward what he did. Ousmane Dembele saying that he doesn't think anyone outside of PSG is going to get it. And I believe that PSG got a record number of people on the shortlist. Is it 10? 10 if you count Ferran Torres, who obviously is now a PhD, but he's in the list for 100.

9:55And if you add together their minutes played from last season, it's about 802 minutes. Don't listen to this. It's just they deserve a Libina. They're the best team in the world. So, you know.

10:04Pol Ballus: Well, 10 players on the shortlist anyway. That's enough Ballon d 'Or chat for now. Mbappé knows every goal, to go back to Dunk's point, every goal will count now to kind of influence the vote in his favour that people are going to make in the next few weeks. Okay, you care about the Ballon d 'Or, don't you, George? I care because the players care. I understand people who say, so team sport, why are we interested in an individual award? I get that. But the players are so desperate to win it. All of them. So Lamine talking about it yesterday, Kylian obviously, Dembelec, Varaskelia, all of them. It means so much to them that that's why I care because it means so much to them.

10:40Pol Ballus: Who do you think is going to get it and who do you think should get it? I think it's the most open Ballon d 'Or race for a long time, if not ever. Troy Parrott is not unfortunately on the list and there's a few names not on the list like Pedri's not on the list Desiree Dwayne's not on the list Sadio Mane is on the list somehow I don't know how he made his way there it must have been a typo no goalkeeper for the first time ever that's mad no Raya for example I know he didn't play in the World Cup but I think they were caught a bit in between people who did well in their domestic season and then what happened at the World Cup which is a bit tricky but I think Graz Kelly was for me really?

11:17Pol Ballus: you give the Ballon d 'Or Kvada Shkelia? Yeah, I think so. I think he was the best. But you would never get somebody who did well in the domestic season and then well at the World Cup, really, in terms of all the criteria. You know, Mbappe scored a lot of goals but didn't win anything, had a great World Cup. Kane didn't win. Well, okay, he won the Bundesliga. How many PSG players won the World Cup then? Well, no, none. That's why I mean. Ah, okay, I see. No, Fabian Ruiz is the only one. So in that case, give it to Fabian Ruiz. Give it to Fabian Ruiz. I'd be happy with that. I'm just, as Jules says, I'm interested to see how that dichotomy between the club season and the World Cup will play out.

11:49Because as you say, it was very different players that did well in both. I mean, Harry Kane, to your point, is probably the closest that did well at both. I think he is the favourite, as it stands.

11:57Pol Ballus: Do you reckon? Yeah. But I don't know. There's something about a Bayern player that... And arguably Michael Olysses was Bayern's best player last season. He was the slicker's best player. Better than Kane, too. Yeah. So I think he'd be very tight. Although Kane came third at the World Cup. I think Alita came fourth. Did he? Yeah. And nobody cares. I would go for Kane as well I think that the season that he had scoring over 70 goals the World Cup he was really good until the semi-finals probably I think he's the most complete candidate in that regard I don't buy the Mbappe thing I just don't buy it I think that with the season that Madrid had last season of course that he scored a lot of goals but Madrid were a shambles last season and I don't I'm not really keen on awarding that and then if Kane is not winning I'm okay with like Cabaret Scalier as well I think he's a worthy candidate as well Well in Mbappe's defence the goal last night took him to 71 goals in the Champions League which means that he's fifth in the all-time scoring shots for the competition alongside Raul Gonzalez Can we talk now about Real Madrid's second goal?

13:08Pol Ballus: Yeah Inter got an extraordinary history of keepers we'll talk about what Jan Sommer did their former keeper I know what you did Jan Sommer I know what you did Jan Sommer Andre Onan is another particularly guy he was the goalkeeper when they crashed out of their Europa League qualifier 5-0 on aggregate a couple of weeks back for Trabzonspor Mo Salah's new club but their new guy is Josep Martinez and what on earth was he trying to do doing a drag back in his own box at the Bernabeu? Don't know. Didn't work. That's what we do know. No. I mean, goalkeepers, do you remember when Alisson first joined Liverpool?

13:54I think Liverpool were at home to Brighton really early on in his career and he had a back pass and a Brighton player was closing him down and he just dinked it over the player and then controlled it and everyone was like, we're into a new paradigm now. But actually, I think Jürgen Klopp was very cross with him for doing that. him you're set up against Leicester or something like that yeah yeah so I mean you go back to Neuer for a

14:13Pol Ballus: while has been doing stuff like this as well oh yeah Neuer getting having an unsuccessful dribble in the attacking third and in the 2022 World Cup some of my favourite things in football but but yeah keepers a lot more confident to do that now and to be fair you most games you see them get away with stuff like that quite a lot but when it goes wrong yeah I mean you know you see at this point Fedi Valverde is approaching him like a locomotive as well why would you think I will just, I don't know why. I guess he's wondering why. Nine times out of ten, you do that drag back and you get away with it because the player goes to block the clearance.

