Who’s going through to the Champions League Final + Inter win Scudetto

0:00Okay, I have to tell you, I was just looking on eBay where I go for all kinds of things I love, and there it was. That hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set.

0:10James Horncastle: Shiny like the designer handbag of my dreams. One of a kind. eBay had it, and now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you get your windshield wiper?

0:19Jimbo: eBay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying.

0:23James Horncastle: Just beautiful. Millions of finds, each with a story. eBay. Things people love. You're a pro at running your life, at committing to your workout, at showing up every day. At Bombas, we're pros too. Pros at making socks. Our sport assortment has specialized socks for whatever sport you're committed to. Running, hiking, golf, Pilates, and so much more. Made with sweat-wicking yarns, blister-fighting details, and targeted art support. Bombas Sport is pro-level socks from the pros of socks. For another pro, you. Go to bombas.com slash audio and use code audio for 20 % off your first purchase. That's Bombas.com and use code audio.

1:00Hey, this is Paige from Giggly Squad. It's time to spring into deals at Lowe's. Freshen up your yard with Stay Green Premium 2-Cubic Foot Mulch, 5 bags for$10. Then head inside and save up to 35 % off select major appliances to keep clothes, food, and dishes fresh. Plus, get an additional$100 off select laundry pairs. The season's best lineup is here at Lowe's, valid through May 6th while supplies last. Selection varies by location. Mulch offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. See an associate or lowes.com for details.

1:40James Horncastle: The Athletic FC.

1:47Totally Football Show, European edition today. Champions League, Bayern, Paris Saint-Germain. Let's hope they give us a game this time. and Arsenal, Atletico Madrid. And from the leagues, we've got Inter winning Title 21, Berardi having his annual Milan party, Spain, is Mu going back to Madrid, Ligue 1, tomorrow's Worldi, and there's Marseille player ratings in full. Bundesliga, Frankfurters v Hamburgers, key takeaways and much, much more in this Totally Football Show.

2:21It's Monday the 4th of May, no getting away from that. bank holiday but we've got a full house here in the totally football show studio hello seb staffer bloor hello james richardson what are you doing in london seb i'm taking photographs for the athletics transfer team tomorrow oh right photographs of you or you're taking the photograph no no i'm in the photographs with lots of other people nice yeah so i've come for that and then i'm going to go off to munich for the second leg okay buying against rama against psm yeah exciting exciting you were at the first leg weren't you i was at the first leg yeah Also here today, James Horncastle, who's going to the second leg of Arsenal Atletico Madrid.

3:03That is correct, James. Excellent. How's your bank holiday weekend been? It's okay. All right, then.

3:10James Horncastle: You spoke to Gordon Ramsay. Yeah, I went to Ireland a few weeks ago to see him. Oh, yeah? Thanks for the Athletic? It is indeed. We have a series that will come out, I think, on the eve of the World Cup, where we talk to various people like Gordon Ramsay about their passion for football. What is his passion for football? Well, he claims that he could have made it with Glasgow Rangers. Right. He's great friends with David Beckham. Yes. You might say that Brooklyn, all of his cooking videos, are perhaps an inspiration from Gordon Ramsay. Probably, yes. Okay, great. So those pieces will be coming out in a bit, but there's a whole series.

3:50Anybody else lined up or that you've done that we should look out for? Not yet, James.

3:54James Horncastle: Although there is Vagnamora, you know, from Narcos. Narcos and The Secret Agent. What a great film. Accent in Narcos. We've got quite a few like that coming out. Have you? Did you share restaurant chat with Gordon Ramsay? Yes. Did you? Yeah. He had an excellent... No, I can't reveal what he said because it's in the actual interview. Right. He had an excellent anecdote about watching Italy at Italian 90. Oh, yeah. Which blew me away. Okay. That's nice. Takes a lot to blow James Horncastle away. Tom Williams, you're here. Hello. Hi, Tom. Hello, James. Lovely to see you. And you. Having a good weekend, et cetera, and so on.

4:36Yes, I was in Paris, as usual, covering what the French refer to as le darby d 'Angleterre. Manchester United versus Liverpool. And I have explained that that's not what it is called in these parts. What do you call it? Manchester United versus Liverpool. That's the only billing it needs. But that is the name it's been given in France, and that is the name that it continues to bear today. But it was a good one. It was a good one, wasn't it? A lot better than the game that came afterwards, I would suggest. Is that the game which attracts the highest billing in France? That's a good question. I wonder.

5:09I'm not sure in terms of viewer numbers. Arsenal are a big draw because of the whole Arsene Wenger-Frenchies connection. United are very popular. Liverpool, too. I think that's still seen as the biggest fixture, but, you know, they do like a bit of Arsenal as well. Great. And also joining us on the big screen, Paul Belus. Paul, how's the weekend in Catalonia?

5:32Jimbo: Quite good, although I've not been in Catalonia for the weekend. I've been in Pamplona. I've been in Navarra. and then I've been in Portugal the week before that because I didn't go to any Champions League first leg but I went to a Europa League first leg. I went to Braga for the book. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, which was a good game. Good. Braga won. Yeah, yeah. And then went to Pamplona straight after. Very nice. What did you do in Pamplona? Yeah, covering a football game in which Barcelona was playing against Osasuna. Right. You didn't run with the Bulls. No, no. When is the running of the Bulls, Paul?

6:07Jimbo: 7 de julio. Okay. Because the song says, 1 de enero, 2 de febrero, 3 de marzo, 4 de abril. 7 de julio, San Fermín. There you go. And they say the Spanish speak quickly. Can we clip that up and put it over a banging hip-hop beat? Because I think that would really, I thought it could potentially take off. Paul, that sounds great. Did your moment of the week occur in Pamplona? It did not, actually. So my moment of the week, of all things, was watching the Philadelphia 76ers beating the Boston Celtics in Boston. Or if I have to stick to football. I'm going to go to Vigo. I'm going to go to Celta de Vigo.

6:46Jimbo: Because, well, it was sort of a meaningless game. Celta de Vigo won against Chelsea 3-1. Elche are in the relegation battle. And Celta de Vigo still have options to go to European football next season. Pretty much alive. But my moment of the week was the last goal of the game in a 3-1 win. And Borja Iglesias scored the goal. But please, if you can, go to watch Williot-Swedberg's pass. The assist that he did for the goal, a back-heel assist that basically sent the defender to the wrong foot. And Borja Iglesias could finish in the first touch. It was an amazing assist. A really beautiful one to see.

7:37Jimbo: And what made it better were the quotes from his manager after the game, in which he spoke about Willard Schoedberg saying something like, he's just a happy guy. He doesn't care if he starts or not. He's just a happy guy who enjoys himself. He doesn't feel anything, which for me is a good quality in football. In fact, if you look at him when he walks to the game, he looks like a tourist. He wears his shorts, his jacket. He looks like a tourist. But then when he came into the pitch, he doesn't have feelings. And when he doesn't have feelings, he just plays better. And yeah, that was his words of praise to Willard Schwerberg, one of those players which is a bit inconsistent.

8:16Jimbo: But when he's on his day, he's really classy. Excellent. Who else has got a moment of the week? Hey, Seb. Timmy the Whale is free. So Timmy the Whale was a 40-foot humpback, still is, a 40-foot humpback that swam himself into shallow waters off the German coast. And it's been a point of fascination for the German media since probably March with little updates. He's been a headline character. How did they know his name was Timmy? He got christened Timmy.

8:43James Horncastle: Paul the Octopus. Yeah, exactly. He needed a name. He became such a main character that he needed a name. And there have been several attempts to free him over the past few weeks, the latest of which included kind of digging a, dredging a tunnel on the seabed and kind of directing him into a barge, which was then sailed out towards Denmark, at which point Tim was free. Anyway, this qualifies as a foot bling moment of the week, because the weekend ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt's game against Hamburg, four Eintracht Frankfurt fans had a, I don't even know how you'd describe it, a sort of a collage of timmy um like a big it was on sort of four different sticks and it was held up and it was a big kind of blue whale if i'm being pedantic not really a humpback whale um and they walked him around the stadium and you can find some footage of that was great moment um so they walked him around the stadium yeah unfortunately on on timmy's tail they they drawn a picture of the the house valve rhomboid the club crest with a big cross through it so when timmy got to the the Geisterblock, the Hamburg section, he kind of perished.

