Aston Villa fall short of heroic comeback against PSG – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

So close for Aston Villa at 2-0 down, 5-1 on aggregate.

How many people started focusing on their second screen or just turned their TV off and did something something more important instead but then tienemans mcgin consta and villa were so close to an incredible comeback rashford was brilliant perhaps he shouldn't have been taken off ascencio had a great chance cobs and mr header donoruma made a couple of great saves but ultimately it was heroic defeat so does this mean psg are still favorites will arsenal brackets real madrid take heart from all of that same question for barcelona being talked up after smashing dortmund in the first leg they suffered in germany garrassi had a markedly better game a hat-trick but much like villa they just had too much to do from last week also today we'll touch on tonight's quarterfinals Try and remember Monday night football.

Talk the League Two title race.

Barry's been invited to a European wedding.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

Yeah, I love a European wedding.

I've been to one in Grenada.

I've been to one in Greece, and there are two of the better weddings I've attended.

All right, well, we'll find out if you're going to this one.

Lars Civitson, hello.

Hello.

I'm from the Racing Post, Mark Langdon.

Welcome.

Hi, Max.

I got married in Europe, so yeah.

Yes.

I didn't invite Barry, but I don't think I knew him at the time.

Okay.

Would you have, if you got married today, would we all make the guest list?

You'd be invited.

Why not?

It was a

heavy two weeks in Pathos.

I'll put it that way.

It's about 50 of us.

So much meat.

Anyway, let's start at Villa Park.

Villa 3, PSG, 2, PSG, go through 5-4 in Angrega.

Barry, what an almighty effort from Aston Villa.

Yeah, it was tremendous.

As you alluded to in your intro,

it looked like it was going to be all over with about when PSG went 2-0 up

and 5-1 up on aggregate.

And then we got another near capitulation from the French champions.

Villa were absolutely superb.

News of this may not have reached Australia, Max, but the bin men of Birmingham are currently on strike and have been for quite a few weeks.

So I had this image in my head, possibly of the PSG team coach going through the streets on its way to Villa Park with,

you know, just mounds, mountains of stuffed polytithine refuse sacks, making the players wonder, what the hell is going on here?

What's this smell?

Why are there rats everywhere?

I don't know if that affected their performance or not, but yeah, they really let Villa back into the game, and I don't think they had any real need to.

It was over at 5-1, or it certainly should have been.

But whether it was a bit of big game inexperience from PSG or ghosts of capitulations past coming back to haunt them, they lost control of a game that they shouldn't have.

Their midfield disappeared.

Their full backs kept bombing forward when they had no need to.

And Aston Villa took full advantage of this.

Marcus Rashford was brilliant.

Yuri Tulemans was brilliant.

John McGinn was a real captain's performance and goal from him.

And sadly,

they didn't do quite enough

due in no small part to some.

I mean, they could have scored six or seven goals in that second half.

Donna Roma had to make some fine saves.

There was a bit of poor finishing from various Villa players, but what an effort and they should be very proud of themselves yeah it was interesting Lars because we Villa needed to start this game quickly and they did and I thought for 10 minutes they were absolutely brilliant and they they fed off the noise and then PSG scored and you went ah but they kept going and then PSG scored again and you thought hang on this PSG side are just masters right because it it looked like Villa were on top So to go from that moment to what Villa created, I just think is so impressive.

Yeah, I know it is.

And I didn't think from the the first minute, like, tactically, the situation was not good for Villa.

Because if we look at what makes this PSG team good, one of the big things is the sheer amount of speed they have in the team.

It's something we've discussed earlier on the pod.

It's just one of the quickest teams I can remember seeing just across the board.

They're absolute sprinters out there.

So having ending up going even more goals behind and having to throw caution to the wind is a really unpleasant situation to be in because you can always get done on the counter.

But I guess

it must have been an almighty talk at halftime.

I'm not sure if Una Emerille really does the big team talks.

He's always struck me more as like a technical do this and that guy, but certainly they came out in the second half and there was a sense of like really nothing to lose at this point.

You might as well go for it.

I'm kind of torn between thinking, is this sort of residual psychological scar tissue from PSG from knowing that they are the

team that screw these things up?

Maybe that is something that's in the back of their minds.

There was this great stat going into the game that seven times PSG have been two goals up or more in a Champions League second leg, ahead of a Champions League second leg, and three of them they threw away.

Like almost half of the time, they've messed it up, which is extraordinary, given what an advantage that should be.

This is a different PSG team, but you wonder if there's an awareness of that.

But I also...

Maybe paradoxically, I also wonder if they got a little complacent in the second half.

I think that there was kind of strolling the ball around, playing some casual and loose passes.

You already mentioned the Barrys mentioned the fullbacks who were flying forward when they really didn't need to.

So

maybe that was what was going on, but certainly Villa, the way they upped the tempo.

Now, I'm very happy for Marcus Rashford, who sort of justified his place very much in the second half, because I nearly tweeted something slightly mean about him in the first half, because I just kind of surprised that Ollie Watkins gets dropped for this.

And I kind of felt really sad for Ollie Watkins.

He's a player who's kind of fought his way up from League Two, and he's done more than most to put Villa in the Champions League.

And for him to be dropped in favor of a lone player who scored one goal and eight in the league so far, it seems very harsh.

And then for the first PSG goal, when Rashford just kind of casually loses the ball and makes no effort to win it back at all, he just kind of looks to the heavens.

