A belter in Barcelona turns up the power: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Very lucky that someone turned the lights back on in Spain for that one.

Barca three into three and some quite brilliant goals.

Turan's back-heeled half-volley, Dumfries acrobatic volley.

Lamine, Yamal, what a performance.

Rafinha Afina.

Get him back on long throws at Elland Road.

Barca had the ball, they had the star in Yamal, but they also had the high line, tempting Inter all the time.

And Inter were a miketarian toe away from taking a lead at Tasan Siro.

Also, today, Sid will tell us if Phil Bow will beat Man United in the Europa League and can Spurs see off Bodo.

There's a Premier League preview as the races for fifth and eighth.

Hot up, there's more ludicrous non-league drama.

Some lovely emails, your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Hello, Lars Civitson.

Hello, Max.

From the Racing Post, Mark Langdon is here.

Hi, Max.

And I presume from a hotel in Barcelona, Sid Lowe, for part one and part one only.

Hello, Sid.

Morning, Max.

Let's start then with that ludicrous Champions League semifinal first leg, Barcelona into three.

Sid, you were there.

How was it for you?

Oh, well, actually, I know how was it for you.

I know your laptop broke.

Let's leave that to one side.

How did you find the game?

Did I find the game?

I don't know.

It was wild.

It was brilliant, wasn't it?

It was a lot of fun.

It was a kind of...

There was a little moment in the...

Do you know what?

I now actually can't remember if it's the first half or the second.

I think it's just early in the second half, which kind of summed it up quite nicely.

Within a minute, you had Lamine Yamar doing this incredible pirouette past two players.

And the next thing you know, Barcelona having to, I think, I can't remember if that's the one where Shesny comes flying out or Ronaldo Adelcha makes a challenge.

So you've got this sort of constant bus under attack, but then the threat that's there hanging over them all the time.

Really fun.

And the first half performance from Lamin Yamal, it was one of those, you know, that you're sitting there with, obviously with colleagues who are also working the game, kind of elbowing each other, going,

what's going on?

Just phenomenal.

It made me think last night, when we keep talking about Lamin Yamal as

one day he's going to be the best player in the world, and you think, it's one day already here.

Yeah, I mean, actually, Richard says, should we ban 17-year-olds from playing to give those who are 20 a chance?

We can talk about Yamal Barry.

He was just sensational.

I mean, the goal was amazing, but there was that one where he sort of sent DiMarco into the Mediterranean.

And then

I think Somer tipped onto the bar.

It was an unbelievable performance.

I mean, Federica DiMarco is a really good football player, and Yamal at times made him look like an absolute chump.

Inter were putting

two, three players on him him at times, often to little effect.

And he's doing things

just a human being has no business doing really.

As an owner, a 17-year-old boy, it's quite astonishing how good he is.

I was thinking to myself, just to level the playing field a bit, you need to send him to Man City, give him to Pep.

He'll turn him into a left back.

You're only allowed pass backwards and sideways.

And, you know, just give him to Pep for a year to drill all the fun out of him.

And that'll just make football less enjoyable but fairer for everyone else.

He's quite astonishing.

I spoke yesterday about his

pre-match press conference where you'd wonder, you know, is it even wise to put a kid that young up for interview when you know he's going to get

interrogated about these, I suppose, a little bit cocky Instagram posts.

You may he handled that, took all that in his stride.

He just seems incredibly mature, and there's very little he can't do.

He's brilliant with both feet, he can pick out a pass.

His shooting is amazing.

That goal, I like he just seems to sort of caress the ball, but it thumps off the upright with such force.

But and you look at replays, there's very little backlift, it's almost like he's passed it in, but it's an incredibly hard, curled shot.

And

I just, I love watching him.

And

the worry is, they say, oh, you get 600 games out of a player.

He's already up to 100.

That's a sixth of his games gone already.

He's not even old enough to drink.

Yeah, it's 122 if you include Spain and Barcelona.

Is there any chat said in Spain about, you know, protecting your mouth?

Oh, of course there is.

And there is for

the basic reason that he is 17.

There is also because there's a bit of backstory to this, which of course is that Pedri at the European Championships that were played all around Europe that year played, you know, off the top of my head, I can't remember the numbers, I think it was 70 games that season across Spain and the national team.

He got injured.

I remember Luis Enrique, who was the Spain coach at the time, saying, have you ever seen an 18-year-old do what he's just done in this tournament?

And then he got injured and he's not really come back to being consistently brilliant until this year.

And this year, Pedri is playing.

phenomenal football as well.

And so there's that.

There's also the fear about what happened with Ansu Fati, who's had a couple of big injuries.

And genuinely when answer fatty burst onto the scene and and broke lots of lots of records in terms of playing games very young and scoring goals very young and so on i think we all thought that he was incredibly special as well and now he looks like a well he looks like he he may not have a football career or may not have a certain not a top level career so yeah there's a there's lots of questions about that i actually think in a funny sort of way those questions have eased off a little bit because we've seen a season in which he hasn't had too many injuries.

He hasn't had to sit out too often.

And so there is this kind of sense of people just enjoying him instead there were so many brilliant goals in this game lars the rafino one was the one that made me just make a noise just sort of laugh because of how hard he kicked it but bill says is this the best collection of quality goals in a match five out of six have been worldies worldies might be a stretch but they were all so good yeah they were remarkable i know we've kind of already spent most of the pod talking about them so far but i do think it's the laminiamal one which is completely just mind-blowing to me just because inter are not in a bad situation there in terms of the defenders being where they're supposed to be and the structure of the team.

