The Champions League returns! + Barca’s 11-game winning run is over

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30Ireland's return of Musiala, a dire day for Eric and much more in this Totally Football Show.

0:44It's Monday the 19th of January and it's a special Euro Totally Football Show. Hi, everybody. Hello, listener. Hello to you, Seb Staffer-Bloor in Hamburg. Hey, James Richardson in London. How about you, Paul Belouz, bunking off work on a big pinchotastic weekend in the Basque country? Hello, hello. It's a pleasure to be here. I would love to say it's more of a pleasure to be here than to be in San Sebastian, but I'm afraid that being in San Sebastian is amazing. It is. Excellent. All right, James Horncastle is here in the studio. All right, James? That's right, James. I am here in the studio. Are you well?

1:23Yeah, of course. Good. Excellent. And joining us today for his Euro Show debut it's Tom Williams hello James alright special Welsh football section on the way yes and about time to about time to we were just saying before we got recording how much you love San Sebastian because you went there on one of your foodie weekends yes yes so I go away on an annual foodie weekend with a couple of friends you went in December we went to San Sebastian in December and as a consequence what was the best thing you ate? we ate a lot of very good things Okay. I might have to think about that in case. Pinchos.

2:01I'll tell you what surprised me was the Gilda or the Gilda. Gilda, Gilda, yeah, yeah. The Gilda, which is the first ever Pinchos, which is, and I've just looked it up because I thought this might come up. It's an olive, a guindilla pepper, and a salted anchovy on a cocktail stick. Oh, yeah. That was the first ever Pinchot, and it was named in honour of a character played by Rita Hayworth in the film Hilda, of the same name. And if you didn't know about its origins, you probably wouldn't go for it first, because it doesn't look particularly appetising. I love an anchovy. But, for example, I mean, it's not a Pinchot, but a slightly kind of Pinchot-adjacent Roman equivalent would be a mozzarella in carrozza, where you have the anchovy underneath.

2:51I'm not sure if that is a mozzarella and carrozza, but when you have the... Or a fiori di zucca with the anchovy stuffed into the zucchini flour. So, Tom, where's your next, where are previous foodie weekend destinations? We had one in Seville at the back end of 2022, and that set the bar extremely high. I put San Sebastian as a close second. Really? Just the fact that you can walk around and go into almost any restaurant and know that you're going to eat extremely nice food. And because you're eating pinchos in San Sebastian or tapas in Seville, you can eat in 10 to 15, if not more, establishments in any given day and still not be full.

3:31All right. Is it just Spanish locations for you? No, it's not. We've been to Krakow as well. Have you? We haven't done, haven't been to Germany yet. I'm organizing this year and I said I'll do it in France. So pressure is on. All right. Seb, where should Tom and his culinary chums go? Well, I was in Leipzig last week and I went to a restaurant called Prestigio and had an amazing tiramisu. It comes in like a quite a tall glass and you have to sort of work to get to the end of it. Very, very nice. Okay. I mean, that's an Italian dessert. But where would be the kind of foodie center in Germany then?

4:06Berlin, if you're going Dörner. I think if you go anywhere in the Ruhr, go Currywurst, but go street Currywurst. Don't go restaurant Currywurst. in hamburg go down to the harbor and have fish brought in just like mackerel and uh sorry herring and and like onion in a in a in a brought in just like a bread roll right um okay paul let me out help you out here seb's talking about getting sausage in the river anyway james i mean there's plenty of places you can eat there where's your number one And where should Tom go for his Epicurean escapades? Number one. Tough, isn't it? It is very tough, James.

4:50I mean, Genoa's great. Yeah. I mean, people usually say Bologna, don't they? I like Genoa. Yeah. Pesto. I've not really eaten that much in Paloma. No? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Sicilian, haven't I? You can eat horse. You eat horse in Paloma. You eat horse. Yeah. French do eat horse. What I'd like to find is an equivalent of the kind of tapas slash pinchos style eating in other countries. Yes. Lots and small amounts. Venice for cicchetti. There you go. Where are you going to go in France since you're organizing it? I don't know yet. I don't know. I haven't really started to plan, but I will.

5:28And I will keep you posted. Fantastic. Do you have another trip planned in Spain? Not currently. We've done Spain twice in the last three years now. It would feel like a failure of imagination to keep doing Spain over and over again. It should be like World Cup snow with each continent. Rotate it. We just struck a deal with Saudi Arabia for 2030. So looking forward to that one. Brilliant. All right. Love a bit of food chat. It's been a while. Been a while. Since what? Lunch? Since we had a bit of food chat at the start of the show. And had a bit of lunch. It's all been football, football, football, bitter moment of the week, football, football, football.

6:04Well, maybe the last time was like the Nando's chat. So that's an upgrade, I would say. I will say so too. That was a Champions League week as well when you went to Newcastle, Paul. Oh, Jesus. That's not going to go out of your head, right? You're Barcelona playing in the Champions League this midweek. They are playing Slavia Praha. Oh. Slavia Praha away. Anyway, we'll get on to the Champions League very shortly, but not, James, until after. You've all provided us with a moment of the week. What have you got for us, Seb Stafford-Bloor? I am going to take you to Augsburg against Freiburg on Sunday.

6:38Really, really interesting situation. Really interesting bit of refereeing. So Augsburg, 2-1 up, defending a corner. On the line, Michael Gregorich, as clear a handball as you could ever wish to see. Literally right angles to his body. Before the referee can blow the whistle, give the penalty in the red card, Igor Mitanovic scores. so the referee allows the goal books Gregorich doesn't send them off and just carries on very interesting because it's such a it's as flagrant a professional foul as you could ever see as deliberate handball as you know as football provides and yeah yeah just a yellow card I've never seen that before I'm sure it has happened I've just never seen it before how did the game finish so 2-2 that was the final goal but interestingly the point made afterwards was that had the penalty been given, Augsburg would have been reduced to 10 men.

7:27There was still half an hour left to play, so penalty plus 30 minutes against 10 men rather than 2-2 against 11 for half an hour. Yeah, referees, eh? What are they like? Paul, what's your moment of the week? I'm going to go to Vigo. Celta host a Rayo Vallecano, and they won comfortably, 3-0 win. But Celta de Vigo organised a campaign before the game among the fans and the fan base, encouraging them to go to the stadium with the nails painted. It had like a goal and the aim was to support their striker, Borja Iglesias. The week before, Celta Vigo played at Sevilla and Borja Iglesias was the subject of homophobic abuse from some of the host fans.

8:10Iglesias is quite an interesting character, like in Spanish football. He's been a very active voice, very supportive of the LGTBI community with all the pro-Palestine support as well. He even announced, if I don't recall wrongly, his decision to step down from the national team from Spain after the Rubiales and Gianni Hermoso thing in the World Cup in 2023, to call it in some sort of way. So yeah, Borja Iglesias is a player that likes to paint his nails and tends to show up in games like with different designs or shapes, something like this. And that's why Celta de Vigo wanted to use as a club this gesture to encourage their fans just to support him.