14:45But Valverde is a pretty clever player. Yeah.

14:48Pol Ballus: Well, indeed, with his tackle, he sends the ball straight into the net and Real Madrid are two goals up. Not that the... Inter played well as well. Started the game the better, really. Right the way through the game, they never had less than 60 % possession. The fans at the Bernabeu, I think, pole growing quite restless with Real Madrid's performance. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a quiet night. I think the fact that Rounded played worse than they did on Friday against Real Betis, the game that they lost and that they should have won for the chances that they created. But the game against Inter, you get the feeling that you get the two goals because of how good they pressed and how sloppy Inter were.

15:30But beyond that, Inter were the better team. Inter created chances as well. And And at some point, there was a feeling that it wasn't allowed to play through midfield because the game was so box to box that there was nobody in midfield. And a sense of lack of control that, yeah, the Bernabeu didn't appreciate. And yeah, let's see how they get on from this. But I would say that the feelings from this game are not amazing. And even when Inder cut back one goal late in the second half, there was a sense in the Bernabeu with fans whistling and booing that something could happen because Inter were really on top of the possession and on the creating chances sort of thing.

16:12Pol Ballus: Courtois with one particular save on Turam. Having said that, there were a number of good chances for Real Madrid who, as Jose Mourinho was saying afterwards, could have scored four or five themselves. And for all that they were into errors, it was the Real Madrid pressure that forced those errors early on. And so there's that. For Bellingham, which I think would have been ruled out for handball. I think the Rev gave a handball. But how he missed that is quite beyond belief. And the form of Vinny as well, Paul. I think a lot of people are looking into Vinny. Well, he was whistled and booed particularly, I think, him and Trent by the Bernabeu crowd.

16:49Yeah, yeah. And things not working out for him, whether it's because the focus is maybe somewhere else with Mbappe. Bellingham who started also well on that right hand side or it's just not it's not happening for him just not clicking he's maybe not as sharp after the World Cup I don't know but Mourinho again talking about him after the game Yeah and when he replaced him because he replaced Bini for the first time this season basically Mourinho was on the sidelines and applauding him to Benitez to in a way like encourage all the fans just to do the same because Bini is the sort of player that needs this sort of love from the fans just to get going.

17:28But yeah, I think that the opinion towards Benicio is on the Bernou is quite divided. There's a lot of people who love him a lot and there's people who is a bit tired of him and not just his antics, but like him lacking a bit of end product sometimes and trying too many things. And that's a bit what's happening this season because on the weekend against Real Betis, he was quite wasteful as well. He couldn't get the best out of Hector Bellerin. And against Inter, he wasn't at his best either. And there's a lot of patterns that are repeating from last season, in my opinion, in terms of the lack of balance in that team.

18:02Too many stars. Who is the leading name on the front line? Who is pressing? Who is not pressing? What does it involve to the team? And there's the feeling that there's a part in the club that, and I would say that Florentino Perez has quite clear that Kylian Mbappe is his main guy. Vinicius wants to be his main guy, but I'm not sure he has the same sort of backing. So let's see how this evolves. Basically, Ramadid has committed really strongly to Benitez this summer by signing a new deal, a six-year new deal. So yeah, it's not going to be an easy solution to that, but everyone is going to try to make a step towards a solution.

18:40Pol Ballus: Paul, it is an opening day win in the Champions League. They lost at the weekend, but playing well. It is very early stages with a new manager, with a bunch of absences. admittedly one player who's not going to be returning for them or arriving for them is Rodri, which is maybe the biggest issue of this side, that big hole in midfield. But isn't it ridiculously early for the fans to be booing and whistling like this? It is, it is. But it's something that is dragging on from the last two seasons where Madrid has basically won nothing. And it's something that is painful for all the fans that want this basically to be solved.

19:14Then I guess that there's a factor as well. In Spain, there's a lot of comparison towards the other big club. And Real Madrid fans, their mood is in a way determined by how Barcelona are doing and the other way as well, the other way back. And Barcelona are doing really well. They got Rodri. They are scoring also fun, while Real Madrid, they lost against Real Betis. They have this struggle of powers up front. And there's, yeah, as I was saying, some bad taste from the past seasons that is still lingering on on some players. But yeah, this is Real Madrid. It's just ridiculous in a way just to see people booing and whistling at this point of the season.

19:51But that's how high the stakes are in a club like this.

19:54Pol Ballus: Well, we'll see how Barcelona get on this evening. They're up against their former defender, Giovanni von Broncos, Thajanord. Barcelona, correct me if I'm wrong, Paul, have scored five goals in three of their four matches so far. That's absolutely true. It's 17 goals in four games. And Anthony Gordon's doing really well, right? Really well, really well. I mean, he's basically established a starter. He's playing on the left wing. Rafinha is playing as a number nine. And you hear how he's playing as in the sort of movement that he does, how he works for the team. He's been really appreciated by the fans.

