Celtic’s heartbreak at Bayern and Champions League playoff chaos: Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Our heartbreaking, undeserved, abject agony for Celtic.

They didn't park the bus in Munich.

They were brilliant, brilliant at the back, brilliant in midfield.

We all thought the opportunity had gone when they missed three great chances in about a minute midway through the first half, but they kept on.

Nicholas Kuhn capitalising on some characteristic Bayern centre-back mistakes.

Then Maida had the chance for two.

Celtic tired.

Bayern started creating, but it was their turn to miss.

Goretska, Sane, Kimmich.

And just as we settled in for extra time, Alfonso Davis tackles it in.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Elsewhere, two shocks.

as Bruger go to Bergamo and upset Atalanta while Fiona would get the job done against AC Milan.

And there's a cracker in Lisbon as Benfica sneaked past Monaco.

We'll look ahead to Man City's trip to Madrid and the random Aston Villa Liverpool Premier League game happening tonight as well.

There's Everton's new stadium, some shoving feedback.

Paul Watson's World of Football, your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning, welcome.

Hello.

Hello, Nick Ames.

Hello.

From the excellent sweeper pod paul watson hello hi uh joining us also for part one uh bars of jim jim hello how are we doing mics all day yeah very good and uh you and murray is uh is going through security at munich airport so hopefully we'll pop into the call at some point matt says given celtics heartbreaking but brilliant european campaign isn't it now time for the pod to dedicate a bit of time to covering what's happening at spurs and man united very funny um uh dylan says the closest i've been to actually throwing up watching a game awful way for it to end.

I mean, I, Jim, felt bereft when Alfonso Davis tackled that one in.

And we'll get to the pride and the performance, but can you try and distill that moment for us?

If you go back to the very beginning of the goal, Maeda takes an arm from one of the Bayern defenders, right?

And right away I said, I've seen this movie.

Right.

I know that that's the bit.

I know that's the bit where the whistle should go, but I've seen the movie so often.

I know that whistle is not going to go.

And obviously,

as soon as the shot goes in and I see, I saw Schmeichel Parry, I thought,

this is going in the net, but not

a thunderbolt.

It's going to be exactly what it was.

And

I've seen the movie so many times and I was absolutely

gutted,

gutted.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think the extra half hour would have done for us.

You know, I don't think we had the legs for another half hour, but if you've held out for 90 minutes, then you might just get a wee break of the ball, but it wasn't to be.

Yeah, and it's funny, isn't it?

Well, not funny for you, but we, we, um, we last week we talked about that James Tarkovsky moment, right?

And this, like, this moment that is just so huge for a football team and like the joy that it brings people.

And right here, Jim, you just have like the absolute opposite

yeah oh

i started after it being i had about three seconds of being proud right

alex dergson very proud very proud and then after that it was

i am quite frankly as a celtic fan when it comes to europe and a scotland fan absolutely sick to my fucking back teeth of glorious failure right i i've had as much as i can stand and i can't stand no more and that was just another one to add to a depressingly long list so as you can see having slept on it i feel so much better now

the thing is barry they were

brilliant in this game i thought like they didn't just park the bus okay they didn't have as much possession as buyer munich of course but they had so many great chances when it became apparent they were going to play by munich i think we all thought they would lose.

And it was whether it was going to be abject failure or glorious failure.

And as it turns out, as Jim has pointed out, it was a glorious failure.

And

I think when the dust settles, they were brilliant.

I thought they played so, so well, but they could have been two or three nil up in the first half hour of this game.

you know, this second leg.

Callum McGregor missed a good chance.

cohen and made a missed chances there was a an engels cross that was just a little bit out of my aida's reach um another couple of inches he might have put that away rio tate missed a presentable opportunity so i'm not going to say celtic blew it but they did have chances to get back in the game and I think maybe they gave Bayern Munich too much respect because I don't think this Bayern Munich side is very good.

They were outplayed thoroughly by Bayer-Leverkusen at the weekend.

They weren't very good here.

Some of their big names, Muciala, Kane, Nabri, Michael Elise,

were very meh at best last night.

I thought they kept giving the ball away.

The two centre-backs just kept gifting possession to Celtic.

So I think Celtic will view this as definitely one that got away from them.

But look, they have no business beating Bayern Munich when you compare their budgets because Bayern Munich's players are vastly more expensive and well-paid than their Celtic counterparts.

Let's bring in Ewan Murray, who is either just about to go into security or just gone through security at Munich airport.

Ewan, you've missed Barcelona talking about the agony of that injury time winner.

And Barry's touched on how brilliant Celtic were.

But how was it for you in the stadium?

Yeah, I mean, you would have to, I think I said in in the match report, you would have to have a rock for a heart or be a Ranger supporter to not have sympathy for Celtic, the way that finished.

I thought they were heroic on the night.

I thought I heard Barry there, he's right, Byron were very, very ordinary, but Celtic played a huge part in making them look that way.

And it wasn't just that they scrapped and battled and hung in and all that kind of cliched stuff.

They played some really good football.

They played controlled football.

mature football and listen went to extra time.

Byron were pushing more towards the end and may well have won an extra time anyway.

But it was a cruel way for Certek to

go out, not lose, but go out.

But I think, you know, this morning when they reflect on it, I think they'll take huge pride, not just in their performance last night, but their overall Champions League campaign, which has been very, very good.

Yeah.

And Jim, actually, I think that's an interesting point, isn't it?