8:50Iglesias is one of the most important players of the team, mate in the academy. And Celta de Vigo are doing great another season. It's a team that I will never get tired of praising because they have full of academy players who are doing really well. Out of the three goals that they scored against Rayo Arecano, two were scored by academy players. The manager, Jonathan Giraldez, comes from the academy as well. Really good manager. The team plays really well. So, yeah, I think it's a team that deserves a shout-out, and especially with this occasion. Lovely stuff, Paul. Celta Vigo currently in seventh spot, but there are only goal differences outside the European positions.

9:24Tom, what's been your outstanding moment of the weekend? I mean, it kind of has to be that Ousmane Dembele got, but would we prefer a more esoteric choice? Well, you can go for that. What have you got of an esoteric nature? I mean, it's not monumentally esoteric, but I was going to talk about Hendrik's home debut for Lyon. He was electrifying, So he made his debut previous weekend, scored in the Coupe de France away at Lille. It's been very quickly adopted by the Lyon supporters, as you would expect. And last night he was playing in his first home game, first league game, on the day that Lyon celebrated the 10th anniversary of moving to the Group Amherst Stadium.

10:07So it's already a party atmosphere. And he was fantastic. He was everywhere. and Lyon, basically since he arrived, have started playing with a diamond midfield and a two-man attack of Hendrik and Afonso Moreira, neither of whom are, you know, sort of occupying the central striker role. It gives Hendrik a huge amount of freedom to roam around, get on the ball and as we know from his time at Palmeiras and briefly at Madrid, he loves just getting on the ball and shooting all the time. He set up Lyon's second goal for Abner Vinicius and towards the end of the game, Lyon were 2-0 up, Brest pulled one back late on.

10:44He played an absolutely exquisite La Migne Amal style outside of the left foot pass down the inside right channel for Tanner Tessman who made a complete horlicks of it. But it was just really thrilling to see this player who has arrived in French football accompanied by so much expectation just proving that he is a superstar or at least a potential superstar so quickly. One of the things that stood out with Hendrik for me is that watching the compilations, he's a player that tends to roam through the right flank of the attack, which is precisely where Madrid are unbalanced on. So they have so many people on the left-hand side with Mbappe beneath his going there.

11:24And Hendrik, out of the blue, feels comfortable on the other side, which is in a way what they need. So it even feels more staggering to me that they didn't give Hendrik a proper chance. I know, and we all know, that there's a lot of personality management in there, but from the tactical perspective, I think that there was room for trying to fit Hendrik at some point. Leon currently lying fourth in Ligue 1. There are only a couple of points off the Champions League positions. Third spot currently occupied by Marseille. James Horncastle, what's floated your boat? Well, a few things. Maybe the week of Nicolas Fulcrucq, on loan from West Ham at AC Milan, the first signing of the January transfer window.

12:04and he already made a very encouraging debut and was sort of beginning to get into his stride. And then last week he broke his toe. He was in a hotel room in Milan, he went to train and someone broke into his hotel room and basically stole half a million's worth of watches and stuff. He then scored his first goal for the club, the only goal, and it was at San Siro against Lecce.

12:34And he thinks he wanted it. He found it. Full hook. 1-0. So Milan's still undefeated in the league since the opening day of the season. And, yeah, he clearly didn't let breaking his toe and losing all this goods ruin his week. He was very much... I loved every minute of being out there as a substitute tonight. Scored in front of the Cordova. Scored a wonderful glancing header. So, you know, even though he's broken his toe, didn't matter because he could still do it with his head. Right. He's just warts and all, Fulcro. Good for him. Yeah. Good for him. Undefeated at home, Milan? No, undefeated in the league since the opening day of the season.

13:15Oh, because, of course, they lost the opening day of the season and then said, right, I'm with you now, with you now. And beating a little club as well, which has been a bit of an issue for them. They've got a big game coming out next weekend against Roma. We're talking about all of that. Soon enough, but it's a Champions League week. Yep, we're on to the traditional round seven and eight of the league phase. So let's start off with a quick look at what that entails. This is the Totaly Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Two rounds to go in your Champions League league phase.

13:50Arsenal and maybe Bayern aside, no one really looks sure of the top eight. You've got, in fact, Paris Saint-Germain in third, only three points between them and Barcelona in 15th. Mad. Anyway, Tuesday, Paris Saint-Germain will be at Sporting. Inter, who are lying sixth, host top of the group Arsenal. That's an all top eight clash, thus. Spurs, they've got a visit from Dortmund. Man City are off in the Arctic Circle against that Bodo Glimt. They're almost out, unless they win that game, Bodo. Liverpool on Wednesday, they're just outside the top eight. They're at Marseille. Going to be interesting to hear how Marseille have been building up to that game.

14:31Newcastle host PSV, Juventus against Benfica. Ooh, Juve lying 17th right now in the league phase. Benfica currently in 25th, so they're just outside the knockout round, or making the knockout round. But under Jose Mourinho, they've won their last two, and they're only three points behind the old lady. We've seen Jose go to Turin before now with cup mayhem on his mind and succeed spectacularly. we'll talk more about that game right now actually James, are you looking forward to that? Juve Benfica? Yeah, I mean it's always great when Jose goes back to the Allianz, I mean going back to his days when he was in charge of Inter and they won the treble, there's no real love lost there, that's one of the most heated rivalries if not the most poisonous in Italian football he's very much an avatar for Inter still, even after his what, two and a half years at Roma I think on his last visit kind of famously like cocked his ear to the crowd actually that was when he was Man United I think that's the weirdest face he's ever pulled during a game because he was cocking his ear so aggressively and scrunching up his face so tightly.

15:38He really did look quite remarkable. Oh, I think actually there's a contender from the COVID period when he was doing an online press conference and there's that photo of him ripping off his headset. I think it's during COVID or it's a press conference where there's a translation. That's the face. Endlessly good meme content. Yeah. All right. but Juve playing really good football apart from they played really good football but they lost which can happen they had 78 % possession about 18 corners 30 shots should have scored didn't score and calories scored from a free kick but I would say they're playing certainly some of the best football so far this season Gildes has been fantastic I think one of the best dribblers in Europe including against against Cagliari at the weekend they're obviously looking to sign a striker in this January transfer window maybe Jean-Philippe Mateta yep so they've they've been making inquiries about that but it's obviously quite a delicate time delicate at Palace to say the least so not not a well-timed expression of interest from Juve but yeah I think certainly they feel that if they have someone who's more confident more consistent up front they will be turning some of these losses into draws and draws into wins.

16:58Which has been perennially the problem for them. Although last midweek they beat Cremadese, what, 5-1? Yeah, I think you could easily make the case that they could have won against Caleri 5-1 on the balance of play. They just didn't score. But, yeah, I mean, Benfica loved coming to the Allianz Stadium and upsetting the odds. They did it a couple of years ago when João Mario, another former interplayer, came and upset them. and they famously beat them there in the semi-finals of the Europa League on the Conte when Jadier Ventus won that the final of the Europa League that year was going to be held at the Allianz Stadium in Turin so Benfica have a really good record under the Mollet their latest visit will be on Wednesday, on Tuesday you've got that Inter Arsenal, they're both in the top 8 I mean it'll be fun but you know we shall see, we shall see.

