Will the Premier League strike back in the Champions League? Plus THAT Guler goal

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1:29Love the way you look.

1:58Pol Ballus: Sackle, Bundesliga, give the gloves to Harry. Bayern are in a keeper crisis. Plus, Italy, I almost crashed my Mercedes when I heard Ashley Cole was the new Chazena manager. We get to the bottom of all those stories and more in this Totally Football Show.

2:17Pol Ballus: And it's a warm welcome to another Totally Football Show European edition. In the studio today, Tom Williams. Hello, James. and Tom Williams' book, Do You Speak Football? Or in the Japanese edition, which you just give me, Hanasemos Football Go? Or something like that. Something along those lines. Something along those lines. Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned that on a recent pod, James, or maybe it was pre-pod or post-pod, and your eyes, I felt like they lit up ever so slightly. They did light up. And as an appreciator of all things Japanese, I thought you would appreciate your very own copy of the Japanese version of Do You Speak Football?

2:53And there it is. So a pleasingly mad-looking cover. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a man with a globe for a head, shrugging. Right. And then a couple of lions.

3:03James Horncastle: I thought it was Frank Sybottom, no? Who knows? I see where you're going, yeah. Yeah.

3:09Pol Ballus: I mean, it is, no?

3:11James Horncastle: Big in Japan. Cover design's great.

3:12Pol Ballus: It is great, isn't it? Sugoi. Arigato gozaimasu. Thank you very much. James Hallcastle's here as well. Hello, Richardson. But he might not be here for long, given that you still get your hat and your coat on. Are you dashing off again, James, after your recent Italian exploits?

3:28James Horncastle: No. Well, I was supposed to be going to Munich, but I'm not going to Munich anymore. Is that because they beat them 6-1 in the first leg? Partly, yes. Yeah. What if they turn it around?

3:38Pol Ballus: What? What if? What if? We'll be hearing more about that game, I shouldn't wonder, from our German correspondent, Seb Stafford-Bloor in Hamburg. All right, Seb. Hello, James. I am also recently announced going to Munich for that game so a big a big tip of the hat to mr horncastle for my 12 hours on the deutsche barn

3:57James Horncastle: coming up this yeah sorry sepp the reason i'm not going to that game is logistical okay it is it is because my passport is full oh and i have to get a new pass is that a thing well it is a thing you used to be able to get new pages yes but now you can't you have to apply for a new passport. But you can get a new one in a day. You can apply for a speedy one. You can. But the thing is, I have been traveling every week for the last three weeks. And in order to get the booking to go to where I have to go to get this new passport, there are only very few slots available. And what happened this week was that slot that I booked got moved to Wednesday, which is when this game is taking place, which is why I can't go.

4:46Pol Ballus: Problems with slots. It's a common thing at the moment could be a slot available in liverpool in a month or two if you know what i mean i think there is a passport office there oh yeah true wow james i would have thought your face is your passport but then well look i mean i would have loved to have gone to this game um i think i

5:04James Horncastle: saw honickstein oh yeah our good friend in bergamo um we had a nice sort of aperitivo together and i think he was very much looking forward to some schnitzel really um so i can actually confirm that yeah i spoke to rafa last week and we were talking about this game he's like is james still going and i was like yeah yeah yeah yeah and he was he sounded so so happy so i have to cancel a schnitzel restaurant reservation well i i don't really want to be the person to to tell him that

5:33Pol Ballus: james can't go right so i'm gonna say rafa won't be cancelling that reservation no way also with us today. Paul Belouz. Paul, you've had a busy weekend. I've had a busy weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been all involved in the Barca elections. So all good. All good around here. Excellent. You also caught Barcelona's massive 5-2 win over Seville. And you were there for the first leg of Real Madrid against Madrid. That was 3-0. One of the many exciting first legs, which we're going to get another helping of over the next few days. We'll be talking about the prospects for those matches very, very shortly, but it would be remiss of me to go any further without Tom asking you, what's been your moment of the week?

6:15I'm going to go for Mets versus Toulouse, which on paper looked like a guaranteed stinker. Bottom of the table Mets were already halfway, if not three quarters of the way, if not five, six of the way to being relegated. Toulouse were on a dreadful run of form and it produced one of the games of the season in Ligue 1. Toulouse went 2-0 up. Mets brought it back to 2-2 with two goals in the space of about two minutes. Toulouse went ahead again in first half stoppage time. Beauty from Jan Gaboho, left-hand corner penalty area, top right corner, curls it in. Mets dominate the second half, equalise to make it 3-3 with two minutes remaining And then in the ninth minute of stoppage time, Toulouse's heavily tattooed Norwegian bad boy winger Aaron Donham picks up the ball on the left, gets to the byline, cuts it back.

7:1321-year-old Slovakian midfielder Mario Bauer appears from nowhere to sweep in the winner 4-3 in the 99th minute. Wow. Hashtag sen or scenes in French.

7:25Pol Ballus: Hashtag lose your Mets. Well, indeed. Yeah. Indeed.

7:30James Horncastle: James, your moment of the week Stadio Olimpico, James Sunday night, Lazio against Milan, Milan with a golden opportunity really to close the gap at the top of the table to 5 points because Inter, the day before, they drew with Atalanta in somewhat controversial circumstances Inter felt, the referee had gone against them, press boycott after that, and Milan go down to Rome, where if you remember in 2022, they had this great comeback win on their way to winning the title. And so people thought Lazio, very depressed club at the moment, fans not going to games, actually boycotting the Stadio Olimpico.

8:07James Horncastle: I think there were only 2 ,000 fans there for the game against Sassuolo. But the ultras, upon hearing Maurizio Sarri saying, it's just so depressing, they said, well, one final act of love towards the team and you Maurizio, we will show up for this game. We will carry on our protests. but we will gift you this atmosphere. Was it like Helm's Deep? Look for me. There they were. Yeah, it was magnificent, James. So they did this massive choreography in the Corde of a Nord before the game, which showed a kind of Lazio hooligan ultra, the kind of iruduchibili character. Not with the bolaha. It was a baseball cap and sort of Stone Island outfit, but with a big sort of uh medieval shield and flag as though the hooligan ultra were the true protectors of the club because they have been protesting the ownership of claudio lotito not only in the last few weeks but really for the last 15 years and it has escalated a hell of a lot um since january and so milan all of a sudden walk into the stadio olympico looking around going like what the hell is this?