You know, Bayern had started to have those chances, didn't I?

I think Goretzka had one, and Schmeichel made a good save from Kimmich, and Sane was just wide.

And then I wonder, Jim, if one of those had gone in, it just wouldn't be as painful as the way it happened.

Of course, it bloody wouldn't have been

in the last kick of the fucking ball.

It was a freakish goal.

I mean, I mean, Carter Vickers tries to clear it, and it ricochets back off Davis.

Even the, you know, it wasn't a wonderfully crafted goal or a, you know, fantastic finish.

It was slightly freakish the way the goal happened, even.

And even the thing, Ewan, is that as soon as before you came on the call, I said to the lads that I saw it coming as soon as I saw Maeda taking the arm in the face.

Yeah, right.

I thought, oh, this has got absolutely all of the ingredients of a horrific last-minute

equalizer, and verily and low, it came to pass.

Um, you, you, and who I mean, I thought there were so many brilliant performances, like the whole back four.

I thought, um, you know, McGregor and Engels in midfield were brilliant as well.

If you could pick anyone out, who would you pick out?

Yeah, probably unfair.

They didn't have a failure, did they?

I didn't, I didn't think.

think i thought i thought they i thought selfie were

excellent from from one to eleven and and i mean you the the playman jeffrey sleop at left back who's a kind of last minute january lonee from crystal palace and barry's right when you talk about the scale of what they're you know people like me are quite happy to point out the advantage celty have in scotland in terms of their resources and talent but but they've got no business competing and

at times outplaying Bay Munich the way they did the way they did last night.

I thought every one of them was fantastic.

And actually, you make a good point, Jim.

I thought the fact that the way they zipped the ball about and took the ball in dangerous areas said so much about the way Brennan Rogers had set them up.

Absolutely.

There's rumours that Rogers, there's

an element in the Celtic boardroom who wasn't keen for Rogers to return.

And I think he's now made himself, the leverage he now has in the summer to say, look, if we can add two or three players to this squad, there's every chance that we can make ourselves,

you know, we're never going to win it, but we can definitely compete at that level.

And that's really all that we would want to do.

So, yeah, it's.

I'm still gutted.

I'm trying to be,

it just hasn't worn off.

I'm still absolutely gutted.

I'll remember this trip aside to game for two things.

One, last night is the coldest night I've ever been in my life.

I cannot properly articulate how cold it was.

I think I said it was minus 10 with the wind chill.

It was absolutely Baltic.

And I'll also remember this trip because on

Monday night before the game, I went to a bar in Munich, which I've frequented before.

I'm a creature of the habit.

And I was refused service and basically ejected because there was a pub quiz on.

And they went to serve me because the quiz was going on.

So maybe

listeners can

tell you

the protocol with German pub quizzes, but from what I gathered,

if you're not a signed-up team member in the quiz, you're not allowed in the pub.

Is it because they thought your general knowledge wouldn't be up to scratch, or you just look too thick?

I comfortably explained that I don't even speak German, I couldn't participate in the quiz.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't participate in the quiz.

And

I had a final plea to ask if I could just have a quick beer.

I'd been in the bar in June, you know, when Scotland were playing here in the Euros.

Could I just have a quick pint for old time's sake?

And I was told, No, the quiz started three minutes ago.

Get out.

Can you can you enter the quiz?

Couldn't you just say, Here's a you know, here's a Euro, give me a pencil.

I wasn't given that, I wasn't given that option.

I then wondered if it was some kind of secret society quiz that no one else is allowed to listen into.

But again, it's one for the listeners.

There must be a protocol there that I'm unaware of.

Um, Jim, I know you've got to go to work, so you can uh, uh, you can go.

Cheers, mate.

All right, thanks, lads.

Cheers, now.

Um, one more to you and which is do you do you think that this performance gives brendan rogers that ammunition that that jim suggested for next season um

yeah i mean i think to be fair celtic spent relatively for them they spent 30 million pounds last summer they you know they signed the english for 11 million pounds which was a club record so i think they've kind of up the stakes in that sense anyway.

They didn't sign a forward to replace Kyogo in January, which would be an annoyance to Brendan Rodgers.

But I think he was pretty empowered anyway.

I mean, the big thing on the horizon for them is that they're more than likely going to have to play a qualifier to get back in the Champions League for next season.

And that's a huge game or a huge two games coming up next summer.

So they need to have their squad right for that qualifier.

That's something that becomes very, very important because, I mean, showing they can compete so well at this level, you know, they damn sure don't want to miss out on being there again next season.

Yeah.

Cheers, Iwan.

Enjoy your flight.

Thank you.

Speak soon.

You and Mario there, our Scottish football correspondent.

I mean, mean, it's worth saying, Nick, isn't it, that like Bayern got away with this?

Yeah, massively.

They just,

whenever I've seen them in a big game this season, which is only a few times to be fair, they've been quite laboured, they've been quite ponderous.

They've let opponents get behind the ball, but then had not that much idea how to break them down.

It's just all been a bit slow, and they've been a team of moments almost rather than a team of cohesion, which is not necessarily a big tribute to Vincent Company.

I felt last night, you know, Kane obviously came close, didn't he, when he hit the bar?

But apart from that,

there wasn't too much.

I mean, Galetska obviously had a header wide, and I think another late run of his was behind the goal, wasn't it?

But there wasn't that much diversity of threat.

They just had enough good players on the pitch to produce a moment.