17:50Seb what about Dortmund's visit to Spurs, Spurs who are currently higher in the Champions League league phase than they are in the Premier League. They're up in 11th spot. It's a really difficult occasion for Dortmund to manage really because you'd expect, so we're recording this at what, nearly 4 o 'clock on Monday afternoon and as we do Thomas Frank is still in situ you'd imagine the atmosphere there is going to be pretty, pretty hostile given the result over the weekend and I don't know, how do you respond to that? Because you're almost as dormant you're almost a kind of a it's almost a little bit voyeuristic isn't it turning up and being part of something a bit awkward it really is and another thing so if you'd asked me six weeks ago i said don't want to turn up be pretty effective at grinding out nil nil or nicking one on the break but since they've come back from the winter pausa the defensive standard has really dropped when they conceded three goals in frankfurt in the opening night of the second half of the season.

18:52It led St. Pauli 2-0 at home over the weekend. That slip, St. Pauli came back to 2-2. Really great goal from former Peterborough United forward Ricky J. Jones, by the way. You get a chance to look at that. 2-2. And then, unfortunately, St. Pauli, Ricky J. Jones, conceded a very, very late penalty and Dortmund snuck home. So they're in a bit of a strange place at the moment. But, yeah, I mean, Champions League-wise, they're in pretty much the same situation as Spurs. They look set to go into the punishment round, would gladly take a point. But then should you be aiming higher given just how bad Tottenham are at the moment?

19:27So I'd probably say yes. And for Dortmund, that's kind of, I don't know, that might put them in unfamiliar territory because they're not prone to coming out under Kovac, at least front foot away from home, especially against big powerful sides or inadvertent commas, big powerful sides because I don't think that quite fits where Spurs are at the moment. That's coming up on Tuesday Wednesday Tom from Marseille Liverpool Yeah And Marseille Hitting a bit of form 14 goals Scored in the last Two games Right Or be it There is an Astor Because nine of those Nine of those Were scored against The amateurs of Bayeux In the Coupe de France But Very handy 5-2 win Away at Angers Over the weekend Angers who were A decent team Who picked up a point At the Velodrome earlier in the season and possibly Marseille's most convincing attacking performance of the season and one of the most impressive attacking performances of the Roberto de Zerbi era.

20:28Really? Sort of slightly reconfigured his attack and he's able to call on players who he hadn't previously been able to call upon. Hamed Junior Traore, Ivorian winger, who spent last season on loan at Oseire from Bournemouth and who was excellent. He's been at Marseille since last summer and has been injured practically the whole time. He started on the left wing, got a goal, got an assist. Amin Gouiri, who's been out with a shoulder injury, he started up front and is a player who dovetails very well with the players around him. He's not a classic number nine, sort of a nine and a half, ten, if you like.

21:04Timothy Weyer on the right-hand side, he got a goal. Mason Greenwood played at number ten for the first time. He got a goal as well. Paisal got a goal Igor Paisal also got a goal yes, is the ordinary starter on the left flank so yeah, De Zerbe has suddenly got a bit of competition for places in forward areas and I think the fact that OM have already won at home to Newcastle this season, put four goals past Ajax they've shown that they can be a force to be reckoned with at home and with Liverpool wobbling four draws on spin Say it, Tom. Could we be looking at an upset? I mean, we could. OMG. There you go.

21:47Headline writers are already sorted. Paul, what's your standout game of the Tuesday-Wednesday fixtures? Yeah, no, I'm going to say Real Madrid against Monaco because now every game at the Bernabeu feels like you're in court and there's a trial going on with the fans just judging their own players and booing and whistling. I think Real Madrid are still the favourites and everything. But just witnessing this, I think it's good fun at the minute. We'll talk more about what exactly is going on at Real Madrid. Fiorentina Perez facing a lot of criticism from the crowd and even outside the stadium too.

22:26Some of the players being singled out for whistles and boos as well, despite the fact that they are now only one point behind Barcelona at the top of the table. Seb, though? I was going to alert you to some pyrotechnic controversy, actually, because if you tune into Bayern Munich's game against Union Saint-Gélois this week, you'll see that the Sud Cup, where Bayern's ultras usually stand, that will be partially closed. And that's because of pyro activity in previous games. And there's a little bit of a conspiracy around it because this ban has been hanging over the club for a few months now. I think they've basically got a kind of a final warning from UEFA saying, listen, set off that much pyro again in the game and we're going to give you a partial stadium ban, a little bit of a wrap around the knuckles.

23:09So there's a theory that in the last Champions League game, basically Bayern set off as much pyro as they could get their hands on to make sure that the ban happened in this game, clearing the way for a lot of pyro in a more important knockout round. I'm not sure that makes sense to me. It's not like getting five yellow cards in the course of 10 matches and then you clear... In their mind, it is. It's like, because I think what they thought is, well, how much pyro can you get away with? Right? Right. So let's do a lot. Let's get the ban. let's get it out of the way and we'll have was it an absurd amount in the last what was the last by german football standards but it was enough but then even if there is another ban following you can't serve another ban on the club immediately after not an empty stadium game but an empty stand game so whatever happens the next home game which will be a knockout round because the their final group stage match will be away from the allianz arena they will have the sukhov in in full force.

24:04What if they didn't let off pyro? James, what are you saying? What's this craziness? No, you're right. No pyro, no football, no party. Well, indeed. And boy, are they having a party in Munich right now? We'll get on to the latest events from FC Bayern soon enough. But let's begin today. Oh, we're City Hour because James has got a meeting.

24:33This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. James, this weekend, a minute's silence at all Serie A matches after the really sad news on Sunday morning that Fiorentina's owner Rocco Comiso had passed away. This was quite sudden. Yeah, I mean, he was 76. He hasn't visited Florence for some time, I think, since last April. He gave an interview to La Nazione, the local paper, in December, which was kind of, I think, there to sort of set the record straight about, you know, the club was obviously bottom of the table at the time, hadn't won a single league game.

25:19there was all these rumors about the club being for sale and why hadn't Rocco been back to Florence? And he basically said, look, club's not for sale, blah, blah, blah. I hope to be back soon. Can't fly Long Haul at the moment. And yeah, the news came through that he passed away over the weekend. And as someone who met and spent time with Rocco when he kind of first bought the club in 2019, well, it's not just a piece of Fiorentino that's gone, but I remember a couple of years ago as well, the guy who was his right-hand man who was there, Joe Barone, to run the club for him when Rocco was back in New York.

25:56You know, Joe passed away two years ago as well at the age of 57 after a heart attack. And yeah, Fiorentina is a club that is stricken by tragedy more than your average football club. You know, this goes back to, you know, even in the 80s, you know, sporting directors sort of dying in plane crashes. And, you know, you think of, yeah, even in the last year, I think this was the other story of the weekend was Eduardo Bove, who was the midfield player at Fiorentina on loan from Roma. it was just over a year ago where he had a cardiac arrest on the pitch when Fiorentina played Inter. Bove survived that but has had to have a defibrillator implanted which by Italian law you cannot play again in Italy if you have a device like that.