9:22James Horncastle: Seemed distracted by it. Lost the game, 1-0. And the title race, which we declared wide open all over again last week, seems to be now shut and dry.

9:51Pol Ballus: Seems to be. Who can say, though? Who can say? Seb, your title race looks pretty done and dusted. What's been your moment of the week, though? Yeah, so you teased a little bit of Bayern goalkeeping chat earlier. I'm going to go with Sven Ulreich's performance against Bayer Leverkusen. So Sven Ulreich, kind of permanent backup to Manuel Neuer. He's been at Bayern for 11 years now and save one season he spent playing for Hamburg in the second division. he's just been a reserve goalkeeper sat on the bench done pretty well whenever called upon he had to start at the weekend at the buy arena because of injuries to neuer but also jonas urbig who got a bit of a concussion uh in the game against atalanta and was out now ulrich hasn't played since september 2024 not a single competitive minute so he's just sat there for 18 months in addition to which on a much more serious note um in august 2025 he and his wife announced that his six-year-old son had really sadly passed away after a long illness.

10:50So he's been going through a private hell in the background. Came back, played very, very well, made a couple of really, really excellent saves. And at the end of it, when the team were in front of the Geisterblock, in front of the Travelling fans, his teammates just pushed him towards the Bayern supporters so that he could take the applause. And the recognition is a really, really top professional. Well done him.

11:10Pol Ballus: All right. 1-1 that finish, despite the fact that Bayern went down to nine men in the course of that game. but he won't be fit for the midweek game, the return leg against Atalanta, and neither will Manuel Neuer or the other keeper on their books. Well, not necessarily. So whilst we're recording, we're waiting a decision on Urbic, who not quite sure what the injury was. It's been listed as a concussion, and obviously there are some protocols that follow. Not going to pretend to be an expert on that, but Bayern are going to make a decision about that today. So he may well play. If he doesn't, yes yeah if he doesn't the next in line would be a 16 year old german american called leonard prescott who has never played for by munich so that would be quite the introduction albeit with a a 6-1 aggregate yeah i mean i don't want to wish on anyone but i'm really i think everyone would love to see that wouldn't they a bit like i don't know when they get i don't want to wish concussion on anyone except for this guy i don't i don't want him to be concussed but just the doctors are saying best if he rests you're not you're not wishing concussion on him because the incidents already happened you're already happened you're wishing post-concussion caution and i join you in that i i don't like to bring up other sports but in ice hockey there will sometimes be some semi-pro guy who's on the books of a of a club and there will be occasions when all the actual active keepers get injured they will pull the guy out of the crowd he might be a lawyer or a plumber or something, but he plays a bit of rec hockey.

12:41Pol Ballus: And all of a sudden he goes in net for the Blackhawks or whatever and gets pucks pinged at him. And it would have a little bit of that vibe to it. Just saying. Plays the game of his life. Plays the game of his life. Who is this guy? Damn. Netflix series follows. Yeah. He marries someone famous. What are you doing next? He said, ah, I've got my plumbing to do, et cetera. I mean, it writes itself. But sorry, Paul. No. I'm just not going to beat this. Paul, your moment of the week, please. I spent 12 hours at the Camp Nou yesterday, so I better get one of those moments. Drinking with Laporta. Yeah, no, I wasn't expecting, just to put that as the moment of the week, but my plan was to mention a good scene that will win this.

13:33It was just about midnight when Laporta was already celebrating his win at the elections when we realized that a band of mariachis were coming into the Camp Nou. And basically, yeah, they just stepped into Joan Laporta's box and started singing and playing music just to celebrate Laporta's wind. Yeah, it was a touch of class, if you want to call it that way, with Joan Laporta singing, dancing before he went further. And he basically reserved a whole club in Barcelona called Luz de Gas, a historical club where he spent the whole night just partying and celebrating that he's going to stay as Barca's president for the forthcoming five years.

14:16Is that good news for the club, Paul? I think that if you listen to the dressing room, there was a vast majority that wanted Joan Laporte to stay. Sporting-wise, the project will remain being the same, which is good news if you ask to the fans because everyone is really excited about this. There's, of course, the financial dimension, which is what the opposition has tried to capitalise to make a contest of these elections, but it has not been enough because at the end of the day, what voters care is if the ball goes to the back of the net. And that's been happening over the past couple of seasons at Barcelona.

14:52So good luck for Laporta in the next five years because he'll need that.

14:57James Horncastle: Certainly will. Paul, in every photo I saw of this election, Joran Laporta was like behind whoever was voting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, the whole event is just mental to witness because it's a showcase of Catalan society, just like nothing else. There's like a myth, like a silent myth here in Catalonia, which is there's not a more powerful city than being the Barca president, just let alone being the Catalan head of government. So being the Barca president is the highest profile place that you can have here in Barcelona. So in those elections, you can see like former presidents, artists, singers, former footballers from Barca, former president of Barca, just going there, having their moment and just placing their vote that in a way has a weight in Catalan society as well.

15:52So it's interesting to see. And I think that Laporta plays this game really, really well. and in every personality that came into the boating stations to vote. Yeah, he was really clever in terms of like being close and sort of claiming this sort of vote for his cause.

16:07Pol Ballus: Excellent. Barcelona, of course, have a big week coming up as they host Newcastle on Wednesday in the Champions League. Also on Wednesday, Liverpool will be welcoming Galatasaray to Anfield. They're a goal down from the leg in Istanbul. Bayern Munich 6-1 up as they welcome Atalanta to the Alianza Arena while Spurs 5-2 down against Atletico Madrid are at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Could they? Could they? Could they, Tom? Well, I mean, probably not. But the fact that they're going into this off the back of that drawer at Anfield that felt a lot like a win, having produced their most coherent performance under Igor Tudor by an absolute mile.

