Awesome Arsenal silence Madrid and set up PSG semi: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

A brilliant performance from Arsenal at the Bernabau.

From the opening minute, Mikel Arteta side were measured and controlled and dangerous on the break.

Declan Rice over both legs was sensational.

If anything, he was the generational England midfield talent on display here.

Bakaya Saka messed up a penenka in the first half, but kind of penenkered one from open play.

Vinicius pounced on a rare slip in concentration to equalise, but in the end, Gabrielle Martinelli raced away from the rail defense to give Arsenal a deserved win.

Real Madrid weren't good and spent more time kicking the Arsenal players than the ball, a petulant and limp way for last year's champions to go out.

In to join the gunners in the semi-final, leading Bayern from the first leg, they went behind to a very Harry Kane, Harry Kane goal before scoring twice from corners.

Cutaway to Ostino McFiani or whoever does their set pieces.

Bayern Equalized and went close late on to taking it into extra time, but to no avail.

How many of you didn't even know there was a Premier League game last night?

Is Jason Tyndall the best manager in the world?

Newcastle Hammer Palace 5-0 in one of those St.

James's Park games.

Might they even come second?

We'll look ahead to the Premier League games this weekend, and there's some excellent correspondence questioning the entire existence of football podcasts.

All that, plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Representing Arsenal, bonjour sava, Philippe Auclair.

Sava trivia, Max.

Jean ma merci.

Travier.

And representing Arsenal, Nikki Bandini.

The jinx is over, Nikki.

I think now I have to accept it properly: there's two wins in a week.

That's really, really rather nice, isn't it?

Yeah, and two good wins.

Sanjeev just says, looking forward to the sheer joy of Nikki and Philippe.

So pleased for them both.

Ahead of the game, Marteta said it was going to be a long game.

Nikki, did it feel like a long night to you?

Or were Arsenal always in control for you?

No, not really.

There were these inflection points, I guess, which felt like they could have been and maybe like they should have been.

Obviously, when Saka tries that penenka and it gets saved and you see Courtois jump up and he's bumping chests with his defenders and the Bernabell

is so excited you think, oh God, they've just done something silly there, haven't they?

Emotionally, they've done something silly or Saka done something silly, opening the door to that.

But then that emotion never really transmitted to the pitch.

Obviously, there was the forever penalty decision for Mbappe, which I think would have been a scandalous penalty.

Honestly, I don't really think the Arsenal's penalty was a penalty either.

I'll say that.

I think both penalties in my book shouldn't have been, but that's okay.

But then

even at

after Arsenal have scored and then Vinicius immediately scores back, you just think there's that question in your head.

This is Real Madrid.

Could they go on that sudden crazy bundle where they just start scoring and it starts happening?

But

it never actually went that way.

There was no point at which the

energy on the pitch reflected that frantic energy that existed sometimes in the stands.

It felt like there was never that point at which it tipped over into feeling threatening, I think, for Arsenal.

Would you have rathered a bit more Jeopardy, Philippe?

Or was this just very nice?

No, no, no, it's just very nice.

And there was just enough Jeopardy.

I agree.

There was just enough Jeopardy

not to have butterflies, but maybe a butterfly

going roaming in your tummy because you always keep thinking, we're going to find a way to screw this up.

They're going to find a way.

And also, I must say, one thing which reassured me was that the referring, Monsieur Le Texier, was excellent.

And by the way, which is really something I wanted to insist on, the standard of referring

in this Champions League is exceptionally high.

There was Mr.

Sanchez the other night, Le Texier last night.

I mean, it really is very, very good indeed.

But he kept his cool, which must have been very, very difficult, unlike the Real Madrid players.

And the fact that they looked so disjointed and that

they resorted

to the dark arts as if they were some kind of Diego Simeone side and not Carlo Ancelotti side was actually, strangely enough, quite reassuring because they couldn't find the solutions in the way they should play and build the game.

And so there was an element of jeopardy.

There always is an element of it cannot happen or it will happen.

But on the other hand, as Nikki said,

the way Arsenal kept their composure absolutely throughout

was

remarkable and was not, to be honest, not something I was expecting.

I was expecting a few rocky moments and they haven't been.

I mean, there was the penalty thing,

Bappé throwing himself to the ground.

Ridiculous.

That took a while.

But apart from that, no, I mean, I felt reasonably secure and safe and happy.

That's not normal.

It's going to be a very different thing against PSG, though.

But we'll come to that in a minute, I'm sure.

Yeah,

we will come to that.

I mean, I thought so many Arsenal players played well, Barry.

I mean, Bartha Jim...

has a nice pop, but you are, mate.

Does Barry take any pleasure from the fact it was an Irish international who is largely responsible for Arsenal making it to the semi-final?

I mean, Declan Rice was,

again, absolutely brilliant in this game.

Yeah, he's really stepped up in this tournament.

He scored the two free kicks that sent Arsenal on the way last week.

And then last night, he just put in a pretty much perfect

performance for someone playing in his position.

His

passing was

great.

He covered every blade of grass.

He won tackles.

His energy levels are incredible.

And

he was one of several Arsenal players who played very well.

I think QER deserves another mention because everyone

reckoned he'd be a wink link in the absence of Gabrielle.

He hasn't been.

He looked fine last night again.

Saka was great.

Miles Lewis Skelly was great.

Martinelli was great.

Mourinh had another good game.

And it was very easy for Arsenal in the end.

I'm probably not the only person who's learnt a new Spanish word in the last eight days, Remontada.

And it was like Real Madrid's players were just waiting for it to happen as if they totally believed it.

They were very frenzied and panicky in the first half.