But I don't tend to think that that wins you a Champions League.

It probably wins you a Bundesliga this season, but it doesn't win you a Champions League.

Yeah, and obviously the final is at the Allianz and they're just so obviously who isn't desperate to get there, but it has extra meaning for Bayern.

I also can't help feeling Paul that they just seem to amass

so many centre-backs who have a mistake in them.

It's like they can't move for centre-backs that don't have a mistake in them.

Yeah, that's a very good asset.

I hadn't thought of it as concisely as that.

Yeah, they have an amazing sense of threat about them that they could just at any point implode Bayon.

And that just sits really weirdly.

I think that kind of is what happened

in the first leg, because despite being pretty lucky to be 2-0 up, they got 2-0 up.

And to some extent, the game could have been dead right there and then.

But again, they managed to just drift off and Celtic got back into it.

And I think that's kind of how they operated throughout this tie.

Like, as soon as it looked like they could make things easier for themselves, they somehow shot themselves in the foot.

Yeah.

And you mentioned those chances in the first half barry the weird thing about them was three of them came within about 50 seconds of each other it was like this really weird bit of football that very rarely happened

yeah um they should have scored at least one of those you know um

pela mcgregor when he was sort of clean through i i get why he took the shot and fancied his chances but i think he could have squared it for coon who was in a better position and that would have almost certainly led to a goal and i i think they would rue those chances because that's the only thing that was sort of missing from their performance was more clinical finishing.

And the goal they got was probably one of the hardest chances.

I know there was some slapstick defending between Kim and Up and McCanno.

There was quite a lot of that from that pair, but you know, it was a difficult chance and it was well taken.

So, as Jim said, it's just a frustrating, yet another glorious failure from a Scottish representative on the big stage.

But they have every right to be very proud of that performance.

It's just on another night, they might have got through.

Yeah, actually, I should have picked him up when he said so much glorious failure, because it feels to me most of their Champions League failure has just been failure, failure.

But this was.

Well, I think he was including the national team, although quite a lot of their failure has just been failure, failure as well.

It's true.

I mean, there was that moment, Nick, when I think at 1-0, and it was just before Bayern had really picked up the pressure.

I think Maida had that header, which, I mean, it's really hard to direct that, isn't it, when it's on the bounce.

That feels like the only real moment they had to extend their lead.

Yeah, that was the sliding doors moment, if you like, and it was sort of half a sliding doors moment.

But otherwise, you're just digging in and

hoping that you can scuff enough balls away and see it over the line.

And I really thought, probably against my better judgment, that they had done it.

But, you know, half a minute and then they'd be through to round the 16.

Yeah, there's a, Paul, there's a, I think Five Live have got a documentary on Vincent Company that is trailed all the time where it's saying, you know, he's on why he's one of the most sought-after managers in the world.

And I don't know if he is one of the most sought-after managers in the world.

And like this, like this could, this would have been absolutely devastating for him.

Yeah, I mean, it was always a bit weird when he got the job, wasn't it?

It's a very unusual career transition, that Burnley to buy in Munich.

It's not the traditional established path, is it?

And

yeah,

he hasn't convinced me yet.

I wonder if it's partly because he is he does quite good PR.

Like he comes across like someone you want to be a good manager.

Like I think he kind of has that look of a guy who you think, yeah, he's authoritative, he talks pretty well, I think.

But actually, I'm not sure on the pitch he can back it up at this point.

And I think he's pretty lucky at the moment,

not just that they've got through, but I think he's quite lucky to be in the job at all.

The only other note I had, Barry, was that Jotter's hair fascinates me.

I mean, I know we've had players with lots of hair, but it's so buffant.

I almost feel like

it is so.

I mean, and it's not envy, I don't think.

I am envious, of course, but I almost feel like there's so much of it it might be off-putting.

Off-putting to him?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

You're saying that Celtic would have gone through if he'd had a buzz cut

That's the fine margins of football.

I don't know.

Because it's different in the obviously there are lots of play, you know, you've got your fasces and your filemies and all that, but this is just, this is like a boof.

This is something that's quite flatly-esque.

Yeah, no.

Flatly in his pomp.

So maybe he should just wear silk shirts with, you know, puffy sleeves.

A pirate shirt.

Was Flatley the only person whose arms are constantly in a natural position or not in a natural position.

His arrangement.

That's it.

That's it.

That's it.

There's only one little thing.

I think the last time Nick spoke, and I might be wrong, but I think he said Celtic were only 30 seconds away from getting into the last 16, but they would still have had extra time.

What I was actually doing there was anticipating, well, post-anticipating The Guardians a scoop of a couple of weeks ago that UAF are considering scrapping extra time from the Champions League.

Are they?

And that is quite interesting.

Jonathan Wilson wrote a piece about how extra time is really important and we didn't really talk about it regarding the FA Cup.

What are your feelings about it, Nick?

Do you think that is a...

It's something that should stop.

I mean, I quite like players absolutely exhausted.

I quite like the huddles.

I quite like the feeling of extra time.

Yeah, and it's, I mean, we will see firstly whether it happens and it'll still be a couple of years away, but I think it'd be window dressing if it did, frankly.

Like

we talk about the calendar, what needs to be cut and what needs to be sort of exercised where to save players' legs and stuff.

And normally, it ends up being the domestic schedule that suffers.

But I think when I was writing my piece,

I found that only three games went to extra time last season.

It might even have been zero the year before.