Like so many goals in football are scored because a team is out of balance for some reason, because they're on their way back from an attack or someone's been tricked out of their structure.

Intra are pretty well structured, but the defenders are mostly where they should be and just running through them as if it was some sort of maze or some sort of like it's like when the dogs do the agility thing at crufts, you know, or whatever when they weave through the things.

Like there shouldn't be space enough to do any of the things that Lamini Mal does there.

I think that's the one that for me is completely like, because that shouldn't be a goal.

If you freeze the frame where that run starts, it's like there is no way you can get through these guys, especially against what is a pretty defensively savvy team like Inter.

So that is the one for me that I just, I don't, what is happening here, like, like Sue was saying earlier.

Incredible things.

Will says, do you think the Inter squad heard what Nikki said on Wednesday's pod?

Mark, Nikki didn't give Inter a hope, thought they might get thumped.

They're too up after 20 minutes.

You know,

that tiny offside for Mikatarian would have given them a 4-3 lead.

But it's funny, isn't it, in a game where one team just has so much of the ball, you sort of feel like Inter got away with it.

Yet this was always going to be the way Inter would play this game.

Yeah, and Max, you might need to sort of retire the R Croatia getting tired and sort of it could be our Inter getting tired because all the talk in Italy sort of pre-game was that this old team was kind of, you know, it was out of legs, and you know, after such a disastrous time, on the way into the office this morning, I had to remind myself that Barcelona didn't actually win the game because I was so excited with how they played, and it left such a pleasant feeling.

And, you know, Inter have done remarkably well to come out of that game with

a draw or a point, as Jan Sommer referred to it.

He'd sort of forgotten it was a knockout game rather than I know the league phase went on for quite a while, so it's easy to get into that kind of mode.

He referred to it as a point, but you know, did I mean Turan's goal that we haven't spoken about yet, I think ordinarily would have been the lead because it's a,

you know, we talk about remarkable quite often with this game, but it's a brilliant finish

from him.

Sort of, you know, backhill flick inside 30 seconds.

Dumfries, who was fantastic throughout the game and did probably as good a job as you can do on Rafinha, I think, defensively.

You know, he wasn't kind of as influential, sort of, in normal play.

He scored a brilliant goal and was also involved in another one, but I don't think that was Dump Freeze's fault.

Then scores a brilliant second as well.

And I felt in the second half, actually, Inter

had some joy on the counter-attack.

And it's a unique team to play against Barcelona because as you're running forward, they seem to be running forward just towards the ball, whereas, you know, 99% of other teams retreat in that position.

And they worked it out a bit more, I think, actually, in the second half.

And towards the end, they were looking like they were beginning to kind of penetrate that crazy offside sort of line that Hansie Flick plays.

And

it's a brilliant result for them because they came into the game with no confidence and no real form.

Yeah, I was just thinking about this and time to get out the very small violins and play a lament for the match reporter.

But the reason I'm going to pick it out is because i think actually it speaks a lot to what mark was talking about there from a match report point of view um and and in terms of judging this game this was a really really difficult game and it was a difficult game to top the match report with because at the end of it you're thinking so kind of apart from leminia mar what what's the story here who who's won this who who's coming out of this sort of with the right mindset feeling like they've got an advantage so post-game i don't know if you saw this but leminia mar was given a shirt for his 100th appearance in Barcelona.

And you could see he was annoyed and he didn't really want to do it.

And he was upset at the end of the game.

And Barcelona were frustrated at the end of the game.

And yet they'd scored three goals and they'd had this performance and they played in a way that you would think, okay, this is great.

At the same time, you've got Inter, who've got...

you know, three goals away from home and not one.

And you would expect them to have some degree of frustration.

But it's Inzaghi was talking about it as a really great performance.

I suppose the context, of course, is that they've lost three in a row.

And, you know, two of the three trophies in for their treble had already slipped away from them.

And this one's there.

And so, at the end of it, it was one of those games where you think: so, kind of

who's

to use the obvious phrase, who's happier?

Who's come out of this thinking, okay, this is the result for me?

And the answer was neither of them.

Very briefly on the Barcelona thing, by the way, and all the kind of the high line and the risk that that takes.

They've been doing it all season, they do it really, really well.

I mean, I know that what that Mikatarium one was so, so fine, but it's also about how well they time it, how well they judge it, because this happens repeatedly.

The thing that Barcelona were annoyed about, and Hansie Flick talked about this post-game, was how they defended, but in particular, how they defended set plays rather than how they defended with that high line.

So the discussion point wasn't about the weakness of the space you own, leave behind you.

It was about the weakness in the air from set plays.

And of course, two of the three goals come from that.

Yeah, it's worth drilling into that a little bit.

I think just because there were two goals up, it probably doesn't feel that way for inter, but I think overwhelmingly the story is that this is a huge performance from inter in the circumstances.

Because you mentioned that they've lost a few of the recent games, but I think it's worth drilling into what those losses have actually been.

Because last weekend, they had a last-minute defeat to Bologna, which put Napoli right back into the title race.

Then midweek, they get thumped by AC Milan and the Derby and the semifinal of the cup.

AC Milan, who have been really bad all season.

And then this weekend they lose to Roma, which

almost, I mean, it almost hands the Scudeto to Napoleon.

Like, it's out of their hands now.

So it's just a soul-crushing two weeks for them, really, where it feels like the whole season has gone up in flames.

And then you have to go to Barcelona, who have been, you know, one of the best attacking teams in the world this season.