20:29I've done a piece about him this morning. I don't know if you saw that. But he's become sort of a fan favorite in Barcelona because he speaks decent Spanish and he's already starting to learn Catalan. All the fans know that and they really appreciate him for the sort of efforts to get adjusted to life in Barcelona and to be one of their own. And a couple of weeks ago, there was this banner about him outside of the stadium in one of the bars that all the Barca fans gather before games. So this banner was an England flag. And in the center of the St. George Cross, there was a picture of Anthony Gordon in sunglasses holding a Ballon d 'Or and wearing a Catalan hat, a barratina, which is a traditional Catalan hat, with the inscription, Anthony Gros is a Catalan, which in English would be translated like, Anthony the big one is a Catalan.

21:26So yeah, this sort of stuff going on and Anthony Gordon and the way that he has settled into the club is really, really good. Having said that, I think that there's a big chance that he doesn't start against Feyenoord just because of rotations. But his start to life at Barcelona has been really positive.

21:43Pol Ballus: Barcelona playing on Wednesday night. Loads more to come from Tuesday's games though. Anything else you want to say about events at the Bernabeu or is it opening night? We'll see where they go from here. I mean, just statistically, I thought it was quite funny. You think of Spain, Mourinho, Inter, and you think obviously of Inter's back to the walls, 2010, no possession. And then the fact that Madrid had 35%, which is their lowest ever in a Champions League home game. You know, Mourinho, he knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. Well, we'll see about that. We'll see about that. Well, let's get on to how the English clubs got on on Tuesday night next.

22:25Pol Ballus: This episode of the Totally Football Show is sponsored by Square. What's Square? Well, it's the system powering so many of the places you go and spend your hard-earned money. Basically, if you've ever tapped at the checkout, it was probably Square behind the scenes. Take my favourite coffee shop. Every morning I order the same thing. a matcha latte with oat milk obviously and even while the machine's making that noise i've already tapped my phone for a quick checkout with the receipt emailed to me and if i'm lucky some loyalty points too so that's what it's like on the customer side and if you're a business it doesn't matter if you're selling smoothies running a hair salon or you're the hottest bar in town whatever you do square works for you with no contracts no hidden fees no complicated installs just tools that accept every major payment method lets you see sales and inventory in real time across every channel and helps you access your earnings immediately with square banking now because you listen to the totally football show square will give you 200 of their hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash totally football so if you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools square helps you sell manage and grow without slowing down right now you can get that 200 off square hardware at square.com slash go slash fc podcast That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash Totally Football.

23:41Pol Ballus: That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash Totally Football. All one word with no spaces. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today.

23:56Hi, I'm Nick, co-host of The Best One Yet. You optimize your workouts, your portfolios, and that rando startup idea that hit you in the middle of the shower. But if you're not hydrated, you're already playing catch-up. So we keep a stash of Liquid IV in our studio. One stick mixed into 16 ounces of water is clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone with three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. Whether you're traveling, exercising, or podcasting, the best business news ever, Liquid IV makes it easy to stay hydrated wherever life takes you.

24:25So shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you. This summer, JBL is on a mission to help you tune into what you love. audiobooks podcasts and everything in between with JBL's live headphones these headphones are perfect because of their high-res sound making your fave stories and voices come alive with so much detail exactly the way they were made to be heard plus they have 80 hours of battery life so you can binge without pressing pause all summer long find your pair at jbl.com

25:00Pol Ballus: Two wins out of two for the Premier League sides in Champions League action on Tuesday, Man City. Two new winners at Porto. And how about this? Arsenal Villa scoring three goals in what was a 3-2 win away at Bruges. Again, former interkeeper, very much involved in this. Producer Charlie says, who knew that Jan Sommer was playing for Club Bruges? In many ways, Charlie continues, he wasn't. But it was a surprise. Were you across the fact that Jan Sommer pitched up in Belgium? Yeah, they're all kind of goalkeepers, like Simon Mignolet was the one before. And I think on paper, for a team that, apart from people like Van Ecken or Mekele, is still quite young.

25:44You've got young players. Tres Soldi is still young. Jan Virgili is still young. So he's young and things like that. A bit of experience makes sense. And you would expect your experienced players when the big games come to show that experience and don't do anything silly.

25:59Pol Ballus: How experienced is Jan Sommer? Well, he's become only the second keeper ever to represent five clubs in the Champions League. Jules, can you name all five? So obviously Inter, Bruges, Bayern Munich, Gladbach and Basel. Basel. This, I think it's fair to say, wasn't his finest night from all those performances. The third goal in particular, but there were other moments too, like the one where he came rushing out of the box. Yeah, but that can happen. You know, for me, the worst one is the first one because Tell us about the first one Jules Joe Gomez the Aston Villa midfielder is on the floor after he thought what was a foul and the referee didn't blow the whistle so as we know now you don't stop if somebody's on the floor because the referee is not going to stop the game so the guy either stands up and plays again or he stays on the floor and much later on the referee comes back to it and says okay you must really be injured or something so we've seen those kind of incidents all the time where you just keep playing more than ever.