9:52Right. Didn't survive that as a result of it. But Timmy, the actual whale is doing relatively well apparently. Okay. And so are Hamburg, who have in many ways got themselves out of deep water, unlike Timmy, the actual whale. Yeah, I suppose so. So Heistvahler now safe under Merlin Pazin. Lovely goal from Fabio Vieira online from Arsenal for the second goal. The good ball on Vieira! Fabio Vieira! Really, really nice. Tom, it can only be Moussa Altamari's absolute worldie for Rennes at Lyon last night. Big Champions League clash at the Group Armour Stadium. Five minutes on the clock and Rennes centre-forward Esteban Le Paul has the ball wide on the right.

10:43Pings a deep cross towards the far post and Altamari runs onto it, hits it first time on the volley, left foot, rips it inside the far post. Imagine if you took Francesco Totti's famous volley against Sampdoria, put it in the washing machine and slightly shrunk it. You would end up with this Moussa-Altamari goal. The goal for Altamari. The goal for Altamari! What a great goal! Exceptionnel! From the Jordanian, we said. He is always inspired when he plays against the O.L. And there's a definite goal of the season contender, probable goal of the season winner. And there's even a bit of Canepuskas Award talk in France, or at least there was this morning.

11:29It's a lovely goal. One of the many scored this weekend. James, what about you?

11:34James Horncastle: There weren't many scored in Italy, James. Three nil nils. One person who did score, however, was Kieran Bowie of Hellas Verona, who upset Juventus. Verona already relegated. He goes to the Allianz Stadium. Juventus absolutely had to win that game. And he put Hellas Verona in front. Kieran Bowie, one of the many Scots to have moved to Serie A in recent years. It was his third goal. Juventus did come back, get a point. We'll talk about what that means for their Champions League aspirations a little later. but Kieran Bowie very puzzled when the DAZN reporter said in broken English today Kieran it was the derby of the David and the Bowie because Jonathan David was playing for Juventus right there's a star man waiting in the sky He'd like to come and meet us But he thinks he'd blow our minds There's a star man waiting in the sky Tale of two strikers He didn't get that?

12:52James Horncastle: He didn't get it initially And then it was explained He's like, ah, yeah, I get it now It was adorably cringe Magnificent! All right That's a vintage set of moments of the week. Let's get on then to the Champions League second legs, which are set to provide many more such special times. Tuesday, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid. And then Wednesday, the return of Bayern and PSG. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Four. So game of the like forever. Last time they faced off. Tuesday in Paris. And this time around, it's going to be in Munich and it's going to be, Tom, without Hakimi.

13:43How big an impact is that going to have? Potentially a very big one in that Hakimi and in particular, his tireless forward forays are a really key element of the way that PSG play. Minuno Mendes, on the opposite flank of the PSG defence, is a similarly attacking full-back, but isn't granted quite the same level of liberty as Hakimi. So he'll be a huge loss to PSG. It looks like he will be replaced by Warren Zayemiri, who has been having a fantastic season for PSG, generally plays as part of the midfield three, but has filled in at fullback quite frequently, does not possess Hakimi's searing pace, but is nevertheless a pretty speedy player, knows the role.

14:38and from a kind of defensive perspective I don't think there's an enormous drop-off from Hakimi to Zayah Emery I mean Hakimi has never really been heralded for his defensive qualities and Zayah Emery is a very dogged defensive player but will be going up against Luis Diaz who was arguably man of the match in the first leg and having an incredible season and then a knock-on effect of Zayah Emery having to play at fullback is that Luis Enrico will have to tweak the makeup of his midfield. The good news for PSG is that Fabian Ruiz is now fit again, having been out since the end of January with a slightly mysterious knee injury.

15:19He started in the draw against Lorient on Saturday. He played for about an hour. So he will probably come in for Zayemery. And, you know, PSG will therefore have the first choice midfield from last season of Ruiz, Viteña and Neves. But I think that there is a concern about Ruiz's fitness. He will almost certainly not be able to put in a full 90 minutes. So PSG are looking slightly weakened. OK. Zayi Emery is a slightly less marauding option than Hakimi. Could that maybe be to PSG's advantage as they carry this one goal lead to the Allianz Arena? Yeah, it could be. I suppose a lot of it depends on how PSG want to approach the game.

15:58If they're going to go full throttle in the fantastic way that both they and Bayern did last week, then not having Hakimi is potentially a setback. But if they're thinking more, well, we have an advantage here to defend and we are in the ascendancy in the tie, then maybe it will help them to have Zahe Mery there. And certainly he tends to get forward with much less abandon than Hakimi does. So it should make PSG a little bit tighter. And a problem that PSG have had this season is that the counterpress has not been quite as well-oiled as it was last season. Zayemarie is much less likely to find himself 20 yards ahead of the ball when PSG concede possession.

16:42So again, that could make them slightly more solid at the back. Okay. After the excitement from last Tuesday's game had died down, were Parisians generally satisfied with the 5-4? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think the regret for PSG was the fact that they were 5-2 up with half an hour remaining. And then I think got caught in the situation of just not really knowing whether to stick or twist. I mean, to carry on attacking at 5-2 would have seemed slightly absurd, but then you can't just sit back and defend. And, you know, all four of the goals that they conceded were all quite soft. I mean, some of them were brilliantly taken, not least, as we said last week, Diaz's final goal for Bayern.

17:25But they all came right through the centre. So I think there was a bit of concern that PSG looked so soft-centred. But generally speaking, just great satisfaction that they were able to play such fantastic football and that they managed to come out on top. All right. PSG and the history of second legs in European competitions have seen them lose more away matches against Bayern than against any other team in this competition, in any of its iterations. Bayern, who for their part, have only lost one of their last 29 Champions League games at home. Crikey, because they need to do more than just not lose, Seb, on Wednesday.

18:02How confident are the Bavarians ahead of this game? Confident, I think. I mean, there's a little bit of trepidation because of what they faced. last week i think naturally for buying fans you don't often see you certainly don't see them concede five goals in a single game very often but also you don't see them as open uh particularly in transition i think one of the great successes of this season has been the ability to balance the great attacking potency with a level of security without the ball psg clearly uh ripped into shreds and it was it was staggering how easy the transitions were how little friction uh psg phase psg phases faced in midfield seems ball be worked out of midfield worked out of defense find its way to a vatina or jan neves and then immediately within seconds be at the feet of a kvaris galia uh or a desire dewey which um when you're a defender and you're isolated has got to be amongst the loneliest places in the whole of european football that being said you mentioned the record at uh allianz uh this is a this is a nature of uh dominating your domestic league being a continental power in your home stadium you're going to feel confident also think having it's interesting that tom mentioned the 5-2 because at 5-2 i thought this might be out of reach this might be out of reach and then byens byens ability to kind of rest um control of the tie back in the way they did with these flourishes of great style so the free kick that led to of Mancano's headed goal but then the Diaz moment which um hard to describe but it felt like a statement it felt like a statement yes it reduced the arrears and made it a one goal tie but it was such a comprehensive show of ability and skill and in a way ego it's as good a goal as I've seen buying school season and then other moments throughout the the the first leg which would give them a great deal of hope I don't think Nino Mendes will face many more uh difficult evenings than Michael Lisset gave him, the one Michael Lisset gave him last week, where he just did what he wanted, really.

20:04Going to the left, going to the right, causing all sorts of issues. And so there's a belief in Bayern, naturally, that these things are going to be there next week too. And I think also it's an opportunity for Vincent Kompany maybe to correct one of the mistakes he made, which I don't think he'll start Alphonso Davies because Davies is a great player, but Davies has not had a lot of continuity in his season. He's been in and out with injury. He had his long-term knee injury, should be recovered from before christmas and then has had a sort of muscular setback since i think limer comes in i think limer gives him a little bit more security um and yeah i mean also tom bischoff will be back and lenny karl should be fit from the bench so he's another little option that will have to change the game if he needs to so going in with what i would argue best center forward in the world at the moment um two wide forwards who are among the best in the in the world also with a range of options should you need them so it's pretty loaded and uh every reason to feel confident wow in many ways a game not to be analyzed or previewed a game just to be enjoying yeah and then to be joyless about afterwards yeah exactly as soon as it's finished what does it what does it mean about the premier league because nothing must really be about the premier league i bet that's what they were talking about in germany right said yeah you know what in fact sort of me and michael cox were sat in the press box and as the goals were going in there There was a row of PSG fans behind us who weren't celebrating.

21:24They were just talking about like, what does this mean? How does this contextualize Arsenal's potential championship winning season in England? Just wouldn't shut up about it. Such great thinkers in Paris. Of course. Paul, do you want to call it? Who's going through?