A very small number in the last five years or so.

So, how much benefit are you actually gaining for what is is quite a drastic move?

I think it suits TV companies very well.

If you do it, they get straight to the business end of penalties, which people like, the drama, a bit more certainty in the scheduling.

But would it actually make a massive difference to player workload?

I am not convinced.

But it makes them look like they're doing something and it also looks like a concession

at the higher point of the game rather than snipping away at the FA Cups and lead cups and stuff.

So I can see why optically it probably plays well to the players unions and bodies like that.

Actually, it's an important point.

Having hosted the Champions League for a few years, you're desperate for someone to get a winner.

So you could just finish work a bit earlier.

It totally transforms how you view the excitement of football.

Anyway, there were three other games last night and they were all great and we'll talk about them next.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Hard to know what to start with.

Maybe we'll start with Club Bruger's win away in Bergamo at Atalanta.

Nick, you watched this one.

I mean, an absolutely brilliant performance over two legs.

I don't know if anyone gave him a hope.

It was fantastic from Bruger.

And as you say, this was over two legs.

This was not a team turning up in Bergamo and shithousing it.

It was a team that had already in the first leg, almost out Atalanta Atalanta, who we know was quite a three-wheeling, fun team, very expansive.

And Brigitte in that first leg, where they got a bit lucky with a penalty at the end, of course, had been brilliant, very expansive, but one touch three-floor in football.

And they turned up in Bergamo, did the same thing.

The first goal they scored very early was two fantastic first-time passes for a goal, which was wonderfully finished by the 19-year-old boy Talby, who's playing his first full season of senior football, I think.

Then Atalanta, you know, try and first

are quite unconvincing by their standards, and Yashari runs it up a pitch for Bluegirl and from a rebound.

Talby scores again, and you think, okay, Atalanta have got a genuine problem here.

And then there was this crazy sequence of plays.

So amazing, wasn't it?

Oh, it was incredible.

Just before half-time, Atlanta are really putting them under the pump now, but maybe not creating many clear chances.

And then Zappa Croster gets the ball, ball on the left, it hits the post.

Ball's fed back in, bit of hesitation in the defence.

Miniele makes not his last fantastic save of the night off the line, drilled in, cleared off the line again.

And then straight up a pitch go Brigher.

And it is an absolutely sensational drive for 3-0 from 25 yards by Jutla, who used to play for Barcelona, I think, and they signed for only about 5 million Euros, which goes to show the clever transfer dealing that has gone on at clubs like this.

And we'll come to them later, Final.

3-0 pretty much game over.

Atalanta, they never take anything lying down.

You knew they would come back.

And Adamo Luckman comes on.

goal immediately and you think here we go and then they win a penalty um long beer actually Luckman steps up, and much to his manager's disgust later, who I think wasn't very happy that he stepped up to take it, it's saved by Miniele.

Another fantastic saved by him.

There's a few chances after that, but in the end, the game winds down.

Lookman, I think, felt was playing a bit like he thought he'd come onto a one-man salvage mission, basically, and was maybe trying to do a bit too much to be the hero.

And it's all winding down until the latter stages when we see one of the better red cards that you will see, which was the absolutely sensational

hunter, Captain Taloy.

And

I watched it a few times last night.

I may have misremembered some details now, but he's trying to take a throw in, it gets blocked

by a guy who's sort of standing right in front of him.

Maxim de Cupa.

Yeah, there we go.

And he gets very angry, tries to throw the ball at him, but fluffs it and follows through it and follows through anyway in a kind of pub-style hold me back

fashion and just brawls him over.

It was absolute losing of rag.

And for anyone who watched that game right

to the bitter end, they were literally rewarded by some absolute slapstick.

I haven't seen one like that for a long time.

But

yeah, Brigger, well, well deserved.

They're a really nice team.

Some lovely young players, play some great stuff.

Sad for Atalanta, but you've got to say, a much better team one over two lads i mean the the the sunday leagueness paul of the red of the red card is is elite isn't it the failure to throw the ball and then falling over and then he sort of he sort of has to barge the ref out the way as well it's i i it was perhaps my favorite moment of the night I've never identified with a player at this level more than I identified with Tolera in this one because he's so angry, right?

His team are out.

You know, they shouldn't be going out here.

They had such high hopes.

They've been embarrassed at their home stadium.

It's all building up.

And I think De Kuipa's sort of in his head a little bit.

He's a young lad.

He's a bit kind of, obviously a bit cocky.

And he's just, he's trying to take the throw in.

And then it's the slip.

It's the bit where he obviously wants to wang the ball at him.

Can't quite do that.

Then slips.

And he's just like, he has this moment where he could just pull out of the whole thing and just say, okay, I'm going to be a cool head.

You know, I'm the captain.

I'm going to back away from this.

But instead, he just tries a rugby tackle, which is also rubbish.

He doesn't even land a single decent blow and gets the red card.

It's just, and then he doesn't even leave for a while, does he?

It's almost like you can't believe what he's done.

He just lingers and has to be sort of apologetically told that you're gone.

It was, oh, it was tech.

It was real box office stuff, actually, I've got to say.

There was also a good moment, the goal of the game, which Nick has already covered.

Yutla's fantastic shot on not quite a half volley, but almost.

The Lucy Ward, friend of the show, was on co-comms for TNT Sports, and

his goal was so good, it got like an involuntary gasp from Lucy,

which I don't think I've heard before when she's on co-comms.

