Liverpool’s remarkable night in Paris and Bayern buoyant: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, a comfortable 1-0 win for Liverpool in Paris.

Apart from PSG dominating from start to finish or from start to the 88th minute, Alison Becker was sensational for the entirety before getting it launched right at the end.

Darwin Nunes playing in Harvey Elliott, who scored with his first touch.

After Allison's heroics, you feel like Donna Rummer could have done better with the one thing he had to do all night.

Elsewhere, Harry Kane shines for Bayon, who beat Leverkus in 3-0.

Barca win at Benfica, despite having 10 men from the 22nd minute, and in to overcome the low countries' curse with victory in Rotterdam against Fire Nord.

Also, today at Premier League preview, I've played five aside with the latest Pushkiss Award nominee and the pods pitch to play the halftime show in the 2026 World Cup final.

All that plus your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning.

Hello.

Hello, Max.

Welcome, Lars Ivertson.

Hello, Max.

And from the racing post, Mark Langdon.

Hi, Max.

Jim and Ben ask on tonight's form, would Alison have saved Barry's header?

Yes, PSG mill, Liverpool won, 27 shots to two in PSG's favour, 72% possession to 28, and yet PSG's run of 22 22 games unbeaten in all competitions, which was the most of any of the top divisions in Europe, is over.

And Barry, it's rare that we actually talk about football before the pod starts.

But, like, as you came on the call, you were like, what an amazing game this was.

And it was.

Yeah, this is well, one of the reasons why we love football so much, because

by every available metric and statistic and the evidence of our own eyes, PSG should have won that game comfortably.

They should have been out of sight by half-time.

But

because

Allison had what was by his own account the game of his career so far,

they lost

one of the biggest robberies you're ever likely to see.

Liverpool had absolutely no business winning that game, but somehow they did.

Allison made nine saves, some of them just outstanding, a couple from Mooseman Dembele couple from Faris Keela one from Dazira Dewey Xiao Neves fired a fairly straightforward chance over the bar Bradley Barcola had a shot blocked on the well not on the line but it was going in

and

I can't really say that PSG put a foot wrong but they still lost this football match and

Liverpool have Alison to thank for that their big, luminous yellow highlighter pen, just performing absolute heroics in goal.

It was a brilliant spectacle.

And I don't know how I'd feel if I was a PSG player waking up this morning.

They can take a lot from this performance, but they're unlikely to play that well again at Anfield.

And Liverpool are extremely unlikely to play that badly again at Anfield.

Because apart from Allison,

everyone was pretty dreadful.

Well, apart from the subs.

I think if I was a PSG player this morning, I'd be very worried that when I go to like the fridge to get my orange juice, Allison would just appear and slap it out of my hands for no reason.

Pursued by Ellison.

Whatever you do, there he is.

Now, the game really reminded me of the saying, one of my favorite sayings is that football is like chess with dice.

And it's like PSG were

just really making all the right moves at all times here.

It's possibly my favorite ever PSG performance.

I don't think I've ever watched PSG play and had such a strong sense of this is actually a really good team.

This is not a sort of complete nonsense machine that they used to be.

This is a really good team now, and they did nothing wrong.

It's just when it came to finishing, they kept rolling ones and

Allison kept rolling sixes.

And, you know, having a good goalkeeper, definitely part of the sport.

But it was ludicrous the way it went down.

It really was.

Yeah.

And Mark, I mean, quite often when a keeper makes loads of saves, most of them are kind of saves you should make.

And I think most of the Allison ones you should, but there are two or three.

Like, I think, was it Carl Scheller down to his near post, the due way one?

Like, there were enough that this was these were brilliant saves.

Yeah, those two were

spectacular.

There was also the one-on-one.

Allison is renowned for being

the best in the world at saving one-on-ones, and he was there again.

I hear what you're saying there, Max, about him kind of saving kind of ones that you would still still expect him to save amongst that high tally.

I felt with Liverpool's goal that there was a possibility that Donald Ruma should have saved that.

I think that Allison, in the form that he was in, would have stopped that because it wasn't an impossible save to make.

But even his work with when he was saving the shots, he was palming them like so far wider the goal.

It was sort of the perfect performance, really, from a goalkeeper.

I wonder if the fact that he doesn't take goal kicks now, he's sort of saving all his energy for,

stopping it.

And Van Dijk's on the goal kicks.

But in terms of the Liverpool performance, apart from the subs, they were all over the place, really, just couldn't win their individual duels collectively, were pulled apart by the fluidity of PSG, and yet they've come up with a win.

I mean, if they lost by sort of two goals, they probably would have felt like they'd done okay, really, to get out of it with a fighting chance.

And instead, they've now got PSG where they want them and I just I liked PSG's performance like like Lars was saying but just haven't seen that enough away from home even in this year's sort of league phase you know there was nothing to look um to enjoy about the performance at Arsenal or by Munich so I think it's a tough ask for them to even perform to sort of 75% of that field PSG were quite unlucky as well because

I mean the Faroe Skela goal which was a lovely strike while correctly a judge should have been offside.

It was just millimeters,

like millimeters.

And we have had reader correspondence saying that by the new Wenger law, that would have been on side.

So I don't think anyone, I haven't seen anyone who thinks Ibrahima Kanate was incredibly lucky to stay on the pitch for that foul.