21:36Jimbo: I think Bayern are going through. Good man, Paul. I think Bayern are going through. I've seen them. I agree with Seb that the sort of front line they have, I think Kane is the best nine in the world. Diaz and Anneliese are impossible to contain. And just the fact of seeing Olyse doing what he did with Nuno Mendes impressed me a lot. Because we knew that Nuno Mendes in 1v1 was almost unbeatable. I remember that Nations League final against La Minha Mal, where La Minha Mal did nothing. He could get past him. But Michael Olyse seemed like, yeah, he was toying with him. And yeah, I think that playing in Munich with everything it means.

22:17Jimbo: And I'm a truly believer of this theory of a team that has won the Champions League. Of course, they can win it a second time, but they might lack this edge that Bayern, I think, that they might have for what it represents for a lot of players involved in that team. Last time they won it, of course, was against Paris Saint-Germain, Tom. True, but the last time that Paris Saint-Germain won it was in Munich. So as much as Bayern obviously will have home advantage, this is a stadium that means something now to this group of players, to this club. And so there'll be a sense of, oh, look where we are again.

22:50We're trying to get to the final. We're trying to, you know, do this impossible feat of successfully defending the Champions League title. We've just got to get over this one last hurdle at the stadium where all our dreams came true 12 months ago or 11 months ago. 11 months ago. So, you know, could that be a factor? We'll soon find out. We will, won't we? but not until we've seen Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid with whom they drew 1-1 in the first leg at the Metropolitano. James, you're heading along to this.

23:21James Horncastle: Yes. Yes. You, prior to the first leg, said, away with your naysaying about defensive, gritty, pragmatic performances, this will be a more open game. And whilst it did suffer from following the magnificent match in Paris, it was a pretty entertaining game. What do you think this one's going to be like? Well, Arsenal will go into it with, let's say, fewer demons than they did going into the game a week ago in Madrid. I think that win against Fulham, even though Fulham had had some dodgy lasagna, that will matter little to those Arsenal players. I think it was exactly the kind of afternoon they needed, kind of be more free scoring than they have of late and just something to build confidence from.

24:16James Horncastle: Obviously, there was quite a lot of aggro at the end of that game in Madrid a week ago over a sort of penalty decision that never came. But yeah, I'm curious if Arsenal, who have been trending towards a Champions League final, so if we have seen them two years ago reach a quarterfinal last year reach a semifinal yeah whether this is their time and whether the atmosphere at the emirates helps them get over that line um there's already a lot of talk about yes what the the biggest choreography in arsenal history is going to be biggest t-fo shames biggest t-fo yes you know you know i you You know, I don't use that term.

25:01James Horncastle: It's been malappropriated by social media. I'm not going to go down that. I've had multiple rounds of therapy about this. Just dug right under his skin. Early up there with Sarri ball is one of the things that's great. Paninis. Paninis are available. Paninis. Yes. Jeez. Was last season's famous Arsenal Tifa the final straw? The smallest, most underwhelming. The floppy cannon. The floppy cannon. Yeah. That was the death now. So I think they've clearly learned from the floppy cannon and they will be standing proud and present for this game against Atleti. Okay. Tumescent.

25:44I'm looking forward to seeing that erected prior to the game. So there are many positives for Arsenal, as you say, the nature of their performance at the weekend against Fulham. The fact that they are the only team that haven't been beaten once in the Champions League this season. And also the fact that Atletico went to Arsenal not long ago, Paul, and lost 4-0. Now, Lutman's arrived since then. But what other reasons are there for optimism for the Madrid supporters?

26:15Jimbo: I think that Atletico are quite a different team from the first half of the season. I think that there's a thing of seizing the moment Atletico have been really focused on the Champions League and the Copa del Rey in the second half of the season they basically changed the whole line-up in La Liga in this weekend, they changed 11 players and yeah, that's the biggest goal of the season and as I said there's this fact of, they are aware that Arsenal has not lost a game in the Champions League this season, but they went to the camp now with Barcelona having just lost one Champions League game at the Camino decision and having lost none in La Liga.

26:56Jimbo: And they won. So I guess that... I think that Atletico are able to bring their best version when they are against the odds and when there's doubts on them. And yeah, that's the context that I think that Simone will be happy with. Having said that, I still think that Arsenal go through. This is the context that I think that they envisage. Are there any injury? I'm trying to think, was Julian Alvarez in doubt after, or was that for the first leg? Yeah, well, he had this ankle problem, but he's going to be okay. He's going to be okay for the second leg. Well, that match happening very possibly in a few hours from now, listener.

27:32Tuesday evening at the Emirates. Thursday then, after the Bayern PSG, you've got the Europa League semifinals. That's the Villa against Nottingham Forest. Forest with a one-goal lead. And Braga 2-1 up, taking the game to Freiburg. And then in the Conference League, it's Strasbourg trailing by goal but hosting Rayo Vallecano. Pole. And Crystal Palace against Shakhtar Donetsk. Crystal Palace 3-1 up after a brilliant first leg performance in Poland. Excellent. Let's start having a look around what happened in the domestic competitions this weekend. Starting off with Cedia.

28:13This episode of The Totally Football Show is sponsored by Men's Warehouse, who are here to make you look and feel good no matter the occasion. From formal to casual, dressed up to dressed down, suits, tuxes, sports coats, jeans, shorts, chinos, t-shirts, polos, sandals, underwear, Men's Warehouse has it all. And if you can't find what you're looking for, their in-store experts are on hand to find just the thing you need while their on-site tailors guarantee your clothes have the right fit for your body. There are over 600 stores nationwide, so get ready to look good and feel good for anything from head to toe by visiting your local men's warehouse today.

28:48Men's Warehouse. Love the way you look.

28:57James Horncastle: Thank you for calling the Bombas Comfort Line. Bombas make socks, slippers, tees, and underwear made with the highest quality materials. Press 1 for comfort, 2 for style, 3 for donation. You chose style. Bombas is styles for whatever you enjoy. You can run in Bombas, lounge in Bombas, dress them up, dress them down, but always give back in Bombas because with every item purchased, another is donated. Bombas, comfort worth calling for. Go to bombas.com slash audio and use code audio for 20 % off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com and use code audio. Hey, this is Paige from Giggly Squad.

29:29It's time to spring into deals at Lowe's. Freshen up your yard with Stay Green Premium 2-Cubic Foot Mulch, 5 bags for$10. Then head inside and save up to 35 % off select major appliances to keep clothes, food, and dishes fresh. Plus, get an additional$100 off select laundry pairs. The season's best lineup is here at Lowe's. Valid through May 6th while supplies last. Selection varies by location. Mulch offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. See an associate or lowes.com for details.

30:08This 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.

30:38Inter's for the 21st time. Champions of Italy. James, Inter won the title for the 21st time. Milan are a mess. Anything happening with that refereeing scandal? Did I dream that? That there was a massive refereeing scandal? No? OK. Let's begin with Inter. 2-0 over Parma this weekend. They only needed a point from their remaining four games. They got three on Sunday. And that's title number 21. Christian Kivu. now winning the title with Inter as a player, as manager of their youth team, and the senior side as well.

31:12James Horncastle: Yeah, the first person to do that, so win the league as a player and a coach for more than 80 years. I know you remember Armando Castellazzi in the 1930s, James. But he was the only one to have managed that feat. With Inter? With Inter. Oh, okay, right, yeah. Yes, because obviously Juventus Conte has done it. Okay, Ancelotti. Ancelotti, lead homes. And I think it's no small feat as well because a lot of people were doubting Inter after last year's Champions League final, lost 5-0 to PSG. And people thought that that team was at the end of a cycle. A lot of its players were too old. They then went to the Club World Cup with Kivu.

32:00James Horncastle: And the senior players seemed to fall out. Yes, Lautaro Martinez called out Hakon Chalinoğlu for going back to Turkey to rehab a minor injury whilst they were slogging it in the heat and humidity of North Carolina, a little bit like you, at Strongman last week. And I think for a rookie coach, those situations are actually really tricky. You know, you have to lift a team that has not only lost the Champions League final 5-0, but lost the league on the final day as well. and you have to bring a team that seems to be fractured back together again because they didn't sell Chalinole, they kept him.