16:53Right. Let's go with probably not, eh?

16:55James Horncastle: Yeah, but James, I mean, you're talking about can they qualify? I think what they can do is, having got a point at Anfield, they then sort of gracefully bow out with a win in this game, which isn't enough to take them through. But might actually be better because it saves them a fixture.

17:14Pol Ballus: They preserve their dignity. They light a little bit of a fire, win over some fans, and don't have extra fixtures. Yeah, it depends.

17:21James Horncastle: Defeat with honour, right? Yes. depends on your position though on Igor Tudor whether because that would likely ensure he stays on what's your position on Igor Tudor well I mean he's a Serie A guy isn't he right team Tudor all the way yeah banging the drum from the start we have a Spurs fan with us Seb I really enjoyed yesterday they played really well it was it was novel it was emotionally exhausting but also he's been criticized by so many people now some of the interviews that he afterwards have really started to resonate with the fans where he's pretty much just telling reporters now which is great i'm all for it yeah all for it more of that i actually thought his interview was patrick davidson he was right about in in how he engaged with patrick davidson there i agree i agree completely what happened completely well he was being asked like do you still have hope that you can be the coach that tottenham need right and he was simply saying what do you expect me to say here i'm not going to say no right and um you know it came across as being not aggressive but just like chippy yeah um but i i think he was kind of right in his um approach to that question is i will what it's it's a nothing question what can i say

18:37Pol Ballus: 100 just a man trying to do his job yeah Woo! Tuesday's games in the Champions League We'll see, well the early one We'll see Bodo Glimp visiting Sporting Club de Lisbon The Norwegians flying of course 3-0 up from the first leg Then the 8 o 'clock games Arsenal up against Bayer Leverkusen It was 1-1 at the Bayer Arena Chelsea host Paris Saint-Germain Who've had the weekend off Tom That won 5-2 to the Parisians a week ago and 3-0, polls 3-0 to Real Madrid. It was at Bernabeu, which you witnessed. Can City turn that one around? Not if this weekend's performances were anything to go by, for while Man City had a very disappointing draw away at West Ham, Real Madrid were tearing it up against Elche.

19:27Pol Ballus: That's where we're going to begin with the Madrid sides heading to the Premier League. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. La Liga with Paul Belus. Paul, a week ago, we were hearing how time might be running out for Arbelo. All sorts of problems for Real Madrid. Seven days later, they've absolutely thumped Man City. And then this weekend, came up with one of the most spectacular performances of the season against Elche. Yes, a huge win. I think that we need to mention that Elche is possibly the team in the poorest form in La Liga right now, potentially getting into relegation spots in the next few weeks.

20:11But Real Madrid were really, really good. I think that we mentioned in the past that this fact of lacking some of the players up front gives the team a bit more structure. And I think that Tarpella has been clever with that and has found in Real Madrid this way of striker-less sort of system in which Fede Valverde did in and everything, the way that fits the most this squad. And yeah, it was a big win totally deserved with the Arda Guller golazo and yeah Real Madrid that basically got everything that they need before traveling to Manchester

21:22Pol Ballus: Let's talk about the Adeguiller Golazo. How many meters was it out from? 68. 68 meters? 68 meters. I read some stats here in Spain saying that it's the farthest goal that has ever been scored in La Liga. Yeah, so it's the joint best distance or like farthest distance. Since a goal that was scored in 2004 from a Numancia player called Antonio José. So yeah, basically that's a bit of a random stat for you. 68 metres, for anyone who's interested, comes out at 74 yards, for those of us who prefer to think of football in terms of yards, which is like, I mean, that's kind of, yeah, halfway inside his own half.

22:04Pol Ballus: Extraordinary, isn't it? I also, I mean, that was the fourth goal. Was the first goal yet another one from Federico Valverde? Yes. And a lovely goal, lovely teamwork on that one. No, no, absolutely. And just, for me, it's just impressive the way that he's just on his feet without, like, not even on the run. And how powerful he manages just to shot the ball standing on his feet. It's just amazing. Just the technique that he has to strike the ball. might be the best on the wall in that regard. And yeah, Fede Valverde in the form of his life, because before the hat-trick against Man City, he also gave the winner last week against Celta de Vigo.

22:46So yeah, basically the man of the moment in Madrid. He received an outstanding ovation on Wednesday. He received another one on the weekend. And yeah, the main man right now.

22:58Pol Ballus: The hat-trick against Man City. You were there at the Bernabeu. What was the reaction to that in the days that followed, taking on Pep's side and absolutely walloping them. Basically, Real Madrid were quite convinced that they saw one of the best performances that they've seen from a midfielder in the Champions League, plus in a season that Fede Valverde had been, I'm not going to say in doubt, but with his position a bit questioned, especially with Xavi Alonso, when he was used as a right back, he didn't seem to find his position. Yeah, basically right now, he's just brought the season to a new level.

23:33And just that performance is going to fall into the category of one of the best things that Bernardo has ever seen, which is quite the statement, to be honest. He is in amazing form.

23:44Pol Ballus: No one's ever turned around a three-goal deficit against Real Madrid in this competition. But you mentioned something interesting before when you said about how the absences of favoured Arbeloa's team selections. And Mbappé is back available for Wednesday's trip to the Etihad. And I believe Jude Bellingham's in the squad as well. How much is that going to muddy Arbeloa's thinking, do you think? If I'm honest, I think that the line-up will be sort of similar than what we saw in the first leg. And he's possibly going to reserve Mbappe for like a second half cameo or something like this. Because given the results that they've had with that line-up, I don't see any reasons why Arbeloa will be willing to touch a bit his line-up.