But

yeah, it was that was a sensational strike of a football.

It deserved it, didn't it?

Yeah, Nick.

I think if it should be stated again, what a shock that that result is because Atalanta, Europa League champions, until recently, they looked like they could go for the total in Syria.

Started the

league phase campaign in this year's tournament really well.

I was very lucky in December to go and watch them in Bergamot play Real Madrid and really take them to the wire.

It was an absolutely belting game of football, one of the best that I've seen all season.

And as we say, they've been outplayed here by a team from Belgium that nobody paid much attention to.

They're losing their way a bit, though, I think.

Oh, sorry, it's just because Atalanta have been sort of losing their way gradually over these last few weeks.

I think it might be slightly short squad.

Maybe they don't quite have the strength in depth.

because I saw the game against Calieri at the weekend, a 0-0 draw, which kind of really did drop them away from the title race.

They're now, what, five or six points back?

And I just had this feeling they're slightly coming undone as the season's gone on, which is sad because it's been an amazing story in itself for a club like that to be to be up there vying for the Scudetta.

But yeah, it looked like a club that was slightly losing their way, to be honest, last night.

Well, Gasparini afterwards tried to bring them all together by saying, Adamolo Luckman shouldn't have taken the penalty.

He's one of the worst penalty takers I've ever seen.

Which, Barry, is exactly it's exactly we want honesty from managers.

I'm a huge fan.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I don't know what Adam Ola Luckman's penalty record is like, whether he takes quite a few, but that wasn't a good one.

It was quite an easy save for Mingule.

I mean, I think they'd have probably lost anyway, but hats off to Club Brugge.

They pinched the last qualification spot for these knockout stages and they go through.

Yeah, a great night for the Low Countries against the Italians as Fire Nord knocked out that classic footballing rivalry.

Fire Nord knocked out AC Milan.

Absolutely massive result this for Fire Nord, Paul, isn't it?

Yeah, and it was even more exceptional because after 40 seconds, they were a goal down at San Zero.

So, you know, all that kind of telling them to stay tight, you know, no silly mistakes.

And they're down within 40 seconds.

But not only that,

it seems like it's kind of scripted to be that way because it's Santi Jimenez who played for Vionord and, you know, only joined Milan at the start of February.

So you felt this sense of foreboding for Fire Nord, really.

The first leg, they were fantastic.

They really, final were brilliant.

And it was the Eagle Haishao show.

He was amazing.

He did everything in the first leg.

That's right.

Just, it was one of those high.

If you watch the highlights of that game, it almost feels like it's just his personal highlights.

He does everything.

He scores.

He hits the bar.

He does literally everything.

But this was a very different test.

And partly because final, this is not just any final team.

This is a massively incapacitated final team.

They've had 10 players out injured.

The average age of this team is 23.

They've lost their captain for the rest of the season to a knee injury.

So all of that added together, coming into San Ciro, going a goal down after 40 seconds.

You can't help but think that however much Milan have been misfiring this season, you know, with the fact this is the biggest game of their season,

they're going to go on and win it.

And it's just incredible they they didn't manage to kind of keep that momentum going.

And in fact, by the time,

you know, it was kind of already starting to go downhill from by the time Teo Hernandez was sent off for the dive.

And once that happened, it completely changed the whole dynamic.

Baz, were we happy with that?

Second yellow?

His first yellow Tio Hernandez was great because it was a massive shirt pool.

And then he tried to do that thing of not getting booked by jogging away from the referee and not looking around and hoping the referee might forget what he'd just seen.

Like on FIFA, right?

Do you remember the old FIFA game where you could just run away from the ref indefinitely?

He'd still be going now if he could.

What did you make of the yellow for the dive?

Because we sort of talked about it with Diego Jotta the weekend and diving isn't really, no one's really booked for diving in the Premier League at the moment.

No, and I think they should be.

And I think Tio Hernandez

fully deserved the yellow cardigo for a blatant dive.

It was a really, really stupid thing to do.

And he cost his team dearly because Milan were, I think, in complete control of that game.

When he got sent off,

I think it was only a matter of time before they scored.

Yeah, it was just dumb, really dumb from a player who should know better.

And apparently is currently agitating for a new and much improved deal at Milan.

So good luck with that, Chiao.

I suspect his agent won't be hammering on the CEO's door first thing this morning.

But

yeah, I don't think he can have any complaints whatsoever.

And

it was daft.

It's like the players forget that there are cameras on the game and that there's VAR.

I don't think VAR wasn't used here, but

they would have soon picked over if the ref hadn't spotted it.

And here's getting an absolute hammering in the Italian media this morning.

I was just sort of looking at a little selection, but in Miguz Letodelos thought, there's a sort of four-page headline saying, Theo, now it's finally over.

Because as Baz

has alluded to,

he's had a bit of a turbulent up and down time there recently.

But I think the vibes are that this might be it.

He may well not get the new contract.

He wants, he might well get a heavy fine from the club.

He might be bombed out.

And I've got to say, it was utterly egregious.

But one thing about Faynor that I felt their equaliser was in the circumstances, well, well, their winner, um, was a really good goal because there have been times in in both legs, I think, where they'd had all the pace that Paul has alluded to from Peschel and his teammates, but there hadn't always been that kind of clarity in the final or third to find that final ball, pass or finish.

And now, a very young team, which again we've mentioned, is is faced by a fairly deep milan block.

How do you get through them?