So

with that context being what you're coming in with, for them to be 2-0 up early in the game is just bonkers.

Like, it's absolutely wild and out there.

And I guess, yeah, with those two goals, and the disallowed goal, you feel a little bit disappointed.

But I think overwhelmingly, getting out of there with a score draw is a huge result for inter that I don't think anyone at all ever, maybe outside the inter dressing room and probably even inside the inter dressing room saw coming.

Baz, that Mekatarian offside, Sanny, you know, Sanny Rudra Vajola messaged, you know, how do we feel about this and put the still image, you know, and it looks like sort of Stargate, you know, because there's that sort of force feel with just the tiny toes sticking out.

And I know it's offside, but I just don't, I don't want that given, like it just, he's so level.

I know he isn't.

I don't know if I'm just yelling at clouds or I'm yelling at you.

I think you are.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, it is an Arsen Wenger torso.

He'd be fine.

That's what I was looking at.

It's very unlucky.

He actually said himself after the game, he more or less blamed himself for being too enthusiastic and straying offside.

I think he's been a bit hard on himself, but

he,

yeah, that's football, he said, and that is football.

or is it?

That's the point, isn't it?

You know,

I don't know.

You're either offside or you're not.

It's it's there's no grey area.

Maybe there needs to be a grey area, or not a grey area, but uh

daylight or the torso.

I don't know, but either way, there will be occasions when people are incredibly unlucky, whether it's a toenail or a half a torso or an inch of non-daylight, whatever, you know.

So it's just them's the breaks, I think.

If I could ask Sid,

Sheridan Martinez,

left back for Barcelona, he looks

kind of a conspicuous weak link.

I don't know if I'm being hard on him.

I know he's in because Alejandro Balde is injured.

And it looks like Koon De might be missing for the next game.

Yeah, that's very basic.

Will Barcelona struggle?

Will that be a massive blow for Barcelona?

because of

how

well

drilled and organised their back line is?

Yeah, I mean the the Gerard Martine

is it's interesting actually on the way out of the Coppel Rey final at the weekend I was talking to a colleague who just who said something about Gerard Martine.

He said, Look, he's so obviously not of the level of all the others that it sort of almost feels both redundant and rude to point it out because this is someone doing a job this is someone doing a job because they're because they've got an injury and you know that this is what you expect from him.

And actually, in fairness,

he performs steadily.

And it's okay.

But yes, and also, of course,

it's also about having a fullback in that position with them playing that high line where everything has to be perfect.

Or the chances of you being exposed are really, really high.

And the chances of you being targeted, of them going into that space are really, really high.

So the absence of Alejandro Balde on the left is really significant.

There's half a hope that he makes it for the second leg.

I don't know if that will happen or not.

Kunde's absence is huge.

He's had a completely brilliant season.

And it was interesting, I thought that the way that Hansie Flick played it yet last night with the changes, that they essentially ended up with four centre-backs on the pitch.

And I do think that we will see

all three of Paul Kulbasi, Ronald Adojo, Inigo Martinez start.

All three of them are centre-backs.

I'm not sure which one will be the fullback.

The natural thing would be to say, right, we think it will be Ronald Adeljo will be the right back and the other two will be the centre-backs.

But I don't know because he tinkered with it a little bit last night and had Inugo Martinez on left.

So, so that's a problem for them, without doubt.

Yeah, Mark, a question for you, or for everyone, actually, I saw that was quite interesting from California Canaries.

As I watched PSG and Barca and asked myself, would we ever have a team in the Premier League with this freedom of expression and individual flair?

Is the league conducive to this style?

What do you think?

Or is that just recency bias that we've just seen Barca and PSG be great?

And actually, Premier League teams have shown that, you know, Arsenal versus Real Madrid, for example.

I mean, I think Pet Guardiola's become more,

I suppose, controlled in the way that City have played.

Has he's kind of, I think, been more fearful of kind of their dominance.

And with that, he's become, I think, more defensive

approach.

But I think some of the city teams were brilliant to watch.

I disagree that they were boring, sort of at the peak of their powers.

Absolutely loved watching Jürgen Klops, you know, that the team that he built

at Anfield with Mane, Salah, and Fermino as the front three.

The fullbacks would fly forward pretty much the way that the PSG ones do.

So, yeah, I think that there is, I'd be edging towards recently buys, although I am slightly concerned with a lot of the managers now are talking once again about physicality in the Premier League and how you need to have

the team of sort of athletes and how they've got to all be kind of runners in sort of a way that was kind of more, I think, in a defensive way rather than kind of how we expect a Douette to be a runner or Usman Dembele, for example.

But no, I think there's a bit of recency bias there.

I mean, there's been some great Premier League teams.

Just wanted to throw a caveat in there, Max, yeah, which is just to say that it's interesting that the question frames it in terms of individual freedom.

Because Luis Enrique is not an individual freedom manager.

He likes the game to be wild.

He likes the players to run at people.

He likes things to happen.

but he's very, very much a systems manager.

There's a brilliant, I don't know if you've if it's appeared in England, I don't think it has.

It's a brilliant documentary series with Luis Enrique done here in Spain.

And at the end, and it was based on him last year, and it's behind the scenes.

Luis Enrique comes across as a phenomenal personality as well as a manager.

And there's a bit at the, I think it's the final

episode, it should be the final episode, in which he's talking about the departure of Kiliman Bappe.

And he says, next year I'll be able to control all 11 players.

So while it is true that they're a very expressive team and a very dynamic team, and lots of players seem to be pouring forward, lots of things seem to be happening, just a slight caveat on the idea that it's individual freedom.