24:26The biggest talking point is on the left-back because Fernand Mendy's out injured. and I think it's going to be between Fran Garcia or Camavinga as a left-back and that's going to be the main call that Al-Tarvela will have to make. But regarding the line-up, the expectation in Madrid is that Mbappe is possibly not starting in Manchester. OK, there you go.

24:44Pol Ballus: Now the other Madrid side heading to these shores are Atletico who will be up against Spurs 5-2 up from the first leg. We've heard what Spurs might be looking to do in that game. How much concern is there that they've let in that second half Spurs back into that tie, Paul? Yeah, there's a bit of that. But I think that the general mood is that they got a three-goal lead in the Champions League, in the first leg, and that they just cannot complain about it. They were like the mood is Atletico fan base and Atletico people being really excited about what they got in the first leg. And yeah, seeing themselves, of course, as clear favourites.

25:24And I don't think that people are complaining or having regrets over what happened in the second half.

25:29Pol Ballus: Okay. This weekend, let's go down and narrow. A 1-0 win over Getafe, a game that was overshadowed by the sending off of Getafe's defender, Abdel Abqar. For what, Paul? What was he sent off for? What did he see read for? Yeah, let's see how I explain this. Basically for pinching. Is that the right word? Pinching? I think it is. It looked like a pinch. Or a tweak, maybe. A tweak? No, I think it was more pinching. I mean, Twig for me involved more of a hand-like gesture, and I think that he tried to be a bit more picky with that. Yeah, in the novel area of like Sorloff, Alexander Sorloff, basically the referee didn't spot that at like first time.

26:13In the what area? Sorry, Paul, in the what area?

26:16Pol Ballus: In the genitalia, basically. Ah, okay, right. Yeah, genitalia. You forced him to say the scientific word. Come on, Paul, say it. Do his best to delicately present this to him. So, child. Get it out of your mouth. So he's passing, Soloth, and he reaches, and he can't quite say it on any of the replays, but it certainly looks from Soloth's reaction as though he's given him a little bit of a Paul Gascoigne tweak or pinch. Vinnie Jones tweak. Vinnie Jones on Paul Gascoigne, yeah. There's been a lot of parallels in Spain with what Mitchell did to Valderrama. Did you remember that in the 90s? In the 91?

26:55If you can look for the clip, it's really famous in Spain. So basically it was at Santiago Bernabeu. Valderrama did play against Valladolid, if I'm not wrong. Valderrama was playing for Valladolid. And yeah, in a corner kick basically Mitchell, just like that was like proper ball handling, what he did. Like going in a sort of reverse angle with his hand. And yeah, Valderrama, basically, he didn't look too bothered about that. He just looked at what was happening and said to Michel, hey mate, what's happening here? And then, yeah, it all concluded without even a fall being called. And after the game, he wasn't even banned or sanctioned because of that.

27:37But the Valderrama-Michel thing is very present in the collective minds of Spanish football. Just watched a clip of the Michel-Valdorama incident to refresh my memory. Valderrama's reaction to it is extraordinary because Michel does it twice. And Valderrama has his hands on his hips and just looking down at what is going on. But doesn't react with any kind of anger. It's just like, what are you doing?

28:00Pol Ballus: Yeah, no, he just looks down like he's really used to it. Well, there you go. Getafe with 10 men going down 1-0 to Atletico. That's a fourth straight win for Simeone's side in the league. And as mentioned, they are looking pretty good in the Champions League too. All the top three won in La Liga. so Barcelona remain four points clear at the top of the division. They had that 5-2 win over Sevilla. Rafinha hat-trick, two of which were penalties, which takes a little bit of the gloss off it. They're looking good, are they, for the visit of Newcastle, Paul? Flick was not totally happy after the game.

28:35He said that the performance lacked a bit of conviction to play as fast as he likes Barca to play. But yeah, as you said, Barca were lucky to have two penalties at the start of the game, and then they got a two-goal lead, and that was an easy ride from there. The best note for Barcelona is that they got back the best version of Rafinha. He had been not in his best forms in the past few games. He's had a lot of injuries this season, so he's lacked this sort of consistency. And yet having him scoring three goals is going to be a boost of the morale for him against looking towards a Newcastle game, which is much needed for Barcelona.

29:09And the big question mark for Flick is what's happening in the number nine spot, because none of Robert Lewandowski or Ferran Torres are performing right now. They are in a really bad form. Lewandowski was really off it on the weekend. He missed a lot of chances. And Ferran Torres has not been better in any game that he's played since the start of this year. So let's see what Flick decided up front. But his strikers are going through a really poor run of form.

29:37Pol Ballus: Interesting. 1-1 that from the game at St. James' Park. Barcelona stay four points clear of Real Madrid. Atletico in third. Have the chance to shake things up a bit next week when they will be taking on their neighbours in the Madrid derby. Next up, let's talk a little bit more about FC Bayern and find out what's going on in Serie A.

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32:24Pol Ballus: And let's go look good. PSG looked good. Real Madrid looked good. But Seb, did Bayern Munich look the best of everybody last week? Yeah, they're pretty dominant. I mean, James and I were talking during it about Michael Lisset's performance, the quality of Bayern's overall performance relative to what they've done away from home this season. It's right up there. They were absolutely excellent. Without Kane too, without Neuer, without Alphonso Davies, of course, and they were absolutely superb. So many options, so much creativity, brilliant performance, and they are kind of pretty much already in the quarterfinals.

32:59Pol Ballus: You were there at the New Balance Arena. Was that the best team you've seen so far this season, James? Definitely in the flesh, without a doubt.

33:07James Horncastle: I thought they were outstanding. Their movement, sort of tempo, skill of the individuals involved as well. I think Atalanta were pretty bold, maybe not naive, but they decided to move away from what has worked for them over the last eight years. 3-4-2-1, played 4-4-2 and they have this young kid, Ben Asconi who plays sort of left wing back or left full back on that night and he was just left on his own against Michael Olisse and Olisse was incredible I mean, Vincent Kompany afterwards says he's very detail oriented, Olisse and thinks a lot about the game and Kompany drew comparisons not in the kind of player they are but in the way they go about their work so with those details in mind thought he reminded him of Kevin De Bruyne when he was at Man City and just seeing how a player who was young evolved into being one of the most dominant players of his era obviously in the Premier League along with Mo Salah so a lot of praise from company and rightly so.