If I'm Ollie Watkins, I'm quite annoyed at that point.

But you have to say in the second half, Rashford had a spell when he was absolutely brilliant and showed, I guess, why someone like emery is so keen to try to rehabilitate get him back to his his former levels because at his best he is very good and actually mark leading on from that most of the talk afterwards is should emery have kept rashford on and played two up front which i feel is a bit harsh because if asencio scores that goal or consta connects with that header or that mats and volley patcho isn't in the perfect position to block it then it's a an excellent change you know but i don't know what you think because rashford was playing really well he was playing really well I was surprised he was taken off when he he was because you know Villa were really on top at that moment and you can disrupt the team by making the changes and I don't think they necessarily got better for the substitutions

but I would have disagreed with anyone that said that Villa should have gone for it any more than they did and sort of been more attacking because if you lose control of midfield against Paris Angel man then you just won't get the ball back anyway so I

sort of felt their second half performance had everything really in terms of the discipline required to chase the game in almost like a patient way, feeding off the crowd at moments.

And in the first half, maybe they were just a touch too rash in the way that they went for it and were eventually made to pay.

But

I would...

Yeah, I'd argue against sort of being critical of Emery's substitutions.

I think more often than not, he gets it right.

And it's hard not to feel sorry for him as he's sort of sunk to the floor when uh mattson's uh brilliant shot i mean that was definitely going in to the bottom corner was blocked um you know just before it could get there so um it's been a great campaign for villa i remember sort of being i think maybe on the first pod when we uh their fans were criticizing the club for the um expensive ticket prices um for the champions league games and felt like it wasn't necessarily all pulling in the same direction.

You just saw from the reaction after the game, even in defeat, that this is a club where everybody feels like they're pulling in the right direction.

And I think that will be the kind of inspiration required to finish in the top five.

You won't want to sort of drop out of the Champions League, having had some of the nights that they've

already experienced, albeit in defeat.

And to just pick up on something that Lars said, Osman Dembele, after the game, said, We thought we'd won it at 5-1.

And

there was maybe just a lax attitude from PSG that wasn't there when they defended so well at Anfield.

And actually, a couple of weeks ago, they played Dunkirk in the French Cup and they went 2-0 down very early in the game before they kind of switched back on and won 4-2.

I guess it's hard.

It's hard not for a team like that to have the sort of tendency towards complacency just because they are so much better than almost every team they play domestically.

So like the number of games a year where they genuinely get tested is it just doesn't happen that often for them.

So I guess it's a real challenge for Luis Enrique to try to instill an attitude that even if 90% of our games we don't have to be switched on for 100% of the time, we have to do it anyway so that we're ready for the actual big games.

I mean, that must be a real challenge.

Now, Enrique seems like a pretty intense guy.

So maybe he's the kind of manager who can actually do that.

But that coupled with the fact that it is a very young team,

I guess, means that sort of that possibility of complacency setting in is a flaw in this group for now.

Barry, I don't know if you have an answer to this.

I didn't.

I was just trying to work out how Villa scared PSG,

if it was more than just vibes and atmosphere and a sort of freedom because they were behind.

I thought the atmosphere seemed quite not until McGinn's goal went in.

You know, it was PSG fans who seemed to be making all the noise.

And then that was like someone flicked a switch and the Villa Faithfuls suddenly went, oh, hang on,

this could happen.

And I just think as each goal went in, PSG became increasingly paralyzed with fear.

Their midfield

just disappeared.

And I think this is a game PSG will learn a lot from.

If they had lost, God,

it could have.

What a shame, eh?

This team, team,

we talk to the point of tedium about how it's so different from the circus of the Mbappe,

Neymar,

Messi's the one, Lionel Messi

era.

Yeah, you know, it's very

easy to forget old Leo.

So if they had suffered the same sort of catastrophic defeat and capitulation as those boys, who knows how long it would take them to recover, if they would ever recover from it.

But I think this will be a huge learning experience for them.

And

they deserve credit, but

they could have lost

very easily.

Villa had had the chances to win it.

And so there are two things you take from it, Mark.

And you alluded to one, which is Villa have got a taste for this, right?

They have to get back into it just to get a consistency about it.

And on the other side of it is PSG are more fallible now than they were after the first leg.

You know, same can be said for Barcelona.

We'll get to to that in part two.

If you are Arsenal or brackets, Real Madrid, when they Raymond Tarderet tomorrow, or tonight, rather, you will look at PSG and go, you can get, you really can get at them.

You can get at them, and they've conceded a lot of goals in the Champions League.

Even when they beat City, they came from behind, and that wasn't,

as we've come to find out, wasn't a vintage City side.

Liverpool had them on the ropes in the second leg at Anfield at times, and so did Willem.

I think, though, we can sometimes, because there's a recency bias to like that second half,

PSG was a better team than Villa for three of the four halves

in total and deserved to go through, despite the fact that it got nervy for them.

I agree that I think they will learn from it in just in terms of complacency and taking their foot off the gas, which definitely happened at 5-1.

And there were even times when they started to get selfish, and Dembele was shooting when there were easier passes.

Douay made a brilliant run and he just refused to pass to him.

And we hadn't seen that really from Paris Saint-Germain too often in the last few months.

So maybe it was just a slight reality check that they might need as they go on deeper into the competition.

And they are flawed.

I mean, they're not, you know, this is not a team that people were talking about eight months ago as being the best in Europe.