26:50And so his contract with Roma was rescinded at the weekend and I believe he's in London with a view to joining Watford. But as you say, Fiorentina with so many tragedies, of course, probably the biggest one in recent years was the captain, Davide Astori. Yeah, Davide Astori. In 2018? Yeah, who passed away in the team hotel before a game against Udinese. You know, Joe Barone, who was very sort of present and hands-on, he passed away in the build-up to a game against Atalanta as well. and so yeah Fiorentina in morning again they decide to play the game the Apennine Derby on Sunday there was some speculation that they might ask for that to be postponed instead the team and the players showed up they all wore commemorative t-shirts with kind of Rocco number one and very nice photo of Rocco on the front of their t-shirts of him doing keepy-uppy because beyond investing in Fiorentina Rocco Camiso invested a lot in football football soccer in the US, be it with the New York Cosmos, be it with his old university as well.

28:01So yeah, very much loved the game. And, you know, Fiorentina, who, as I mentioned, were bottom of the table at Christmas while they won this game against Bologna. They were 2-0 up, they won it 2-1. Rolando Mandragora, one of the captains of the team, again, kind of ran over to the sidelines was given a purple Fiorentina shirt with Rocco's name on the back which he gave a kiss to and yeah Fiorentina I think it's now unbeaten in four three wins in their last six they are out of the relegation zone and so I think you know his Rocco Camiso's wife and his son yeah they they let it be known after the win that they felt that Rocco would be proud of the performance that the team put in in his memory on Sunday.

28:48There are owners and there are owners, but Comiso was one of the good guys. Yeah, I think, I mean, Rocco wasn't afraid to let you know how he thought about things. You know, he would often use the F word and that F word wasn't Fiorentina. And I think he was startled by what he saw in Italian football, you know, even as someone who left Calabria very young to make his fortune in New York when he came back to Italy. You know, he made that investment because he wanted to give back to Italy. But I think what he saw within the system, he wasn't afraid to call it out. He would fall out with Juventus and Inter over Juventus' losses, financial scandal, Inter when the former owner, Stephen Zhang, was in charge and not leaving China.

29:38He called out agents, sort of Duzan Vlaevic's entourage when Vlaevic ended up leaving. for Juventus and, you know, sort of wanted people to know about this and write about it. And likewise, he saw that the big problem with Italian football within it, you know, if it's not just its own, getting its own way, was, you know, sort of stadiums and infrastructure. And the Artemio Franci now is a building site in part because the town hall is kind of helping them refurbish the stadium ahead of Euro 2032. not entirely satisfactory situation because I think Camiso and Joe Barone had other ideas for that stadium but they did build this fantastic training ground on the outskirts of Florence Viola Park or the Rocco Camiso Viola Park which is the best training ground in Italy and one of the best in Europe very much modelled on Spurs which is maybe why Spurs' sporting director Fabio Paratici is leaving for Fiorentina at the end of this transfer win And taking Leeds' Jack Harrison with him.

30:50All right, well, Fiorentina emerging from the bottom three as they take in this terrible news. But a salute to Rocco Camillo for everything that he did for that club and Italian football by consequence. Up at the top of the table, things have now become a little bit clearer, into three points clear of Milan, who are three points clear of Napoli. Napoli had a draw midweek at Parma. They did win this weekend, but they've fallen a little bit off the pace. Just behind them, only a point behind Napoli, you've got Roma, who've won three straight. With Daniel Mullen coming in with immediate effect in Gasparini's side this weekend against Torino.

31:33Looked like he'd been playing there for years. I mean, I don't know if you saw the game, James, but like magnificent performance in sync with his teammates, particularly Paolo Dybala, who found him in the box for his debut goal. Roma won 2-0. 2-0. And beating a team that beat them earlier in the season. Right, and also beat them just a few days before in the Cup of Italia. Yeah, when they didn't have a striker. And their guest was kind of forced to play this kind of Italian-Australian teenager called Reina. Yes, who with his very first touch in professional football scored a goal. Antonio Areini, 16 years of age, Pescara's youngest ever scorer, has played for both the Australian under-19s and the Italian under-19s.

32:23It's a bit of a tug of love ahead on that one. But boy, he looks the real deal from that one touch. But all of this just makes it really hard for Evan Ferguson. because like no sooner did Ferguson score then he hurts his back or he scores again and he gets injured and Gasp is always criticizing him in the media saying you know it's just not what I expected he's too young he's coming off a few years of being injured and then this kid as you mentioned from the academy with his first touch scores and then when the kid goes back to the U team they bring in Daniel Marlon and Marlon puts in arguably the best performance by a Roma striker in quite some time.

33:03And Gasper's like, this is the guy I've been looking for. With this guy, we can score lots of goals. This is my man. They're now up in fourth spot. Next weekend, though, it's going to be interesting as they take on Milan, where, as you mentioned, Nicholas Fulker also did pretty well this weekend in the wonder win over Lecce. A lot of other striking players returning to Serie A. For example, Jack Raspardori, who's gone to Atalanta. Yeah, which until Roma signed Donyal Marlon, it seemed it was going to be a problem for Gasparini because Roma's sporting director had said, oh, tomorrow we'll have a new striker.

33:44And the expectation was it was going to be Raspardori and he didn't say it wasn't going to be Raspardori. And then Atalanta swooped last minute and signed him. and you really felt for Roma sporting director Ricky Massara because Gasparini is not the easiest coach to deal with and it raised the question, Gasp, why did you leave Atalanta for this football club which has a bigger stadium, bigger fan base, you could say in some cases better players but has its hands tied behind its back when it comes to financial fair play whereas the club that you helped build, atlanta is cash rich all the time it's probably going to get into the um last stage of the champions league and can basically go and sign the striker that you want for money right now rather than basically playing along with atletico and saying can we do a loan with an option blah blah blah blah so ultimately everybody happy atlanta happy roma happy okay are we going to sign Joshua Zierkse, do you think?

34:49Well, Gasp, having criticised Evan Ferguson for much of the season, then said, well, Doniel Marlon's the one who starts for Holland, not Josh Zierkse. Nice. Okay. Which was pleasant of him. There you go. Any other big transfer news regarding City Our Clubs, James? James, there's a lot going on. So, you know, Napoli, Lorenzo Luca, who they signed for a lot of money in the summer. Forrest want him? Does he want to go to Forrest? He might want to go back to Pisa which would be quite a slap in the face for Forrest, given that Pisa at the bottom of the table. Raheem Sterling, would he replace Noah Lang at Napoli with Noah Lang having this offer from Galatasaray?

35:31Napoli have had to do deals out before they could do them in because they've got this kind of soft embargo going on at the moment, but if Luka was to accept to go to Forrest, then that would allow them to start doing stuff. Right. Do you think, this question from a Forrest supporter yesterday what do you think about luka at forest well i think if you're playing dice ball and just raining crosses into the box for the guy who used to be at pisa and is known as the tower of pisa right um then it might work better than what antonio conte was asking of him which was like can you hold up the ball and bring others into play like romelu lukaku did right um which you know he was unable to do that so certainly luca yeah i mean been in and around this italian national team over the last year had a good season with udinese yeah got into double figures so you know not he's been a bit of a bust at napoli um but probably wasn't helped by lukaku's injury being so bad that conte basically said can you go out and get me another striker that other striker rasmus holland has done very very well for him indeed so indeed so all right Anything else from Serie A?