34:17James Horncastle: Alise was responsible for this delightful kind of assist for Serge Gnabry where he just brought this ball out of the sky and just almost all in the same movement put this through ball for Gnabry to go 1v1 against Bako Kaniseki and then his two goals, just a case of right I'm going to cut inside and find the far corner but I'm going to do it different each time So going to find the low corner first time, top corner next time. And yeah, truly breathtaking. One of the best individual performances that I've seen in a long, long time.

34:55Pol Ballus: One of the best atmospheres as well. Despite the 6-1 loss, the Bergamaschi put up an incredible display right to the final whistle and beyond.

35:04James Horncastle: Yeah, I feel so much to recommend this game. not only everything we've just described about Bayern but the Bedgar Maski in the Kudva they had this kind of lovely banner before the game which was Noti Magike so magical nights as was the case Italia 90 and there was sort of all these kind of fireworks spitting from behind it and Atleta went behind really early James to the softest of Bayern corner kicks but the mood in the stadium was not discouraged and even though atlanta found themselves sort of 3-0 down after 20 minutes again the noise did not go down in any volume whatsoever and when olise scored his his second goal he was applauded by the entire new balance arena so that was already memorable and then at full time i mean how often james have we seen uh italian teams after a big defeat go under the Coudovar and expect to be sort of abused and insulted by their fans.

36:10James Horncastle: And instead, the Atalanta players got what they weren't expecting, which was complete adulation from the Atalanta end. It felt like they'd won 6-1, not that they'd lost 6-1. And I think it was the Atlantini's way of saying, thank you for everything that you have done as a group of players, particularly the veterans your martin daroons your gym cities thank you to the club for giving us these wild memorable nights in europe over the last eight years and just a great unexpected gesture of kind of fair play sporting sort of just the corinthian values have often been lost

36:54Pol Ballus: in this game james let's take a moment that was very beautiful unfortunately it doesn't look like we're going to be seeing Atalanta in the competition next season, although they did pick up a valiant point amid controversy against Inter, the other black and blue team, on, when was that, Saturday afternoon at San Siro. But they're a ways off the top four, aren't they, Atalanta? They are.

37:19James Horncastle: I mean, they obviously changed coach back in October, November time when Raffaello Palladino replaced Ivan Juric. They probably drew too many games at the start of the season to be in contention for Champions League. They made a real good fist of it to get back at least on the wheel of the peloton, I suppose. And they seem to have lost it a little bit again between playing Coppa Italia semi-final first leg against Lazio and those games against Borussia Dortmund and then this game against Bayern Munich. Also, just the teams ahead of them, particularly Como, are just merciless in terms of like if you drop any points, well, Koma are not dropping any at the moment.

38:05James Horncastle: They are just setting an incredible pace towards what would be a remarkable qualification for Champions League.

38:12Pol Ballus: Indeed, because while at the top of the table it does look like the title will be inters despite that draw with Atalanta. The very next day Milan went and lost, as you were describing earlier, away at Lazio. So the gap is actually eight points now between the two sides. But the battle for full space, you've got three teams. Como, Juve and Roma there. Como a point ahead of Juventus now after beating Roma this weekend coming from a goal down. Again, there was a bit of controversy here. Gasparini, the Roma manager, refusing to shake young Cesc Fabregas' hand afterwards. So incensed was he at the red card for Wesley.

38:49Pol Ballus: But it was a 2-1 victory for Como and into the Champions League places they go.

38:56James Horncastle: Yeah, and they've done the double over Juventus. they beat Roma by the lake and this was a another demonstration of what makes Cesc Fabregas a special coach afterwards he was talking about how he's had many sleepless nights since working in Italy trying to figure out all these teams here they play man for man all over the pitch what what kind of solutions can I give my players to beat this system? And against Roma, you had the Real Madrid centre-back, Jacopo Ramon, play essentially as a centre-forward when Como had the ball. And so you would see him, as the ball's been passed around by Como's great little midfield players, Maximo Perone and Lucas Tacuña, to all of a sudden see this centre-back just sort of run into space.

39:51James Horncastle: And they caused Gasparini all kinds of problems. And you mentioned, James, at the end of the game, Cesc goes to shake hands with Gasp. Gasp straight down the tunnel. And Cesc was asked afterwards, he seemed to really annoy the kind of old guard of Italian football coaching. Max Allegri, the other week when Milan played Como, had called him kind of a child because he'd pushed Alexis Salamakas back onto the pitch. And in this, Cesc just seems to rattle these very experienced coaches. And I don't think it's got anything to do with Cesc's way of carrying himself. It's just he's bloody good. He's incredible.

40:41Pol Ballus: Got a great manager. Spent a bit of money on their team. They are top four with four straight wins. ahead of them are Napoli who are now just one point behind Milan after their own come from behind 2-1 victory this weekend at home to Lecce Lecce actually took the lead about two minutes into this game but it wasn't until the second half with some canny substitutions from Antonio Conte that the home side turned it around Kevin De Bruyne coming on and playing a key role

41:08James Horncastle: Yeah, De Bruyne looks like he's never been away he seems in great shape he hadn't been back in Naples until last week. He got injured in the game against Inter back in October and then was kind of not seen or heard from again for four or five months. But you mentioned that Napoli are now only a point behind Milan. Napoli have quietly gone about their business picking up lots of points and their injury crisis has started to ease. So for the run-in, you mentioned De Bruyne, they've got Anguissa back obviously Lukaku's available to come on off the bench as well Rasmus Hoyland keeps scoring so Milan have all of a sudden in the space of one week gone from daring to dream that they could win the league to realising that they're they are closer to fifth place than first and all of a sudden Napoli, Coman and Juventus are breathing down the necks.