So you can get at them, but if you try to get at them, they'll also hurt you going the the other way I would slightly disagree with Mark insofar as I think PSG's problem last night was that they didn't take their foot off the gas they kept surging forward they kept trying to score and they turned the match into something of a basketball game whereas I think they should have just gone look we've won this there's no need to attack just let them come at us but then that's kind of what Barcelona did against Dortmund and they almost came unstuck as well yeah I felt Barry, that they'd sort of, um, it's more just maybe in midfield that the attitude to go and press and win the ball back had kind of like there was a moment, there were times in that second half when Villa were running sort of all over them in midfield.

And I think that will have annoyed Luis Enrique, who there's a viral clip of him,

I think it's last season, telling Killin and Bappe all the things he does wrong for the team and how he needs to work much harder out of possession.

And I felt that there were moments in that second half, particularly, where they weren't working as hard out of possession as we have seen them maybe at other times.

That's sort of what I was trying to get at, anyway.

It is funny though, because I remember seeing the president, the big cheese, at Paris Saint-Germain.

I remember some quotes from him saying, you know, everything has to change.

Players have to take much more responsibility.

You know, celebrity behavior will no longer be tolerated.

Thing is, that was 2019.

So he's been, he's been like, and then they went forth and sort of signed Leonomessia and Sergio Ramos and what have you.

It's like this club has been trying for so long to change what they became.

And for a while, it was like they just couldn't help themselves.

They wanted to stop signing superstars, but they just kept like putting dessert trolleys of superstars in front of them.

And they were like, you know, that cake looks nice.

But now they have actually built a team that makes more sense, but there's still that sort of little thing.

And Luis Enrique, again, doesn't he do like Iron Man marathons and like stuff like this?

Like, I think he's a very, very intense guy.

And I guess that's the kind of dynamic at PSG.

This is this very, very intense and

firm and

no-nonsense Spanish man trying to whip this team, which just is the star, the celebrity behavior is in their DNA.

And he's probably

going a little bit crazy trying to get a hold of it.

But certainly this season is the best we've seen from them in terms of

making sense of all that.

Barry, just a word on John McGinn.

You talked about how well he played.

There's just a lovely quote from him afterwards saying, look, I've never played Barcelona or Real Madrid, but PSG are the best team I've ever played.

I'm getting old.

He's 30 years old.

I would like to play against them every week.

And it is interesting, you know, I think Lars alluded to Ollie Watkins, you know, coming up from League Two.

And, you know, John McGinn did his, you know, hard yards, St.

Mira and Hibbs, John Villa in the championship.

And it wasn't just him.

Like, Aston Villa's midfield did boss PSG for a while.

And you just think, like, credit to that guy up against this team and just putting on a performance like that.

Yeah, absolutely.

He's a very honest player.

He doesn't always play brilliantly.

He was excellent last night.

There was a time,

I think,

must have been last year, since Unai Emery came to Villa.

And I said on the pod that I thought McGinn was becoming one of the best midfielders in Europe and I got absolutely slaughtered afterwards

in the comments.

But he more than held his own last night.

He has been outstanding more or less throughout Villa's Champions League campaign, and he's one of those really honest players who absolutely maximizes the talent he's been given through

just sheer hard work and force of will and fair play to him.

Yeah, they're a point off fifth in the FA Cup semi-final against Palace next weekend.

So, you know, still.

I mean, look at where they were two and a half years ago.

They were in a relegation battle, and now they've just gone out of the Champions League quarterfinals.

They're in the FA Cup semifinal, and they're challenging for a top five place.

It's a remarkable transformation that Una Emery has

performed there.

And I think they've done a great job juggling all these tournaments this season as well, because we've seen before teams who are not used to playing in the Champions League.

We saw it with Newcastle, for instance.

The extra burden of those games is difficult to deal with.

But here we are at the business end of the season, and they don't look fatigued at all.

Like they have a pretty deep squad.

They have good options in various positions.

Una Emery has rotated a lot and they've won now.

I think it's nine in the last 10 in all competitions.

So you have a deep FA Cup run in the middle of all of that as well.

So like just a really, really great job by Una Emery and all the players.

It's a good point actually because actually before that run of nine and ten, they were.

We were like, this Premier League's been a bit flat.

And it sort of always comes back to that idea that really we shouldn't talk about the season at all until it's finished, and then we can really judge it.

It would be sort of difficult for us to justify our positions, but

you know, that's sort of one way you should potentially do it.

Anyway, that'll do for part one.

In part two, we'll do Dortmund's victory over Barcelona, but ultimate defeat.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable is the leader in the paper tablet category.

Digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

The remarkable Paper Pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office like maybe a football journalist Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist.

Exactly.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, Dortmund beat Barcelona 3-1 in Germany.

How close were they, Mark?

Like, really?

Probably not as close as the actual atmosphere and game felt

because watching the game, like, the crowd were really involved right from the first moment.

Like, they kind of believed, and the only way they were able to do it would be to get an early goal.

And so, they got the early goal, and Barcelona were definitely on the ropes at that point

but they never got to within one of taking it to extra time and you know whereas Villa kind of had that sort of last 20 minutes where they they could sort of you know one goal took it to extra time Dortmund were always a bit away from that and they had a couple of goals disallowed for offside that again make you it gets the crowd going it makes you feel nervous but you know ultimately they're quite a long way offside but because now you get play on until the ball goes in um it again i think it gives the impression of it being sort of you're more unlucky than you actually are to be offside you know it was it was quite a long way offside it was still an amazing effort from dortmund i mean they're not at the same level as barcelona so um to chase the game the way that they did um was i i thought you know really heartwarming to see but Barcelona did not play well in this game at any stage.