I don't think Rey had to make a save before halftime.

And I think, apart from the goal they scored, which was gifted to them, the only save Ray did have to make, I think, was from a corner that threatened to go straight in.

I think it was Rodrigo who took it.

Otherwise, it was very simple for Arsenal.

I think Real Madrid sort of set the tone with that.

ridiculous Aliba challenge on Saka very early doors,

which got earned him a yellow and meant

he was operating well below full capacity for the rest rest of the game because he couldn't tackle Saka again or risk getting a second yellow.

Antonio Rudiger's persistent fouling, he eventually got a yellow, but I think at one stage he trod on Miles Lewis Kelly's

balls and got away with it.

He was just repeatedly fouling.

Killian Mbappe was anonymous again.

Vinicius Jr.

was trying to make things happen.

Rodrigo didn't do a great deal.

And Bellingham, Jude Bellingham, England's hero, was surprisingly not just anonymous, but really petulant and behaving like an entitled brat for long periods of the game.

I always had him pegged as a nice fellow, but yeah, I didn't like to see that.

And it's becoming commonplace for him.

Yeah, it was Timber, I think, he just sort of shoved over, wasn't it, on the touchline?

And it was just totally, there was just no need for it.

And look, we'll get to a bit more on Rails' approach.

We talked about Rice, Nikki.

I thought Saka as well.

It's interesting.

Before he came back to fitness, they were like, well, when Yeri's like played really well, who do you start?

And Saka has proved in these two games just how

good he is.

Yeah, I don't know where that was coming from because

lots and lots of love on Yonyeri, excited on Yonyeri, but come on, Bakaya Saka is.

I can't remember exactly where he finished in that Guardian top 100 list, but he was very near the top of it.

And deservedly, he's one of the best footballers in the world.

He just is.

And so obviously it makes a difference having him there.

It makes a difference,

not just in terms of what he can do on the ball, not just in terms of the fact that he was tracking back and defending in the last few minutes of the game, even at three goals up in the

in the tie still doing that, but also just in terms of the fact that when he's on the pitch, teams have to defend differently.

Teams are going to defend and adjust how they set up to deal with him and that creates spaces for other people as well.

So his impact on the team is absolutely massive.

And I thought it was really in the end a very

mature performance from him to to to handle that he'd missed that penalty and i think he was a bit silly with that panenka i'll be honest about it i think that was not his his his uh finest hour in terms of decision making and i think he

even like watching the replay he has this sort of slightly smug look on his face as he's doing it and then a sudden realization that dawns on him that it hasn't worked and you think yeah that wasn't that maybe wasn't the one this time and it wasn't even like a good penenka either no had it been a good one it'd have have scored, wouldn't he?

Yeah, so a little bit frustrating with that.

But then, what do you do about that?

Well, you knuckle down and you play the rest of the game well and you score a goal.

And

I was wondering because he gave it the shush celebration, the finger to his lips.

And I was wondering what that was about.

Because, of course, there was a very odd incident with Danny Carver at halftime.

Also, you could say, well, hang on, isn't that what Jerry Omry did when he scored at the Bernabeo?

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if that's something that Saka would have been thinking about too.

So I don't know, whichever it was,

he was brilliant and he's one of those players who's very, very easy to cheer for.

Oh yeah, it's sort of magnetic, his charm, isn't it?

Look, we've touched on it, Philippe, but I thought, and I and I use this word really advisedly because, you know, people say embarrassing all the time about things that just aren't in football.

You know, a team lose a game, unfortunately, or whatever.

But I thought Real Madrid's approach was...

embarrassing in this game.

I thought they set out to kick, foul, bully Arsenal in the hope they get a soft rep.

You already mentioned it and i and i just think that's such a surprise like we know that you know they're a slightly top-heavy team or whatever but i don't know how much responsibility anchilott has i feel like anchilotti i don't think i've any ever criticized him i don't think anyone's ever criticized he's such a wonderful manager he's been so successful but the message was just go and be shits and see if we can bully these guys that's that's all it looked like to me i i don't think that it was uh team orders from Carlo Ancelotti that that wouldn't be Anchilotti at all.

He's never set set out teams to play like that.

I think the problem is a problem of the personalities within the team.

I think that

Vinnie Jr.

was...

I looked at my notes and I put entitled, charmless, insufferable were the three adjectives I found for him.

And this attitude, and Bellingham was even worse.

And the problem is that when you have players who've got such a high opinion of themselves, who do believe that somehow, magically, the Bernabeu effect is going to play its role and the adversaries are going to crumble and so on.

And I think the problem was more the players.

I mean, to be honest, it's not exactly a surprise that Rudiger

should use Miles Lewis Gerry as a way to

clean up his cleats.

That's what Rudeger has been about all the time.

But the number of tactical fouls, which actually were given as free kicks, but which could have had a yellow card, I lost count after a while but why is that why is the manager why is the manager not responsible for this I think that maybe he doesn't have the control over the players at the moment in this particular situation where when you actually when you listen to Carlo after the after the game of course he's seen everything he's gone through everything so he's not going to blow things out of proportion but he went when he was asked you know this might have been your last game for a round that we had in the champions league it's almost as if he shrugged and said yeah so what almost and and as if he knows what's in store for him.

And he's known it for a while.

And he's known it after the first leg.

And I think in the second leg, there was just, it was basically in discipline, which is not also an ancient

characteristic.

But you have to blame at one point, you've got to blame the individuals.

And actually, interestingly, though it hasn't gone with the shit, it doesn't have to do with the shithouse read that we saw, which was frankly absolutely appalling.

There's a poll on Marquette at the moment.