42:13Pol Ballus: Crikey what drama then what drama james that's magnificent before we leave the peninsula chisena chisena how exciting is this so ashley cole signed on for his first proper senior managerial role at city of b side chisena who are currently in eighth spot or at least they were ahead of i think sunday's results but very much in the playoff picture in the second division what made Chisena pick Cole?

42:45James Horncastle: Well, they've got ambitious American owners, some of whom I think knew Ashley Cole from when he was at the LA Galaxy. And I think they've seen what Como have done in giving a promising, smart guy at the start of his coaching career an opportunity to go and do some of his best work. that Chisena team it has Jürgen Klinsmann's son in goal it's got a few guys who people who follow Serie A will have noticed over the last few years Gaetano Castrovilli who came through at Fiorentino was briefly initially international I think it's a sign of their ambition that they certainly want to be in the playoffs come May they don't want to fall away and yeah they drew at the weekend and it looked actually quite harsh for them to make the change that they did

43:36Pol Ballus: So they drew 2-2 with Froziononi who we've seen recently in City Hour as well. If you're looking to bring in a manager who's going to hit the ground running, carry a bit of momentum into the playoff push, isn't it a strange choice? Somebody who's never managed anywhere and certainly not in Italy.

43:52James Horncastle: It is a little bit, even though Cole, I think, has been quite a highly regarded member of Lee Carsley's staff with the England under-21s and then briefly, I think, for the first team. But we see this actually in City Hour. and Italian football more generally, that certainly the foreign-owned clubs are willing to make these choices and really back them. It's not just Cesc. Cesc is by far the best example of this. But also Carlos Cuesta at Parma. Carlos Cuesta is 30 and had worked with Juve, obviously was an assistant with Mikel Arteta. We saw Parma even in the past when they were in the second division under the same ownership group.

44:37James Horncastle: they hired Enzo Maresca. They gave Maresca his first coaching role when he'd been working for Manchester City's development squad, and I think he'd been on Pellegrini's staff with West Ham. So with Parma, first it didn't work with Maresca. It has worked with Cuesta. Obviously it's working with Fabregas, with Como. So I think this is this kind of new pathway that has been blazed by some of these American or foreign ownership groups.

45:07Pol Ballus: You could maybe include Genoa di Rossi, who's done wonders there, beat his old club Roma last Monday after our last show. Won again at the weekend away at Verona's. Has them nine points above the bottom three. Genoa remarkable. Anyway, there you go. They're playing Cesena in action this Tuesday evening. They're away at Mantua, who are way down the table. Lovely place in Italy, Mantua.

45:31James Horncastle: Mantua is lovely, isn't it? Quite a difficult place to get to, but it's wonderful when you go. How do you get there? just for anyone one zone you can drive you can if you're not if you're not a driver perhaps as a train if you're dependent on public transport yeah where do you have to change I can't remember what I did Tom to be honest I will give you a full itinerary after this after the show alright

45:52Pol Ballus: well we're maybe in our next part James we'll leave the World of Cal show there Seb up next tell us more about the Bundesliga

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47:56Pol Ballus: Bundesliga. Bayern only drew at the weekend, but they're still nine points clear over Dortmund. Hoffenheim are in third. They drew this weekend. They're eight points back. Stuttgart have moved up level with them, though, after they... Who was it? Stuttgart beat Seb. Oh, they beat Leipzig, didn't they? 1-0. Crikey. It's all going on in the battle for Champions League places. Should we start with Leverkusen against Bayern? Because that really, really kicked off, and people are still complaining about it days later. so a kind of a list of things that happened obviously the draw and the one-one result being kind of bottom of the list um nicholas jackson sent off for a very strange lunge at martin terrier horrible by the ankle yeah a really horrible tackle but also entirely unnecessary too because terrier was just sort of carrying the ball at three-quarters speed across the pitch around the center circle jackson jumped in clearly a red card um so buying down to 10 by which point they were 1-0 down they'd already had Jonathan Tarr's equalizer ruled out for a slightly questionable handball in the second half Bayern summoned Harry Kane from the bench he was left out again probably not with Atalanta in mind just because they're nursing him back from this this thigh injury Kane comes on with his first touch he charges down a clearance from Yanis the uh the levokuzin keeper with the second he seems to equalize from luis diaz's cross diaz picked up the the blocked block clearance that was ruled out too with the referee finding i guess a little bit of a handball in there because kane kind of turned this back the ball hit his back but then seemed to ricochet slightly off his elbow don't know it's a little bit of a VAR sort of UEFA-ish decision.

49:41Bayern getting increasingly upset by this. Then Michael Lisset puts in Luis Diaz to actually equalise. Third time lucky. Then later in the game, 84th minute, Diaz runs through, seems to go down on the Blaswiches challenge and tumbles into the box and everyone's expecting a penalty. Referee does not point to the spot. Instead, books Diaz for diving. It's a second yellow card. he's red carded and off and now suspended for a game ahead of the international break which might suit him actually because he can go and join up with colombia early but a terrible decision because on the second look diaz hit his own ankle tripped fell into the goalkeeper and didn't really appeal he just collapsed in a big heap got up wasn't appealing for anything referee booked him again before he could make his case and sent him off and um yeah people know not not particularly happy um the the honorary president by munich's honorary president called it the worst bundesliga refereeing performance he'd ever seen which come on that early wasn't even the worst one of the of the last sort of six weeks but you get him going pretty upset about it um the referee did he was interviewed afterwards quite common in germany for for referees to appear on tv afterwards and be asked questions about the performance particularly if there's a contentious incident in there and he said it's quite magnanimous he said yeah uh i didn't spot the uh his his legs hitting against each other wouldn't have wouldn't have given him a red card if i had my chance again um but it hasn't really calmed down because in the days since there's been a sort of back and forward between um pundits complaining about the way that bion have handled themselves most recently just before we started recording didi haman in his uh sky deutschland column said this is not the way a club of Bayern's stature should handle themselves, which is a very sort of typical German news cycle.