And

it will have, I think, probably Arsenal fans slightly nervous if they were watching either of those games because when you're so far ahead, the team just doesn't seem to play in a normal way.

And Barcelona, they defend on the halfway line, but they didn't really commit to kind of the press and everything that you need to do to go with that.

And it was that halfway house performance that just,

you know, it was a sort of nothing show from them, really.

But, you know, the one time it felt like they were losing control of it properly at 2-0 in the second half, that's actually when they went and scored their goal, albeit from an own goal.

So they were in control enough, I think, but it wasn't a good performance from them.

I mean, that own goal, Lars, it is such a pivotal moment, isn't it?

Because you just, you know, you could see what it meant to the Barcelona players.

They were like, oh, thank God for that.

But it's Benzabani, right?

He does so well to get that on target.

Like, it's quite an amazing.

Like, it wasn't like, oh, you know, when, you know, when a ball comes in and they go, look, the defender has to hit that because otherwise the centre forward's following up.

It wasn't that.

It was, how has he got that in?

Zucani canny finisher benzabini i remember him actually being played through down the other end earlier in the season then like chipping the goalkeeper in a way that was like hang on you're a defender what are you doing uh no i

i i wonder if this was like just for barcelona i don't think this i mean we talked about psg getting

still attacking too much when they didn't need to i feel like the way that barcelona play under flick they're completely unsuited to riding a lead it's it's just not something that they're set up to do at all they play with this crazy high line they have all these exciting young attackers that keep going forward.

And then you put them in the situation where it would be foolish to do that.

And you end up with a really weird sort of game where they probably not like.

And Dortmund, Dortmund are baffling, really, because this season, the league season, that's been a mess.

I think they're eighth in the Bundesliga.

They've had a change of manager.

They look like.

I mean, there have been so many, like, just really poor performances domestically.

But as we saw last season, wasn't it, when they got to the final, like, they are able to pull it together and put in performances on these big nights.

It's just a real shame the first leg was

was that many goals so it became almost insurmountable.

So because, yeah,

being a Dortmund fan must be one of the most like be one of the least pleasant clubs to follow in the sense, because you see enough that you believe this team should be good.

It's just they're very often not.

I mean, I can think of a lot of other clubs that are harder to follow than Borisia Dortmund, but I take your point.

And actually, it's worth mentioning, you know,

we didn't touch on it, but that Nuno Mendez last-minute goal in Paris makes such a difference to that whole second leg, doesn't it?

And the same here, right?

Barcelona smashed Dortmund.

There was nothing they could do.

We should mention Garrassi, Barry, because we and I think everyone else gave him a pasting after the first leg where he had not a great game of football.

And he did at least salvage some pride last night.

He certainly did.

Uh, scored a hat-trick.

I mean,

following his shocking performance in the first leg, I commend his bravery to try a pinenka

with the penalty or successfully pull off a penenka.

Big kahunas there

from Kurasi.

His second goal, I thought Ben Zabain did superbly to head the corner back across the face of goal and he nodded home from a couple of inches out.

And

what was the third one?

Third was a bars.

The player just passed it to him.

Ah, yes, a poor clearance straight to his feet and he rifled rifled at home.

So he more than did his job.

I thought Adiyami played well here as well.

He had a couple of reasonable chances that on another night he might have scored.

And

Dortmund also had one of their players had a header from a Fabian Gross free kick.

Free header straight at the keeper.

So they also had chances to score more goals.

Didn't take them.

But as Marcus said, Barcelona were very poor.

I don't know if it was complacency, just a collective bad day at the office, but last week we were talking about Rafina and Lamin Yamal as potential Ballon d'Or winners.

They didn't play like potential Ballon d'Or winners last night.

I mean, it is interesting, isn't it?

And it's interesting because on Monday we were talking about the Premier League not being that good this year, but actually the Champions League's really delivered, Mark.

And even with these games...

like that you thought were over you know we sort of went into last night thinking okay you know there's not a lot on tonight like these teams psg and Barcelona have proved that they're fallible.

I don't know how good Barcelona are, Mark.

And I don't know, like, like, like Baz said, after the first leg, we were saying they could be favourites for this.

I don't know what we're saying now.

What am I meant to think?

Barcelona have had a hectic season themselves.

They're in a tight title race, and one that they're pulling clear in.

They're in the final of the Spanish Cup, and now they're through to the semifinals of the Champions League.

So they are a good side.

I think Flick probably took liberties

and probably understandably, but rest in Pedri, somebody that can really control the game for you in midfield and kind of just make things work probably better than most other players in Europe.

I understand why he did that because the game did look over.

I see from the last couple of years, I was always anti-the away goal rule.

So maybe this is like just confirmation bias.

But last night felt like a good advert for binning off the away goal rule because that did allow

Aston Villa to keep pushing.

And had that been sort of a few years ago, it would have been just a task that would have been impossible.

And when Barcelona scored their goal, the atmosphere would have just gone completely out of that Dortmund game.

But actually,

they stayed with it, the crowd.

Now, you could argue maybe the first legs would have played out differently because teams are trying to chase away goals.