36:42With a quick mention for Napoli being away at Copenhagen this week in the Champions League. Atalanta hosting Athletic Club de Bilbao. You, as we mentioned, are up against Benfica and Inter take on Arsenal. One word on that? Inter beat Arsenal at San Siro last year. Trying to know the penalty. Played really well at the weekend. L 'Antonio Martino scored one of the goals of the weekend in Serie A. Wonderful outside-the-foot finish after a balletic kind of dribble inside the penalty box. but yeah probably be a surprise to many people that Atlanta are the leading Italian team in the Champions League at the moment they're ahead of everybody else they play Athletic and then they play Union Saint-Giro I think in their final two games so eminently possible that Atlanta finish top eight they're currently lying fifth one place ahead of Inter very good Inter one place ahead of Real Madrid who we're going to be hearing about very next with La Liga

37:43This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Paul Belouz, as it stands in La Liga, Barcelona's lead is down to just one point after they lost this weekend away in the Basque Country at Real Sociedad. You went along to this game in between mouthfuls. Exactly, exactly. It is difficult to explain how Barca lost that game. I think that Barca, it's going to sound weird, but Barca played potentially their best game of the season in La Liga and they lost it. Espera que va la Real! Joan García, pelota suelta, el centro, el remate! They were really, really good. La Minyamar was outrageous.

38:26But it was one of those days. Barca had three goals disallowed. They hit the post five times. They had the penalty called off. A lot of controversy with the referee. I don't think that Barcelona lost that game because of the referee. But there have been tensions within the Barca squad and Gil Manzano, the ref, for years and seasons. But yeah, beyond that, yeah, Barca had a decent run of games. They've been lost La Liga game since October when they lost in the Clásico. So that came to an end now. And yeah, out of the blue, when Barcelona seemed to be going through the best moment of the season and the flick tenure and Real Madrid were going through hell, we are seeing that La Liga is now up for stake once again with just one point separating both teams.

39:13Extraordinary. Real Madrid with a 2-0 win themselves at home to Levante, a game which was most remarkable for the reaction of the fans, the unrest, the whistling, the boos, the panellada, and the overall criticism. I think for the first time in about a decade, oh, Florentino Perez. Yeah, yeah. It's been a long weekend in Madrid in a lot of senses because in the build-up of the game, if you drove through the M30, which is the roads that surround the Spanish capital, there were banners just installed in bridges across the road, just criticising Florentino and just calling him out, basically, for the management of the team in a way that told you a bit of the grasp before the game.

39:55But when the action took place at the Bernabeu, the pañolada, all the booing, Los Pitos, Silbidos and everything against the team was something that has been unseen against Florentino because he was one of the main focuses of all the criticism. And then the fans went after the players because we spoke a lot about this separation between Xavi Alonso and the players and the sort of how the fans view this sort of battle. And in a way, side that in the place of Xavi Alonso in the last days of Cristenia. In this game, I think that we could appreciate that the fans have been really tight about how the players have behaved and some attitudes, some things that have been reported.

40:37Have you downloaded Jude Bellingham's app, Paul? no I have not I don't know if any of our colleagues has but yeah I have not what would you find on that James well statements about reporting about Real Madrid's situation he's got his own app for that he has got his own app it's like Truth Social but with more of a Real Madrid vibe what's it called slightly more fascistic I think it's it's a Jude Bellingham app I haven't downloaded it myself sounds useful though yeah he reads our work. So, yeah. Jed Bellingham was one of the players that was criticised by the Santiago Bernal. Him and Vinny Jr.?

41:19Vinny Jr. Vinny Jr. was without a shadow of a doubt, possibly one of the biggest targets. There's been footage of him at half-time sort of crying down the tunnel and being really affected by the reception that he got at the Santiago Bernal. And there's been reports around Spain basically doing the round saying that this is not helping into the intentions of Benicius potentially extending his contract at Real Madrid. And all this tension is just going on. I think that Benicius had a good game against Levante. So in a way, that speaks a lot about the character of Benicius. Despite all the noise and everything, he just tries it again and he just doesn't care that much.

41:59But yeah, out of the pitch, you could see that he was impacted by that. OK. It was a victory this weekend. And Abelho's first game in charge had seen them beaten 3-2 in the Copa del Rey to a side battling relegation from the second division, which is part of the reason that the fans presumably are so unhappy. A week on from Xavi Alonso's departure, are we any clear on what it was that made this sudden decision on the part of Real? I think that what's clear is that it was a decision that came from the very top of Real Madrid. And when I say very top, it's just Florentino Perez. that's why he was singled out in the banners standing in the Madrid roads and he was singled out at the Bernal as well with the whistles and boos.

42:43That Florentino in a way hide it and I don't know if he toyed with the local media but he sort of enjoyed that fact of not telling anyone and then out of the roof just firing Xavi Alonso. But deep down the reading that the fans have done is that any problem that Real Madrid has goes beyond the manager and who is in charge of the club that there's a squad that is potentially imbalanced. There's been briefings from Xavi Alonso's camp saying that his requests in the transfer window were not really pleased because he was after a creative midfielder that has not been brought into the squad and there's a lack of productivity in midfield.

43:21So yeah, there's problems that go beyond who is in charge and who's not. And yeah, all the Madrid fans want this sort of to change with an attitude shift that has to come from the players and that's why the likes of Bellingham and Vinicius that we mentioned that were the players that reportedly were against Xavi Alonso. Denied by Jude Bellingham on his app. Yeah, denied by Jude Bellingham, allegedly, yeah. It's a delicate moment in Madrid. How awful it would be were they to lose in the Champions League, I wonder, for the whole atmosphere there. Their opponents this midweek are Monaco, Tom. Monaco's form right now?

43:59Not so good. seven defeats in the last eight Ligue 1 games. And yet? And yet? But they did hold Man City that draw, didn't they? They did. Well, and in that run of seven defeats in eight Ligue 1 games, the only game they didn't lose was a 1-0 home win over Paris Saint-Germain. So they can turn it on on their day. The problem they have at the moment is that their day is proving extremely infrequent. They did play well against Man City, but that was beginning of October. So it was a little while ago. Got a win at home to Galatasaray in their most recent Champions League home game. But yeah, they are not travelling to the Bernabeu with any great sense of optimism, I don't think.

44:43Is there day when Paul Pogba plays? I mean, hopefully. 33 minutes over three appearances. Yeah. And he's not the only one. And I mean, this is kind of becoming the story of Monaco's season. you go back to last summer and they looked at the squad and thought we've got an awful lot of talent here an awful lot of young talent but this is a very callow inexperienced group of players and they make too many mistakes in big matches and we saw that particularly in the champions league last season uh the playoff round defeat against benfica they were all over the shop so monaco in a real break from recent traditions decided we are going to go for experience and so they signed paul Pogba, they sign Eric Dier, they sign Lukas Radecki, the goalkeeper, Ansu Fati, not an experienced player, but someone who's played in big changing rooms, and the idea was that they would inject this very talented but very inexperienced changing room with top-level know-how, and the problem is, they've all been injured.