51:39So we can kind of go on like this probably until the Atalanta game. But, you know, all in all, 1-1. And you mentioned that Champions League race, kind of irrelevant for Bayern to drop points, but for Leverkusen, unideal, because Stuttgart picked up three points. They beat Leipzig. Really, thanks to a couple of really good saves from Alex Neubel, their goalkeeper. Leipzig played pretty well, probably created the better chances. Hit the inside of the post in stoppage time. But yeah, Stuttgart get the points. They move up into fourth. Hoffenheim above them. Came from behind to get that point against Wolfsburg.

52:14Dortmund, who won pretty comfortably. TNL against Augsburg. They're cruising towards second in Champions League football. So really, really interesting. It's a fractious weekend. Also, and this came very, very close to being my moment of the weekend. Have you seen Kevin Stöger's free kick for Brinsen-Milchengladbach?

52:50Oh, yes. Lovely shape on that.

52:53James Horncastle: It's time to kiss the kind of roof of the net and then roll it down. Hmm. What do you think, Tom? Very nice, yeah. Up there. 10 out of 10, would recommend. Excellent. There you go. While we're on Gladbach, so last week we mentioned the story about the club captain, Rocco Wright, potentially moving to Ebby Leipzig in the summer. That was confirmed this morning. Wright's is going to leave and join. And that is going to be pretty difficult for him to navigate for the rest of the season because, yeah, Gladbach, born in the area, grew up sporting the club, club member within hours of being born. he's a fan his family of fans and now off he goes to ebby leipzig which is not going to be very

53:33Pol Ballus: popular at all i see yeah seb how long have the referees been interviewed on german tv post game for i can tell you it's happened ever since i got here though really not particularly unusual what what you do and find james is that they're not always as frank or forthcoming right as you want to be so they have that sort of pgo mol habit of justifying mistakes which are obviously mistakes and sort of being a little bit defiant right whereas this guy was yeah it's clearly a mistake he clearly made it it's just what it is owned it moved on um but the context is here that it's been a very poor season of refereeing it's been a lot of strange silly things happen a lot of weird decisions made and um anytime naturally anytime a decision gets made against bayern and it's obviously wrong there's a lot of noise in in response and everybody has jumped in including simon rolfs uh kind of a little bit disingenuous with his commentary on the refereeing performance we say oh there's just nothing wrong with it at all come on now um but yeah that's all uh that will rumble on unfortunately been a difficult time for refereeing of introduction of technology Never going to help, is it?

54:46Pol Ballus: Like AI, Tom. Basic skills. Just going to waste. Do you think we'll have an AI agent as a referee?

54:55James Horncastle: I think we will. I think it's going to happen, James. Claude Webb. Claude Webb? It's like Howard Webb's French robot cousin, who is also a referee.

55:07Pol Ballus: Do you reckon that Howard himself was a prototype? No. I tell you what he was a prototype of the muscle-bound modern referee he was he's the first referee I remember thinking oh he's kind of he obviously looks after himself obviously former policeman the precursor in many ways for a lot of the very hench sometimes spectacularly hench match officials that you see who have you got in mind Tom? I can never think of their names who was the one who got who there was some kind of entanglement with a player after a game and he was pretty hench. There's one linesman in Ligue 1 who is just, I mean, preposterously, unnecessarily hench.

55:50His name I forget.

55:51Pol Ballus: It's not Clement Turpin, I can tell you that. It's not Clement Turpin, no. He is very much unhench. But that's the only French referee name I've got, Tom. Anyway, Bundesliga. We were talking about Bundesliga. In amongst that, you mentioned the 1-1 draw between Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg, which represents a good start for Dieter Hecking in charge of the relegation-threatened sleeping giants of the Bundesliga. What else should we know about this weekend, Seb, in German football? I bring you an Njeko update. Njeko, who will turn 40 tomorrow, or today, if you're listening on Tuesday. So Njeko's been outstanding for Schalke, really.

56:25He's played in eight games. He's scored like six goals. He scored again at the weekend on Sunday. Schalke playing against Hannover. and a win would have taken them four points clear at the top of the wide bundesliga jacko opens the scoring uh schalke go two nil up and then cruising looks like they're going to be four points clear at the top heading for the oster bundesliga again brilliant everybody's happy about that jacko gets himself sent off he's trying to make a clearance on the edge of his own box the ball's dropping over his shoulder he has a little bit of a swipe at it and there's an opponent just behind him who as he goes through his kick kind of glances him above the waist with his studs red card then hanover pull one back in the 81st minute and the equalize in the 98th eighth minute of stoppage time loris carris missing across the back post um in goes the equalizer so it's only two points but then interestingly enough uh schalke traveled to darmstadt who are in second position in the Siderbundsliga next Saturday night.

57:29So fascinating, but Ed and Dzeko suspended for that one, I'm afraid. Right.

57:32Pol Ballus: So he misses work because of a Hanover, but contrary to the usual business, he get it before his birthday. Very good. Alright, Seb, lovely. Happy birthday, Ed and Dzeko. Yeah, happy birthday, Ed and Dzeko. Nice. Next up, Ligue 1. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. Tom! Ligue 1. No Paris Saint-Germain this weekend. No, putting their feet up. Weekend off after relegation threatened Nantes kindly agreed to their request to postpone their league fixture until a later date. Why do you think Nantes agreed, Tom? Well, the allegation is that Voldemir Keita, the outspoken, long-standing Nantes president, is very pally with Nasser al-Khalifi and that that was the main reason for Nantes accepting it because as has been pointed out subsequently, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense for PSG to be given the weekend off because they've got a forthcoming European game when the two other French clubs with European games coming up this week, Lille and Strasbourg, just had to play their league fixtures as usual.