26:58And yet the ball ends up in Power Torres' feet literally into his own half. And you see all the club rush players stop playing, waiting for the referee to go back and have a look at Joe Gomez on the floor, including somebody like Van Haken, who is like, again, a super experienced player who should know better, who raises his hand towards the ref saying, like, let's stop the game here. One of the players on the floor. But that's not what happens anymore. So Power Torres literally runs for 50 yards. Nobody even goes. It's like just so much room. Yeah, it's just crazy. And then he gives the ball to McGinn on the edge of the box.

27:30Left foot curler, Zommer decided to say, hey, I'm going to try to save it without my hands. So it doesn't die. It dies, but it doesn't do anything with his hands. And the ball goes in. I'm like, at that level, it's so unacceptable. Yes. I mean, we should say that McGinn got quite a lot of bend on the new missed inspired ball. So he didn't miss.

27:46Pol Ballus: There you go. Paul Torres with the assist. And he would produce another one for the third goal, which was the worst bit of Jan Sommerism, I think, of the evening. This came from a hoof-up field from Paul Torres, which Jan Sommer elected to chase about 40 yards out of goal to close down. In front of Nico Jackson. He was unsuccessful. And Nico Jackson finished well. Nico Jackson, who did have a good night. Is that right? Yeah, he lived brilliant already. I mean, he almost feels like the perfect striker for Unai Emery. Obviously played under the striker before. Because he stretches defences really well.

28:19Villa go through the middle a lot. But he, you know, Watkins did it very well. But I think almost Jackson's a younger and better version of that, really. People kind of focused on his sort of ex-gender performance at Chelsea, which was vast. But he was getting in those positions. And if you can put up with a few misses, I think what he adds to the team structure is really good. And, you know, it's the same as last year. Villa starts slowly and everyone's like, well, this could be the end. I think they've rebuilt well. I think they'll pick up momentum. Really? Where are you predicting they're going to finish, Duncan?

28:49In which competition? The Premier League. In the Premier League, I think they will finish in the top seven.

28:55Pol Ballus: A bit woolly, a bit woolly. On the subject of Jackson's evening, I really enjoyed his backheel assist for Emi Buendia's goal, which came very timely because it was straight after Bruges themselves had equalised. Second assist, yeah. Oh, it was his second assist. Yeah, second assist. But it was the backheel. The backheel for Joe Gomez, who crosses the ball for Buendia. Oh, it was the second assist in that sense. It was the second assist in that sense, sorry. Yeah, yeah. but I agree with Dunk I think he fits this team really well I think he will do well for them they might have slightly overpaid I think still but I think it's a really good signing how much did they pay for him they paid so they paid 50 for Garnaccio which is unbelievable and I believe they paid 47 yeah another 50 for Jackson which again 47 doesn't sound much there's a few bonuses on top potentially for me it's a little bit much but he's young and he's certainly a better value for that money than Garnaccio would ever be you mentioned Garnaccio George Hemmings played the full 90 I think he has been good so far but he's only 19 I mean that doesn't reflect too well on Garnaccio if he's you know Hemmings has played all the Premier League minutes and now getting 90 in the Champions League there are two 50 million pound wingers on the bench with Garnaccio and Embai he didn't come on at all that's something nice as the season develops 3-1 a half time in this game for Aston Villa, which made it the best away opening half they'd ever had in the competition.

30:25Pol Ballus: They've never been up, I think, ever in Europe. Three goals in the first half of an away match. However, the second half wasn't quite so positive for Unai Emery. No, it wasn't. I mean, I think it was understandable that they faded a little bit. I mean, Bruges dominated. But I mean, Villa still ended with over 3.2 xG. I would say it does feel like Bruges and Villa play each other every season. Remember the Tyron Minks penalty incident and all of that? But I'm all for it. I think Bruges, if you don't know what game to pick on a Champions League night, a Bruges home game is like guaranteed quality.

31:00Pol Ballus: The Carreter has mentioned the fact that their games produce goals. They're very open, yeah. Even across the last night, I think we're on 3.5 per game, which yes, a tiny sample size, but the Champions League the last sort of three, four years has just constantly produced goals and it's kind of good that this week split across three nights because you can enjoy it a little bit more. That's so true. That's so true. Only two goals in the Man City game at Porto, both of which were scored by Erling Haaland, as we mentioned before. That takes him to 59 goals in 59 Champions League appearances. There were 20 shots for Man City, 10 on target.