Interesting.

I was listening to.

Five Live talking about it, and I can't remember who was there.

I think they all were saying, oh, there's not enough.

I was thinking about you and your shove agenda.

There wasn't enough in it for VAR to overturn it.

And I was like, He's just shoved the guy.

Like, the guy's running, and he's just pushed him in the back.

I don't, the only thing I heard was when I looked through the comments, someone said, Oh, he was offside.

And I haven't seen it to know if he was offside to all so or not.

Um, but yeah, I think Canate there, Lars, is incredibly lucky.

Yeah, second night in a row, uh, an English club should have had a player sent off and did not have a player sent off.

So, that's uh, yeah, that's that's just how it goes.

Um, I've

seen the suggestion that

we want a low bar and we want a light touch by VAR.

We only want them to get involved for howlers, but I'm inclined to think that was a howler.

Like, he barged him over from behind, not trying to play the ball, having no chance of playing the ball.

Sad times ahead for attackers if this is supposed to be legal.

You know, anytime a guy is through, you can just as an attacker can just run into him and like clearly this shouldn't be legal and shouldn't be part of the game.

And uh, yeah, a big mistake.

And then after Allison's heroics, he also basically set up the guy.

I mean, okay, Darwin Nunez, we'll give him some credit.

He did, but like, that goal was just hilarious.

You're all sitting there going, this is ridiculous.

It's like Barry said at the top, I wrote it here.

It's sort of why football is the best game.

Because in any other sport, team sport, kind of the domination would just mean goals or points or whatever for PSU.

But the fact that it's hard to score a goal means that this can happen.

And it was proper getting it launched.

Yeah,

it was.

And I think actually Nunez did make a difference

when he came on because Liverpool had been getting it launched in the first half because I think they quickly realised that playing through PSG was difficult with the energy that PSG

was sort of pressing them in midfield.

So they were going long, going long to Jotter against Marquinhos.

There's only going to be one winner in that particular battle.

When Nunez came on, he did manage to sort of hold the ball up and make the most of kind of him.

It was a Van Dijk long ball and Alison won.

And something that we just haven't seen enough of Nunez is that composure to actually make the right decision.

I know it looks easy because RV Elliott's in loads of space, but I think there have been occasions in Nunez's career at Liverpool when he still would have shot there or overhit the pass or done something else ridiculously stupid.

But he didn't.

He kind of kept his composure.

It was poor play from Mendez, who'd had such a great game against Salah for 80-odd minutes.

He'd He'd completely sort of won that battle.

And I just wonder if he dozed off and just thought, oh, you know, what a great game I've had.

And then sort of Harvey Elliott just sort of strolls past him.

So

yeah,

it does go to show that Liverpool have got a lot of variety in attack.

They didn't play well, but they have a lot of different players that have got different skill sets within their forward line.

And on any given occasion, one of them can do something.

And more often than not, it's more than one of them.

But at least one of them can do something.

Nobody else in that Liverpool attack could probably have done the way that sort of Nunez battled for that ball in the first place.

At risk of overthinking something that probably was just a hoof, a hopeful hoof up against an energetic physical substitute who was up against the defense that's expended a lot of energy throughout the game.

It's probably that simple.

But I really think the hoof is coming back.

I think that getting it launched is going to be a thing.

Because so much of football, and this was a great example so much of football has become about one team trying to play out the other team trying to press them and setting pressing traps and trying to get good counter pressing situations and turnovers and stuff and the reason i think the main reason psg dominated this game so much was that they were great at just stopping liverpool from playing out the way they usually do they had so much energy they ran they seemed to know where the passing lanes were and just block it off i absolutely think

going okay we're not able to get go through these guys we're gonna go over them is gonna be a much more sort of accepted and legitimate tactic than it seems to have been for the last 10 years.

Having a big target man is going to be the sort of luxury accessory that every big club has to have

in their locker somehow.

I believe this very passionately.

I mean, John Bruin aside, I'm probably the most excited if this comes true of all people in the world.

I want to like, me, we got, um, we were sort of joking when we were saying that Liverpool, you know, this constant theme, you know, have they played anyone good?

Have they played anyone good?

But the fact that they've been so good in the Premier League means that they haven't, it doesn't appear that they've been pushed that often.

You know, the Premier League's become the Farmers League.

And I don't, you know, and I don't watch enough Liga to know exactly how easy PSG are finding things this season.

But I'm just trying to work out why Liverpool didn't turn up yesterday.

And are they knackered because the Premier League is harder?

Did they just have an off day?

Are PSG just that good and that well coached by Luis Enrique?

I don't know what you think, Mark.

I felt that on the night PSG were that good and that Liverpool just struggled with them.

I think it's hard to reach those levels sort of every week

for any team.

Tactically, Liverpool got pulled apart.

McAllister and Gravenberg, who have done so well, I think, this season.

And we saw it the other week against Man City.

They were so steady in that midfield.

They were too wide.

PSG just made the pitch probably as big as any team could possibly do.

You know, Kimi, uh more than mendez were um you know causing problems down the flanks but then they had like three wingers essentially on the pitch that were all popping up everywhere and i'm not sure that robertson and alexander arnold like were comfortable like should they go inside should they be outside um they weren't blocking the kind of the passing lanes um that psg had done so well even van dijk and kanate were then not getting the protection because the midfield was too far apart i did think in the second half that they changed slightly and went to like a look like 4-2-3-1 and Louis Diaz was almost playing as a left back at times and Liverpool.