I don't think Luis Enrique wants his players to have any freedom.

I'd kind of throw Hansi Flick into that as well, because you can only play with that crazy high line if the players, I mean, obviously with a very straight and well-organized back line, but also like the players ahead need to be extremely diligent with the pressing and putting the opponent under pressure every time they lose the ball.

And with the individual freedom stuff, I think you remember, Pep Guardiola does give his attackers quite a lot of freedom in the final third.

It's just the build-up is extremely regimented, and the positioning outside of that is extremely regimented.

But when they do, when it comes to attacking the box, the players have quite a lot of freedom.

And I do wonder if Barcelona and

PSG look a lot more exciting than this season's Man City

because La Minha Mal and Cuaraskelia are quite a lot better than Savinho and Jeremy Doku.

I mean, I think that's part of it as well.

Sid, before you go, a couple of questions.

One about the Cobra del Rey.

We talked about it yesterday, but very interested to hear what you think about Real Madrid,

whether Ancelotti is losing control or they know he's going and there's sort of a player's rebellion, this whole issue with the referees, just the general behaviour of Real.

Well,

you've used the word general there.

It's such a general...

question that we could be here all day picking up on different elements of it.

I guess I suppose from your point of view, the image is the way that Real Madrid's players reacted at the end.

I assume that's kind of the focal point.

I think that's conditioned by a whole load of things.

And I think one of them is this ongoing, what's the word, I suppose, campaign mindset from Real Madrid that everybody's out to get them.

They've had this campaign against the referees all year that comes from a club level.

I don't want to sort of go back and bang on about this too much, but I think it tells you something about the mindset and therefore

the capacity for self-criticism, the capacity for awareness, the capacity for accepting defeat.

This is the club that didn't go to the Ballon d'Or Gala because their player didn't win it.

And I just think that creates or taps into or exaggerates.

It's difficult to see exactly where the starting point is and where it's...

It becomes contagious, that kind of anger and that paranoia

and that sort of response.

And so while I think you can look at it in some cases in individual terms, and frankly, the behavior of Rudiger has been quite bizarre and really pretty bad for a while, but I do think it's a broader thing.

One of the things that was really striking about that response at the weekend

towards the end.

Now, look, I'm not, well, I am stupid.

Okay, we're not stupid.

We know that players get frustrated.

We know that there's a huge amount of tension.

We know that it's covered their A-final loss to Barcelona.

We know all those things make people lash out, make people get angry because they're so invested and there's so much going on.

The tension is so high and all that sort of thing.

But one of the things that's striking for me about that reaction is there wasn't even a reason for it.

It's not just been a goal disallowed.

You've not just been robbed.

The big headline decisions, if anything, went against Barcelona, not against you.

So, you know, that reaction, apart from the fact that you've been beaten and the way that you've been beaten with a late goal in a game where you thought you might have had it one and with, you know, Barcelona score late twice, late in extra time, late in normal time, there isn't even a reason.

It's not even as if it's the trigger point.

What I mean is by this is there isn't an obvious trigger point, you know, of a goal disallowed or something.

I think there's a possibility of a foul being given that isn't given, but it's a foul kind of, you know, in the middle of the pitch somewhere.

That is so interesting, isn't it um now look we're going to look ahead to the europa league in part two but obviously i don't know if you know what part two is sid so and what happens in part two so i'll ask you about bill bauer i'm like that film fat that film fan that refuses to watch any sequels

exactly so look uh bill bow play manchester united tonight uh thursday night they're fourth in la liga i i mean surely they're favorites for this company i mean everyone in england is talking about man united and spurs but presumably bill bow are favourites for uh look i mean it's difficult for me to answer that properly because I don't know enough about how good or bad Spurs and Man United are.

Pretty bad sequels.

Yeah, exactly.

But I mean,

obviously, because of where I'm from, all my mates are Spurs fans, and the WhatsApp group this season has mostly been about them saying how incredibly shit Spurs are and being quite depressed by it all.

Some of them are actually going to the Arctic Circle, so that should be fun.

Let's go back to that film thing, shall we, by the way?

Ernesto Valverde, when he came back to Athletic Club to be manager for the second time,

there's this phrase in Spain which is referred to managers in players you should never go back.

And it's the phrase is sequels were never any good.

And this was put to Ernesto Valverde when he came back the second time.

He said, well, Godfather part two.

And then his second spell at Athletic was really good.

Then he comes back for a third spell and he said, yeah, I quite like the third Godfather as well.

They were...

One of the best teams to watch in Spain last year.

They finished fifth.

They're in the Champions League place this year.

They're incredibly hard to beat, particularly at home against

Samames.

They're very, very dynamic.

They were pretty unfortunate to they won the Coppola Ray last year, which is their first trophy in 40 years.

The final is at their ground.

And so, you know, there's this whole sense of a kind of a destiny building towards the final being at their ground, which would be their first ever European success.

That obviously brings with it a weight of responsibility, a weight of pressure.

Talking to Inaki Williams is actually going to be an interview on The Guardian today at some point.

I'm not sure what time.

And he said, look, the way we won the Coppola Ray final last year means that we feel like we've broken that pressure.

You know, that under normal circumstances, we might get to this point of the season.

There might be fear in the semi-finals, but we feel we've broken it because we've now won something.

That was the first title for 40, the first major title for 40 years.

They are very, very good.

And so in those terms, are they favorites?

Yes, they are.