And obviously, they want to know, they're asking their readers, what do you think are the reasons why Rey Madrid went out of the competition?

And interestingly, Ancelotty comes last in the list of reasons.

The first one is the way that the squad has been built.

The fact that you have got three players up front who are on their day and individually capable of doing the most extraordinary outrageous and beautiful things, but who defend like half a player put together.

The second reason was Arsenal are just better, which, yeah, that computes.

And

the third reason was the players didn't show up on the night.

And Nancelotini comes forth because of his tactical setup and his instructions.

So I think people are aware of the fact that the problem is that this side, and I don't know, Nick, if it reminds you of that, but The side that Arsenal beat in 2005-2006 was also a side that lacked discipline, which was very top-heavy.

It had all these superstars, but remember how Thierry Henry cut through them like butter.

um and well actually melted butter because cutting through butter when it's solid is actually very difficult don't try it and and the way he did that and actually had the same kind of celebrations thinking you know raising his arm thinking well that's just normal you're rubbish it's it's the same same problem it's a kind of galacticos mark too which is even enhanced by the fact that they do have injuries but you know,

which have weakened the defense in particular.

But let's not go into injuries because if you look at that, Arsenal has had far, far, far less luck luck than Real Madrid throughout the year.

But yeah, I mean,

it's quite remarkable that they should

resort to those,

but almost like it's defaulting back to, I'm entitled, I should beat you.

And then having somebody

in front of them saying, no, no, you're not going to beat me.

I'm better than you are.

And they were.

Yeah, it does lead on, Barry, to the Killian and Bappe question, right?

You know, Pete says, given PSG and Real Madrid's respective performances, is there an argument that for all his individual talents, teams are better off without Killian Mbappe?

I mean, it just sounds so ridiculous to say it out loud, but I don't know when it gets to sort of this stage of these competitions.

I think there definitely is.

Somebody said on yesterday's pod that Killian Mbappe is the best footballer in the world, probably Mark.

And while I wouldn't necessarily disagree in terms of what he can do as an individual on his day, he clearly has a destabilizing effect on any dressing room he's in.

He causes trouble with France, he caused trouble with PSG.

He led Real Madrid on this merry dance over whether or not he would sign for them.

He eventually did.

And have they got a good return on their investment?

Maybe they have in terms of shirt sales, but

on the pitch, absolutely not.

He was useless across both legs of this tie.

In between both legs of this tie, he got sent off for an absolutely disgraceful foul on an

Alavez player.

Yeah, he's not exactly covered himself in glory since going to Rael.

He is undeniably an excellent footballer, but

he

has

a very high opinion of himself.

He doesn't put in the work

when his team don't have the ball.

And

but you know, are they going to get rid?

No.

It's not to like make a huge deal of it because it's just one of the things that gets said in an inking context.

He's just trying to say, well, maybe we weren't playing to our strengths.

But Tipo Cortois, full-time, talking about the number of crosses that Madrid were getting and saying, well, last year we had Josolu, this year we don't have Josolu.

And you think, so you've got Mbappe and Vinny and Rodrigo up the front and we're saying, oh God, really missed Josalu to get on the end of those crosses was a bit of a moment.

Yeah, I mean, just for, just,

and I hadn't seen much of this, but Indian Nomad message to say, not one mention on the TNT commentary about Arsenal's time wasting or hitting the floor with the most basic of contact.

I hate this English perspective on all commentary, not even a semblance of fairness.

And it's just, that was not the game I saw.

And I don't think I'm an Arsenal mouthpiece, but I just thought it was, you know, I know Raya got booked in the first half, didn't he, for time-wasting.

I did like Michael's question saying, How did the referees decide who to be biased against in the Arsenal Madrid game?

It's an excellent question.

Um, Philippe, you wanted to come in?

Yeah, I just want to say about

Bappé.

Um,

there is a team that it makes better when he's there, it's the French national team.

Uh, we shouldn't forget that he played a certain role in France becoming world champions in 2018 and only scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final four years later.

So, he can deliver the stuff for France.

I mean, the idea that he's the best footballer on the planet is laughable.

You could say he's the best striker on the planet, the best winger on the planet, but he's not the best footballer.

There are hundreds of better footballers.

And I mean hundreds.

Hundreds.

Footballers, not striker.

Roderie is a better footballer.

Declan Russia is a better footballer.

Buka Yosaka is a better footballer.

Martin Luther Garde is a better footballer.

I could carry on like that.

Are you going to name all the hundreds?

I'm going to name everybody.

Every single one of them.

I said the other day that

Desirédouet is a better footballer than Killian Bappé.

Footballer doesn't mean just scoring back fulls of goals.

It means being able to hold your place in the team, making the team better,

track back, as Gabriel Martinelli does admirably.

And he doesn't do all these things.

What he does is scores back fulls of goals.

sack fulls of goals, whatever fulls of goals, some of them extraordinarily spectacular, some of which have got a huge impact, others which don't really matter.

But that's all he does.

And of course he's spectacular and we live in the age of the spectacular, so therefore he's the greatest player on the planet.

No, he is not.

He is not.

It's absurd.

It's absolutely...

This drives me nuts.

If the only way that you judge a player is by the fact he scores bicycle kicks and has so many goals to his name at the end of the season, for Christ's sake, this is not what football is necessarily about.

You can be a goal.

What is it?

I take your point.

Yes, I know, but the footballer, and if he said the best striker in the world, the best goal scorer in the world, yes, absolutely, he is.

He absolutely is.

He's not the greatest footballer.

It reminded me when you were listening to those footballers about Alan Partridge.