What I liked about their performance was that they accepted that they were kind of second best.

They didn't have this arrogance of, oh, you know, we're just going to keep trying to do, play our way.

They actually sort of accepted their kind of role within the game and just thought, we just need to get out of here with the tie still in balance.

And sometimes you do see teams just, I think, overcommit try to, because they're a big team, they feel like they've got to play in this sort of exuberant way.

Whereas Liverpool, I think, quickly realised it was such a hard game.

They just needed to make sure they were still in the tie.

And for a little bit of luck, a brilliant goalkeeping, they're more than that.

We've had a few questions on the subject of Baz.

Are these is PSG team likable?

Are we allowed to like them?

Have we been sport washed?

I mean, I found myself warming to them and have done this this season.

No, I have too.

And after the last knockout round,

I said I fancied them to win the tournament.

And someone said, oh, but they're playing Liverpool.

And I hadn't realised that.

And it was sort of like, yeah, maybe.

But I mean, they should have beat Hammered Liverpool last night.

There's every chance they'll go out now.

But yeah, I like watching them.

I like watching them play.

It is a big problem because

it's a very spiritually spiritually ugly project,

in my opinion.

It's a nation state that's come in and bought a football club and put so much money into it that the domestic competition is now meaningless.

It's just like an ugly thing that I think doesn't add anything to the sport.

It just detracts.

And

it's not something I'm a fan of.

And it was almost more comfortable, narrative-wise, when they were also a ridiculous team.

Like when

they were the Kendall Roy's birthday of football clubs yeah when they were just everything was nonsense

over the top over over I think you can Lars you you can now say Mark Zuckerberg's 40th birthday that also works yeah

but but that's sort of

for people like ourselves who tried to stay on the high horse about certain moral issues in football that was very comfortable because you could just make fun of them and move on whereas now I feel like they're a team with much more footballing merit that that is hard to completely dismiss and uh because they're they're doing it I mean much like Man City have done on the pitch, they've done it in the right way, they're leaning on the academy, they're playing interesting football, they're not just throwing money at superstars.

We got a tweet from Elias Mischa, who I believe plays in the Norwegian third tier, so big name listener there, who pointed out that,

yeah, have we ever seen a team with more pace than this PSG side?

Every player seems to be a goddamn sprinter.

I think this is really good observation, like they're so fast all across the pitch, they were they were they were zooming around, and it just felt like a really sort of exciting, modern type of football.

And the one sort of sexy superstar, maybe they have, you could say, is Clara Skelia, but he's also a really humble and hard-working guy.

So

they've quietly turned into a really likable team.

And I feel very troubled about that.

I don't know how to address that, really.

The speed

they were running at last night was just at times mesmerizing.

And the completed pass stats are PSG 630 to Liverpool's 220.

And as Lara said, Farris Keeler was popping up all over the place.

And at times, Liverpool's players just look like rabbits caught in the headlights.

And it's not very often you see a team pile the hurt on them like that.

Very rare, like very rare.

Southampton will have them figured out now for Saturday.

You mentioned Kavat Shalia.

I know that we saw it in Napoli, Mark, but he is such a delight, isn't he?

Yeah, he, I mean, I always liked Chris Waddle from sort of a a different era.

And he has, he's got that body swerve like Waddle would do in sort of delightful winger.

But then he's got other aspects to his game as well.

He can play just anywhere across that front three.

I think he makes the right decision a lot.

He doesn't dribble for the sake of it.

If there is a pass on, he's able to find the pass.

He was, as Barry's already said, you know, really unlucky not to have scored the goal.

He wasn't trying to seek an advantage in the way that he was caught offside.

Just his heel being offside.

Yeah, he's added a new dimension to the PSG attack.

There's no doubt about that.

And they probably do need

a superstar, and he's the right kind of superstar because

he doesn't appear to cause trouble.

He's not lazy, maybe like some of the other players they've had.

Looks like he gets on with his teammates, unlike some of the other signings

he definitely he doesn't he's he doesn't he doesn't often go back for carnival in video

so he's um yeah he's he's he's been it looks like he'll be a great signing um for psg i would just go back i mean i i think i understand what you're saying about the sports washing but i think it is like

good that France and the French capital and a sort of a city as big as Paris has got a sort of big football team.

And even before the money came in, they had Ronaldinho previously.

So it's not like they kind of never had kind of a style player.

But yeah, this is by far the most likable

PSG team.

And I'll also give a shout out to Joel Neves in midfield, who cost about 65 million.

So it's not like he was

just found from nowhere, but looks like he's going to be just world class, I would say.

I mean, there is something very strange about someone called Joel Neves not playing for Wolves.

is really good, isn't it?

But I thought his chance actually might have been the easiest of the night.

Yes, Lars.

I mean, the only thing, and I guess this is hypocritical of me, because PSG have become the exact thing I was whinging about them needing to become for many years.

So I feel like picking holes in it is daft.

But Carl Marshalotti said something.

I think it was yesterday, but recently anyway, about how you have players who run and players who make a difference.

This is kind of like the

and of course, PSG clearly for many years had too many players who were just kind of hanging around,

waiting to make a difference.