But I always felt it was slightly just unfair, really, and didn't give a true reflection of sort of what football is.

It made it feel more unnatural to

try to score these away goals.

So I think that that's definitely helped.

But the level of Champions League football is just so high.

And when you get to the quarterfinals, semi-finals,

it's hard to think of.

Oh,

I was going to say it's hard to think of bad games, but you can't remember bad games, can you?

So I'm sure there have been some, but the level of football is just fantastic.

And when you've got the quality, you know, Dortmund are struggling in the Bundesliga, but even at the weekend, they've drawn 2-2 against Bayern Munich.

They've got quality players.

And if they play well,

they're capable of beating anyone.

And I think that's what happens when you get to sort of last eight of the Champions League.

They can all beat each other.

I'm sort of conflicted about this because I think it is one of the biggest problems with modern club football and one I don't know if there's a solution to, which is that you have the sort of top eight in the Premier League plus a handful of clubs around Europe who can spend so much more money than everyone else.

It's become very stratified.

Is that the phrase?

I think that's deeply unhealthy for the sport in a number of ways.

But the flip side is the last couple of rounds of the Champions League are brilliant.

When these teams actually come up against each other, it's very, very good.

And

that is the upside of that sort of problematic development.

Gita, friend of the pod, says, is it just in our household that we despise that Barca playing white shorts?

Yeah, it's totally unacceptable.

And it just

does not look right.

Get your normal shorts back on.

Okay, then we've got Real Madrid Arsenal.

It's funny, isn't it, Baz?

Like at full-time in that game, you're like, Arsenal are through, and as every minute has gone by, I don't know.

I just start to think, oh, maybe are they?

You know, and then you know, Jude Bellingham's in a press conference going, Yeah, I mean, it's obviously on, and that just shows how good we are.

They haven't played, like, they played and they got hammered, and yet I feel like they're more confident than Arsenal going into this game.

Yeah, Bellingham said everyone thinks it's nailed on that we'll come back and win.

After the

Arsenal 3-0 win last week I was adamant this is done and I keep thinking about

Jonathan Wilson has said a few times on this podcast that any hurdle that's put in front of Arsenal they manage to trip over it and I keep thinking about that comment and no they can't they can't mess this up but I didn't give Villa a hope in hell last night I didn't give Dortmund a hope in hell.

They both

gave their opponents plenty to think about.

I think if Real Madrid are to get back in this game,

Fedi Valverde played right back last week.

I think he has to play in midfield.

So that would mean Luis Vasquez playing right back.

He's not as good as Valverde, but needs must.

And

I suppose you need a performance from Killin Mbappe, who was Real Madrid one.

after all the shenanigans that surrounded his move and after his act of thuggery at the weekend, which he only got a one-game ban for, interestingly.

One game ban for that, Crikey.

What you have to do is get a two-game ban.

You have to kill somebody.

The option was open for him to get a three-game ban, and he could have got more.

But yeah, he only got one.

So that doesn't really add grist to the mill of

the

anti-Madrid referee conspiracy theory.

Without wanting to use a cliche here, Mark, first goal is crucial, isn't it, Clive?

1-0 at half-time.

That's all if you just be leading at half-time, then you've got 45 minutes to score two goals.

That doesn't feel like it's out of the equation, does it?

You know, if you get one sort of, you know, in the next 30 minutes, you've got 10-15 minutes to sort of have a go at them.

I think that's how Madrid will play it.

I don't think that they'll panic by the situation.

They have come back from these moments before.

And

like, yeah, just be winning at half-time I think that would be sort of Ancelotti's sort of message you haven't got to go crazy here

and if Arsenal can beat Real Madrid 3-0 then Real Madrid can beat Arsenal 3-0 that's how they'll be sort of thinking about it I

thought Arteta had gave a good press conference I sort of always I tend to think it's overrated kind of you know what you're saying pre-game but he didn't hide from the fact that Real Madrid have this record and

you know and I do believe some managers would pretend that it's not there.

And, you know, he

sort of admitted to the fact that Madrid are a good side and they're capable of doing it.

Let's remember, though, that Aston Villa and Dortmund did fall short, and it can be sort of this heroic defeat kind of is how I think the game will go.

I can see it getting nervous at times for Arsenal, but that Madrid defence, I think, will concede to Arsenal, and like one goal should be enough to go through, I think.

Yeah, Lars, if you're Arsenal, how do you...

Because we've looked at how PSG and Barcelona approached having a lead.

How do Arsenal approach this?

Well, they have to go forward, and they should take comfort in the thing Mark Langdon just said about how Real Madrid are not all themselves in the defensive part of the team.

And you just kind of...

You can't sit back and wait for them to come at you, I think,

because they will.

And they have players who are very good on the ball.

What Real Madrid have, which is a challenge for them, is that they've basically inherited Paris Sanchema's problem in terms of having being a little bit superstar heavy.

Killian Limbapp and Venicius Jr.

are incredible footballers and they're two of the best players in the world, possibly the two best players in the world, I think, if you ask people.

But neither of them do a heck of a lot without the ball, right?

So you see, so you have the thing

when Real Madrid don't have possession, they're at least one, possibly two men down compared to more balanced teams.

This is a big game for those two, actually, because nobody doubts that they can do incredible things in terms of dribbling people and running and shooting and all that.

But they are going to have to put a shift in off the ball to win it back.