31:39Pol Ballus: Gigi Donnarumma didn't have a single save to make. Was this total City dominance? Not total. I think Porto particularly in the second half built up a bit of a head of steam and came close to having a short and tight I mean we talked earlier didn't we about the the error in the Madrid game with the drag back for keeper but Donnarumma almost he went for the clearance and almost did the same thing so there's no there's no perfect thing he's not looked great the first few weeks of the season in the league at the weekend he almost did the same yeah Coventry game City go to Old Trafford this weekend they might be wishing they had the New Trafford yeah etc and so on but yeah City were City were solid I thought Boadi who started was brilliant yes so this was his full debut and a slightly surprising midfield alongside Enzo Fernandes and who's the other one in there Ryan Cherky it was just those two but obviously we phoned oh Cherky and front Cherky and front okay right but yeah he looks great I think he misplaced one pass in the whole game so how many did he make 58 wow He played quite safe though.

32:44In the game, they weren't really in control. And Fernandes looked good as well. I mean, he assisted the first goal with a little dinked cross. City just looked like a professional, normal Champions League team. You know, like a Guardiola team, you'd never know what he'd kind of do. And there was, you know, obviously they won a lot of matches, but it was always a bit of an experiment. It felt like this just felt like a solid 4-2-3-1 with good players and a world-class striker who scored two goals. you didn't watch them and go well this is the best team in Europe but you thought well this is a team that's clearly going to get quite far

33:17Pol Ballus: this is a team that's won four straight matches at the start of this campaign pretty good for new manager Enzo I think we have scored more goals like Diogo Costa made a couple of really good saves on Haaland one on Foden I think as well and there was a bit of variation I think for Buadi and Maresca I was really really praising him after the game and rightly so I think there's he will add a lot he's still only 18 he turns 19 next month but if he has kind of a better long range passing to his game because that's what's missing really he doesn't hit the diagonals like a Rodri would and at some point this has to be added to his game he's so so promising Boadi's a goodie nice one and at some point we saw Anderson as well with Enzo and Boadi so the three super expensive that super expensive midfield for the first time all together not for long but at some point we saw them a complete rebuild and they all look like they're doing what they're supposed to do.

34:12I mean, the only unusual thing, I guess, was Holland getting in a scrap with Rosario towards the end. He was kind of pulled down when he was sort of through on goal and it was a free kick, which was given, but then there was a little bit of afters. It was some afters, yeah. We love some Algie Balgie. Yeah.

34:29Pol Ballus: Never really went anywhere. Both players received a yellow card and that's Man City's emphatic 2-0 victory away at Porto. Is that where one of your rogue moments comes in? yours? No, although I was always a bit sceptical about Farioli. I think he's done a great job with Porto in Portugal to win the title and stuff like that. They're the best defensive, one of the best defensive teams in Europe, so in terms of stats and the goal they concede and things like that. I was really disappointed by what they did with the ball yesterday. And I think, again, he's a defensive coach. So I'm just, I just thought this was going to be easy for City and India and I think it was an easy win.

35:08Pol Ballus: Okay. Very good. Next up, let's Let's check in on the other matches from Tuesday night, including those 3-2 victories for Dortmund and Betis.

35:20Hi, I'm Jack Crivechi, Kramer host of The Best One Yet. At T-Boy, we're always talking about small decisions that can have an outsized impact. One of the simplest is staying hydrated. Whether I'm traveling, getting a workout in, or heading into a busy day, I keep Liquid IV on hand. It's clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone and contains three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink. Plus, eight vitamins and nutrients. It's an easy addition to your daily routine and helps support hydration when you need it most. Shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you.

35:53Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT. With AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new Workday. This summer, JBL is on a mission to help you tune into what you love. Audiobooks, podcasts, and everything in between with JBL's live headphones. These headphones are perfect because of their high-res sound, making your fave stories and voices come alive with so much detail, exactly the way they were made to be heard. Plus, they have 80 hours of battery life, so you can binge without pressing pause all summer long.

36:31Find your pair at JBL.com.

36:35Pol Ballus: The New York Times app? Unlocked? Everyone knows you need to subscribe to the Times to access all of the reporting. But what if you could explore the Times for a month, for free, without putting in a credit card? Now you can. When you download the New York Times app for the first time, your first month in the app is free. A month to go behind the paywall to see what Times subscribers get every single day. If you don't already subscribe to the New York Times, download the Times app today and get free access for 30 days. Lille 2, Real Betis 3, Tuesday night in Lille at the Piemorois. Betis still under the auspices of Manuel Pellegrini, oldest manager in the competition, defeating the youngest manager in the Champions League, David Angelotti, Carlo's son, and Troy Parrott again.