Up against 10 million, you always have to work out

where the spare man is, don't you?

And it was a really long passing move from about where every time they were just patient, patient, found the spare man, patient, patient, and moved it on.

And in the end, they found the opportunity.

Wonderful, wicked, devilish ball in, emphatic headed by Carranza, which was the epitome of beating the keeper, all ends up.

It really, really was.

Just one of those beautiful goals that it looks so simple, but you love to watch.

But I just thought that in the circumstances

in which they've been pitched, it was a very mature and beautifully worked goal.

And again,

as with Club Brigger, a result that was signposted over the course of two legs, I think.

Milan,

all these attacking players that they've got, but they kind of was a bit all the gear, no idea for Milan in the end.

They had all these stars on there and couldn't really find an answer.

The other game was a great game.

Ben Ficer were wounded up going into the second leg.

They drew 3-3 with Monaco, so they're through.

Paul, you watched this.

I mean, there are too many goals to analyse it as far as I can tell.

But the order of the scoring was exactly what you want in a 3-3.

One side goes through, 4-3 on aggregate.

Yeah, it was.

And the funny thing is the first leg was quite a hard watch.

The first leg wasn't particularly enjoyable.

And so I was going into this one with lowish expectations.

And sure enough, Monaco came out on form.

Like Monaco came out looking a threat.

But it was actually Ben Fica who opened the scoring.

So you're thinking maybe this is just going to fizzle out as a bit of a damn squib.

You know, Ben Fika now have a 2-0 lead.

And actually, the man who really then took the game by the scruff of the net was Embolo, who was absolutely fantastic.

He was absolutely everywhere for Monaco.

And they just could not deal with him, Ben Fica.

And so, yeah, Embolo hit the post.

It looked like he'd scored.

And then very shortly afterwards, Minamino did score which which got them sort of back into it and then to be honest benfica just looked all at sea they just could not get a handle on this game and you know they're playing at home and the fans are starting to get on their backs and monaco were just playing some sensational football and so when when then monaco took the lead on the night and levelled the tie-up just after the break you really felt it was theirs to go on and win and that was the goal of the night wasn't it the dummy and then Benzagir puts it it was lovely goal yeah Benzagir absolutely lovely goal but the football they were playing was sensational and you know it really says a lot for the job that

Adi Hutta has done there.

You know, it's a young team, it's a fun team to watch.

They were playing brilliantly, Benfica were clearly on the ropes, but the amazing thing was this kind of shift of momentum that seemed to happen without any obvious incident.

But Ben Fica just started to come back into the game.

And

it was, again, like it was really a careless challenge that cost Monaco really their grip on the game.

It was a very long VAR check.

It was a penalty.

Pavlidis dispatched it fairly calmly.

And then the game sort of went crazy for a little while after that because it looked like, again, the game had gone to bed in Benfica's favour.

And then there was this kind of crazy sequence where

Sub came on, Ilinkena came on for Monaco.

Immediately, Ottomendi made a complete mess of things.

Monaco scored again to level the tie and it just kept going one way, then the other way.

But Benfica eventually did see it away.

They also had a penalty a very long var check again for a penalty later on to sort of secure it which was not given as a penalty despite the referee giving it on the pitch so it was an amazing game literally everything happened but my real takeaway from it was that monaco looked brilliant for long passages i had a huge huge amount of respect for what uh adi hutter's done there and he will feel really gutted that they haven't managed to go through there and i always feel very sorry for adi hutter because no man should be called adolf hutter these days it's a terrible name so what the second i think think the second worst name in football.

Okay, I'm trying to wait.

Is it obvious what the first, the worst is?

No, the worst one is Osama bin Laden, who plays in Peru.

Well, stop it.

Yeah, there's a player called

Osama bin Laden, and he's got a brother called Saddam Hussein, and his dad was going to round it off by calling his third child George Bush, but didn't have a boy, so he couldn't quite follow through with that.

I mean, it didn't sound like he was, you know, making like value judgments whether he could have called whatever child he had George Bush, it wouldn't have been a surprise to blimey.

That is a you know, that's a larican dad, isn't it?

You know, walking to the pub going, you'll never guess what I call my kids.

Um, anyway, tomorrow, uh, Baz, Real Madrid, Man City, uh, Rail 3-2 up.

How do you see it?

I don't know.

The general consensus seems to be that Real Madrid will go through.

I'm not so sure.

I kind of have a fancy for City that they might turn them over.

I could be completely wrong.

Obviously, the odds are stacked against them.

They're away at the burnabout playing this team of Terminators who

are so difficult to knock out of this competition.

But they have a chance.

They played very well at the weekend against Newcastle.

Their new signings are betting in.

They'll need Rael to have an off day.

They'll need to be on top of the game.

I think there will be a lot of goals.

So nil-nil, it will be, and Riel will scrape through.

Erling Holland named in the squad, despite that sort of worrying-looking knee issue that he came off with at the weekend.

We mentioned the F off, FU Bellingham discussion.

That TV show did have it just written, didn't it?

Like big graphic.

I can't remember what that show is called, but the one that's, you know, the sort of clickbaity Spanish.

That's the one, you know, and it had, you know, F off, F U, but just written like on the on the desk.

Yes, Baz?

I just find this particular footballing debate incredibly tedious and don't really know what everyone is making such a big deal out of.

But that might just be me.

I don't think it's that interesting.

No, I suspect people just like saying the word, and we occasionally do, don't we?