45:43Pogba's barely played, Dier was out for ages, made his comeback on Friday against Lorient. That went well. Awful. Ansu Fati scored five goals in his first three Ligue 1 games. He's like, okay, And the Jan Tufati who first broke onto the scene at Barcelona in 2019 is back. He then got injured. And Radecki, the goalkeeper, is also currently injured. How bad was Eric Dier against Lorient on Friday? What did Le Keep give him out of a 10? Le Keep gave him a 2 out of 10. 2 out of 10. Why, Tom? He was at fault for all three of the goals that Monaco conceded. And in different ways. Right. So Monaco, home to Lorient, upwardly mobile mid-table team.

46:27It's nil-nil, about 25 minutes to go. And there's a loose ball in Monaco's half of the pitch, kind of bouncing towards Eric Dier. And he just doesn't seem to realise that Bamba Dieng, the Lorient striker, is right on his shoulder. And Dieng just nips in, heads the ball past him, runs in and scores. Ansu Fati, back from injury, equalises. but 10 minutes later Dier deflects a shot into his own net and then about a couple of minutes after that young Lorient winger Dermain Karim picks the ball up on the left heads towards goal and Dier backs off backs off backs off as if to say well if you can beat our goalkeeper from there fair play and he beats their goalkeeper from there fair play Monique 1 Lorient 3 final score and Dier made quite an impressive start to life he scored in his first Ligue 1 game in a 3-1 win at home to Le Havre and there was lots of compliments about his impact behind the scene and him and Paul Pogba seemed to hit it off but yeah he's been out of the team for so long and there are no solid foundations in that Monaco team whatsoever.

47:35How rare is it to get a 2 out of 10? Because for example in Gazette you would never get a 2. I think 4 is as low as they go. Well no they just go Sv. Sv. Yeah Sv. I'd say you probably get a couple of twos per weekend. Really? Yeah. One out of ten. Zero out of ten doesn't exist. One out of ten you only get for un comportement inadmissible, unacceptable behavior. So you have to basically punch someone. Right. So if you've got a two out of ten, it means you've played as badly as it's possible to play without doing something morally unspeakable. Scores out of ten is such a mad thing. Do they have them in Germany and Spain?

48:13Scores out of ten in the sporting... It's out of six and it works in the opposite direction. so the lower the mark the better you've played. It's so German. Yeah, one is what you want, six is utterly damning. So do they take points off per mistake? I guess so. It's also, it can be quite performative with some of the Bayern players so what would ordinarily class as kind of a six, seven out of ten performance from a Bayern midfielder can sometimes find its way to being a five for the sake of a little bit of online interest but yeah. What did Michael Olesse get this weekend? I think it all got one actually.

48:47deservedly for his three assists in one goal. Yeah. Paul, in Spain? Yeah, so in Spain, I would say that the most followed way of ratings are from the Madrid outlets because in a way they are the ones that dictate the fantasy points and this sort of stuff. And they go with the stars, from zero stars to three stars. So zero is the lowest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a very blunt instrument. Zero is the lowest rate or score and three is the best. And if, let's say, a goalkeeper scores or something really crazy or a striker scores five goals, they can give him four stars. That's just allowed. But it has to be off the chart.

49:25And as Paul says, the reason why ratings are so big in Italy and Spain is because they're linked to the fantasy. In a way that, for example, our fantasy points are kind of more or less just always goals, assists, all the other things. Right. In Italy, the rating… But culturally, the marks out of 10 were always a thing, even before fans had gone along. But yeah, no, interesting point. Anyway, Monaco heading to the Bernabeu on Tuesday. And it could be a delicate game for either side. We shall see. Paul, elsewhere in La Liga, you were busy telling us last week that you didn't see Villarreal challenging for the top two.

50:07And they went and proved you right this weekend with that 2-0 loss to Real Betis, who are now not far behind them. Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to brag, but yeah, no, I think it was a deserved win for Real Betis, who were, yeah, just on top of the game, on possession and everything, and they got, and they find that sort of clinical edge. I think that Anthony was good. Ruibal was good as well. Anthony, I mean, he's a bit of a highlight player because he might not be too involved with the game. He might be doing nothing or not impressing a lot. but he might not track back as a winger, which is something that can annoy some fans and everything.

50:46But then out of the blue, he just gets involved in two goals. And yeah, he's made your day. So in a way, I don't know if that fits the bill for like a top, top club. But like for Real Betis, that's huge. And like, again, without having the greatest game he's ever had this season, he got involved in the two goals that Real Betis scored. So big contribution for him. Very nice. All right. Atletico Madrid still live fourth, Tom. Just quickly on the marks out of 10 story, there is actually one player in the history of French football who got a 0 out of 10 for L 'Equipe. I've just looked it up. Brazilian winger Vendel got a 0 out of 10 during a Grenoble-Bordeaux game in August 2008, injured two opponents quite seriously and got sent off.

51:33Wow. But ended up winning the league that season. Did he now? So swings and roundabouts. Very much so. Crazy old game, isn't it? there you go Real Madrid are up against Monaco Atletico Madrid who beat Alaves 1-0 this weekend make the trip to Istanbul to face Galatasaray Barcelona as mentioner in the Czech Republic against Slavia Praha and Athletic Club de Bilbao visit Bergamo very nice Paul you've got to run and catch your plane back to real life back to Barcelona yeah enjoy yourself you lucky thing and we'll catch up with you next time. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much. Next up it is German football.

52:22You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy seeing glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Here comes Bundesliga chat with Seb Stafford-Bloor. Seb, Bayern. still 11 points clear of Dortmund who have now opened up a whopping six point gap to the teams below them, your Hoffenheim, your Stuttgart, etc Bayern mentioned Michael Olise's performance in the 5-1 victory over Leipzig, they were actually 1-0 down at half time when Olise came on the field but he certainly turned that game around. He did, Leipzig were brilliant for certainly 45 minutes, probably as much as an hour and and they took the lead through Romulo in the first half but I mean they could have had two or three Yann Diamande was absolutely excellent down the right side he was playing against Hiroki Ito who hasn't played a lot of football this season Ito was used as a left back and there was a period during that game probably for the first 20 minutes where every time Diamande touched the ball he seemed to create a chance he was fantastic but then yeah in the second half Dike Meccano stepped up and actually Tom will remember this for one of the Luis Diaz goals against PSG in the Champions league if mccann is stepping up counter pressing forcing a turnover luis diaz scoring in this instance serge gnabry was the beneficiary went in to score really really well taken and emotionally it did something to leipzig it's a very young team there are some elder statesmen among the younger players but it it unsettled them to the point where i mean they carried it when they went 2-1 down um harry kane capitalizing on a ridley baku mistake there were moments when leipzig look like they might equalize Manon Noir producing an absolutely brilliant save one of three actually but the the best and latest of which denied the Amanda an equalizer at 2-2 uh what would have been 2-2 and then yeah Bayern turned on the power and um that last 10 minutes I don't want to say stat padding because that that diminishes just how good Bayern were but it wasn't wasn't really a 5-1 game, even though Aliso was mesmeric again.

54:33So he set up three goals and he scored the other one. And the one that he scored was assisted by... Jamal Musiala, who made his first appearance since that terrible injury he suffered at the Club World Cup against Paris Saint-Germain. He came on as a late substitute. And it was really lovely. Actually, when Musiala came on, there was applause from everywhere in the stadium.