37:27Pol Ballus: Let's talk about Troy Parrott. What kind of expectations did they have of Troy? And how sustainable is this brilliant early form, do you think? Is he becoming the main man now? Up front, he's going to become the main man, I think, because that is where we're looking for more of a presence up front. They didn't have this profile of player. Their striker was Kucho Hernandez, who's a really good player, but it's more of a shorter number nine, a guy that likes to dip in and just play up with attacking midfielders. Troy Parrot is a guy that can play up front, fight against the centre-backs. And the expectations were high because Betis paid quite a lot of money for what they are.

38:06I think they paid around 20 million or a bit less than that, I think. Yeah, 16, I think. But it's quite a lot of money for them. And he's responding, basically. In his first game in La Liga, he went a bit unnoticed against Osuna, I think. but as the games went on I mean he's starting to become what they expected and yeah he's having this new layer of physical presence up front and I think that he's going to end up being the starter for the club this season

38:34Pol Ballus: Two winning goals in two games physical presence you can't say fairer than Ethan Mbappé eh Jules? Yeah I mean the Mbappés as a family just won't want to play against Betis ever again because obviously as we mentioned earlier Betis beat Kylian who missed a penalty in that game at the weekend on Friday night. And then yesterday, Etan, the younger brother, kind of elbows Nathan after... Kind of. But like, I'm not sure how much contact there really is. But he raises his elbow in the face of Nathan who then was laughing with Junior Firpo, like as in, you know, I got him there, I tricked him. Yeah, yeah.

39:13So it's a red card every day. I'm not saying it's not a red card. I'm just saying like, it was stupid from Etan who was still a young player. I think what cost Lille in this game where they I thought they were really good in the first half apart from the two goals they considered on set pieces from Marc Batra but it's a bit of that kind of inexperienced youth in Ligue 1 or even in a lot of our leagues if you make a couple of mistakes over 5-10 minutes it's usually okay not in the Champions League you get punished for it so I thought they were in control of the game when they were 1-0 up and then after that and even at 2-1 up to be fair and and then and then I think they paid for that the red card changes obviously everything he should know better but he started the season well

39:53Pol Ballus: weren't they 3-2 down when he got sent off so that's yeah but after that you don't really come back you don't come back Giro who became the oldest French player ever to play short of a couple of weeks of his 40th birthday had a decent chance towards the end a couple yeah one and a half decent chances but yeah 10 against 11 against a good Betis team it was too hard it's a shame because I thought they looked really good at times this little team on the Ancelotti. Okay. But basis looked even better. Paul? Yeah, no, I was about to mention, just like before we go to move to another subject, like there was a tweet from Real Betis because I wanted to mention what Jules just said about the Mbappe family.

40:31A tweet that went quite viral last night from the Real Betis official account saying every time an Mbappe family member hears the word Real Betis Ballonpied and they inserted the picture of a man who is really scared. And yeah, basically going back to last Friday when Kylian Mbappe had a nightmare playing against Real Betis and now Ethan Mbappe who was sent off and basically I don't know if killed the game but had an important weight in Real Betis winning against Lille Any more Mbappe brothers out there for There's the third one obviously but he's retired now so you know it might be a Sevilla FC fandom What kind of

41:07Pol Ballus: what kind of expectations are there for Ethan Mbappe? He's 19? Yeah he's eight years younger than his brother and injuries have slowed down his progress last season really. He had some really good games scored against Marseille, scored against PSG. But injuries made that season more difficult than what it should have been. He's very talented. He just needs to learn quickly, stay fit. Because yesterday he said, I know it's like a naive mistake he made. You know, you get provoked and you respond and you shouldn't and all of that. But really, that's not acceptable. I see. Mark Bantra, who produced both equalisers for Betis, was one of the protagonists of their victory on the weekend at home to Real Madrid.

41:55Pol Ballus: You were pointing out, Paul, or rather you were passing on the extraordinary information about... You remember the penalty at the end of the Betis win against Real Madrid when there was encroachment by Batra and Mourinho and others were upset that the penalty wasn't repeated, they weren't given the chance to repeat it, Because Batra, I think it was then came in to clear the save penalty away. And in case you missed our show yesterday, Paul, tell us again what the rules are on this. Why was Batra's encroachment allowed to stand? Yeah, so basically it was Batra himself who went to that zone, to the broadcasters in Spain, and said that he has a good friend, one of his closest friends, is a referee in the Spanish third division, like a retired referee.

42:42and he asked him about what he could do in the penalty and basically the referee confirmed him that he could jump into the box and as long as he's not having a foot set into the box in a penalty, yeah, basically he's not invading any sort of disallowed territory. So what Barbarra did was sort of time the run that Kylian Mbappe was doing towards the penalty and when he saw that Mbappe was shooting, he jumped into the box and the kick of the ball took place when he was in the air. So he wasn't basically invading the box. Very smart. And that was, this just was allowed to stay and just allowed Barter to clear the ball.