Sid wrote about how it's got a bit farcical and this sort of crusade that Madrid are on against referees might distract them from this game.

They recently sent an open letter letter to the Federation and the government, the government, denouncing what they claimed was a corrupt and totally discredited system designed to harm them.

I don't know if they realise that European governments have got quite a lot on at the moment.

Anyway, really good fit for them.

So that might make a bit of a difference.

They're missing a lot of defenders, aren't they?

Elsewhere, PSG at 3-0 up at home to Brest, Dortmund, 3-0 up at home to Sporting.

And in that Low Countries Italian rivalry, PSV, 2-1 down at home to Juve.

So they could make make it

three out of three.

That'll do for part two.

Part three will begin by looking ahead to Aston Villa, Liverpool in the Premier League.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratches 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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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So As and Miller are playing Liverpool tomorrow night.

It's always weird to have a Premier League game on when there's Champions League football, but it's because Liverpool are in the Carabao Cup.

Not tonight.

Yeah, it's tomorrow for me, guys.

Wait, yesterday, it's yesterday for you, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, probably.

It's already happened, yeah.

Liverpool won 2-0.

Yes, Asenville are playing Liverpool tonight.

This game is happening because Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.

And it feels, Nick, that Liverpool,

in this tiny bit, Banny Robertson said they were nervous, you know,

during that Wolves game.

And this is a run at the start of three really tricky games for them.

Yeah.

Well, more than a banana skin, given what we know Villa are capable of at home.

I wouldn't be, I mean,

I know the teams chasing them need to hold onto something, but I wouldn't be writing the obituars for their title campaign just yet.

You're allowed a scratchy one against a lower-down team like Wolves, especially after the drama and the emotion of that game at Goodison a few days before.

But it's definitely one of those where you do expect a reaction and a slightly slicker performance, probably.

The passes weren't sticking on Sunday, where they were the second balls definitely weren't got to.

They looked a yard off.

So if they'll have come out at their best, Liverpool will have a problem.

Bill are too

little bit

sketchy right now.

Obviously, they have had their own defeat at Wolves, and then I was actually there on Saturday to watch them fairly laboured for a lot of a time against Ipswich, a 10-man Ipswich, and

they didn't really do enough to win.

So it's two teams who have maybe something slightly to prove tonight.

Rashford may well get a start, look very sharp in the second half.

On Saturday, Ascensio was probably

the best player.

These are two players who can massively hurt Liverpool on their day.

It's one of those where a draw for Liverpool is not a disaster, but you maybe don't want to come out having posted three subpar performances in a row, and it's certainly a very difficult game play.

Yeah, and they go Villa City, Newcastle, I think.

Paul, in terms of the title race, the neutral would like Liverpool to probably get naught points from those three games, but you know, we need this blip to continue.

Yeah, and it would be nice if we could have a title race.

I think it's asking too much for Forest to get their way back into it.

That would be the dream, wouldn't it, to have

a Forest Arsenal Liverpool showdown.

But yeah, I think from a neutral point of view, it's nice to see the tight race open up.

As Nick says, I don't think there's any need for panic stations, but Liverpool have got a really tricky spell coming up.

With the exception of that game against Southampton, they've just got back-to-back, you know, pretty tricky games.

With the AFL Cup final in there for good measure,

it's a big spell coming up for them.

On shoving, Barry, Terry says, says, I've just listened to the pod.

It's funny how short memories are saying the Liverpool penalty should have been disallowed due to a push in the build-up.

But the Everton goal in the last minute was fine, as it was a vibes push.

And you're okay with a push to not kill a vibe.

Fair play.

And I actually think maybe in your defence, Barry, you did suggest that...

The Tarkovsky equaliser was fortunate to have been given because Betto pushed Canate just for the tape.

Yeah, that's true.

Look, my home county, offley won the all-irland gaelic football final in 1982 and their winning goal came about on the back of a blatant shove in the back by the scorer Seamus Darby on one of the Kerry defenders

and

that pushing it back that didn't count

because it was my team that benefited from it so it's all very subjective, isn't it?

That pushing it back was fine.

Right.

Well, it's interesting because

you became sort of the

shove czar on the previous pod.

So, you know, it feels like you were the go-to man.

Has there been a shove?

We have like house, but for shoving, you know, you're like Hugh Lawrence.

That offly one was over 40 years ago, and people from Kerry still complain about it.

Yeah, of course they do.

Of course they do.

And now, on Monday night, Everton soft-launched their new 53,000-seater Bramley Moore Dock Stadium.

Everton under-18s played against Wigan under-18s in front of 10,000 fans.

They lost 2-1.

The first goal was scored by Harrison Rimmer, a Liverpool fan who raised six fingers, six European Cups, which does feel very Everton, doesn't it, for the goal to christen the stadium?

Cost nearly 800 million, took four years.

The land it was on was a working dock just three and a half years ago.

Paul, it looks amazing.

doesn't it?

It does.

You're asking the wrong man here, Max.

You're asking the wrong man.

I am not a modern stadiums person.

It looks fantastic in a theoretical sense, and I think it'd be fun to watch a game of football there, a nice experience.

No, but there are bad news stadiums and there are good news stadiums.

Yeah,

I hear you.

It's not

the Colchester United Western Homes Community Stadium, right?

Yeah, it looks like you could have a soul in there, you know?

No, it's been beautifully done, and I have no complaints with it at all.