32:42James Horncastle: And he's faced lots of difficult times this season, which sounds strange when you think that they've won the league with three games to spare, 12-point margin on their nearest rivals. But he's been without Lautaro Martinez, the top scorer for nine league games in 2026. He's been without Chalinoğlu for 11 league games. He's been without Denzel Dumfries, who was the main protagonist in the Champions League semifinals last year, which, you know, to just circle back on our conversation about Bayern PSG, I think no one doubts that the semifinal first leg between those two teams was arguably the best game of the decade.

33:26James Horncastle: but whether it will be the best semi-final tie we'll have to see if the first leg matches the second leg because certainly Inter Barcelona both games last year were magnificent but Dumfries out for three months so he's had to manage all of those things he's then had to have you know Alessandro Bastoni become a kind of national pariah in the Derby d 'Italia for getting Pierre Coloulou sent off and celebrating and yeah former Italian prime minister came out and said he should never be called up for Italy again he then does get called up for Italy he gets sent off in the playoff final against Bosnia that was an Italy team with a lot of interplayers within it including their kind of bright young fearless thing Pio Esposito who misses the first penalty in the out against Bosnia so he's had to deal with morale and and keeping a team spirit which I think a lot of people take for granted but is a required set of skills if you are going to be a coach of a big club and so I think he emerges with immense credits of course the flying the ointment in the season is the Champions League you know going out to Bodo Glimt in the playoff round but Inter certainly the the executive team at Inter very happy with him because you know Kivu sort of marks this intention to gradually rejuvenate Inter you know he's he's only 45 you know his only experience in top flight football came last season when he was Parma coach for three months he kept them up on the final day and that was one of the nice full circle moments of winning the league at the weekend because it came against palmer and um you know palmer have stayed up relatively tranquilly this season their general manager uh federico carabini said before the game that's partly because the mentality that kivu left um at this club so i know people don't think he has the kind of tactical layers and sophistication that simone Inzaghi had but I think let's give him the benefit of the doubt let's see if he can develop in the way that say Vincent Kompany has Bayern Munich because you know as I as I keep saying I don't think yeah Conte didn't win the league in his first year Inzaghi didn't win the league in his first year and although he's inherited a team that had become used to winning under those coaches it's actually very difficult to pick up the pieces and put a championship winning team back together again after what happened last year.

36:10When they were in for a quadruple and ended up with absolutely nothing. Inter, under Kiva, finishing ahead of three of the kind of grandees of the Italian coaching world in Conte with Napoli, Allegri with Milan and, of course, Spalletti with Juventus. All those three teams managing to not win this weekend. And I think that's been part of the context of Inter's victory, the fact that the competition's not been the greatest. strangely counter-cultural win for inter as well because in italy those grand days of italian

36:45James Horncastle: coaching particularly max allegory will tell you that team that wins the league is the one that has the best defense inter don't have the best defense i think como do but what inter do have is an attack that will score one, two, three, four more goals than you. And only Bayern and PSG have scored more goals in their respective leagues than Inter have this season. And irrespective of the goal difference, which I think is plus 52, Inter have scored 30 more goals than Napoli. I think they've scored 32 or 34 more goals than Milan and that is where this title has been won and you know that comes as I mentioned with Lautaro the skipper who in all competitions has scored 20 goals or more again but has largely been absent in 2026 and they've still found ways to score lots of goals and win games so yeah the competition it's it's interesting because up until a few weeks ago Napoli were trending more or less on the same points as they had last year even amid this big injury crisis that they had Milan went from match day two until sort of March undefeated but Inter have just had their foot on the accelerator particularly since the spring they went on this run where they won 14 of 15 games and that's where even though they left the door a little bit ajar for Napoli and Milan and certainly the press were projecting this desire for a title race it was kind of dead and over when they went on that incredible run through the spring Seb, sorry, did you want to?

38:35I was going to ask about Alex Zanardi actually, because I have a sense of the figure that he was from an English perspective. What was kind of the events around his passing like in Italy?

38:46James Horncastle: Well, there were minutes of silence up and down the divisions in Italy. Alex Zanardi, more than a racing driver and a Paralympic medalist, a real kind of inspirational figure. He also made a lot of documentaries on Rai, on Italian TV, talking about other kind of inspiring stories from sport. so yeah someone who transcended F1 and and the Paralympic Games and you could see that from yeah the words that the Italian president Sergio Mattarella had for him you know as as someone who always kept fighting I think he said you know when he lost his legs it wasn't a case of you know how will i keep on living without my legs it was a case of how will i do everything i want to do in this life without legs so um yeah certainly someone who um was it was it was it was a big big figure um irrespective of uh of the sports that he participated.

40:05James Horncastle: What an amazing guy. Certainly was. Milan, Juve and Napoli mentioned the fact none of them won. Napoli were goalless with Como. Milan lost at Sassuola. That's their third defeat in five. Boo's ringing out at full time from the Milan supporters. Juventus also not winning as you mentioned before that 1-1 away at the already relegated Verona. Roma thus who play Fiorentina on Monday evening. We're recording on Monday afternoon with a chance to move back within a point of the top four. Remarkable, really, because I think a lot of people thought Roma's chances of qualifying for the Champions League was over.

40:44James Horncastle: And instead, the other teams ahead of them continue to stumble. So we'll have to see if they take that opportunity against the Viola tonight or last night for our listeners. But, you know, we should really shout out Sassuolo because not least because I was there last week in Retro Emilia and spent some time with people at the club. And there's a lot of talk over the last few weeks since Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup about all the things that are wrong with Italian football. Sassarola definitely isn't one of the things that is wrong. I mean, they still come from a tiny place of just 40 ,000 people and people take that for granted now that essentially this village team has been in the league more or less every year for the last 15 years.

41:33James Horncastle: They went down and came back up this season. I think their points total is the second best of a newly promoted team. I mean, they kept Domenico Berardi and L 'Oriente, who scored a fantastic goal in this game against Milan. Brilliant technique. They kept their best players together. They continue to kind of invest in young Italians. They've got the under-21 captain, Luca Lipani. They've built this great little new training ground. They own their own stadium. These are all things that, you know, Italian teams don't do. Invest in Italian youth, invest in infrastructure. And they've gone and done it.

42:14James Horncastle: And they have this great knack of beating Milan, which is quite ironic because their late owner, Giorgio Squincy, was a big Milan fan and kind of used to quite enjoy sort of joking around with Silvio Berlusconi about how his village team would go and beat Milan. So, yeah, chapeau. Chapeau de Sassuolo, who are up in ninth spot and have, of course, the greatest club anthem in the Italian game. Unless they've updated that, have they? No, it's still NEC. Nero Verdi, Siamo Forti. Siamo Noi. Siamo Noi. And in fact, I think on the back of their shirt collars at the moment, they have something like Emozioni Nero Verdi.

42:56James Horncastle: Wow. It is so last week, but any update on the Gianluca Rocchi scandal? So the investigation continues, James. He did not present himself before the prosecutors for this interrogation that was supposed to happen last Thursday. His lawyer explained that on the basis that they hadn't been supplied with all the relevant materials, so they couldn't prepare their client to go into that. it has allegedly broadened to involve other referees la republica reported there was a wiretap intercept about this kind of now sort of infamous meeting that supposedly happened at san siro before the coppa italia semi-final first leg where it is alleged that rocky had a discussion about referees that are too into his liking and not too into his liking so we await to see what that intercept is but as I mentioned Inter not under investigation no one at Inter is under investigation right now so it's one of those things that that will probably be quite a slow burn James and will no doubt explode when I am overwhelmed with work at the World Cup well possibly not because it's right and proper that they investigate very thoroughly but at the moment there's no sense that this is anything like in scale the events of 2006 and the other referee assigning scandal of then that's a fair reading is it we don't know we don't know james we haven't got all of the materials yet so it's an ongoing investigation so true all right around about june the 11th good la liga up next

44:50If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off. And Grainger is your trusted partner. Offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, visit grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger. For the ones who get it done. AI pilots are easy, but scaling AI across enterprise customer experience is where most organizations fail. Parloa's Agentix CX platform helps enterprises move from experimentation to production.

45:33With the AI agent management platform for Enterprise CX, companies can design, test, and orchestrate production-grade AI agents across customer service operations. The result, AI agents that turn customer conversations into lasting loyalty. Learn more at parloa.com. What if you could finish your college degree faster and save thousands while doing it? With study.com, you can earn online college credit for$95 a month. Choose from hundreds of self-paced online college courses. You can study from your phone or computer on your schedule and earn college credit that transfers to over 2 ,000 colleges and universities nationwide.