In 1981, no one died.

In 1982,

someone died.

Oh, no, it just irritates me so much, as you might have noticed.

If a handful of players, the best players from various clubs around Europe were lining up for a game of shirts v skins in the park, I just have this image of Mbappe not only being last pick, but

the team whose pick it is going, oh, you can have them.

I don't know how much longer we're going.

And Philippe did mention Gabrielle Martinelli there, and we haven't mentioned the fact that he scored that goal needed to.

It was in some ways a bit of an embodiment it felt like to me of of how the whole Arsenal performance was because Arsenal didn't need that goal it didn't matter but you could see how much Martinelli wanted that goal and how he celebrated that goal and

and and I think that definitely spoke to something about where the team is.

I think it was,

I was reading someone writing this one, I can't remember whose column it was, someone's column on the game talking about this Saka and Martinelli being the goal scorers and perhaps this delayed vision of what was supposed to be the future of Arsenal that's been a bit waylaid and hasn't quite, quite,

more in Martinelli's case, hasn't quite progressed in the way that perhaps it was expected a couple of years ago.

And is this a moment of it coming back together?

But the other name in there that just wanted to come back to again is just Mikel Marino, who got the assist on both goals.

And I think that he

Philippe was talking about historical echoes with Real Madrid.

And I'm feeling quite big on the echoes of past runs in this case and also a bit with Intez's case as well.

And it just made me think Marino being this mid-season forced into a position that isn't actually his out of out of necessity.

I mean, actually, that was a bit the story with Arsenal's last Champions League finalist team with Mattia Flamini coming in and getting forced to play at right back for half the run and working out inexplicably well for this brief little window of time.

So, yeah, I don't know.

It's not a particularly profound point, but these little echoes always interest me.

Well, I mean, not only did he set out both goals, they were both brilliant passes, actually, weren't they?

You know, and that is worth mentioning.

I thought Odegaard as well was in midfield, was absolutely brilliant.

I just finally just wondered sort of how, for Arteta, kind of what this victory signifies, Philippe.

Does it make no difference if they get knocked out by PSG?

It feels like a big moment for him.

No, no, no, it does make it must make a huge difference.

And to be honest, I mean, against PSG, I think PSG will start as slight favourites, I would say.

And I'm really looking forward to that one because

that should be a very, very, very high-level game,

of which again, Arsenal will not start favourites.

So, no, it's already a huge achievement.

To start with, being in a Champions League semi-final, excuse me, that's already quite something.

To do it in that way as well, and with this measure of control, is absolutely remarkable.

Arteta's team, perhaps, of the past few seasons, might have had the wobble that we waited for and didn't get.

They might well have had it, especially when you think of.

And the impact of having important players missing

doesn't seem to be as big as it should be.

Merinoux has been absolutely admirable, but Kivio, as Barry said, was really thought of as on his way out, a weak link, and so forth.

It's been absolutely terrific, except for the first 15 minutes of the first leg where he was a little bit hesitant, shall we say.

But the fact that they've managed to ride over that is absolutely admirable.

And certainly in Europe, yes, they have certainly passed another stage in their development.

And it's still a young team.

And if it can be kept together, which is also, of course, another question, because I'm sure Florentino will look at a few of those players thinking, why don't we have him?

I want him.

You know, that's the way he does things, you know.

Philippe, you just wanted to mention the tributes made to former Dutch football and coach Leo Ben Harker ahead of the game.

Yeah, no, because I think that in a way that

Ben Harker's passing has gone a little bit unnoticed in some ways and that people perhaps have forgotten first of all how successful he was with Real Madrid, but also how successful I think the most remarkable achievement was when he brought Trinidad and Tobago to the World Cup, which is just an extraordinary achievement.

Yeah, oh, that was him, right?

That was him.

And

when you see the reactions back in Trinita and Tobago at the news of his death and the way the players obviously distraught, you know, the Shaka Hipslops and

Dwight Yorks of that great generation, he was obviously a very, very special man.

And the fact that he will probably be remembered for that more than for what he did with Real Madrid, I think that's quite befitting of a man who was obviously very, very respecting and very much loved.

Yeah, I was at the England Trinidad game, you know, before I worked in this industry just as a fan.

The Trinidad fans were unbelievable.

That, you know, they we sort of danced terribly next to them dance brilliantly out of the stadium and it must have taken like an hour and a half for them to all just en masse just dance so slowly back into town it was great anyway that'll do for part one part two uh we'll cover into getting past buying

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Inter2, Bayern, two, all the goals in the second half.

It wasn't straightforward, Nikki.

I mean, this tie was never going to be straightforward.

It's a great achievement for Inter to get to the semi-final.

Yeah, in fact,

I think maybe one of those odd little statistics that hadn't come up in the previous pod, but Bayern, yes, they were trailing from the first leg, but they'd played four times.

They've come to San Cedar to play Inter before this, and they'd always won, every single one of them.

This is the first time that Bayern have gone there and not won, actually.

And I think the way the game went with Bayern taking the lead in the second half definitely reinforced that there was real jeopardy here.

But I think what I found so compelling about Inter across these two ties is they have had very clear moments where they could have lost their nerve.

Obviously, taking the lead away to Bayern and then losing it.

And then here, having had the lead from the first leg and then losing it at the start of the second half, those are moments when you think that's a real challenge, not just to the scoreline, because of course, yes, you've lost your advantage in the scoreline, but to your mentality as a team.

And both times the Intel were in that position of getting paid back, they just turned around and scored again immediately.

That's just what they did both times in the tie.

And

I think that's a real sign of the maturity of where they are under Simon Inzaghi.