43:23Pol Ballus: This new learning amazes me so much. That's why Obi-Wan Kenobi would be a great defender. Yeah. And so many others of it. Jedi friends. Jedi. Rogue moments. Still not coming up, no. Perhaps it's in Dortmund The Real. For sure. Okay, so that was 3-2 to the Germans. Who saw this? 3-2, sounds like fun. Yeah, it was fun. Was it fun? It was really fun. I think Inigo Perez and Villarreal, although they have started poorly both in the Champions League with his defeat, but also in the league where they've struggled as well. I think it's fun to watch because they press and they're intense and I think Inigo is a really promising young coach.

44:02And obviously Dortmund are a Bundesliga team, so they will play and they will attack you and everything. So we had a lot of chances in this game, a lot of space, a lot of attacking moments and everything. It was good.

44:13Pol Ballus: Yellow wall, yellow submarine. Juracy, as we mentioned before, with his remarkable first ever brace plus own goal. He is the third highest scoring player in the Champions League since September 24th. And Kane and Mbappe have produced more. Remarkable stuff. Great league phase last season too. He did, didn't he? And we're talking about footballers with brothers and Ethan Neroneri and Joe Bellingham both came on. Oh, nice. Okay. Neroneri came on and off which I think I don't think he's fully fair and that's as in like match fair. He's ready but because of the preseason that he had and then obviously not playing much through August before the deal but he must be so hard as a player.

44:54I mean, to come on like he did in the 27th minute when Caretas got injured. 27th. Yeah, which is another bad injury after Constantinople for Dortmund and then to come off again. And I know it was, I think, 81st minute. So it's not far from the end, but still like you, you know, you come on and off. Nobody wants that. Exactly.

45:18Pol Ballus: Yeah. Dortmund signed two very highly rated Greek stars in the summer. One had already got stretched off with an ACL, Janis Constantelius. And now Karetsus was stretched off last night. Now, I think this has been described as a circulation issue. Yeah. What does that mean? I don't really know what it means. Maybe it's not as, or it certainly doesn't look as serious as the ACL that Constantelias, who's a bit older than Caritas, who is this young, super exciting, left-footed winger who did really well in Belgium again, a bit like Tolis, and then arriving on that big move to Dortmund. It's a real shame that they've lost him.

45:57And we don't know yet for how long, but yeah, it's a blow. It's another blow. What's your rogue moment then, Charles? So, you know, when your team qualifies for the Champions League, usually you get very excited, right? Everybody's waiting for the draw to happen and the schedule. So you can book all your flights. And, you know, whenever Wickham will be in the Champions League, Dunk will be like itchy to go and book everything. Do you know how many Villarreal fans made the trip to Dortmund yesterday? And considering this is Spain to Germany, you know, we're not talking like going halfway through the world.

46:28there were 39 39 Villarreal fans at the at the Westphalian Stadium or a signal in a park stadium Paul is that normal? Paul what is going on? Yeah no it's a it's a particular club Villarreal because like if you look historically over the last I mean now now Villarreal has a history in La Liga of course but before they go they went big basically the big club in the area was was maybe Castellón, who are now in the second tier. So there's not a... I wouldn't say that there's a huge tradition of loud fans in Villarreal. It's more of a family-oriented sort of stadium and fan base. When you go to El Estadio de la Ceramica, it's not a terrifying atmosphere in there.

47:19In the same way, it's a good place to start coaching and for the players just to settle and just to have a quiet atmosphere, grow up. and then look for a big move. But that has its consequences as well when it comes to away traveling and everything. There's not a huge fan base. And there's not this feeling of pertinence that gives to you like a big city. I mean, it's a small city. It's a very small place. It's an unusual club and all the breakout that they've had over the past 23, 25 years that you could see it and you can see it in the sort of things that Jules is mentioning. Remarkable. That must be a record, 39.

47:59Pol Ballus: You have a quiz question as well, Jürgen. Yeah, I mean, that was the quiz question. How many fans do you think Villarreal brought with them to... I've got another rogue moment on this game because... On this game? Yeah, one Mourinho is not enough in football, as you know. Oh, yeah. Two Mourinhos were in play yesterday. Jose Mourinho, obviously, as we mentioned with Real Madrid, and also Santiago Mourinho, who is the Villarreal right back. Is he not Mourinho? No, there's a... How do you say again on the end, a little... It was a squiggle. Squiggle. Yeah. Okay, Mourinho. So two Mourinhos on the same night, which I believe is the first time because obviously...

48:35Pol Ballus: First time. History as far back on records of Mourinho. Because that season, that's Mourinho the player, second season of Villarreal. I don't know how you qualify this as a rogue moment. It is great, I think, to have two Mourinhos. That's it. I love it. All right. Well, he made 48 passes, which is more than Real Madrid did. It's not. Goal of the night. We decided for Raz van Marijn in AK Athens' 1-0 victory over Lask. That's their first victory in the Champions League, the Greeks, in 20 years. Woof. Lasker were playing their first European Cup fixture since 1965. They were the team who famously put out Celtic in the playoff.