46:14So whether you're looking to knock out your gen eds or complete your degree, study.com gives you a smarter, more affordable way to move forward. Go to study.com slash podcast to start earning college credit and get 10 % off your first month. That's study.com slash podcast. There's never been a better time to get outside and experience the benefits of nature. Discover nearby trails and explore the outdoors with all trails Download the free app today and find your outside

46:53You'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 us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show Well, these are the players

47:05Jimbo: who are entitled to take this final straight and, look, because it can be the second of the Barça! It's here! Goal!

47:19From Ferran Torres! Paul, both Barcelona and Real Madrid won this weekend, which means... For the first time in the entire history of La Liga, the title... could well be one in El Clasico next weekend.

47:38Jimbo: That's about right. That was the dream scenario for the majority of Barca fans. And I think that it couldn't get better because Barca, they just need to avoid losing. If they get a draw, that's fine with them. So, yeah, a big day coming up at the Camp Nou. All the debate around the Pasillo, I think we spoke about that, right? About the Guard of Honor. Oh, yeah. has been erased, basically, because there's no chance of that. But, yeah, building up to that game with everything that's going on around Real Madrid and inside that dressing room, which seems a bit out or broken. And then, yeah, the happiness across Barcelona.

48:16Jimbo: It's going to be a good week for all the Barca fans. Of course, Real Madrid could still spoil the day with a win. But I think that nobody doubts that this La Liga title will fall into Barcelona's hands. Good Lord. Currently 11 points clear. You were there on Saturday to see their 2-1 victory over Osasuna. All the goals in that game coming after the 81st minute. Curiously, Barcelona could end up with the biggest title winning margin in Spanish football history. That's 15 points. If they do win their final four games, they will finish with a record equaling 100 points. And a victory in the title race will also give them the record for La Liga wins, 33.

48:58Three. Aren't Barcelona the greatest advert for financial mismanagement ever?

49:03Jimbo: I mean, if you want to take it that way, feel free. I mean, I guess that it's how football works. It's the nature of football that doing things right doesn't equal scoring goals and winning games. So true. Yeah. And yeah, I think it's good for Barcelona. Okay. Real Madrid warmed up for playing Barcelona by playing the other team from Barcelona, Espanyol. and they beat them 2-0, Paul. Vinny Jr. with a couple of fine second-half goals. I want to come on to what you touched on there, the broken dressing room, and whether there's any truth in the rumours that Fiorentino Perez regards the famously dressing room-healing Jose Mourinho as the obvious solution to this.

49:49But tell us about Real Madrid as they prepare for the visit to Barcelona.

49:53Jimbo: Yeah, so there's a lot of angles here to take on. If we start with Jose Mourinho, that's about right, as in it was the information that was broken by my colleagues David Thornstein and Mario Cortegana, which Mourinho is in this list of candidates to succeed Arbeloa. At this point, it seems impossible to me that Arbeloa stays beyond this season for how the things are, all the games that Real Madrid have lost, basically his record, and the differences that there's inside the dressing room with the manager. I think that Arbeloa has changed his approach as well when it comes to press conferences. At the start of it, he was really symbolic or really going to rearm the identity and the ethos of the club of what should be done.

50:42Jimbo: And we are so big that we can win any club. And now he's being a bit more pragmatic and singling out the lack of maybe effort, maybe union in the players and how they need to run to win games because they cannot win only with their quality. So I guess that this change of approach from Marbella tells you a lot of how much Broca has seen things inside of that dressing room to now come out and just keep hinting what needs to change in that dressing room. But yeah, Jose Mourinho in the list of potential contenders to take over next season. He's Laurentino's most-like candidate, as Ornstein and Mario broke last week.

51:23Jimbo: And let's see what happens from here. but it's going to be an eventful end of the season at Real Madrid. Who else is on the list, Paul? And what would be the reaction of Madrid fans to seeing Jose return? Also, what would be the reaction of Vinny Jr.? That's a really good point. That's a really good point. I think that the way that the Florentino side of things and everyone at Real Madrid are framing it is we need a person who puts this dressing room in order and with discipline and that has a strong word with them and has the character to handle them. And Mourinho is still seen like that. Never mind that he's been fired over in the last three or four jobs that he's had and the way that things have gone for him over the last few years.

52:09Jimbo: Florentino Pérez still has this vision, possibly because he thinks about the time that Jose Mourinho was at the club. But yeah, there's a lot of things going on. There's a lot of noise around Kylian Mbappé. Mbappé is out with an injury. he does doubt if he will play at the Classico the way he came out at the last game against Real Betis when he got injured some fans thought okay, you're maybe saving yourself for the World Cup and in this week that he's been out handling his injury he's been pictured on holidays in Italy with his allegedly new girlfriend and a Spanish actress Esther Exposito Giustat-Belo had to face questions about that as in how do you feel that in the middle of an injury Kylian Mbappe goes to Italy and just has this romantic trip with his girlfriend

53:00James Horncastle: Was Pep asked about Mbappe? Pep Guardiola

53:04Jimbo: Yeah, he wasn't really asked about it but when Real Madrid played Man City, I think it was in the in the knockouts in the Champions League Mbappe was a doubt for the game actually he didn't play and in a question mentioning Mbappe Pep said something like well I saw that he was having a good time wasn't he?

53:24James Horncastle: He was supposed to be what? Rehabbing in Paris and he was spotted out with his alleged new girlfriend then. Yeah. It was very much Pep's vibe you know at the moment where it's just like go out have some caperinas sons out take the girlfriend out Nice. You know That's Pep. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Right, so a little bit of tension regarding that and so many other things for Madrid as they prepare for this game. Jose Mourinho, for his part, currently second in Portugal, where Porto have just sealed the Liga title under Francesco Farioli. Maybe Real should hire him. He was very emotional, Farioli. I saw the celebrations afterwards when he was in the middle of the pitch.

54:12It got very, very emotional.

54:13James Horncastle: Well, after what happened last year with Ajax where he came so close to winning his first league title and they should never have been in a position to win it in the first place given the situation he took over so for him to get this one over the line was as you say Seb very meaningful to him. Jose James of course unbeaten in the league since he returned to Benfica. Oh, there you go. That's a good start.

54:50James Horncastle: And I think he thought he might be in contention for this Real Madrid job a few years ago on the back of what he was doing with Roma, where he won a European trophy with them, Conference League, he got them to a Europa League final. I think he believed that he'd done enough in that job to remind the big clubs in Europe, but particularly, I think, Florentino Perez, who's always, as Paul said, held him in high esteem, to have another crack at the big time. And, you know, Real Madrid are a very particular club, as we've often discussed on this podcast. You know, let's not forget the circumstances in which Carlo Ancelotti returned, you know, for his second spell.

55:36James Horncastle: everyone thought carlo was done you know carlo had you know been sacked by napoli after sort of a mutiny in the dressing room um yeah he then went to everton and really seemed to be a coach on the way down and then whilst he was on a train he sees a number on his phone and it's real madrid calling he's like i hope i don't go through a tunnel right now and then he picks it up and he gets the Real Madrid job and he wins the Champions League again and consolidates his reputation as being the greatest manager in that competition's history. And so I think we'd just say while a lot of people look at it as being Roma, Fenerbahce, Benfica, he's done.

56:26James Horncastle: Right. So let's see. Let's see what happens if Mourinho does go back to Real Madrid. I mean, he doesn't want to see it, you know? Bottom line. There is that mood. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't mean we don't all want to see it happen. Maybe it does. Maybe that is the job that suits the Mourinho special skill sets. There's a little bit of a mood that he would inherit, which you'd imagine would suit his abilities and personality. because certainly at the end of that Bayern Munich tie, when there was that enormous ruck at Allianz Arena where Real Madrid were very annoyed about, I still don't really know where the injustice was.

57:08We've seen this a couple of times, very kind of Mourinho-esque behavior percolating out from this playing group. You wonder whether you could just step in and be like, this is your guy. This is your... So you always accuse Mourinho of kind of being disenfranchised by the generation gap. Maybe now there are two generation gaps and he's back in... Nice. A bit like flare trousers or something. Well, maybe three or four for flare trousers. Right. Yeah. Really? Sadly so. Yeah. There you go. Keep that coming.

57:36Jimbo: Well, sorry. Paul. I think that the thing with Real Madrid is they don't have a clear candidate, as in who would be the perfect manager. What happened with Xavi Lanzo last summer, in a way, it's a message to the club, We brought a manager with an idea, with a philosophy, with a way to do things. And we didn't tolerate that. It didn't fit with the players that we have, with how we want to operate. And now, to what James was saying here, the dream scenario that they sort of envisage is bringing a manager that follows Ancelotti's path when he joined from Everton. That's the dream scenario or the best thing that they can occur with.