Obviously, it's two years since they went to the final and lost to Man City.

And I think at the time, even though all of that season I was banging on to everyone saying this team is better than everyone's giving them credit for.

It's a really, really good team.

It does feel like this time around there's a slightly different level of of know-how of self-assurance in the way they're dealing with these situations and and certainly contrasting in my mind with last season when they went out to athletico and it's either in my opinion they they shouldn't have let themselves go out and i think that was absolutely the opposite case where they

had the position to go through put themselves in a good spot and then just lost their nerve basically they lost their um their confidence at the moment when they when they needed not to uh there's something There's something to that for this inter team, definitely, because Bayern came, played a good game,

exactly the game I think they needed to play being a goal down from the first high,

from the first leg.

And for both teams in, by the way, horrible conditions, it was absolutely horrendous weather in Milan with winds going up to like 40 miles an hour and rain coming down as well.

Like it was it was really not nice.

And

I thought that Bayern played a good game, but Inter just, just, as Owen Hargreaves put it, after the game, actually,

in the moments, in the moments that mattered, Inter

were just very calm and composed and took their chances brilliantly.

I suppose best embodied by Lautella Martinez.

I know that Philippe loved how quick his movement was for that first goal because it wasn't really, really surprisingly just, I don't know, swift movement of the boot to get that goal in.

And yet, Nikki, you know, you banged the drum two years ago saying this team are quite good.

I feel like you have to do it as well because I sense, you know, we look at the semi-finalists and the one team that no one is really giving a sniff to is Inter.

And like once you get to the semi-finals, everyone should get a sniff.

I don't know.

Maybe I'm, you know, I'm just in my shed.

No one in my shed, no one in my shed is suggesting Inter or win it, but I might be wrong.

I don't know.

It's hard as an end.

And you're always influenced by the voices that you happen to hear.

And I'm sure I was listening to, I can't remember if it was on TV commentary last night or if it was somewhere else, someone saying, oh, that they thought Inter was slight favourites for tie against Barcelona.

And I was going, oh, I don't know if they are slight favourites or not.

I think the Barcelona have plenty going for them as well.

But I think that, I think that's maybe like the most fun part about these semi-finals is I think there's four teams that could all win it.

I really do.

I don't look at any of these four teams and think they can't win it.

I think all of these teams have something going for them.

And

I think Inter absolutely have things going for them.

I look specifically at the tie against Barcelona and I think, well, I've said it before in this podcast.

I think if you want one player to neutralise an old-fashioned number nine, Francesca Archer, be it an old-fashioned centre-back, does it very, very well.

So put him against Lewandowski.

Who knows?

Maybe I'll have egg on my face when Lewandowski scores a hat-trick, but I think that's that's a good one for one for Inter if they need it.

And I think that

they have got a striker in Martinez who is having without question his best season in the Champions League by a long way.

This tournament has often been the one where he hasn't showed up.

And it just feels like he's got that monkey of his back in terms of confidence confidence in these big nights and in these ties.

He's got support that is really, really attuned to him and the movements that he needs.

Marcus Turam has been excellent from day one there but again there's a different level of confidence now they've been playing together for a little while.

You've got players a midfield that's very settled with Nicotarian and Berela and Chalanoglu.

They all again understand each other and work really well.

And then you've just got this wealth of players who are all extremely capable of contributing even in ways that you don't expect like Pavard who had never scored a goal for Inte before last night, and of course scores against his old club, which is in Italy,

the immutable law of the X, they always talk about in Italy, and La Leggia del X, and he delivered on that as well.

He definitely celebrated.

Oh, yes.

He definitely did celebrate against his former club, didn't he?

Robert says, How does Max feel knowing this was the last time he sees Harry Kane's sad walk applauding the fans after another trophy elimination match?

I presume you mean the last time before he picks up a trophy when Bayern wins the league.

But Barry, Barry, you've got me nervous again just seeing poor Harry Kane, who didn't play well in the first leg, did score an excellent goal.

But again, does the

walk of sadness.

The walk of sadness and the morose, it's a tough one to take interview.

Look, Harry Oney has himself to blame for the fact, well, not only himself, but Harry is large part of the reason that Byron didn't go through in this.

I wonder what Spurs fans made of the fact that he and Eric Dyer were on the score sheet.

What a goal from Eric Dyer, by the way.

I thought that was

an absolutely terrific goal.

Dyer had a great game besides that, by the way.

Just to add that as well.

Dyer played really well.

He made an amazing goal line clearance from Matthew O'Darmian as well.

Wasn't it?

So, yeah, hard luck for Harry and Eric.

But interestingly, we've got the semi-finals now.

So it's the teams that came second, third, fourth, and fifteenth in the very long group table there in the semis.

I'd give Inter every chance of beating Barcelona.

Some team is going to really make hay with that kamikaze Barca high line, and I think Intra are the team best placed maybe to do that.

It's so open, as

Philippe and Nikki were saying.

Any of the four teams could win.

I think...

In the case of Arsenal, I think as recently as January, no one was including including them in the conversation.

Even Arsenal fans weren't including them in the conversation for likely Champions League winners.

They were still sort of had their eye on the league.

But

any of these four could win the competition.

Lars pointed out yesterday, I think.

Just mouth-watering games, aren't they?

Just, you know, cannot wait for those games to happen.

Europa League tonight, Lazio home to Bodo, 2-0 down.

But, you know, as we established yesterday, Bodo better at home than away.

Manchester United, Leon is 2-2.

Who will be in goal for Manchester United?

Is the question.

Andre Onana.

It's Pete.

Amaroo has said he will be in goal.