But I think I've said this to you before, you know, but don't underestimate, from a Spanish point of view, the sense of mystique and enormity that there is around Liverpool and Manchester United.

Whenever a Spanish team, particularly if it's not Madrid or Barcelona, Barcelona, obviously, because those two are huge, whenever a Spanish team plays Manchester United or Liverpool, there is still that thing that, ah, these are proper clubs.

These are properly big clubs.

And so

there's definitely no one taking it for granted.

But I think if we look at it coldly and objectively, Athletic have certainly played better this year than United.

Yeah, if there's still mystique there, can I just ask, do they get the Premier League on the television in the back end?

Is it not broadcast?

I mean, I should point out at this stage that, yes, they do, and they are aware of it.

And, you know, those who are analysing this are looking at United and saying they're really not very good.

But the name carries a huge amount of weight.

So no one is assuming that this is easy.

I don't actually think he'll play tonight.

I'm not sure if San Set will be available.

I don't think so.

He is an enormous loss for Athletic.

He would normally play kind of behind the forwards, and he's their top scorer in that league.

He's had a brilliant season until the

last couple of months where there's been questions about his performance level questions about his fitness questions about his application but they they're a they're a good side a very good side cheers sid go away now thank you cheerio bye-bye uh sid low there on his way to bilbao and that'll do for part one part two we'll pick that up with manchester united

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, yeah, so Sid's sort of done Bill Bauer, but I wonder, Mark, what chances do you give Manchester United?

It's a really tough one because I assumed that they would go out to Real Society dad a couple of rounds ago because they weren't playing well and athletic or better than

their neighbours, but I still was impressed with the way that United managed to kind of come through.

that game and I what Sid was saying there about the reputation of United, I do think that that counts both ways.

I think there is something about Manchester United who've not played well, I think, for years really, and yet they still seem to be able to win trophies.

So

I think if you look at it kind of just logically, athletics should win comfortably, but football rarely works out like that.

And we've seen United actually produce some of their better performances in tough away games.

I'm thinking back to Arsenal in the FA Cup at Anfield against Liverpool.

They gave Liverpool probably one of the biggest tests they've had this season.

So they are a team that's capable of playing that way.

And I think when they haven't got the pressure of trying to score goals, that to me seems to be their big issue is the lack of quality

up front.

If they can just defend well

without needing to push for goals, then I think that suits them.

So yeah, athletic to win, but

maybe not as easy as people are suggesting.

I mean, I know we all titter at how bad Manchester United are, and for some of us of a certain age, it will never get old.

But they are the only team in Europe that hasn't been beaten this season in European competition,

which is quite a remarkable stat, I think.

Yeah, I mean, so if you have told them that half of your extra time in the last half, I would have been very surprised.

I suppose that maybe that's a 90-minute thing anyway.

But yeah, you're right.

It's sort of weird feeling.

You know, it's only vibes that can carry them through, but maybe the vibes will.

Do you think, Glars, that, you know, Bodo will look at Spurs' reputation

as,

you know, as trophies and thing?

Actually, this will be fine.

I know they've, I know it's a great story, Bodo, being there.

You are, obviously, the Bodo Glimp correspondent.

They're missing a lot of players for this first leg, aren't they?

Yeah, so that was a funny one in the second leg of the quarterfinals against Lazio, is that it emerged after the game that there had been like an admin boo-boo internally, and they believed that the cards were wiped i mean the cards are wiped after the quarterfinals but the suspensions you pick up in the second leg are not wiped so there was actually so the players who have been suspended were apparently not aware that that's what would happen if they got booked and and and one of them uh got booked for dissent so he's he's banned for picking up a yellow that was for dissent in uh in in that game which is it's not what it's not what you want it's not what you want that they argued after the game

from the leadership of the club that that was the kind of game where you needed to leave your heart and soul on the pitch anyway.

So they didn't want anyone thinking about potential suspensions, which is fair enough.

But the outcome is they're missing Potlikbag, who's their sort of midfield general, and Hokonevian, who's a very good, sort of slightly more attack-minded midfielder.

Them two in particular being out is a significant blow to them.

And

I think Bodoknimp might

go for it a little bit here, because I think they're smart enough to know that Tottenham's problems are at the back.

And I think

they're also smart enough to know that for all of Spurs's troubles under end, they can attack really well.

Like, the Spurs have had moments where they've put together some really impressive attacking moves this season.

And I mean, I've said this before, but this is completely ludicrous stat that Spurs actually have produced the sixth highest XG number going forward in the league this season.

Spurs's XG in attack is higher than Arsenal's at this point in the season, which is ludicrous.

It's just they've also one of the worst defensive teams in the league.

And I think Buddha didn't know this.

I think they're a very serious club who analyzed these things in advance.

And I suspect they're going to go out and try to be brave and try to unsettle Tottenham.

So I think it could be a very fun game.

But it is clear that they are stronger at home than they are on the road,

Buddha.

So, but I think this could be a fun game.

Mark, time for your twice-monthly Spurs lament?

Yeah, so well, I mean,

the biggest issue I've got with tonight's game is that I played in a football media match at QPR on Monday and

I've done my hamstring.

Oh, no.

Much like Mickey Van der Went.

But I'm in row 78 of the South Stand tonight.

So I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get up all of those stairs.

It's a big enough struggle when I'm fully fit.

Never mind the current way that I am.

And I'm already dreading needing to go to the toilet at some stage because it'll mean I have to get back down and then back up again.

Surely you have toilets.

They don't just have toilets on the ground floor when they built this stage.

You have to go, I think you have to go to about row 28 maybe.