I think they have a good mix now of guys like Dembele, Barcola, Due, Karaskelia, who can do both run and make a difference.

But they didn't score the goal, right?

This is the thing.

Over the 90 minutes, they had all this domination.

And you do wonder if Mpapa, Sulky Ol Mbapa, the Sun King himself, was lounging around up front.

Okay, they wouldn't have looked as good as a collective.

They probably would have scored in this game, right?

Maybe they wouldn't have been as good collectively.

I don't know.

So, there is a balance there.

I like to think one of those younger forwards can grow into that superstar.

Maybe Karashkelia can become the superstar, and I like them so much more as a team now.

But I guess that's worth flagging up: that the advantage of having one or two of those superstars is that they are quite good as well.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin uh with Bayer Munich's demolition of Bay Labor Kusen,

coach.

The energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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

Play is everything.

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

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

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That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, Bayern 3, Leva Kusan-0, and Mark Bayern were completely dominant in this game, I thought.

They were.

I think Leva Kusen have certainly handed a lot of the initiative to

Bayern.

We had a red card from Kiele.

There was a stupid penalty for holding.

There was a goalkeeping error for the second second goal.

But in terms of general play, Levakus have kind of had the

X over

Bayern in recent years.

It's two and a half years, I think, since Bayer last beat them.

Certainly, Jabbi Alonso had not lost to them.

There might be eight games left.

Yeah, so it definitely been a difficult game for Bayern previously, but it didn't actually feel like that.

Even before Kane had scored, Bayern were in control of this game.

I thought it was a brilliant header for

the first goal.

Really enjoyed that.

Great cross from Elise.

So it was a combination of Bayern being good and better defensively than what we've seen in other Champions League games.

But Leverkusen just handed the tie to them.

So does that mean that, Barry, you can still call Harry Kane a flat-track bully?

Because Leverkusen, despite being a very good team, didn't play well enough in this game.

Because Kane was excellent.

He was.

Scored...

Two brilliant headers, Mark says, scored the penalty, worked really hard in defence as well.

He was great.

Thought Joshua Kimmich was excellent as well, standout player.

And beating Bear Leverkusen

is not

a flat-track bully job.

But I think Xavi Lonzo has been getting criticised at home.

for channelling his inner Claudio Ranieri and sort of needlessly tinkering with his side.

He rotates his goalkeepers.

So Lucas Radechi was on the bench today he was in goal when buyer lieverkusen played by munich a couple of weeks ago uh and battered them nil-nil uh he had victor boniface and patrick schick yeah they were on the bench last night and uh adley played instead he's not fully fit they reckon because he's just back from an injury

So I don't know if Sabi Lonzo, you know, who am I to criticise him as a manager after the job he did last season.

But yeah, he is, I think, getting it in the neck a bit for just needlessly rotating.

So it was interesting last night, actually, Florian Wurtz, who is being linked with a move to Bayern Munich,

he was just marked out of the game, did nothing for Bayer-Levikus.

Meanwhile, Musiala was great.

And actually, I mean, last, shame on Jau Polinia, who missed a chance which robbed us of one of football's greatest ever assists.

Yeah, yeah, no,

yes, that is true.

I mean, I guess if you don't want anything to drop to Crawl Polinho, really, do you?

I mean, it's not his job.

He's meant to.

No, but still, but still, like, once, once, was it a rainbow flick?

I'm not sure what it was from Maciala, but it was just absolutely beautiful.

And then it is an open goal.

So, so Paolina could have just tackled it in, I guess.

This is what I was going to say.

Just, this is what there was a period I remember like when Luca Modric didn't score a lot of goals and he kept missing shots.

And I was like, just Luca, just pass it to the, you're so good at pinpoint passing, just pass it to the net.

With Polinha, it's more like, just two-footed, mate, just like, get in there.

But I think this result in this game is kind of more of a big deal than it feels like, if that makes sense.

Because I think we're kind of used to, oh, look, Bayern trounced the different German team.

That doesn't feel like news.

That feels like the thing that always happens.

But as Barry rightly said, very recently, they played each other and it was nil-nil.

It was a ridiculous nil-nil.

But Leverkusen really kind of wiped the floor with Bayern in that game.

And Xavier Alonso has really had the hex over Bayern.

I mean, six games unbeaten before this against Bayern, I believe.

And

it's a huge deal for Bayern.

You know, the finals in Munich, like,

they really want to get there.

It matters a lot to them.

And they have been iffy at times.

Even though they're cruising to the league, they've had performances that have been...

not super convincing.

So this is one of those ties that I think could have gone very badly wrong for them.

And it hasn't.

And I think it was important for Harry Kane.

I think the first goal, which is kind of a classic Harry Kane goal, it's a slightly hopeful cross swung in that he kind of gets ahead to.

And, you know, that's kind of vintage Harry Kane.

I think it's important because he hasn't, you know, he scored.

It seems ludicrous because I think he's on 21

goals and 21 starts in the Bundesliga, which sounds good.

But I do believe there are nine penalties in there.

So it's actually like it's 12 goals from open play in 21 games, which is really the lower end of what you expect from a Bar in Munich number nine.

and especially one they've paid a huge amount of money for,

an amount of money I think everyone feels very uncomfortable with, because it's not something they typically do.