Because Arsenal, I guess, they'll want to take this.

If you give Arsenal an opportunity to pass the ball around, take this thing out of it.

Arsenal have got the best defensive record in the Premier League this season.

Like, it's not been a great season for Arsenal, but defensively, they're still brilliant.

And they're El Madrid, if they're going to really...

go at them, you're going to need those two to actually run off the ball a bit.

I reckon Angelotti, I wonder if he's had this conversation.

I wonder if you sat down with him and said, guys, guys, I know that you don't like chasing the ball too much.

This is not your vibe.

It's not something, but a couple of games a year, you're going to have to do it.

And this is certainly one of those games.

I'll be watching them too very, very closely here.

Yeah.

Well, look, interesting preview for those who listened to this before that game and interesting to see if any of it made sense to those of you listening after that game.

We'll obviously cover that and into Bayern in

tomorrow's pods.

Lars, we've had a lot of people asking us about Bodo Glimpt, who beat Lazio 2-0 in the home leg of the Europa League quarter-final.

Second leg is on Thursday.

Are they dark horses for the whole thing?

Were you surprised by that victory, or are they very good at home, not so good away?

I definitely think...

Aside from

the aforementioned sort of top eight in the Premier League and the biggest clubs around Europe, I think they can beat pretty much anyone else at home, especially like in the winter half of the year when it's cold and unpleasant up there.

Like the pitch, I mean, they cleared it for the game, obviously, but like on the morning of the game, it was full of snow.

Like it was snowed in.

I think the lads from Lazio did not enjoy their visit to the Arctic Circle.

And they are a remarkable story.

They're one of very, very few like genuine sort of feel-good stories in modern sort of European club football because they were actually not that many years ago.

They were in the second tier in Norway.

And they've kind of worked their way up, not through massive cash injections from dubious sources, but by having a very clear footballing idea through signing players.

And they have increasingly, as they've been successful in Europe and as they've made some big sales, they do have some money by Norwegian contexts.

But they still

don't sign like big names, relatively speaking, in Scandinavia.

They look out and they go out and they find players who suit their philosophy on the pitch, who suit the mentality they want to have off the pitch.

And it's a very small place, Bodo.

I think it's a place where players can just completely focus on what they're doing.

You can't really get lost in the nightlife at Boda.

Like if you're a player for the team and you go out the entire time.

It doesn't really work.

If you want to do the Sir Alex Ferguson thing and roam around the bars trying to find your players in Boda, that would be a very quick trip.

Are we saying Ben Mee will not be signed up for Boda

anytime soon?

But yeah, it's a wonderful story, and they're absolutely remarkable.

I'm delighted that they've beaten, taken another big European scalp.

And yet you're right in saying it's going to be harder for them in the away league, but I absolutely think they're capable of doing it.

All right, then.

That'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin with Bournemouth beating Fulham in the Premier League.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

I say Bournemouth beat Fulham 1-0.

Antoine Semenio scoring after 53 seconds.

It was a nice finish.

I'm an abject defending from Fulham, who just sort of hadn't really started the game.

Bournemouth's first win in the Premier League since the 15th of February.

Moves them up to eighth, six points behind Villa in seventh.

Bournemouth owner Bill Foley is scheduled to fly to England this week with the club intending to open formal talks with boss Ando Andoni Ariola over a new contract amid interest from Spurs.

Quite a Spurs-y pod we have.

I mean, I mean that in terms of people who like Spurs, not a pod that will just

give you pain and ultimately

collapse spectacularly to our stand.

We were on track for a good pod and then something went terribly wrong.

That could still happen, Max.

There's still time for this.

Anyway, the question is,

obviously, Iriola has been brilliant for Bournemouth.

They would love to keep him.

Spurs have Frankfurt on Thursday.

They were good in the home leg, but didn't win.

Mark, I'll go to you first as a season ticket holder.

Who would you rather?

Ange, Iriola, Marco Silva, or Thomas Frank?

Of them four, four, Irayola.

I've given up on managers.

I don't, you know,

there's been Pochitina, you know, Conte and Mourinho and Nuno.

I've given up on sort of any of them making that much difference, really.

I think Ireola's had a

fantastic season with Bournemouth.

I would question his judgment if he jumped shipped to Spurs.

So, you know, if he's got anything about him, I think he'll wait for something that's slightly better.

Bournemouth are a very well-run club.

I can see why he might want to stay there one more year and see if there are any other opportunities that become available.

I'm thinking maybe Chelsea, for instance, Maresca feels like he's under a slight bit of pressure now.

And

I also think it's really unfair that we're

talking about these.

these managers in that way really because Bournemouth,

they're their own team, they're playing well and as as soon as

things start to go well, it's like, oh, where's the left back going?

Where's the centre-back going?

The manager's got to.

But, I mean,

apart from Real Madrid, that's just the pecking order of football.

We're all in it somewhere, aren't we?

I mean, of those four max, Ireola would be the one, just because

I can just feel the negative vibes

around the place if Marco Silva or Thomas Frank get it.

Now, that's not necessarily judgment on either of them two.

You know, both done very well in the Premier League.

But

sort of speaking to my fellow Tottenham fans, there's not many that are going, oh, I'd love to see Marco Silver here, or please give us Thomas Frank.

Like,

there's not that.

And nobody's saying

stick with Ange either.

So of those four, it would be Iriola.

But, yeah,

I've sort of given up.