So it's a long way down.

Yeah, as I found to my cost when I've been fully fit.

But yeah,

in terms of the game,

absolutely huge match for Tottenham.

19 Premier League losses.

this season on calls for the lowest ever Premier League finish.

Managers clearly going to leave

at the end of the season.

Do you think so?

Do you think that's absolutely true?

I can't see a way, even if they win the Europa League and qualifying for the Champions League, having what I've watched from PSG and Barcelona in the last two nights, fills me with dread anyway.

Don't you think?

Yeah, but you were talking about Daniel Farker yesterday and

does he get a chance?

Spurs don't win trophies, right?

Like if he wins the Europa League, surely you go, you've sort of heard the right or you just...

no no i mean first of all like the idea of playing barcelona in the super cup um just would fill me with dread like

let's let's not go for that um but yeah in terms of of sort of winning a trophy i i actually think that it would be um really it would be a one-up really i think for all of those that say that actually look trophies are not the most important thing um because everyone has become obsessed with uh certainly at tottenham with winning a trophy but there were really good seasons had by Pochettino and even sort of after him now, like, you know,

don't look quite as bad, but like Pochettino didn't win a trophy, but the football was great.

They were heavily involved in kind of all of the major competitions.

And yet, to some people, like this season could be better just because they win the Europa League.

Like, it doesn't feel right.

um to me that that happens i would be really excited if they if they do do it um all the talk though at the moment that's coming out of the club is that if they don't qualify for the Champions League, it's going to be a difficult summer financially and that they owe, I think it's in excess of 200 million on transfers that are still to be paid for.

There's not much cash around.

The ownership want the club to be sort of sustainable and kind of all the words that

don't excite many football fans.

So

it's really important in that front that Tottenham can win the Europa League and get into the Champions League.

But I'd expect them to beat Bodo Glimpse, but I think the final, like if it was against Athletic in Bilbao, wouldn't fancy them.

And having beaten Manchester United three times already this season, I mean, nothing spells sort of more Tottenham than to lose the most important of those four.

Any strong thoughts from you, Lars or Baz?

It's a shame with Ange Postakoglu because, I mean, I think we've repeated this ad nauseum, so maybe it's not necessary to put in, but I just, I do like the guy, like, and I like the way he's trying to play football.

I am, I am pro-Ange, I am just also pro him being in charge of someone else, is the point.

Like, whichever club he turns up at next, I will try to make an effort to watch them.

And he is very high on the sort of, what should we call that, the expected pints table, like the manager in the Premier League who you'd most likely want to have a pint with.

I think he's right at the top.

It's just that as many, no, and also, I should add the other thing, no one is arguing that this has been an easy season to be the top nine boss just because of all the injuries and all the stuff they've had but but but they also have like only the three teams that are getting relegated uh leicester ipswich and southampton have a worse defensive record than spurs according to the numbers and that just isn't acceptable like you just can't like so and and you and when you're that bad at defending every single week and you're not doing anything to change the approach it's like how long are we going to keep losing in the exact same way like this is pointless and and this is the thing i think makes it just inevitable that you have to make a change because there's really no sign of any changes being made to improve this sort of stuff and this is what i think like again bringing it back to the norwegians i i i actually kind of think boulder will go out and try to do something here because i think they know if you sit back and let spurs get at you that they're actually genuinely good at that like they have really good attacking players who can put together some pretty extraordinary attacking moves but they're so wobbly at the back so i think you will see the norwegians with two-thirds of their first choice

missing with a tiny budget and all that, I think will go to Tottenham and try to attack.

So I think that this could be an absolutely brilliant game.

Fingers crossed.

I have a feeling Bodo Glimt are going to do them.

I really do.

Do you think that'll be the moment, Baz, when I step off the Ange train?

I might even dust off the old betting account for that one.

But

I like Ange as well.

He seems like a lovely blog.

I'd only have him about mid-table, I think, in my ex-pint

Premier League.

Oh, right.

Who's top for you?

I think

Thomas Frank or Hertzler, probably.

Okay.

Interesting.

Hertzler would have to bring IDs.

I was about to say,

is he even allowed?

Certainly not.

You'd have to get them for him.

Amerim.

Amarim would be up there as well.

So he'd be good for a few pints.

Well, especially now.

He has some things to get off his chest, I think, after the last few months.

Having a big pint with Amerim right now would be amazing.

Chelsea got a Durgarden in the conference league.

Jim says dear Max Barry, etc.

While catching up on last week's pod, I heard Jonathan Wilson for the second time repeat the brazen lie that Jurgarden means zoo in Swedish.

Jur does indeed mean animals, but the Swedish for zoo is Jur Park or indeed zoo.

Durgarden are named

for the area of Stockholm in which they were formed, a very nice island of mainly green space, which is so named due to its past as the Royal Hunting Grounds.

There is a Dur Park on Durgarten, contained within the open-air museum Skansen.

As far as I'm aware, they don't shoot animals anymore.

But who knows with royalty,

says Jim.

Durgarden is also, you know, we've talked about a glimpse, but as our sort of resident Scandinavian, the Durgarden story is also a good one.

Yeah, it is.

But of course, that's kind of what the Europa Conference League is for.

It is for teams from smaller leagues such as our Scandy

brethren in Sweden

to be able to have those kind of seasons.

And again,

I said it when it was West Ham.

I'm going to say it again when it's Chelsea.

Like, you shouldn't be in this tournament.

There should not be a Premier League.

I think this brought up in the press conference.