So there is some suggestion that Kane isn't quite doing enough to justify the expense in his position.

So for him to really turn up in this game, score yes another penalty, yes, but also score a really important goal,

important early first goal from open play, I think that's a pretty big deal for him.

Why couldn't Kane score one of those nine penalties against France?

That's all I was thinking when he scored it.

Gotta let it go.

I've got to let it go.

Is it 13 this season, I think, in all conversations?

13 out of 13, yeah.

He's changed his technique, hasn't he?

He's got the stutter

in the repertoire now.

But they've still got to be scored the penalties.

So to be at 100% from 13 is pretty good going when what's the average rate is about 80% of successful penalties.

So

he's

very good at them.

I did like Mukielli's face as he was raking his studs down the calf of Kingsley Comen.

He looked like

he just dropped the Black Forest Gato as he was walking towards the judges in Bayfuck.

He did this kind of, oh, like, you know, like he was already apologising before he did it.

But, like, absolutely, it was at least a yellow card, wasn't it?

Let's do Barcelona's winner, Benfica.

I thought this was really fun as well, Basin.

You know, Barcelona to 10 men from the 22nd minute when Pal Kabasi was sent off.

Big fan of Kabasi, continually agreeing with me.

I got the ball gesture in the hope that the cameras hadn't recorded said challenge

on Pavlinis.

But I think Ben Fica will be thinking we have missed an absolute massive opportunity here.

They had some excellent chances.

Should have opened the scoring within the first minute.

Actor Koglu

had a low diagonal shot into the corner.

Brilliantly kept out by Wajik Shesney, who I suspect will not appreciate having his thunder stolen by Allison last night because he was outstanding for Barcelona as well.

Made some huge saves.

Barcelona go down to 10 men after 23 or 4 minutes, whatever it was.

And you think, right, this is your big chance, Benfica.

You're at home, you're playing well.

They went on to have four more good chances, none of which they scored, and then

give away a really sloppy goal.

Antonio Silva gives the ball away with a pass inside.

Rafina pounces and just puts away a lovely, lovely shot from distance into the bottom corner that

the Benfica keeper couldn't reach.

Benfica will feel they left this one behind them.

They'll also feel, yeah, we have a chance.

Is it more interesting, Mark, if Barca get through?

I don't know if that's really harsh on Benfica, but in terms of, you know, the the the draw and which I don't know, like, who's who who's more interesting for the Champions League to get through?

Like, inherently you feel Barcelona, but I don't think that's fair.

I feel like I want Barcelona in the latter stages of uh Champions Leagues.

They've they're in the Invoted Commons easier section of the draw with a game against Brussels, Dortmund, or Lille to come if if they get through.

I think there's a lot of people in Spain already thinking that they're they have a Classico Champions League final against Real Madrid.

Barcelona have smashed Real Madrid twice already this season in two different competitions.

I'd like to see Barcelona get through it.

Really enjoy watching them.

This was a different performance from them because of the red card.

I don't think I've ever seen a Hansie Flick team not defend on the halfway line.

So it was quite strange to see them sort of accept their fate and work hard and do all the things that you probably wouldn't associate with kind of Barcelona, I suppose, in the way that they defended with those 10 players.

I thought the journalist Rory Smith made very interesting point about Rafinha and whether he should be like in the ballon d'Or conversation, given that he's arguably been the best player in Spain this season and he's been one of the best players in the Champions League.

And I thought the way it was a deflection on the goal, but I still thought it was a fantastic finish.

And he just gets better and better.

And it's a very impressive performance from him.

And yeah, I think Barcelona will sort of do the job comfortably now and reach at least the semi-finals.

Do you think Jamie Carragher will say, because Rafinha plays for a small country like Brazil, it might affect his turn.

They might not make the World Cup.

No way.

They always do.

I say give it to Rafinha, if only to see just how angry Real Madrid gets, just as a social experiment.

Because they were so angry when Rodri won it, which was a bit of a slam dunk, I thought.

And then they didn't even turn up.

Like, what, what level of hysteria can we get to if it actually goes to a Barcelona winger?

I just want to say from,

like, I didn't think Barcelona had this in them.

I really didn't.

Because

they've been good this year under Flick, better than I think most people thought they were going to be.

But it's been about, again, like Lango says, like, this crazy high-line super attacking, like, looking domestically at our old friend, the XG, like, they've created more than any, like, they're so far ahead in the XG.

They're the real attacking machine.

There's actually five teams in La Liga who've defended better than them this year.

Like, they're not.

They can be gotten at, which we've seen in Europe never more so than in that mad 5-4 game against Benfica in the stadium a couple of weeks ago.

And so, when I saw there was an early red card, I thought, ooh,

this couldn't get spicy.

But they, yeah, they knuckled in.

And the least handsy-flicky performance, and absolutely not something I thought had in them.

And

maybe you

that that display of grit against what is a capable opponent, maybe you sort of adjust your,

yeah, their standing as potential favourites to win this maybe goes up by a couple of notches for me.

The fact that they're showing a little bit of that side of it as well.

Meanwhile, Inter 1 2-0 away at Fire Nord.

I thought it was Robin Van Percy's Champions League managerial debut for Fire Nord.

And I thought they started okay, Barry.

I didn't think this was a classic

of the four games.