I love that you can't have any respect for any manager who's stupid enough to do that.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

That's 202, isn't it?

If they do come, you've got to question their judgment.

So anyone who does come isn't the right person.

Yes, Lars.

Can I just say, those friends of Mark Langdon who reckon Tottenham are too good for Marco Silva, do they want a big lame like Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte?

Is this kind of what we're looking at here?

Because I feel like we've been down this road.

I also like, as much as I admire

Mark Langdon on every level, I have to say, watching Tottenham this season and then remembering where Tottenham were ten years ago, my conclusion is not that managers don't matter

I've had a very very different feeling I have to say

given that

if I was on Donnie Are Iola I would hang back a bit because yeah Tottenham but also I'm interested to see what happens at Man United this summer and I'm interested to see what happens at Chelsea this summer I think there are a couple of slightly more lucrative jobs that might come up for him if he just kind of hang tight.

And actually, eighth quite possibly will get them into the Conference League Bournemouth if both Newcastle and the winners of the FA Cup finish inside the top seven.

So what is it?

Villa, Palace, Forest and City.

So that's only if Palace won the FA Cup.

It would mean eighth didn't get Europe.

So Bournemouth in a good position to get Conference League football.

Newcastle at home to Crystal Palace tonight.

Eddie Howe will miss at least two more games as he recovers from pneumonia.

He issued a statement on the club's website.

Huge thank you to everyone connected with Newcastle United and the wider football community for your messages and warm wishes.

They've meant a lot to me and my family.

I also want to pay tribute to our incredible NHS and the hospital staff who've treated me.

I'm immensely grateful for the specialist care I'm receiving.

And after a period of recovery, I look forward to being back as soon as possible.

A correction from the Premier League from Monday, where Khan says, Mo Sala's corner for Virgil Van Dyke's winning header was even more impressive than Max suggested on Football Weekly, given that Mo Sala doesn't take corners and was on the bench at the time, having been subbed up with 10 minutes to go.

I don't know where I got that from.

Honestly, I watched it, I was taking notes.

I'm tired.

It's okay.

Uh, the championship hull got a late equaliser against Coventry on Monday night.

Coventry sixth on 63 points, three points clear of West Bron, Middlesbrough, and Millwall all on 60.

Uh, in league two last night, Salford won, Doncaster won.

Donnie moved level on points with Walsall in third, four games to go, four points between first and fourth.

Mark, you wanted to talk about the League Two title race?

Yeah, I do because it feels like the league that nobody wants to win.

Paul Vower now, the team that are on a good run.

Bradford, as you discussed

on the pod on Monday,

you know, lost 5-4 in dramatic circumstances.

Walsaw barely won since Christmas.

Doncaster now just feels like they're drawing every single game at the moment.

So, yeah, it's sort of.

Sorry, I think last time I looked at the League Two table, Walsall were about 25 points clear at the top.

I don't think they've won since then, Barry.

Since you last

they lost their sort of star striker, it was on loan in January, and such was their buffer that they they are still in the top three.

I was watching this Salford v.

Doncaster game.

I had three games on the go last night and

it started off

as the second commentary game but because of events elsewhere I had to switch Dave Farrer off as good as he is as a commentator and just sort of keep an eye on it.

But a result that did little for either team.

Salford were pushing to try to get into the top seven.

They wanted the win.

Doncaster needed the win.

They've got a really hard schedule for their remaining games, but neither were able to.

So, yeah, Walsall might end up sort of getting automatic promotion,

even if they don't win another game between now and the end of the season.

Although that's pushing it a bit.

I looked this up very briefly now.

Walsall have won two in the last 17, and they're still in the automatic promotion.

I mean, we talk about Liverpool limping across the line in the Premier League.

I mean, this is some next-level limping.

That's it.

We should really, we should just be doing League Two weekly from now on.

As we all expected, Luca Modric has taken part ownership of Swansea City.

Him, Leon Britton, and Joe Allen in a triangle.

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Swansea City is delighted to announce that Ballon Dorwin and Luca Modric has joined the club as an investor and co-owner.

Luca's investment in the club is an endorsement of the club's ambition and vision.

He'll play a key role in helping the club garner global attention and progress both on and off the pitch.

Luca Modric said in a statement definitely written by him and not

somebody else.

Swansea has a strong identity, an incredible fan base and the ambition to compete at the highest level.

Playing at the highest level, I believe I can provide my experience to the club.

My goal is to support the club's growth in a positive way and to help build an exciting future.

I mean it is great, Barry, that Luca Modric is doing that.

The interesting thing I was thinking was Obviously, this didn't used to happen because players just weren't so rich.

But like, now they've just got so much money that like they all all just think, well, that's you know, it's just sort of something to do.

But the randomness of Luca Modric to Swansea, it's like you're on the one show when they pick out like random celebrity and then you know it's bird watching with Phil Tufnall.

This is like they just put a club and a player in a bag and draw them out.

Well, it's not widely known, Max, but I had to write about this yesterday.

I was doing my research.

As a child growing up in a small Croatian village, Luka Modric slept under a Cyril the Swan duvet and had

posters of Andy Legg and John Corfort

plastered all over his bedroom wall.

He's of a similar age to Lee Trundle, but I'm sure he's a big Trundle fan as well.

It's just bizarre.

We don't know how much he's invested.

We don't know why he's invested.

I think we probably missed a trick in not getting an Ellis James voice note to get his thoughts on the matter.