Apparently, the sort of squad worth of Chelsea is like 44 times bigger than U Gordons.

Which is like, this is ludicrous.

We shouldn't have the big rich Premier League clubs in this tournament.

And yes, I'm going to keep saying that every year while they're still here.

It's going to be tremendous content.

How do you pronounce it?

You're Gordons.

This is that.

You Gordon.

I'm not Swedish.

I'm Norwegian.

But you, Gordon, I think it's.

It's all the same, Lars.

Yeah, it's not all the same.

Mark?

Yeah, I'll disagree, respectfully disagree and challenge Lars on the Europa Conference.

Oh, duel.

Here we go.

First of all, if you don't have teams from the bigger leagues in it, then I think you're left with a competition that just lacks glamour.

So Legu Warsaw's fans that went to Stamford Bridge for the quarterfinal, yes, they went out, but I mean, they had an amazing time in that game.

And I think it adds sort of kudos to the competition if you've got bigger names.

And if you look at the teams that have won it, I think there have been great stories so far.

So Roma haven't really had history of European success.

West Ham, I know they're in the Premier League, but they're not.

kind of one of the not Chelsea and so you know when they won I've got a lot of West Ham supporting friends and family and they're genuinely

so happy and buzzing to have won that competition.

And Olympia Icos won it last year.

What about if you've won the Champions League, you're not allowed in, or you've won the UEFA Cup, you're not allowed in?

I mean, no, I sort of, no, no, I just think that you have to, you know, you have to have the teams from those leagues just to raise awareness and the level.

What I mean, but they're not allowed to win it.

Well, I mean, well, Aston Ville were in it last year, didn't win it.

Tottenham were in it a couple of years ago, didn't win it.

So it's not like the Premier League teams

have won it every season.

I think Chelsea are a slight anomaly in that they are too big for the competition.

But

what it's looking like for next season

is that it might be a Fulham or a Bournemouth, somebody like that in the competition.

I wouldn't ban them from the Conference League.

All right, and we'll start part three with the race for eighth place or whichever place it is, which will get you into the Conference League.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Nottingham Forest play Brentford tonight.

It's obviously absolutely massive for Nottingham Forest.

This is their game in hand in the race for the top five.

Philippe was talking about multi-club ownership yesterday.

The forest owner, Evangelos Maranakis, has diluted his control of the club in preparation.

Is that like orange squash?

He's just like poured some water.

He now owns one quarter of it.

In

preparation for Champions League qualification, he owns Olympiarcos as well as the Portuguese side, Rio Ave.

Forest and Olympiarcos, both on course to qualify for next season's Champions League.

Yes, Lars, you look poised to say something.

Just kind of tickled to see how that's actually going to work out.

Like, I wonder if when decisions are being made at Forest over summer with transfer window and stuff, if any of the directors goes, ah, sorry, Evangelos, like you're not really, you've diluted Euro stake here.

It's not, you're not calling the shots anymore.

Let's see how that conversation goes.

I think that'd be very interesting.

Well, the thing is, he's put his interest in Forrest in a blind trust.

And a blind trust

basically just relies on the integrity of the person who's put their interest in the club into the blind trust and the trustee.

You can't police communication between them.

Eric says, if Brentford knock off Forrest tomorrow, do they have a real shot at Europe based off their remaining schedule?

Yeah, this is a win would put them on 49 points.

Bournemouth 50.

Fulham and Brighton 51.

The thrilling race for eighth place, which we think is where the Conference League might end up.

It does depend on who wins what.

Brentford have got Man United up switch Fulham and Wolves after this.

Because that, Lars, you know, Brentford getting into Europe, into the Conference League would be a...

Surely you'd be supporting the Bs.

against your Gordons, amongst others.

No, any team that gets over 100 million a year in television money should not be in the Europa Conference League.

Okay, fair enough.

Fair enough.

There's hope for you.

That's fair.

No, no, no, no, no,

then the race of fifth place, Chelsea, at the weekend, Chelsea play Liverpool.

What do we think?

Will Liverpool have been on the piss, or do you think they'll go and see off Chelsea?

Maybe both.

Yeah, I mean, they,

I, I, I just, I find Chelsea really hard to watch, and I know their fans are saying exactly the same at the moment.

Um, they've got a difficult run in Chelsea with Newcastle and Nottingham Forest to play as well.

So, like, a kind of a less than fully motivated and fully focused Liverpool is

one of their easier games in Inverted Commons left, really, that they've got.

So, I think it's a massive game for Chelsea, but just struggling to see where the

goals and sort of fire and attacking quality is going to come from.

So, I wouldn't be that surprised at all, really, if Liverpool got something and maybe maybe even won the game, despite the fact that

it's proven that once teams have won the title, their sort of points per game drops off sort of markedly.

But I just, yeah, I struggle to sort of have any faith in Chelsea's ability to score enough goals to win matches of this caliber.

Villa Fulham in a race for fifth versus wraith for eighth.

The FA Cup final we all wanted on Monday, Crystal Palace versus Nottingham Forest at Man City play Wolves on Friday.

You have to look at a diary to find out who's playing who.

Don't you Erling Harlan back in first-team training.

West Ham Spurs in the battle for 17th.

You know, it's quite bodo-dependent, I imagine, on that.

Leicester Southampton, Barry, two very relegated sides.

It's a huge game, isn't it?

Well, it's a big chance for Southampton to get off the 11-point mark, isn't it?

And if they can't beat Leicester, they don't deserve to be better better than Derby 2007-08 vintage Ibodari.