This is the one that is certainly the bottom of the running order for me, but into have pretty much got it tied up, I think.

You'd think so.

If they'd scored that penalty that Peter Zelensky missed,

well, it was saved by Wellenrother in the final goal, then you'd say that's it.

As it is, they're 2-0 up.

You have to feel a bit sorry for Feynman.

They were missed, like, I think it's 16 players out through for various reasons suspension injury whatnot uh they only had one chance of note which was a sort of a Brighton uh Jacob Mulder shanked one over the bar after I think Brighton sold him to uh Feynold and he was teed up by Ibrahim Osman who I think is on loan from Brighton or else it's the other way around but anyway good performance from Marcus to Ram who I haven't been ever convinced by but he was really good here here.

Yeah, Latoro Martinez

scored the other, so those goals I decide a half-time, you'd imagine will be enough.

If you'd asked me ahead of the game, how do I think this will go?

I think Faynard, you know, having some nice moments, moving the ball around a little bit, but Inter just kind of staying calm, staying cool, and getting two goals and getting out of there with having ended the tie.

That's yeah, that seems about right.

Like, that's more or less exactly what I thought was going to happen.

And I don't think you can read a ton into it, except to say that Inter are, you know, they're pretty solid.

They had, they have some good players, they're well organized, they know what to do in these situations, and yeah, a tidy team with a with a with a draw they'll be happy with, I think, is fair to say.

Europa League tonight, and you know, we don't really major on the Europa, it doesn't fit with our timings, but Mark, you know, Manchester United and Tottenham seasons are literally on the line, aren't they?

Man United have the tougher game, probably away at Rails.

So Cedar Spurs go to AZ Alkmar.

But, you know,

it is very important for both those sides that they get through.

Yeah, I mean, reports this morning saying United are already budgeting for No Europe next season, which makes sense because if they play like they have been, they'll go out to Real Sociedad and they're in the harder half of the draw.

They've only gone there with 18 players to San Sebastian.

A lot of injuries

and I think Amarim said he wasn't going to take too many of the younger players because he wasn't going to use them anyway.

So there wasn't much point in that.

So, I think that they'll do well to get through that time, harder to corral kids as well.

If you take kids, you know, then

it's an absolute nightmare getting through sort of passport control.

Um, and it's uh, you know, if you've got your laptops out and your iPads and all these other things, it's uh, it's much better when you travel with adults than it is with kids, much less stressful.

Um, so I think Societad,

if you're not in play like they have been, Societad should beat them.

The The Uzed against Spurs game, I mean, Tottenham are favourites to win the Europa League.

If Postakoglu does that, then he'll be able to say, I've won a trophy, I've played a second football, and I've got your Champions League football.

And I don't think anybody could argue against that being kind of, you know, what he was brought in to achieve.

If he doesn't do that, then...

a bottom half finish and you know no trophy he'll he'll be out so um for his job, you feel like he's probably got to win the Europa League or at least reach the final, I think, to show progress.

Amarim should get the opportunity to build on that.

But I'm just not seeing anything from United that suggests that they're kind of in any way improving.

Yeah, Vander Van Romero, Solanke, Orland's first squad, Ange didn't say whether they would start or not.

While we're on Ange, I went to a screening of a...

really brilliant documentary today called Ange and the Boss, which is about Ange and mainly about his relationship with Ference Puskas.

And like Australian football fans are just like love the fact that Puskus came to Melbourne and coached South Melbourne to you know winning some trophy in the 90s.

But basically he couldn't drive.

And he had this massive potbelly Puskus and he loved playing football.

So there's all this amazing footage of this guy with this ridiculous left foot about 60 or 50 just sort of standing still just pinging passes around.

But he couldn't drive.

And so Ange had to drive him anywhere everywhere he was the captain of the team and and his car was so shit that only one he only had one handle for the window so he would wind his car window down then he'd pull the handle out and give it to ferex puskas who would then wind the handle down he said once he got a flat tire right so and get a flat tyre pushkus is enormous he's got this massive gut and he said he was just he was he got out the car to fix the flat tyre pushkas just sat in the car so he's jacking up the car and jacking up ferex puscus anyway it's um the film is called and the boss it's got an australian release at the moment i think they're hoping to get it released in the uk and elsewhere but if you go to angeandtheboss.com um it was a really beautiful movie um and just some great old footage of you know pushkas who like obviously we know is one of the greatest footballers of all time just ending up basically in this park coaching these people very funny uh will says uh mourinho at rangers yes or yes uh josie was speaking before fanabecho's game with them and he said for me passion in football is everything i mean occasionally you could have fooled me i would say josie but there you go uh for me to play in empty stadiums to play in competitions where there's not that fire of the or the passion doesn't make any sense celtic and rangers they're big clubs with big fan bases with big emotions big responsibilities big expectations why not um you know celtic have a great coach rangers has ferguson so i like the way he

didn't say that well i i can think of about 30 million reasons a year why not because rangers just can't afford them yeah possibly unless he took a very big pickup there are a few people that could say I take Rangers or Celtic you know don't really mind but is there not a Rangers takeover in the offing oh there is yes the 49ers boys so there are some people who have quite a bit of money have taken over rangers and suddenly Mourinho is taking an interest that's just it's funny how that works I would also say as well though with Mourinho he worked in Portugal obviously

where he came through like in Portugal there are three big teams and a lot of smaller teams and the big teams, you know, tend to win most weeks.