Ah, so that's probably who then?

Yeah.

Well, you asked, and I answered.

Yeah.

Well, I guess that's, I suppose.

And information exchange is sort of what we're here to do, isn't it, amongst other things, as well as searing insight.

Thank you for that.

I mean, he might trip getting off the bus and snatch his knee or something, but for now, he will be in goal.

goal.

Okay, thank you.

By the way, Max, about this game between Manchester United and Lyon, it's very surprising that the Lyon players seem to be incredibly confident.

And all the more surprising since they were gifted the goal that enabled them to finish with the tie.

But they are extremely confident.

I've actually rarely heard players and staff

feeling that they not only could, but will do it.

Maybe because they know, unlike me, that Inanna's playing.

That's possibly it.

I mean, Real Madrid's players were exceptionally confident as well, and look where that got them.

Yes.

We had some classic Anns yesterday.

They obviously go to Einstein Frankfurt.

They're season riding on this, and him just saying, I don't care what you say.

You know, if you think one result makes me a good manager or a bad manager,

then I don't care what you think.

I will find out how they get on.

Rangers go to Bilbao.

That is goalless.

Philippe, you wanted to tell us about the Ligue Arm de Zone deal.

What's going on?

Yeah, well, that's a very good question.

And we don't really know what's going on because basically the League has decided to terminate the contract, the broadcasting contract they have with Dazone,

which was supposed to bring in far more subscribers, far more money.

They are locked in a legal wrangle by which Dazone threatened to walk out.

So the League decided, took them at their word, and decided to terminate the contract.

So

the mediation is over.

So it's open warfare.

And basically at the moment Liguan doesn't have a broadcaster again

for next season.

And

which I'm going to write a piece for the big paper about this because it's basically another element in the huge dossier called French Football is Broke.

And because that's not the only reason why we can fear that there will be several bankruptcies in Liguan.

There are those, but it's the most important one.

And it's a complete catastrophe.

They thought they would get up to a billion euros per season for the TV rights.

And what do they get?

About half that now.

And they budgeted for the billion.

So you can imagine what the consequences are.

It's a catastrophe.

It's an absolute catastrophe.

And I don't think they will be able to carry on from one day to the next, inventing,

putting the old plaster on the wooden leg, as they have been doing for years now.

So, I think this is the moment of reckoning is coming, and it's not going to be pretty.

On a slightly lighter note, on yesterday's conversation about Bodo and Ben Me and the underwhelming nightlife, Mark says, Surely the bright lights of Bodo are just the Aurora Borealis, which is a very good point.

Conference League, Chelsea, 3-0 up against Lesia Warsaw.

So, they should manage that, shouldn't they?

And that'll be for part two.

Part three will begin with Newcastle's Hammering and Crystal Palace.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, yeah, Seb Hutchinson's said, you know, the mark of a winning side is the team that wins their 3pm games when no one's paying attention.

Perhaps this is the ultimate example of that.

Newcastle battering Crystal Palace while Real Madrid Arsenal is on.

I completely forgot it was happening.

They won 5-0.

Mike says Newcastle scored 9 in two games.

Is this Jason Tyndall's audition for the Real Madrid job?

The Mile End and Gelotti.

Dan says, is Jason Tyndall actually in the running for manager of the month?

I mean, I don't know if he's allowed to win it, but I I guess he could be.

I mean, they Barry, they were b it's one of those sort of Newcastle games that I feel happens quite a lot.

I don't know how often it does happen, where they just can't stop scoring goals.

It's just sort of endless goals.

Yeah, and I will confess all I've seen of this game is the goals, and there were some very good ones.

Uh, Jacob Murphy's opener squeezed one in at the near post from a very tight angle.

That was superb.

I have to say I have in the past dismissed Jacob Murphy as one of those non-glamorous fringe players that would be dispensed with so they could get in an expensive upgrade.

And he may well have been if Newcastle were allowed to spend the money they want to, but they're not.

He's still there.

He won't be in the conversation for Newcastle Player of the Year, but I think he's had a terrific season and he's been really good in recent months.

Then at at 1-0, Palace got a penalty for a Nick Pope foul on Chris Richards as he went for a high ball.

Ebericies'

spot kick was even worse than Mikaio Saka's.

It was dire.

The run-up, like, kind of did the, you know, when Scooby-Doo is running but not moving, he did that for a bit.

Then the stuttered run-up and then just hit an incredibly weak shot, more or less straight at Nick Pope.

So he kept that out quite easily then Mark Gay former Newcastle target didn't have a good game last night by the sound of things he

scored an own goal steer sort of blocked a Harvey Barnes cross into his own net

Harvey Barnes then scored a goal with a step over to meet Max EnslaCraw and fire into the far corner Scharr with a header from a free kick and Isaac got his goal from distance after a mistake by Jefferson Lermas.

So an evening to forget for Crystal Palace and a very good result that puts Newcastle third, looking really

not home and holes, but looking really good for a Champions League spot.

I think they might finish second.

I think they might overtake Arsenal, who will obviously have their big egg in a big basket elsewhere.

It's interesting with Newcastle, Philippe, that they have this ability.

I sort of feel unlike any other side to blow teams away.

I can't think of another side that does it with the atmosphere where you just you just you just feel like whoever the opposition are, there's just nothing they can do.

I mean that's the St.

James effect,

wouldn't you say?

Because those performances have come at home by and large, actually almost exclusively at home.

They've also got the type of players perhaps very explosive,

capable of unbalancing anybody and and I think you get caught into that that that atmosphere, this red hot atmosphere.

And obviously they've got the right attitude about it so that they're not content to sit on a result.