49:20Pol Ballus: We call it playoff. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Well, that was just the opening salvo of Champions League fixtures. We've got Wednesday and Thursday still to come before Match D1 is concluded. Tomorrow, Thursday, we'll be back with Wednesday night's action. As for Thursday's games, your Man United, Sabahs, etc. Don't know when we'll get round to those. Before we sign off today, though, it's not just Wickham firing managers that have been going on outside of the Champions League. There's also opening games from the third round of the Carabao Cup. plenty of drama here. Paul, I imagine this was all over Spanish media because there were comedy miskicks.

49:58Pol Ballus: Brilliant. Japanese 1-2 for Palace in their victory over Middlesbrough. Ryan Christie with a hat-trick for his first hat-trick in how long? Probably ever. Ever? Ever it was, yeah. Alright, that was in Bournemouth. 4-0 win over Lincoln. Newcastle beat Millwall 1-0. Joe Willock for them i enjoyed the the new very kind of european style divide between home and away fans at the den it's like purse both clear yeah yeah it feels very sary b yeah it does a bit okay um i think the best moment is probably the own goal from uh bradford yeah bradford's macaulay gillespie yeah gillespie apparently but spelt yeah different rogue would call it yeah macaulay gillespie and well yeah tell us about how he put Orient the opposition on the score sheet well the cross comes in and he tries to hook it away I mean you know maybe it should have been goal for Inter but he hooks it onto his standing leg and then it just goes in it spirals off behind him into the net yeah it was facing the right way which is all we can ask for in the modern game there was also Sorba Thomas making his full debut for Hull City in the Carabao Cup last night and he lost to Sunderland and a lovely goal by Talby.

51:17Losing once in the Carvalho in the League Cup is bad enough. But imagine if you'd lost twice in the same season then because he was also knocked out when he was playing for Stoke City two weeks ago by Hull City before that move happened. How is that even possible that you play... So he was playing for Stoke

51:31Pol Ballus: two weeks ago and got knocked out by... Hull. Hull. And then Hull bought him and now he's got knocked out for Hull. Yeah. And it's still early September and he's been knocked out of the League Cup twice. It's a bit like the season Michael Ateta signed for Arsenal. His final goal for Everton was against Blackburn. Yes. And he also scored home and away for Arsenal against Blackburn. So he scored three times in one season. Not that guy again then. Yeah. Wow. I mean, Javi Bey lost twice in the French Cup last season for Rennes, as in coaching Rennes, and then coaching Marseille, which is like, how many times do you want to lose in the French Cup?

52:04Probably none. Going with none. None? Yeah. Well, Sorba Thomas wishes probably he'd never played in the League Cup this season. All right. He'll never drink a can of Carabao ever again. True. or if he moves in January again then in January and he would never move for a team that is still in the Carbo Cup in January because I mean he'd be ready for the final but you never know maybe he'd make it three no that's the example from last season of Mark Wey who was not out of the FA Cup I think right playing for Crystal Palace against National League team I don't remember the team now and then won the competition with Man City just wrong isn't it

52:37Pol Ballus: anyway there you go Paul what are you up to tonight you're going to be watching Barcelona yeah But I can do the double because Barcelona is an early kickoff. Cool. Yeah. Nice. So then I can focus on 9 p.m. kickoff. Well, 8 p.m. for you. Super. All right. Well, you enjoy those games, all of them. Duncan, many thanks to you for being with us. Are you back tomorrow? I am. All right. I'll see you for Thursday's show. Jules will be seeing you soon enough, I'm sure. Soon, hopefully, yeah. Thank you for having me. Excellent. Many thanks to Jake and Charlie in the booth and you there, wherever you're enjoying this show.

53:12Pol Ballus: We'll catch up with you soon on the Toadly Football for now. From all of us here, it's goodbye.

53:42alone with three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. Whether you're traveling, exercising, or podcasting, the best business news ever, Liquid IV makes it easy to stay hydrated wherever life takes you. So shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you. This summer, JBL is on a mission to help you tune into what you love, audiobooks, podcasts, and everything in between with JBL's live headphones. These headphones are perfect because of their high-res sound, making your fave stories and voices come alive with so much detail, exactly the way they were made to be heard.

54:17Plus, they have 80 hours of battery life, so you can binge without pressing pause all summer long. Find your pair at JBL.com. Thumbtack presents Uncertainty Strikes. I was surrounded. The aisle and the options were closing in. There were paint rollers, satin and matte finish, angle brushes, and natural bristles. There were too many choices. What if I never got my living room painted? What if I couldn't figure out what type of paint to use? What if I just used Thumbtack? I can hire a top-rated pro that knows everything about interior paint, easily compare prices, and read reviews. Thumbtack knows homes.

54:55Download the app today.