In Scotland,

there's two of those when Rangers are on song.

So I don't think it would be like that alien for him to kind of manage in that situation where there are a few big games and most of them you're expected to win.

And so I feel like that would put off a lot of kind of people, but for Jose, I'm not sure that it would.

I'm not saying he will be the next Rangers manager, but why not?

It is kind of what he's doing doing now at Fenabache, where, I mean, paradoxically, he's actually not doing a terrible job.

It's just that Galtasrai do not lose football games.

And it's tricky for him because he's come in.

Like, the last Fennebacher boss got 99 points and didn't win the league.

It's like, what are you going to do?

So he hasn't improved on that.

And they play less interesting football than before.

I was in Turkey in January, and I had a full conversation with my taxi driver through the magic of Google Translate on my phone, where he was like speaking very angrily in Turkish into my phone, and out would come the very placid, the very placid Google Translate voice saying, Mourinho has made us play like cowards.

Just like my taxi driver used to be a season ticket holder, but has given it up after Mourinho came in because the football's so bad.

He was just talking very angrily in Turkish.

And yeah, yeah, he makes we play like cowards.

He seems to be.

One other story out of Europe: Paolo Vonseca has been suspended for nine months

because he tried to headbutt a referee during Leon's game against Brest on the 2nd of March.

I mean, the picture is quite,

the referee is brandishing a red card and Vonseca is, you know, their foreheads are connected.

So that's a step up from Arna Slot shaking Michael Otter's hand and telling me he's fucking shit.

He won't be able to enter the dressing room before and after matches until September the 15th, not be able to be on the touchline until November the 30th.

So, I mean, obviously, you can't condone this and referees, the abusing of the referees is ridiculous, but he'll do well to keep his job, I imagine, if that's how long he's out for.

But like, for a manager to do that is completely ridiculous.

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll look ahead to the Premier League weekend.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So look, Man United Arsenal is the game that jumps off the page, but, you know, I mean, and I suppose what Man United did knock Arsenal out of the FA Cup, didn't they?

Can you make the case for them?

We've already touched on the fact that they, you know, all their kids at least will be well rested.

This is a game I expect Arsenal to win, but I would not be at all surprised if they didn't.

They've obviously had that terrific performance in midweek.

They have an extra day's rest.

They should be too good for this United side, but I think the United's players, at least in recent weeks, have shown while their performances aren't particularly good, they've at least shown quite a lot of fight.

And

Bruno Fernandez keeps riding to the rescue and grabbing games by the stuff, scruff of the neck when causes look lost.

But I would, without much confidence, go for an Arsenal win.

I think, interestingly, this list of fixtures for what is now we're obliged to call the Farmers League.

It's quite interesting because the scramble for the,

what is it, two remaining, maybe three remaining Champions League, well, two really, remaining Champions League places is very, very open.

And, you know, so there are some fixtures there that are crucial to that.

I'd be absolutely staggered if Arsenal didn't win this and didn't win it by quite a bit because it's United are between two season defining games in Europe, you know.

The league really doesn't matter if United at this point.

They need to just not get humiliated, I guess, on a regular basis because it's a bad look for everyone.

But like, the Real Sociedad games is what matters for them.

Whereas Arsenal, of course, having taken this massive lead against PSV, they can field a team of whatever in the return leg almost, which means they can really focus on this.

So I'd be baffled if United got anything out of it.

But I think, actually, to carry on what Barry just said, actually, it is an interesting weekend because you have one of those teams who are still in the hunt for a shock Champions League place is Bournemouth.

But they're, of course, playing Spurs, who again are in the same position as United.

Like the Europa League is so much more important.

So we'll see what kind of team is fielded by Ange in that one.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Forest Play City, you know, in one of those rated fifth places.

And then you've got Chelsea should beat Leicester.

Brentford Villa, two of those sides that sort of could push Brighton Fulham, the nice family club six-pointer.

Of anyone, Mark, who do you think will sort of surprise, you know, like, do you think by the end of it all?

Because you've seen like Forrest having a little bit of a dip because they don't rotate their players.

Bournemouth have former, has that gone off a little bit?

I think it might have done.

Like, do you think it'll be the usual suspects by the end?

With five spaces, it means that there will be one, I suppose, less usual suspects.

I think that Chelsea and City.

I believe will get into the top five yet and join

Arsenal and Liverpool.

The other spot, really open.

I do feel like Forrest could get reeled in by one of those teams.

And

Newcastle, I think, once the destruction of the League Cup is out of the way, if they can sort of keep it Isak fit, would be definitely that they've got a tricky game at West Ham before that cup final.

But Bournemouth would be the ones because even Ilson is back now and they had a couple of months where, or six-week period, where they didn't really have a forward.

And Justin Cliver stepped up, and some of the other wingers were chipping in.

But if you look at their performances, I think over the season, I think they've been like a top five, top six team throughout the campaign, very well coached, good defensively, a lot of quality in midfield, and then sort of explosiveness out wide and goal scorers.

So, obviously, not an easy game away at Spurs, but as Lars says, it's in the middle of two season-defining European games.

And if Bournemouth were to win that one, yeah, I could see them sneaking in.