54:59for Jamal Musiala. 87. Minute. There is he again. Some little pockets. And there were Bayern fans in some of the main stands, but it came from some Leipzig supporters too. And I think people recognise that Musiala is a wonderful player. Yes, but also Germany needs Musiala come the summer. So great, great to see him back. Excellent. Another five goals for Bayern, which takes them to 100 goals in all competitions for the season. The first team in Europe's top five leagues to achieve that. What have Leipzig said? Yeah, generally very good. I was just going to mention Kevin Campbell, actually, because just before Christmas, very sadly, his brother suddenly unexpectedly passed away.

55:38And Kevin announced that he's 35 now and he had a contract running until the summer of 2026. But he said, listen, it's time to go home, time for football to take a backseat. I'm needed with my family. His father is also, I think, quite elderly now. And he said he wants to spend a little more time there so he's brought his contract to an end early and he was out on the pitch before the game shed a few tears and was sort of celebrated by all the supporters and then in the evening do remember i mentioned prestigio and their wonderful tiramisu well apparently um kevin campbell booked out prestigio on saturday night for all his current and some past teammates and they all uh they had a little sort of retirement party for him because he's not he did say maybe he might play some local football but that his professional career is now at an end and he's been an excellent player he's played almost 300 games for erbie leipzig in his time the club sits moving from leverkusen i think won the pokal with them of course so farewell to him and uh yeah it was very well hounded by the club that also farewell this weekend to dino topmuller who got sacked by frankfurt after another six goal friday night thriller that's right jimbo uh and this one's been coming topmuller just not being able to cure these defensive issues so on friday night again eintracht were were 2-1 up in this game conceded a terrible goal late to go 2-2 a ridiculous one to fall 3-2 behind and then equalize with practically the last kick of the game it was very telling when that 3-3 goal went in none of the eintracht players seem to even really celebrate it and that's because they're very exciting there's a lot of talent there they've conceded the joint most goals in the Bundesliga even Heidenheim lowly Heidenheim haven't conceded more I think it's 39 goals from 18 games which is just ridiculous and I suppose the way to look at Tottenham now is he's been there for two and a half years which is a pretty good run in top five league management terms he was Hülin Nagelsmann's assistant before he took this job it's his first job at Bundesliga level and he's overseen some really impressive individual improvements so he's kind of responsible for marmouche's trajectory marmouche was certainly no 75 million euro manchester city player before he got to the club he dealt really well with the hugo eketike situation first using him in combination with marmouche then redesigning his role to make him a central striker and eketike doesn't go to liverpool without those tweaks add in nathaniel brown who's a really really promising player who will go to a major club in the summer janu zun the the turkish playmaker number 10 fabulous player his adaption's been great it's just ultimately the defensive situation became unsustainable and unsurvivable the club hadn't helped him by setting off most of the team's attacking talent had they invested at the back or is it a coaching issue no i think it's a coaching issue i think anytime you sell a lot of players and sell a lot of important players you go through a transition and that of course absolutely can be difficult to manage but they made some major additions over the summer Ritsu Doan from Freiburg came in Jonathan Burkhardt the German international forward came in as a replacement for for Eketike from from Mainz so these are good players that joined the club yes there's that issue with the defense I think one of the big issues this season has actually been the goalkeeping situation because Eintracht have Michael Zetra who's a sort of a veteran player that joined from Werder Bremen over the summer their big hope is Kai Santos a young Brazilian goalkeeper who's incredibly talented but whose form has sort of plateaued and I think the management of that situation because you know Santos was taken out for a few months earlier in the season then brought back in he's had a really really rough time since I think that's been very unsettling for for anybody in the defensive area could they do with a few defensive additions probably i think there's a food chain point though to make here which is that for club and eintracht situation the business model depends on investing in players who are going to appreciate and value very very quickly that tends to be the attacking guys and so spending big on center backs you know plugging holes it's probably not going to uh to keep you keep you progressing forward at the same pace it has there has to be a balance yes but this is what's brought Eintracht to this position currently.

1:00:02Okay, well, Eintracht Frankfurt are going to be away to Carabag in the Champions League this midweek. The other matches involving Bundesliga sides Dortmund at Spurs on Tuesday. Bayer Leverkusen are going to be at Olympiacos and Bayern Munich, Hoest Union Saint-Gilles. Seb's got a lovely piece out with Jurgen Klopp. You went to ask Jurgen Klopp who he is, essentially, and Jurgen didn't really have an answer for you, I don't think. Well, I asked him what he does now for a living because he's been Red Bull's global head of soccer for 12 months. And I was at his unveiling in Salzburg and he gave a very woolly answer about what his role would entail.

1:00:41And ultimately, because he was unsure, he joined the organization and between him and Oliver Minslaff, they were going to create a role, see what he's good at, see where he could help. And it was a very, very interesting time. he talked about you know his almost mentoring role with some of the coaches who are under contract there his work in scouting coaches outside of the rebel network because of course you know if you succeed it you know with one of those teams you're probably going to go elsewhere so there's a bit of churn i got to spend a bit of time with david realm around the game against bayern and he said that uh klopp sometimes texts him and talk to him after matches and checks in and always calls him skipper apparently which he's taken from england i was in the english yeah he uses the english word and uh and yes he was interesting he was um i think it's the way to look at club situation at red bull from from the conversations i've had is less a rigid job description in the sense that we all have them and more a resource that which can be used at different times and that includes also you know selling the projects to players um when johan bakayoku joined the club from psv in the summer he spoke about a conversation he had with Klopp which wasn't really about hey Johan come and join Ebi Leipzig it was more Klopp talking to him about his career and where he saw him going and what was going to matter and Bakayoko said look someone was that interested in me then I wanted to kind of come and be a bit closer and I think that speaks subtly to kind of the influence that he's able to have and how he's able to kind of advance the individual teams.

1:02:17More of a vibe these days, Jurgen Klopp. Yeah. An idea, an essence. His job is Jurgen Klopp. There you go. That's all it says on his business card. All right. Seb, your job is Seb Stafford-Blur, and you've done it magnificently, I must say, with that Bundesliga roundup. Anything else we should know? I wanted to salute Bayer Leverkusen because last week they... So Leverkusen is about four hours from Hamburg, and they had an evening game last Tuesday, which was caught off because of there being a very heavy snowfall and thawing snow became, you know, troubling ice and the game got cancelled two hours before kickoff.

1:02:51And of course, Leverkusen will honour the tickets bought online by their travelling fans. But obviously they would have incurred quite a lot of costs, hotel nights, long journeys back. So they've allowed the tickets to stand, but they've also had refunds, which I thought was a great gesture. It won't cover some of the expenses, but I think it's a nice way of clawing back some money for those fans. All right. Buyer helping the buyers. Nice. Seb, lovely stuff. Listener next up, Tom tells us all about Ligue 1.