They just carry on.

And

I have to say, and you know that I am not Eddie Howe's greatest fan,

but I'm not talking about the coach here.

But if we talk about the coach, you have to look at what is done with a squad, which everybody will agree is not one of the strongest squads in the division.

Far, far from it, which has got very little depth.

What they've done is remarkable.

This said,

yes, they might go ahead of Arsenal because Arsenal has got other things in their mind, but I think that it sets up a certain Aston Villa Newcastle game this weekend absolutely beautifully.

And they've got a tough schedule because they've also got to go to Brighton and they will go to Arsenal before the end of the season.

So it's not as if they've got easy games to to to deal with.

It's actually going to be quite a tough and demanding

set of fixtures for them.

Yeah, I mean that is the pick.

That is the pick of the weekend's fixtures.

That aside, Barry, feels like a tricky one to sell when we're on the the greatest league in the world train that we are on.

Or I mean I actually thought the games last week were quite enjoyable.

I quite I sort of quite like them and you know well look the games can be good on their own

but in there isn't a huge amount of jeopardy.

Looking down this list of fixtures I've written out, I've sort of highlighted the teams who are in the running for top five.

City go to Everton, Villa, Newcastle.

Obviously, that's a big one.

5.30 on Saturday.

Chelsea away at Fulham.

Fulham could beat them.

Forest away at Spurs.

Who knows what state Spurs will be in by then?

Who will be on the touchline?

Who will be picking the team?

We do not know.

Yeah, Liverpool away at Leicester.

That's a toughie.

Could Liverpool win the league this weekend?

Yeah, if Arsenal lose to Ipswich, which is quite a deal,

Liverpool win then, yeah.

Liverpool.

You know, there might be a case of after the Lord Mayor's show for Arsenal, but I think it'd have to be very, very hung over after that Lord Mayor's show to lose at Ipswich.

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Man United Wolves,

I expect Wolves to win that.

They mightn't, but

yeah, that's just never-ending.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing Manchester United be bad because I'm of that age.

Meanwhile, Nikki, in Italy, the title race is still very much on.

Isn't it?

Atalanta have slipped away because they lost three in a row, didn't they, recently?

But you've got Inter on 71, and of course, they've got one eye on the Champions League, and then Napoli.

uh three points behind yeah it's it's really really uh a fun title race and and a fun race for the Champions League sports in Italy, which has had a bit of a block by Philip in it as well with the change of manager, Igo Tudor, coming in at Juventus has definitely reinvigorated them a bit.

But yes, the top of the table with Antonio Conte, of course, who won the league with Inter, now on their heels with Napoli doing what he always does and not having Europe to worry about.

But I think I might have said this last time I was on, like it, to me, and it's again, coming back to those historical echoes, it's really reminding me of when Inter did win the Champions League under Jose Mourinho and their league form just was a little bit less good.

And I think Inter are going through that.

And Simone and Zaghi has talked a lot about not just winning the Treble, but winning the quadruple because he wants the World Club Cup as well.

And they have got their eyes on every prize.

They're trying to do everything.

And it is having some impact on their league form.

And Napoli are imperfect, like player for player, and also just how they can play at their best.

I think Inter are clearly the better team.

But Napoli, without all those other commitments, and with Antonio Conte behind them, and with Scott McTominay having the season he's having and you know some other players like Harkus

found his groove again under

Conte.

There's definitely enough there that it could happen.

So it's a really, really compelling title race this season for sure.

Intel have got the tougher game this weekend.

Easter Sunday away to Bologna who are one of the teams fighting for a Champions League spot who've been really, really fun and good to watch.

And Vincenzo Italiano, they've reinvented themselves again.

A team that shocked everyone last season under Tiago Motto and had a really rough start after selling Calafiori and Joshua Zerxe and changing manager.

But they've come good playing a new style of football.

And yeah, that's a really big game on Sunday Bologna against Intier, I think.

You just mentioned Xerxe there, Nikki.

He is out for the rest of the season.

I saw yesterday some injury or other.

Did you just see his, did you just see his face, Barry, or did you actually.

No, I read it

possibly on a top sports website.

Well,

we wish him our best.

Have you been sort of sad for him, Nikki, or surprised how his season has gone at Manchester United, Xerxe?

I think it feels like a shame because he was on such an upward trajectory at Bologna and one of those players who I think had just been very, very well used.

It's funny how quickly people's stock can rise and fall because Thiago Motor came out of that Bologna job with this idea of being, wow, what a creative and inventive manager doing these different things and using this player like Xerxe in this very free role and taking advantage of his characteristics.

Then he goes to Juventus and becomes frustratingly rigid and can't seem to make anything creative happen.

And same thing with Xerxe.

He's a player who, in the right system, clearly showed he was capable of doing something and has gone to Manchester United and not found a system where he can thrive.

And look, he's still young.

If he gets a manager that suits him or if he gets a system that suits him, I think there's still plenty of upside there.

But yeah, it's not been a good move for him, has it?

In

Philippe's regular feature, football's actually depressing.

Where do you want to take us first?

To a pretty depressing story from the Eurofutsole qualifier between Romania and Ukraine.

Yeah,

it appears that

Ukraine requested from UEFA a minute's silence for the victims, the civilian victims of the Russian bombings in Sumy, and that UEFA,

for reasons best known to themselves, decided not to grant that request.

But the adversaries of Ukraine, Romania,

were 100%

with what were supposed to be their hosts, but the game was obviously played on neutral ground in Poland.

And so instead of the minute silence, they kicked off, but they didn't play for a minute.

And so there was a minute's silence, but after kickoff.