It'd be great to see a team like Bournemouth in the Champions League.

Yeah

it does feel like I would say that City and Chelsea will take two of them spots.

You mentioned West Ham.

They play Newcastle.

Lucas Paketar's betting charge hearing will take place this month and last three weeks

which will make it one of the longest court proceedings in the FA's history.

He's accused of receiving four deliberate yellow cards in Premier League games.

These allegations form part of a government investigation in Brazil.

The FA are seeking a lifetime ban.

Pakota denies all the charges.

Interesting to see if he plays during the proceedings, I guess.

He has been injured.

I don't know if he's back yet, but

I mean,

if I was him, I'd be playing as much football as I can, while I can, because it's not looking great for him.

The FA are looking for a lifetime ban.

Evidence has emerged in Brazil that seems quite damning.

Brazilian parliament, I think one or more people over there are facing jail sentences over this, maybe.

Paqueta, it's important to say, has totally protested his

innocence, and there's no suggestion he placed any bets on

this spot fixing.

But this, like, this

scandal, such as it is, has already cost him a move to Man City, which

would, interestingly, probably have seen Cole Palmer go to West Ham in

exchange, part exchange.

So, yeah, it's a worrying time for Lucas.

Yeah, Cole Palmer's lucky, isn't he?

Yeah, you just think, God, with all that money you're making.

But, as we say, let's see what happens with the case.

Matthews Kunya may have made the final relegation spot interesting by getting that red card.

Wolves host Everton and Apeswich, who desperately need something,

go to Palace.

Liam Roberts, the FA, want the three-match ban given to him, the Millwall Keeper, to be extended after that foul on Matetta.

The FA said the standard three-game ban for serious foul players clearly insufficient.

It's understood Millwall will contest it.

The club said in a statement they will continue to support Roberts after the horrendous online abuse he's received at Millwall's game against Bristol City.

Millwall supporters showed their support by holding a minute's applause after eight minutes,

which was the minute where he injured Matetta, which doesn't seem quite right, does it?

Singing there's only one Liam Roberts, but you know, he probably didn't mean it.

No one needs to get abused online.

Moonlight Hanger says, having just seen Sam Merson's goal for Hanworth Villa against Farnham Town, is he already better than his dad?

Is there a rival for Jackie Oval's Ovalle, I should say, his goal the other day for the 2025 Pushkas Award?

I played five by side with Sam Merson, with all the Mersons, I think.

And he was certainly better at football than I was, but he was quite a young man.

It is some goal.

It's sort of one of those,

it's not quite the same.

It's remember that Kasami goal where he sort of chests it and volleys it top corner because it's sort of the control is much harder.

It comes over his head and he can flicks it up.

And then he just sort of puts this beautiful volley in the corner.

I would say Ovalle's goal for Tigris in the Mexican Women's League is slightly better, but I haven't played Fiverr side football with Jackie Ovalle.

So

that's all I can say on that matter.

But yeah, it is a brilliant, brilliant goal.

What age is Sam Merson?

Is he on his way up or is he

sort of?

I mean, I don't know.

He was young when I played with him.

Like he was, you know, but he might be 35 by now.

You know, like, I don't know.

Like, people get older.

He's probably in his early 20s.

Would be my guess.

29.

Shit.

God, we get old.

That's like when Philippe realized how old.

Who did Philippe realize was old the other day?

Asencio.

I can't remember that was name.

He was Asencio.

Asencio, that's it.

Sam Merson's the same age.

Yeah,

Sam Merson is the same age as Marco Asencio.

So there you are.

I just would like to have heard Merson commentate on it because finally be able to pronounce the player's name.

Peter says, are you thinking of pitching the Guardian Football Weekly live pod for the World Cup halftime show?

Joe says, if FIFA are taking applications for the musical halftime show, will you and the rest of the Football Weekly crew put together a chair-slapping performance of a lifetime?

Infantino has said that a list of artists will perform during the halftime show at the world cup final next year i can confirm the first ever halftime show at a world cup final new york uh infantino posted on insta i also want to thank chris martin and phil harvey of cold play who will be working with us at fifa to finalize a list of artists who perform during the halftime show as well as at times square how how long do they think halftime is like you know can't be like live aid can it we can't have two hours at halftime producer joel says yeah as long as there's a crossbar challenge chip it in the skip, 50-50 raffle, and yeah, penalties against a mascot of some kind, then fine.

How do we feel, Barry, about this?

Ambivalent, I'm going to say.

I would be delighted to do Football Weekly Live

during the World Cup final halftime extravaganza.

I mean, we normally do about an hour and a half.

So to condense it into, if we're just bottom of the bill under several Cold Play Light Acts and Cold Play,

I'm not

coach.

The energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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

Play is everything.

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

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

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

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

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

Sure, we'd get past your intro, really.

We'd just, you'd introduce us, we'd all run on, and then we'd all run off again.

The Wilson anecdote would struggle, wouldn't it?

I think.

Yeah, yeah.

That is true.

The Ben Fisher anecdote, crikey.

Surely Chris Martin, who's quite, surely he knows that Gianni's not not the guy you want to be hanging around with.

If you want to keep your, you know, your beautiful image, I'll have to be having words with Mrs.

Rushton on this matter.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks, Max.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks, Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

This is The Guardian.