58:15Jimbo: And that tallies a bit with the list of managers that are in contention for the job because Divier de Chams, he's seen more of a dressing room manager or an ego manager than a tactician. Then you put Pochettino in there, who again is linked to the job because of his relationship with Florentino Perez rather than his achievements in recent years. Jose Mourinho, Klopp, doesn't seem to have interest on the job. So the profile that they are looking is trying to mirror what happened with Ancelotti, basically.

58:49James Horncastle: I mean, Sean Dyche is...

58:50Jimbo: I mean, David Moyes at this point.

58:53James Horncastle: But, I mean, Dyche's opened an Instagram account. And... I do not know this. No, it's... Immediately opens Instagram. And he's going to... He's going to start to express some of his ideas on the game. And, you know, who knows if Real Madrid start following.

59:12Jimbo: I am not sure if that's the way that Ferencino gets noticed about him. Yes.

59:17James Horncastle: Al-Adici. good I have a lot of respect for the work Sean Dyche does I'm not yeah absolutely and I think that comes through you know some would say why isn't he in contention for a job like that but not a question we've got time to answer right now but maybe he will answer that on his Instagram perhaps so perhaps so Paul also in Spain there's still the question of whether Sevilla are going to go down they are currently two points adrift they've got a big game coming up tonight as we record against Real Sociedad So we'll address that next week. Although, Paul?

59:52Jimbo: Yeah, I don't know if you saw, as Sevilla were going to that game, they were on a bus with all the fans sort of cheering the team ahead of that game. And just cheering. And the team captain, Nemengia Goodell, just walked down the bus, went to the fans and said, there's no chance that we get relegated with that. No chance that we get relegated. So those are words that, yeah, have made the headlines in Spain. and let's see how the season unfolds for sure. All right, Paul. Thank you so much for that. Next up, Tom, let's talk a league. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

1:00:31Tom, Paris Saint-Germain dropped points. Drawing 2-2 with Lorient on Saturday. They did play. They did play, or some of them did. Not that many. Not that many of them. Of the ones that we're expecting to start on Wednesday. But Long's also dropped points against Nice.

1:01:05Which means that the gap at the top stays the same in Ligue 1. Below those two, Lyon won their fourth straight match to go up to third place. Monaco also wanted to get back in the European positions, relegating Mets in the process. And Marseille lost 3-0 to another of the relegation candidates, Nantes. And all their team got 0 out of 10 in La Provence player ratings. Tom? They did indeed. Obviously, we enjoy talking about player ratings on this podcast. It's very much part of the landscape of continental football. and yeah, La Provence did not hold back in their ratings of the Marseille players and by common consensus, it was Marseille's worst performance of the season away from home against a Nantes team who are clinging to their Ligue 1 status by their fingernail and I mean...

1:02:05Nantes had had no wins in their previous eight matches. Marseille turned up, supposedly still hunting a European place and they beat them 3-0, doing the double because they'd already beaten them back in January. Yes. I mean, Nantes have looked slightly better since Vahid Halilhodzik came in as manager. I'm talking about Sean Dyche and David Moyes and managers of that ilk. Vahid, coach Vahid, is kind of the closest thing to a Liga equivalent. He's 73. He's already been suspended for having a pop at the officials. So we watched the game on Saturday from the press box at the Bourgeois. And I had a friend who was commentating on the game for Ligue 1 Plus, my mate Andy Scott.

1:02:54And he said, you could just hear him all game. And the non-supporters were on strike at the beginning of the game. So the stadium is very sleepy and quiet. What were they on strike about? About the team being terrible. I see. Mainly. And you can just hear Coach Vahid's voice booming out. But they have been slightly better in recent weeks. They've come quite close to picking up points. And they played very well in the first half. It was nil-nil at halftime. You wondered if their opportunity had passed them by. They then scored three goals in eight minutes, between the 50th and the 58th minutes.

1:03:31All of them coming from high turnovers in Marseille's half of the pitch. and OM just looked completely abject. That is four defeats in their last six games in Ligue 1 for Habib Bay. Champions League, I think, is gone. And the only thing they have left to cling to is the hope that they might get into the Conference League. So their aspirations have gone from aiming for Champions League qualification, which many felt was almost an absolute obligation given the straightened financial circumstances at the club. And then here we are, I mean, not even a month later, and they are basically looking at Conference League or bust.

1:04:17Scandalous from start to finish. He thought it was OK to walk after his countless ball losses, complain when his teammates didn't pass to him, or act like he was in a circus by attempting unnecessary gestures for his own personal amusement while his club's financial future is at stake. In other circumstances, he might have deserved half a point for at least managing to tie his boots. But no La Provence gave Mason Greenwood 0 out of 10 along with all the rest. None of them got minus marks. There's that. None of them got minus marks, but I suspect the zero is as low as it gets. Right. What's going on with Marseille then and how bad will it get?

1:04:53What's the repercussions in the notoriously passionate football city? Well, we know the repercussions in that we've already had quite a lot of them. The president, Pablo Longoria, has already left and is now at River Plate in Argentina. So he's bounced back pretty quickly. The way is possible. Yes, literally get me on the first cross transatlantic steamer out of Marseille, heading west. He's at a safe distance. Mehdi Benassia, the sporting director, is leaving at the end of the season. The new president, Stephane Richard, will take over on the 1st of June. I think there's a widespread expectation that Habib Bey will leave.

1:05:30He was very much Ben Assia's man and it just has not worked out. And, you know, Habib Bey, who is kind of France's equivalent of Gary Neville in that he is a former right back who made his name as a very erudite and very insightful TV pundit and, you know, has been given this big job. I work with him quite a lot and he's great to work with them. I mean, he really knows his stuff. He is an absolutely fantastic pundit. Could you read the next message? I suspect almost certainly not. And that's not even strong enough. No, that's a firm, strong no. But I think it is unfortunate. There is an awful lot of footage of Habib Bay calling out managers who were unable to kind of turn struggling teams around.

1:06:16And a lot of those clips have been doing around on French football Twitter and other social media websites over the course of the last few days. So yeah, I think Bay will go, Benassi's on his way out and it will be a complete reset. You've got this squad packed full of high earning players, many of whom should be playing Champions League football, won't be playing Champions League football. Mason Greenwood will be off. All the most kind of bankable assets will go as well. And once again, they will just be, you know, starting from scratch, picking up the pieces. Presumably none of the players can buy bread at the moment.

1:06:50Do you remember this, James, how none of them could visit the boulangerie? Ah, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a genuine issue, I would imagine. Anyway, Marseille in utter free fall. We're at Le Havre. Yeah. So basically this weekend, very good weekend for Lyon. Yes. And a middling to poor weekend for everyone else. Lyon and Monaco were the only two teams in the top half of the table to win. Monaco won away at Metz. Paul Pogba making his first start as a Monaco player. How did he do? not very well oh uh he managed about an hour i think and was then taken off and the l 'équipe match report was not scathing but it was like look it's great to see him back but he's not the player he was um it was his first start in three years it was the first time he'd managed more than 45 minutes in four years um and that i think was pretty much all you could say about his performance Monaco pretty scratchy but managed to sneak victory thanks to a stoppage time goal from Ansu Fati who's hit double figures in a league season for the first time in his career Lille could only draw against La Havre Marseille lost Strasbourg lost against Toulouse with a second string team an eye on the second leg of their conference league semi-final against Araya Valicano on Thursday and as a consequence Lyon beating Rennes 4-2 on Sunday night means that they are now in third, two-point lead over Lille in fourth, and looking like strong favourites for automatic Champions League qualification.

1:08:30A lovely opening goal, as you mentioned, from Al Tamari. I wanted to ask about a couple of other players who featured in that game. One is Esteban Lepore, leading scorer in Ligue 1. Is he sur l 'avion? He's not even don le departure, like. Really? Why is that? He's the highest scoring Frenchman anywhere. He is, and he's brilliant. So he scored an equaliser at Lyon last night. That takes his tally to 19 goals this season. I think he got one for Angers at the start of the season before he went to Rennes. He's been banging the goals in ever since, but he doesn't really even get a mention because France is so completely stacked in attacking areas.