58:45But that's the decision that was taken and as I think we discussed on last week's pod, This is what the LFP, the French League Authority, did throughout last season for PSG. And the argument then was that it helped them win the Champions League. So there wasn't a huge amount of resistance to it. So yeah, PSG been able to prepare for the return leg of their tie against Chelsea in fairly relaxed fashion. Although Luis Enrique did have the players in over the weekend. They are pretty much full strength for that game. the only notable absentee remains Fabian Ruiz who's still sidelined all the other most important players are fit and firing and I think the win over Chelsea and particularly the nature of it really brought to mind that foundational victory over Manchester City in last season's Champions League at home up against it English opposition not particularly convincing performance and a final scoreline it hugely flattered PSG but some moments of exceptional quality and I think just generally speaking they looked more like the PSG of last season there was more of a snap in the tackle there was more aggression in the pressing and the counter pressing and albeit it took a huge stroke of good fortune for them to go ahead with that huge blunder by Philip Jorgensen the Chelsea goalkeeper for the third goal they really put Chelsea to the sword after that and I think it's I think it's created a feeling that PSG might actually be possible to turn it on again as they did last season.

1:00:22Pol Ballus: Certainly, they have no history of letting first leg lead slip in away return matches. Bit of hashtag breaking news, by the way. Since we've been on air, at least we're not on air, UEFA have announced that Pedro Neto has got away with shoving the ball boy at the end of the game. He's been given a warning as to his future conduct. And rightly so. And rightly so. So he'll be available for Chelsea at least. All right. Lille, as you mentioned, are in Europe. They're taking on Aston Villa. Villa are a goal up from the first leg in France. Lille this weekend with a 2-1 victory over Rennes, which is the first time that Rennes have lost under their new manager, Frank Ays.

1:01:06Yeah. First setback for him in the Rennes hot seat. And a big win for Lille. who've been really struggling for goals of late. Big little win. A big little win. And yet quietly turning their form around. That's three wins in the last four in Ligue 1. And it puts them right back in the mix for Champions League qualification. That was the main source of interest this weekend with PSG not playing. Lens lost away at Lorient. But I think they should still be assured of Champions League football. They've got a 12-point advantage over Lille, who are fifth. Marseille won, but Lyon dropped points in a 0-0 draw at Le Havre.

1:01:49Lille won, Monaco won on an absolute tear at the moment. Five wins in five for them in Ligue 1. So, yeah, the Champions League qualification picture is getting very interesting indeed.

1:01:59Pol Ballus: Okay. Strasbourg, I mean, where are they in all of that? Yeah, their form has sort of taken a bit of a turn for the worst. Three straight draws, the most recent one against Paris FC, who look like they might be just turning a corner now that Antoine Combois has come in to bash some heads together, Igor Tudor style. One win and two draws from his three games at the helm. Strasbourg missing a few key players, notably Diego Moreira, who's been one of their star men since Gary O 'Neill came in. Since we mentioned Paris FC, Ciro Immobile watch. Oh yeah. Six appearances now, still waiting for his first goal he has had two shots on target in that time we wait for him to truly mark his arrival in the French game right okay tremendously talented player James it's around about this time that you point out that he was top scoring in Serie A in no less than three seasons was it?

1:02:55James Horncastle: yeah three or maybe even four I think he was going for the record

1:03:00Pol Ballus: but his career never really flourished away from Italy is that fair I think? that is fair

1:03:08James Horncastle: he did win the euros with italy but i think a lot of people thought it was in spite of him which is harsh well he memorably fell over in the game against belgium and then sort of did this um peekaboo style he kept he put his hands over his face and was looking for the referee to blow a foul and then play kept going and italy scored i seem to remember but his his great teammate um back in the day when he first made a name for himself at Pescara, Lorenzo Insigne, is back at Pescara,

1:03:43Pol Ballus: where he has been scoring goals. He mentioned getting in touch with him, ability to bring him back to the Adriatic side. Yeah.

1:03:50James Horncastle: Wow. What a story that would be. Pescara were down in the relegation zone in Serie B, but Insigne seems to be... I didn't see the results. I just saw this incredible interview in Gazetta with him where it's like Lorenzo Insigne's Ferrari pulls up outside the Adriatico. It's like mad stuff. Lovely. Yeah, anyway.

1:04:12Pol Ballus: Tom, anything else from Ligue 1? Yeah, I mean, I think we should probably accept, sadly, that the longs title dream is withering on the vine. He's powerful too. Here's the 1-2. The centre! And the second ballon of Tosine who wins his entry for the advantage.

1:04:33One win in the last four. They lost away at Lorient, upwardly mo by Lorient on Saturday. And they've got two games to get through before that home game against PSG. But PSG's one point lead at the top remains intact after the weekend. And they now, of course, have a game in hand. I should probably also mention Marseille, who on the face of it, had a very positive weekend. 1-1-0 at home to Ozer on Friday night 3 wins on the spin in Ligue 1 little 2 point gap now over Lyon in 4th and in particular a 5 point gap over Lyon in 5th and yet everyone at Marseille is completely miserable the ultras were on strike for the first half of the fixture on Friday night and they put a big banner out to explain what they were doing 45 minutes of silence for a season of humiliation 45 minutes of silence for a season of humiliations So they just stood there or sat there in complete silence.

1:05:32And Marseille, of course, now under the stewardship of Habibé, just knocked the ball around disinterestedly for pretty much the whole of the first half. Ended up scoring the only goal of the game with about 10 minutes remaining through Amin Guiri, who came on half an hour to play, had a big impact. Decent weekend for Marseille, but the fans are just not prepared to accept the Champions League humiliation and going out of the Coupe de France against Toulouse. so the mood remains characteristically heavy at the velodrome. Good Lord.

1:06:03Pol Ballus: Well, that's certainly been quite the roundup. We've got Champions League action awaiting us. We'll have a show for you on Wednesday morning reacting to Tuesday's results and then, of course, on Thursday too. So I hope you'll be joining us for that and then we'll get our Eurocrew back together again in a week's time. For now, many, many thanks to you, Seb and Paul and Tom and James and producer Lucy and guest producer Xavi as well. Hope you have a good time. Until we see you again for now from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:07:02The Athletic FC.

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