You're probably right.

I remain convinced that Leicester are far worse than Southampton, despite the points difference between them.

One on to Chelsea's women.

They won their sixth successive WSL title last night.

Lucy Bronze with a late header

said afterwards they want to go unbeaten.

It's only ever been achieved three times before in the WSL and never.

I think when it's been a 12-team league, they're also on course for a domestic treble.

Of course, the Guardian Women's Football Weekly, wherever you get your podcasts, if you're listening to this, we know you're capable of downloading a podcast.

So you can listen to that.

Birmingham won 2-0 at Blackpool last night in League One.

Chris says Birmingham City are now the team to have accumulated the most points in one season in the history of football.

Is this ever in any league ever worth a passing reference?

Aiming for a Nelson by taking it to 111 at the weekend.

Jim says, if Birmingham reach 111 against Cambridge, sorry, Max, will they have to hop on one leg all summer to

avoid getting jinxed?

I mean that is some season to get that many points.

Although Max, if Lars is unhappy with kind of wealthy teams sort of playing

at a different level to their opponents, then he'd be absolutely furious with Birmingham spending the amount of money that they did in the summer as well.

competing in League One.

Yeah, yeah.

I think they probably spent more on Jay Stansfield than the rest of the teams have ever spent in the history of their, certainly than we, you know, most of the teams have ever spent in the history of their existence.

Mike says, just listen to yesterday's pod.

So as well as not the top 20, there's a podcast called Beyond the 92.

Where does it end?

A pod for clubs below the 10th tier called We Don't Need No FA Vasing, a local pod for local teams.

Well, Nathan says on that subject, this makes Boreham Wood versus Dorking look tame.

AFC Totten played Dorchester in the Southern Premier Playoff semifinal yesterday.

Dorchester, a 2-0 up going into the 90th minute.

It then goes 2-1, 90 plus 2.

2-2, 90 plus 7.

Totten take the lead, 90 plus 10.

Dorchester equalise, 90 plus 15.

Extra time is played.

And just before the penalty shootout, Totten score a winner to win 4-3.

The goal scored by Charlie Austin.

So there you go.

What a night that was.

Well done to Charlie.

On the subject of who wrote the murder mystery about someone getting done in with a leg of lamb, Mark says,

Lamb to the Slaughter.

I saw Mark got excited by that.

What a way to kill someone.

What a way to kill him.

I was on the train last night listening.

It's so exciting.

But your name gets called out on the podcast.

It's so exciting.

Lamb to the Slaughter was written by Roal Dahl and made into a TV episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

So

were you both right?

No.

No.

Philippe said Agatha Christie, didn't he?

So he's wrong on both counts.

Philippe said Agatha Christie.

I said Roald Dahl.

I still maintain it was a tale of the unexpected, but I will have to go and check.

Sykes says, similar to the email at the end of the episode, I too have had raw meat thrown at me in a theater.

Guardian Football Weekly meat raffle at Earth in Hackney a couple of years ago.

A whole chicken would have taken me out if I hadn't ducked.

And finally, this is from Shaha, who says, hey, pods, Alicia, one of my best friends, I hope I pronounced that correctly, might be Alicia, is getting married next week in Israel to his lovely partner, Cami.

They gave me too short notice, and I can't make it across the Atlantic.

I live in Brooklyn.

I'm currently writing from Guatemala.

I'm reaching out to to you today because the only way I can make up for my absence is to have Barry bless the wedding.

Alicia and I first met playing pickup games in Israel, became close playing men's league football together in New York, where during warm-ups, Alicia would try to sell me on some British podcast where a few blokes commentate on who's likeliest to win the Everton Cup.

During the pandemic, Alicia moved back to be close to his family in Israel.

We regularly talk on the phone to keep in touch.

The pod has played a crucial role in maintaining our friendship.

In fact, since I started listening to the pod, we don't really talk about football anymore.

We just talk about you guys talking football.

At times, we text each other takes that could maybe be read out on the show.

Mutual listening to the show has been a pillar in our friendships and has helped serve as a light distraction in our conversations in recent years from our mutual disdain for the Israeli leadership.

I'm also originally from Israel but have been in the States for more than 20 years.

I should also note that I occasionally listen to football podcasts on the athletic, and when I've tried to share takes from these, Alicia has absolutely barred me from discussing other football podcasts.

Yeah, an ultra.

I write

you all of this to show how crucial a role your banter has played in helping us maintain a sense of closeness while we live oceans apart.

Barry is the ultimate hero to salvage my absence from the wedding.

I know it would mean a lot, at least to Alicia, for Cami and Alicia to be blessed on the pod.

And I really hope it's E-L-I-S-H-A.

I don't know how to pronounce it, but I'm going Alicia.

So my apologies if I've got that wrong.

But, you know, it would be in keeping with our wedding well-wishes if we got the names completely wrong.

But Alicia and Cami, Barry, over to you.

Well, I think if Alicia and Cami had wanted Shaha at their wedding, they would have sent out the invitation earlier.

So

that was my immediate first vibe I got.

One of those awful save the day invites,

pre-invite invite, but that didn't happen.

So make of that what you will, Shaha.

Otherwise, I hope Alicia and Cami have a lovely day in your absence.

And I really think, while I appreciate the fact that you love listening to the podcast, I think if we're all you talk about, you perhaps need to develop other interests.

Thank you, Barry.

Yes, have a wonderful day and thanks for getting in touch.

And that'll be for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you, Max.

Thanks, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Formal Weekly is produced by Dole Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

This is The Guardian.