And I have to say, obviously, we don't want to infer things about the reasons why UEFA decided that, but I thought a minute's silence for victims of a bombing,

this is not necessarily

considered to be political,

but what if these people had died in a catastrophe, another type of catastrophe?

Would the UFO also have decided not to grant a minute's silence?

It's not as if it were some kind of anti-Russian demonstration, but it was just

a way to honor the memory of people who had died and a national disaster affecting one of the two countries who were there.

And when you think,

when you think about the minute silence or minutes of course which are held sometimes for people or events which bear a very, very distant relationship with what is happening on the field, I think this is, it's not exactly

UEFA's greatest hour, I have to say.

And I think an explanation should be given, and it hasn't been given so far.

The head of the Ukrainian footstall team, Alexander Kosenko, said, We wanted to honor the memory of those who died in the terrible terrorist attack.

Honestly, my heart and soul ache.

The Romanians understood all this, and without hesitation, immediately supported and said that it is really very important that the whole world knows about it.

What's happening is terrible.

So let's thank the Romanians again.

Also, Philippe, a bit of club World Cup stuff.

I mean, sort of based on

US immigration policy at the moment, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sending this message to anyone anyone thinking of going to the States.

Visiting in America is not an entitlement, he wrote in a Fox News opinion piece.

It's a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values.

Two months before the tournament, I mean, you wonder beyond football as well what impact this administration is having on tourism, Philippe, but in

terms of the Club World Cup and how many people will think about going to the World Cup.

Maybe stadia will still be really full, but

how many people from around the world will think twice?

Is an interesting question.

I think many people are asking themselves the same question.

I think even ourselves as journalists and media people, we're asking ourselves, do we want to do this?

I mean

that's a question we all ask ourselves.

But in the case of the Club World Cup, I said two months away with very sluggish ticket sales when we talked about the fact that the tickets, the sales were so sluggish, it was possible to find cheaper tickets on the secondary market than through the official channels, which is quite extraordinary.

So yes, it's going to discourage an awful lot of people.

I mean,

you wonder how

the supporters of Club Pachuca or Monterrey, for example, will feel about traveling to the US

at the moment.

But this also

goes for the fans of Chelsea and Manchester City.

Will they necessarily want to go there?

Is there any guarantee that they're not going to be subjected to the same kind of treatment that so many people have been,

you know,

have had to deal with at the borders at the moment there and there's absolutely no sign of that and in fact

rubio i know it was a column for fox and that sometimes you will whack the amp up to a play to the crowd exactly you play to your crowd but it certainly is not a good sign and and the thing is that jenny infantino touched on the on the on the subject when he was uh in miami not that long ago saying that obviously there were discussions being held about the status of football supporters going to big events in in the us

but we haven't had any update on that.

We don't know if some agreement is going to be put in place, a bit like was done for Russia 2018, when buying a ticket basically entitled you to a visa for the duration of the tournament.

We don't know if this is going to be put in place.

And to be honest, it would go against the grain of every single

decision taken by the Trump administration so far in terms of immigration.

So these are really, really concerning times.

I mean, and if I were a fan, I don't know, if I were a fan and my team was there, I'm not going.

I'm not going.

Not only do I not care about the competition, but I don't want something really, really bad happening to me.

And there is a very good chance of that happening.

Just one more question, Philippe, which is, do you think journalists who have been critical of the administration or have posted things on social media about Trump will have difficulty getting into the United States?

I absolutely it's not I think so.

I'm absolutely positive that there would be problem if uh since uh if you've been quite open about your criticism of the of the Trump administration, I think

you might get what they call enhanced,

well

there is a word for it, which means basically you are basically

arrested by the immigration services and you have enhanced protocol or something like that means you can spend hours having to talk to those charming people and justify and giving them your mobile phone and your computer and your passcodes for your social networks and so forth.

Finally an email from Mark, which says, hello Max and team, during the recent international break I found myself clearing out the shed.

With a lack of pod content from many of my favourites to listen to during this task I decided to put on an old Football Weekly episode at random to assist.

I put my team Huddersfield Town into the Football Weekly search bar and settled on an episode from April the 1st 2019, the Monday pod after Huddersfield relegation from the Premier League had been confirmed following a 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.

I was intrigued as I only became a Football Weekly listener the season after this.

By the end of part two, I wasn't sure whether I was actually listening to a pod from six years ago, as the topics discussed were Liverpool being top, but are they any good?

Should Hudson Adoy be in the England squad?

The ridiculous ticket prices at Fulham, a penalty given for hand ball that Max was adamant should never have stood.

There was also time to discuss whether Crystal Palace was safe, they inevitably finished 12th that year, and some textbook panel predictions.

This time, the whole panel agreed that Arsenal and Manchester United would finish in the top four at the expense of Chelsea and Tottenham.

And you guessed it, come the end of the season, the complete opposite happened.

Is this proof that time is indeed a flat circle and that we're wasting our lives discussing the same talking points year after year?

Either way, I hope you keep discussing it.

Thanks, Mark.

P.S.

The entire discussion of Huddersfield Palace, where a team were actually relegated, somehow managed to only be a discussion as to whether Maurizio Sari had lost the Chelsea dressing room and whether Marcus Bean had ever fallen out with the manager.

Good to see the laser-like focus has always been there.

I'm adding my team to the list of ones you have an agenda against.

Is there any point in any of this, Barry?

Is the question.

Oh, absolutely not.

And I think that's the beauty of it because

not everything has to have a point.

I don't disagree with you.

And that'll do for today.

This has all been pointless, but thank you anyway.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Thanks, Philippe.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

This is The Guardian.