But

yeah,

maybe it's Swansea just waving two fingers in the direction of Wrexham.

So welcome to Swansea, Luca.

Let's get the documentary made.

Yeah.

It's weird.

Weird in a good way, an interesting way.

Thanks to not the top 20, our mates,

for asking on their Monday pod when Modric last played at Swansea.

I know.

It's New Year's Eve.

There you go, Barry.

Go on.

New Year's Eve, 2011.

One all draw.

Yeah.

And he didn't score.

That's the only time he played at Swansea.

Interesting, but it made such an impression, didn't it?

Good luck to Luca.

Maybe we'll ask Ellis for a voice note tomorrow of him just sort of laughing and being baffled.

Sean Bon Jovi,

son of John, I presume, says, what's Mark having for Easter dinner?

Here we go.

Classic Sunday roast.

Have you thought about it?

I haven't given it that much thought.

I mean, usually,

yes, I mean, it's lamb, isn't it, on Easter Sunday?

I mean, I'll be disappointed.

I must admit, Mrs.

Langdon will be

more involved than me in kind of deciding what it is that is put up on Easter Sunday.

But I'll be massively disappointed if it's, yeah, not a leg of lamb.

Oh, I see how 1970s you just turn up and go, what's for dinner?

And unless Mrs.

Langdon has

provided enough meat, you throw it out.

If it's not roast a leg of lamb, you just hurl it out of the window and go

make it again.

Having been to a pub owned by a sort of League One footballer, which is kind of the way it used to be before they started buying for the products.

Are you a mint sauce man, Mark?

Oh, yes, yeah.

Yeah,

I wouldn't live without it, actually.

I sometimes just stick it on random things

any old Sunday dinner sometimes.

I think it, yeah,

maybe not pizza, but so yeah, if there's a if there's a bit of meat on the plate, it wouldn't be that unusual for a bit of mint sauce to just go flying on.

That sounds like the least needed if I've ever heard in

the English language.

But anyway, Simon says, Hallowax, Barry and friends, first time writer, long time listener from Denmark.

I'm going to marry the love of my life in June in a vineyard in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic.

Yes, apparently they make wine there.

I hope that Barry would do the honor of blessing our marriage on your fine podcast.

My future wife has a minor interest in football, but doesn't listen to the podcast yet.

However, she often hears me laughing and smiling when I'm listening to you guys, when I'm either vacuuming or doing the laundry.

She doesn't know that I'm asking for Barry's blessing, and she probably won't appreciate it as much as me, but I know she would ask everyone at the Guardian Football Weekly to pronounce the name of her countryman correctly.

Thomas Sochek, last name is pronounced Sochek, an easy way of remembering it.

Apparently, they don't use the U sound when pronouncing his surname.

Hoping you will use this in future pods, and if not, fair enough, I guess.

Oh, yeah, we can do Thomas Sochek from now on.

P.S.

I asked my wife, my future wife, if I could ask a secret celebrity guest to our wedding.

And I have approval from her side if my secret guest will sing a song during the ceremony.

I hereby send a formal invitation to Mr.

Glendenning and the promise of above-average wine if he cares to make the journey.

Many thanks for a lovely podcast.

Keep up the good work.

Best regards.

Simon Molgard.

So there we are, Barry.

Do you want to go to Simon's wedding with the love of his life?

What song will you sing?

Well, my

most recent singing performance was at karaoke when I did the whole of the moon by the Water Boys and Sonnet by The Verve.

Oh, God.

So I could do either of them.

I also do a fairly decent fairy tale of New York, but that's more of a festive number and I'd need female accompaniment

for the cursedy bits.

I like that Simon,

he will be a good husband insofar as he does the ironing and he does the vacuuming, but not a good husband insofar as he's asked for his blessing or our blessing, mentioned his wife on numerous occasions, but not furnished us with her name.

So that's a bit weird.

I already have a...

a wedding to attend this summer, so I don't think I'll be able to make theirs.

But he didn't have to promise above average wine.

I mean, if I was free, just wine, wine any any one kiss would do that's yeah below average would do yeah i like one wedding a year for barry that's the good way to say it's it's one i'm going to this one and that's it that'll do me for weddings every year on the subject of continental weddings i've also been to one in bordeaux in france which i'd forgotten about and uh if the person whose wedding it was heard that earlier i do apologize i had a great time i've also heard barry sing Sam Fox's greatest hit, which I can't remember the title, but he had a good go at that.

Quite recently.

Oh, yeah, what?

Yes, before a pod started.

Yes, Barry sang.

He did a he did.

He sang Touch Me by Samantha Fox.

That's how we get it.

Touch Me brackets.

I want to feel your body.

That's true.

And to be clear, I didn't just sing it apropos, nothing.

Someone was wondering what her hit was, and I was able to remember.

It does give the impression why were we talking about Samantha Fox before the the call before the show began like what

what's the way of explaining that I don't think we were being laddy lad lads about it she did crop up in conversation I can't remember why yeah, yeah, no, you're probably right.

I just remember going to a wedding in Paris where for my friend JB and

When the sort of you know the wine at the tables would like it would just the waiters wouldn't have poured the wine for a second and the French people would all just carry on chatting and the English people would just start staring around the room, going, What is going on?

Why is there no wine in this glass?

Just because we are the less cultured of the nations.

But anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

We'll be back tomorrow.

This is The Guardian.