1:03:28Yeah, Tom, time to tell us all about Ligue 1, the bits we haven't already talked about, like Monaco. But how about, top of the table, where longs are still a point clear of Paris Saint-Germain? Are we in the they-couldn't-could-they territory yet or not? I think we're still too far away from the end of the season. And I think their advantage over PSG is too slender for us to be there. They're only a point. So PSG went above them on Friday night, thanks to their 3-0 win at home to Lille. So Lens had to retake first place, which they did with a 1-0 home win over Ouzer. Slightly workmanlike first half.

1:04:10and then they just, they went through the gears in the second half, only won 1-0. Really nicely taken goal by Wesley Saeed, former Chelsea defender slash flop Malong Sarr, dinks a ball in, Saeed chests it down, very crisp shot into the bottom right corner and they could have won 3 or 4-0. Eighth straight victory in Liga, which is a club record, 10th straight victory in all competitions and next weekend, where do they go on Saturday night? Is it the velodrome, Tom? Is it the velodrome? Yes, it is. Marseille-Lens in a true sommet or summit. Okay, so if they get past that one with their winning run intact, then I think we might be going, hang on a second.

1:04:51If they're still there once we get into March, I think the danger is everyone expects. I just want to do it now because by March it's going to be gone. This is true and it could be gone. The danger, of course, is that at some point PSG just put together some absurd run of form and leave everyone for dust. But, you know, so far there is a title race. Are PSG showing much signs of putting together that run of form? They did have a nice 3-0 win, as you say, against Lille this weekend. But previous to that, they got knocked out of the cup by their neighbours, Paris FC. They did. So I've got a piece about this that went up on The Athletic this morning.

1:05:28And basically the angle is, are PSG in trouble? or are they actually coming towards the end of a slightly troubled phase, looking in relatively decent nick? And my suspicion is that the truth lies closer to the latter than to the former. They've not been brilliant in recent weeks. They were very scratchy in the Trophy des Champions against Marseille in Kuwait, needed a 95th minute Gonzalo Ramos equaliser to go to penalties and then one on penalties. Their league form has been up and down. They're conceding too many goals. They've been very reliant on these late rescue acts. And the defeat against Paris FC followed the same pattern of a lot of their recent league games, that they fell behind and then completely dominated.

1:06:20But on this occasion, they didn't manage to find an equaliser, and so they went out. But I spoke to a couple of people at PSG, and the message is very positive. they had an extremely complicated first half of the season largely because of the consequences of last season and the club world cup the club world cup they went all the way to the final they had a three-week break they had a week of training and then they started their season against Tottenham and the UEFA Super Cup drew the game won on penalties creating a template for all the one-off trophy matches they played this season and then just had so many injury problems and I list them in this piece but almost literally every PSG player in the first team squad has been sidelined at one time or another.

1:07:07Dembele has made five Ligue 1 starts. Desiree Douai has only made six. But here we are mid-January. They're one point off the pace in the league. Okay, they're out of the Coupe de France and an earlier juncture than at any time since 2014. But they're well placed in the Champions League and the injured players are all coming back. I think Joanne Neves is a possibility for the Champions League game this week. And there's only a couple of other players who are sidelined. Ashraf Hakimi will be back from the Africa Cup of Nations, as will Ibrahim Mbaye, who was one of the standout young players at the tournament.

1:07:43So there is a possibility that things are about to click. And I spoke to someone who, you know, who works with some of the players in the PSG squad. And he said, look, basically this entire season has been about managing the workload and making sure that come February, March, they're in a position to go for victory in the Champions League and to win the league again. And if you think of it in terms of like a long distance runner, they are kind of, you know, just moving onto the shoulder of the lead athlete. Very nicely put. As we get through the final lap. picking up the pace well you get through the final lap but you know where are we just depends how long the race is fundamentally yeah all those things we should talk about Ousmane Dembele and his brace this weekend the first goal was nice the second you're describing as push-cast worthy

1:08:42I mean the first goal was lovely 13 minutes in Vitinha finds him just outside the Lille penalty area. He takes one touch to control the ball and get it out of his feet, what they call a contrôle orienté in French, an orientated control, which is when you cushion the ball and set yourself up for a shot or a pass, something that Zinedine Zidane was renowned for, unsurprisingly. And then he just curls a beautiful left foot shot, bottom left corner. But yeah, the second goal, half an hour remaining. Nuno Mendes wins the ball about halfway inside the Lille half, feeds it to Dwey, plays it through to Dembele.

1:09:22And he's got a few defenders. He's got like a screen of defenders between him and the goal. So he kind of checks inside to buy himself a bit of time, then checks inside again onto his left foot. And he kind of retreats with the ball. Retreats twice onto his left foot. It's a bit like, have you seen the Caleb Williams, the Chicago Bears quarterback in that, on their kind of last chance drive against the Rams? It's a clip you'll see. I will look it up. But he's flushed out of the pocket by the Rams linebacker type thing. And he kind of scurries backwards, but he buys himself enough time to produce this incredible throw.

1:09:58And Dembele as well, I mean, in a much more measured fashion, just performs a series of drag backs and little tricks to get enough space. And all the while he's doing that, he is tempting Berke Oza, Lille's goalkeeper, from his line in a kind of what's the time Mr. Wolfe fashion. and then just dispatches the daintiest, most delicate left foot lob. And Urza sprints back, throws himself at it. And there must have been about half a yard of space that Dembele had to get the ball in. And he did. Brady Barcola pops up with a third in stoppage time. And yeah, PSG get back to winning ways and warm up nicely for their trip to Sporting on Tuesday.

1:10:40Which will be an interesting game. James Spulting who got beaten 3-1 by Bayern Munich last time. But, you know, that can happen. But otherwise doing well under Rie Bourges. Yes, very good. We talked about Monaco already and their trip to Real Madrid and what they've been up to. Marseille to an extent as well. Anyone else we should be talking about from Ligue 1 the weekend, Tom? Gary O 'Neill. OK. Victory in his first home game, his first Ligue 1 game as Strasbourg coach. Won 6-0 away at Avranches. in the Coupe de France last weekend. And yeah, in the derby against Mets. And he has generally kept faith with the kind of football that Liam Resignia was playing.

1:11:23He's changed the system. Liam Resignia was very much a back three man. Gary O 'Neill has switched to a back four. The man-to-man marking is a little bit less aggressive than it was under Resignia. And yeah, they were worthy winners. Diego Moreira, who generally played on the left under a senior and has played as a left wing back, as a left winger, was playing off the right, scored a really nice goal teed up by Julio Enciso, ran through the middle, curled it in bottom left. Martial Godot, formerly of Fulham, conceded a penalty that allowed Gautier Ein to equalise, but then headed in a really emphatic second goal from a Gela-Due cross.

1:12:06So it's Hasburg up and running in the Gary O 'Neill era. Excellent. And they're not far off the European places. Very, very nice. Tom, thank you so much. That brings us, I think, to the end of this European roundup. Champions League awaits. We'll have a special totally football show for you Wednesday morning, reviewing the Tuesday night action. And then, of course, in classic fashion on Thursday with both Champions League and a look ahead to the weekend in the Premier League. So I hope you'll be joining us for some, if not all, of that. listener for now it's many many thanks to Seb and Paul and James and Tom and producer Lucy and yourself we'll catch up with you soon for now from all of us hoots goodbye

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