1:09:12We know that Mbappe will start as first choice number nine with Ekitike now out injured. I think Marcus Thuram will probably be the kind of main backup. I mean, Mateta is probably closer to a place dans l 'avion than Le Paul in that he has been called up by Deschamps this season and has scored goals and gives them a kind of a target man profile that they, you know, wouldn't otherwise have. But yeah, I mean, Le Paul clearly deserves a call-up or at least an opportunity. But when did such things as sentiment enter the thinking of Didier Deschamps? So yeah, he's not really getting a look in, but he's nevertheless having a brilliant season.

1:09:56And yeah, he set up Altamari's goal and then scored Rennes' second last night. He's mid-20s. He's had a really interesting career trajectory in that he was playing for Epinal. 26. 26, there you go. He was playing for Epinal in the National or maybe even National 2. so the third or fourth tier as recently as 2020 Epinal loaned him to Orléans and it was only when he went to Angers that he started scoring goals and all of a sudden he's top scorer in the country kind of like Olivier Giroud kind of trajectory he only kind of like got his big break in his mid-twenties and look at him now look at him now wherever he is there you go on the bench on the bench the other player I was going to mention was Endric, who's now with...

1:10:47He scored in this game, did it? Was it the fourth goal in this game? The fourth goal, yeah. So that's eight goals and seven assists since he turned up at Lyon and making positive noises about staying. What's the future like for Endric? I suspect he will almost certainly go back to Madrid. He said, you know, I like it here. I'm not against the idea of staying. And then all the... This is in the mix zone after the game last night and all the local supporters were like, oh my God, you're going to stay. This is incredible. and he was like, well, I mean, you know, I think actually maybe we should just let God's side and that's how he left it.

1:11:19But yeah, he had a very impressive start at Lyon, then had a dip which lasted for the best part of a month, six weeks, but he's been better in the last few matches. He was put on the naughty step a few weeks ago when Paulo Fonseca dropped him for the game against Lorient, dug him out a little bit in his pre-match press conference, but he was much better last night. He plays the through ball for Alfonso Moreira that leads to the penalty from which Gonten Tolisso put Lyon 2-1 up. And then, yeah, he hammers in the fourth goal from a Tolisso pass and is doing the business again. And, you know, Tolisso, I think, deserves a mention as well, having arguably the best season of his entire career.

1:12:10came through the ranks at Lyon, went to Bayern Munich, won the World Cup with France in 2018 as a kind of, you know, backup player. Bad injuries? Yeah, bad injuries. I think ultimately injuries were what scuppered him at Bayern. And he's now back at Lyon and he's the only kind of like old stager, you know, people like Alexandre Lacazette having left last summer. And he's been fantastic in this kind of advanced attacking midfield role. I think he's had his best ever goal scoring season. and again there is there is a desire to see him don l 'avion great for the world cup but he just hasn't been hasn't been getting a look in so i suspect he will probably be watching the world cup from his sofa but he's a very good season nonetheless on the plane in german often flug all the thoughts yeah yeah i've been flug often flug often flug then i suppose that's very literal it'd be on the plane it's in a kind of like you're straggling like in dr To Strangelove or something like that.

1:13:08But in the plane, like taking the flight. No, I would go after Flug. Okay. Yeah.

1:13:15Jimbo: That World Cup is rolling around real soon. Hey, Paul Belus. I just wanted to make a question to Tom. I wanted to dip in when he was speaking about Monaco. Oh, yeah. There were reports in Barcelona this week of Anso Fati having an 11 million by option at Monaco and seeing him scoring this weekend and reaching the double digits. I was wondering if, from your perspective, would it be a good buy from Monaco? Because Barcelona could be really welcoming that money. Yeah, I think it probably would be. I mean, he's pretty much the only one of the big-name signings who came in last summer who has produced the goods.

1:13:53Paul Pogba, as we've discussed, basically hasn't played. Eric Dier has been good when he has played, but has played very infrequently because of injury. Lucas Tredecki, the goalkeeper, has been decent, but again has been injured quite a lot. Fatih's had his injury problems inevitably but he has nevertheless been one of Monaco's most effective players. And yeah, I think they'd probably be open to the idea of him sticking around. Excellent. Anything else from France? Two last things I was going to mention. Big weekend at the bottom of the table. Very important home win for Oseer of Angers, 3-1. That gives them a five-point lead over Nantes.

1:14:33So Oseer are third bottom and in the relegation playoff place. Probably, unfortunately, all over for Nantes. But Oseer are now three points below Nice. Coupe de France final is Nice. And who are Oseer playing this weekend? Nice. Oh, are they? So were Oseer to win that, they would be level on points. And it would go down to the wire with Nice. But if Nice were to get a win, that would be them safe. And also, I thought it would be remiss of me not to mention that there is an event on Monday next week to mark the paperback launch of Vavavoom. It's at a place called The Volley in Shoreditch. Free entry, but you need to register.

1:15:12The Volley. The Volley, and I will be there in person. In person. So, you know, come along and feel free to ask anything you like. Next Monday. Next Monday, within reason. Yes. Very good. Vavavoom in paperback. Nice. Similarly, momentous news coming up next as we hit the Bundesliga. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Seb, Bayern have extended their margin as German champions again, despite the fact that they dropped points this weekend. They had a draw with Heidenheim. Last minute equaliser, thanks to that Michael Olisse. yeah well it's actually gone down as known goal oh a very very tricky afternoon for heidenheim because they they went down to to munich um went two nil up played very very well against an admittedly weakened by inside resting ahead of the uh the psg second leg came back to uh two two leon grezka with a free kick i don't think anybody's ever seen leon grezka take a free kick before certainly not like that so that's caused quite a stir um heidenheim then reclaimed the lead went three two up only then in the 100th minute at least they pick the ball up outside the the edge of the box it's curling shot off the inside of the post hits the goalkeeper on the back of the head and kind of dribbles over the line and that's um yeah this is for by for heiden now i think because um yeah that was kind of those are points they needed sadly um so frank schmidt and heiden are probably heading back to the zweiter bundsliga i'm very very sad for them buy and extend their lead to 16 points because Dortmund lost to Borussia Mönchengladbach in a result which leaves Gladbach safe from relegation yeah Gladbach is safe and there was a interesting interesting part of this so um 1-0 Haras Tabakovic scoring the only goal of the game to to keep Gladbach up threw a ball from Rocco Reitz the Gladbach captain now Reitz we've spoken about him a little bit before he grew up a Gladbach fan he was a club member from birth it's pretty well well told story anyway a few weeks ago um news broke that he would be joining ebby leipzig in the summer and that was none too popular as you can imagine from gladback's perspective the sale is kind of understandable because rights is one of the few assets that they have and their recruitment hasn't been great in recent seasons so it makes sense for them rights has taken all sorts of abuse and has you know um it feels like a lifetime of of gladback fandom has been sort of um thrown away he's torn his sandcastles down really but if that is his last contribution uh really lovely three ball for tobaccovich to run through on cobble um then it's kept glad back in the division so he'll head off now you know two more games left um he's the club captain so i'm sure he'll appear in both um let's see if the mood softens i doubt it leipzig is such a um polarizing issue but um yeah nice moment for him because he's a super player beyond the door none of the bottom six one no this is this is going to be interesting so St.

1:18:15Pauli lost at home to Mainz and that was I think Alexander Blessing would have had that game circled on his calendar as winnable because Mainz have been safe for some time now um they lost and later on Sunday Freiburg and Wolfsburg drew means that Wolfsburg picked up their point went above St. Pauli on goal difference are now sitting the relegation playoff position but next week St Pauli are away in Leipzig probably going to get beaten there Wolfsburg host Bayern probably going to get beaten there you'd imagine unless Bayern really rotate but then I'd imagine not because um even even their lineup against Heidenheim they're a little bit of there was some grumbling about the stand of the team in that very kind of Tottenham Villa way that we um we experienced over the weekend in england um so i'd imagine the team will be relatively strong and also you know um bion will be through the semi-final for better or worse by then so i'd expect you to see some um some major players there um but anyway whatever happens with them leveling points they're going to play each other volsberg and sapauly at the milan tour on the final day of the season okay which becomes essentially a relegation playoff before the relegation playoff because the winner will go down uh the loser will go down sorry and the winner will have to go into a relegation playoff which at the moment looks like it might be against Elfersburg or Hannover okay um tricky old game that either way all right Hamburg though with their win away at Frankfurt what a huge result that is that moves some well clear of the drop yeah Hamburg have had a really difficult time they've been without Luka Vyskovic for a few weeks now and Vyskovic even at his age is so important to that Hamburg defense he brings the physicality unbelievably he brings the the leadership too I mean emotionally he's enormously important and they really suffered without him and their season had it not been for the teams above them being beneath them sorry being unable to pick up points they might have had some difficulty as it was um really nice goal they went one nil down um but then an equalizer from Albert Grombeck um who joined from I think Rennes on loan Tom in in Liga in january he scored his first goal in the bundesliga first goal for half a while one and then fabio vieira scored a it ran onto a kind of a chipped through ball from comeback chest down whipped half volley across um michael zettra in the in the frankfurt goal 2-1 half a while and because of results on sunday they are now safe which when they came up i think the it's always a difficulty because we saw this with schalke a few years ago i mean schalke came up over the weekend the first time they rescued themselves from from a relegation back in 2023 they came up and they weren't equipped for the higher level and they went straight back down they lost another three years since weiner bundsliga and i think when hamburg did it after so long the kind of the unsaid part in the city was it's not the very strongest team they might go straight back down again particularly if you know heidenheim no one knew that heidenheim would be as limited as they have been no one really saw Wolfsburg or or St.

1:21:18Pauli struggling as they have in a different world that could have happened and yet in the summer summer of 2025 they made probably the three best transfers in the division Voscovic on loan from Tottenham season changer Vieira on loan from Arsenal season changer the other one Sambi Lekonga on a cut price I think it's about 300 ,000 euros from from Arsenal arguably the best signing the whole of the Bundesliga last summer he's been absolutely magnificent and has made such a difference so they're able to almost transplant this this kind of this this uh this core of quality into their side and that's really why they've been able to survive and now having had that year um they now have a chance to kind of not to be hamburg in the kind of the keegan european cup winning sense back from 83 but at least to move back towards that kind of stature over time uh forever important moment for them well done melin polzin the um the coach who remember is only there because stefan baumgart got sacked in those seven years when hamburg were down they kind of tried every type of manager and polzin he grew up a hamburg uh fan he's he's from the city so in the end having tried everybody have tried all sorts of philosophies and ideas and they've all failed in the end it's just the guy from hamburg that brought them back up and then kept them back up and beyond the anecdotes about his past he's a very very capable coach too um and it's done it's done very very well when you were talking about the many years of difficulty i was just thinking that the hamburgers were in a pickle as opposed to the other way is that really is that really is that is that what did you i grew up thinking one day you know like the football italian side of me one day i'll get to broadcast with james rickson and here i am here i am this is this is what the

1:23:02James Horncastle: top of the mountain looks like i was i was yeah i thought you're holding some rocker rights back no no nothing like that that would be a long time to hold that back that was a good 10 minutes ago schalke so are they going to be better equipped with edin djeko and loris carius and the amazing ex-plymouth argar manager miran muslic yeah so we don't know whether djeko will stay right we're not sure whether he's 40 now of course he's been very very important um since arriving uh in january on a free transfer from Fiorentina. Don't know. The signs are good. The club have said, Frank Baumann, the sporting director, said, we're going to have a bit of a sit down.

1:23:39Okay. We're going to talk about it. What I do know is that Loris Karras, the former Liverpool goalkeeper, he's probably going to be signing a contract extension. Hey, great story that because Karras came to Schalke just under 18 months ago, really as a backup, as a kind of, as a place filler in the squad. Inherited the first choice jersey because of injury. Played well enough to earn a contract extension and beyond the season. And this year has been really, really good. And fittingly, Schalke went 1-0 up on Saturday night, Kinnan Karaman, the captain and top scorer. But they held a one-goal lead, and you could feel, given the history of Schalke, especially in the last decade and a half and how many things have gone wrong, you could feel the tension at Veltins, and you could feel a certain, you know, Dusseldorf not having a great season, but they're not a mug team.

1:24:27And Schalke, Karas made an absolutely excellent save late in the second half to to preserve that lead and to to keep hold of the one though when he will be there in the bundesliga i also think in answer to your question i think the team as it is now without additions in the summer is better equipped some young guys there that people are going to enjoy watching um nicola katich who played in the the playoff against italy who actually was ruled out for the season with injury he sustained in that game between bosnia and italy um he's a big nuggety elbowy center half that can just head away everything um he'll be back he'll be a good foundation piece so i think they they've got some tools broadly speaking how big is it for the bundesliga to have shaka massive massive like shaka by by members i think shaka have over 200 000 members by members they're the third biggest club in germany germany and the bundesliga it's not really right to talk about it as a brand but we must do that in relation it's just because that's that's that's the that's the situation european football faces you've got to have your big clubs you've got to have your big occasions schalke come back in okay they're a massive regional powerhouse they also bring back the rivalry with dortmund so we're going to have the revier derby back next week next season um and i think the other part of this so that's part a part b is you need these clubs come back and you need them to get it right once they do and so we went through that with Hamburg and Cologne this season both of whom will be staying thankfully um you need Gladbach to stay up really and at times it looked like we might lose them and then Schalke need to come back and then Schalke over the next five ten years need to become a stable presence in the Bundesliga and you need to build up these these yeah these sources of power around the country um it's not to say that anybody's going to be able to interrupt the um the the Bayern monopoly but it's very important that the middle class grows in German football, the upper middle class.

1:26:19Okay. Next week, Seb, you're going to be off. I am indeed. And then when you're back, we can see what happens in the race for Champions League places, which every week seems to change its notable features. For now, Leverkusen moving into fourth spot behind Leipzig, who they beat 4-1 this weekend with a hat-trick from Patrick Schick, who could have had about seven or eight. But there's no time for that now. No time at all. No time. No time. Just going to cut me off. Go on then, Seb. A little bit of extra time. You asked Tom, is there anything more from Ligue 1? And I was going to go into the top four.

1:26:54That's why I cut you off. Learned his lesson from Ligue 1. It's a punishment. Never again. Going on holiday, right? Go on then, Seb. I was just going to say, so Hoffenheim had a little bit of a blunder over the weekend. Yeah. Because they were 3-1 up against Stuttgart at home. That would have taken them clear into fourth place. um they got pulled back to 3-2 emirin demirievich um scored uh to bring stuttgart back into it atakan karazor the stuttgart captain then got himself sent off even with the 3-2 advantage hoffenheim couldn't couldn't hold on they missed all sorts of chances missed inside of the hit the inside of the post three times conceded a 95th minute equalizer to tiago tomas which takes them on goal difference down to sixth and all three of those clubs are now on 58 points it's amazing isn't it so leipzig third four points ahead of that trio of sides all level on 58 and i think the bunds league will probably only have four qualifiers for the champions league next season depending on what happens freyberg and bayern that's the way it looks at the moment so it's it's three into one and that doesn't go it does not okay seb have yourself a lovely week off thank you and we'll catch up in a fortnight's time the euro show will be back of course on tuesday we'll also be here on Thursday morning to deconstruct what the Champions League's second legs of the semi-finals mean for the Premier League.

1:28:15So do join us for that. Many thanks for now to Paul, to Seb, to Tom, to James, to producer Lucy and to you, listener. Have yourself a great time. We'll catch up with you soon.

1:28:31You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

1:28:57James Horncastle: The Athletic FC.

1:29:04Hey, this is Paige from Giggly Squad. it's time to spring into deals at Lowe's. Freshen up your yard with Stay Green Premium 2-Cubic Foot Mulch, five bags for$10. Then head inside and save up to 35 % off select major appliances to keep clothes, food, and dishes fresh. Plus, get an additional$100 off select laundry pairs. The season's best lineup is here at Lowe's. Valid through May 6th while supplies last. Selection varies by location. Mulch offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. See an associate or Lowe's.com for details.

1:30:05looking to knock out your gen eds or complete your degree, study.com gives you a smarter, more affordable way to move forward. Go to study.com slash podcast to start earning college credit and get 10 % off your first month. That's study.com slash podcast. Hi, this is Kim Holderness from the Laugh Lines podcast. Let's talk about spring break. You might be thinking, oh no, Kim, nothing good happens on spring break. Well, I'm here to tell you it's time to redefine our vacation time. We all deserve a getaway that is meaningful, but doesn't require a ton of planning. Spring break isn't what it used to be.

1:30:41It's better. This spring, stay three nights and get a$50 Best Western gift card. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or tech in steps.

1:31:20From GPS tracking-enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com slash getgab and use code getgab for an exclusive offer. That's g-a-b-b dot com forward slash getgab. Gab. Tech in steps. Independence for them. Peace of mind for parents.