I just must admit, I am still stuck in the past, and I still, my favourite stadiums are the ones that are basically hardly fit for purpose.

And they're probably really miserable experiences week to week for the reality watching a match, but still love that feeling of a football stadium that is like old and deeply ingrained in the local kind of houses around it.

And so yeah, I'm not, I'm not the person

who to go to with this one, but it does look like they've done a brilliant job.

I understand.

And, you know, I know what you mean, that the best stadiums are ones where you just turn a corner and there it is.

And you're like, wow, I had no idea.

But if we can, you know, if we can move past just pure nostalgia, you sort of mentioned it already, Barry, in the last couple of weeks.

It feels good to be an Everton fan, which is something I'm not sure I thought I'd ever say, but now they've got this shiny thing as well.

Yeah, it's exciting for them.

I read Andy Hunter's piece, he was there for that game, and he spoke very, very highly of it.

And look, Goodison Park,

I've only been to Goodison Park once I think it was 1997 and it was an absolute shit tip back then so I shudder to think what it's like these days but

I'm sure Everton fans will have great fun at the new stadium and some teams was it Southampton when they moved to St.

Mary's took them a long time I think to get their first win there I think I could be wrong but I think it was Southampton and just hopefully the team can hit the new ground running.

Yeah.

And I mean, as it's Everton, you imagine they may be 17th and played three at home and drawn all three.

It's quite funny, actually, because I remember when Carlo Antrilotti was Everton manager and was talking about how

much he was looking forward to managing Everton at this new stadium when it eventually was.

I think it might just have been an architect's drawing on paper at the time and so the fact that they're going to be playing their first game at this stadium under David Moyes has a certain poetic justice about it

I mean what I'm looking forward to the most about the only more is how they sorted the press box out because for one at Goodison is so

and I love Goodison by the way echo everything Paul said you can smell the foothall there in the community it's a beautiful place love it both how it's going but the press box once you're in you are not getting out of there and I think I think every match report written by any journalist who has ever covered a game at Goodison has been filed by someone who's busting for the toilet.

It is just absolutely not possible.

So, yeah, looking forward to the thoughtful access to the WCs at Glan Lee Moore, more than anything else.

DRT 1974 says, It's a shame Wilson and Lucy Ward aren't in with Barry to go through Leeds injury time winner.

Sickna for you, Baz.

Yeah, Pascal Strike struck twice.

Twice.

And

I'll be honest.

Yeah, Sunderland went.

I didn't give Sunderland much hope of winning this game.

I've really enjoyed watching them play this season, and they're a very good young team.

But I thought this would be a step too far for them.

And

it was looking good there for a while.

They were goal up.

Isidore scored again.

But Pascal Strike came off the bench to

score the two goals for Leeds, who I think definitely deserved a draw, but the late winner was an absolute sickener.

But there you go.

You feel it's done now.

It's sort of playoffs now, is it, for you boys?

Yeah, you think so.

I mean,

I think they'd have to go some not to make the playoffs at this stage.

And, yeah,

I sort of flip-flop between

wanting to see them get promoted and wanting them thinking they really another season in the championship would serve them well, but

yeah, let's let's go for promotion and then get beaten every week

to a Southampton.

Yeah, so Leeds top on 72 points, Sheffield United have 70, Burney in third, 65, Sunderland 62, and yeah, the team in seventh I won outside the playoffs, Coventry City.

Um, Frank Lampart's Coventry City doing really well, but they are what 47 points,

15 points is that behind you.

So, yeah, you should stick it out.

Nick, you wanted to mention Leighton Orient, who at one point were, you know, rubbing shoulders with the mighty U's for who might go down from League One.

We are still, and they are not.

Yes, now 12 wins in 15 in the league, I think, for Richie Welland's side.

And yeah, they played Lexington away in a big formation game.

Lexington, obviously, going very solidly for second place.

And they went there despite a hectic fit-free schedule, probably brought on by their tie with Man City.

And they won 2-1.

And the winning goal was absolutely beautiful strike.

Try and catch it.

It was the lad Jamie Donnelly, who didn't quite score the 50-yarder against City.

Obviously, sadly, went in off Ortega's fat side, but incredible effort.

And it's a fantastic hit.

The corner is put in.

The ball is headed somewhere up towards the moon.

And this watches it all the way down and cracks it in beautifully with his left foot.

It is an absolute masterpiece of technique.

Pushes all in very firmly in third and first playoff spots.

And yeah, really good side to watch.

They press incredibly hard.

Very intense team, plays in great football.

Got a player who I love to watch in, Ethan Galbraith, who was at Man United and I think is very much destined.

for higher things.

I went to watch them last week actually on the back of their Man City performance.

I went to watch them against Mansfield, which is maybe why I went on a bit of a bandwagon now.

But fantastic team to watch 12 out of 12 wins from 15.

Very much looking forward to seeing how they do in the future.

We're not very used to seeing them in these rarefied climbs and certainly not in the championship.

But I think they've got a good chance.

Now, something we're if we're criticised for anything at the moment, it's we're spending too much time talking about Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, something that would never happen on the sweeper pod, Paul Watson.

Can you take us to Paul Watson's world of football?

What's going on in that there, other parts of the world?

Yep, so we've got a new pod coming out today, the new the sweeper podcast.

It's we've got a Romanian coach who has left his third-tier team mid-season to go on the Romanian version of Race Across the World.

This team at top of the league, and he's just jetted off midway for a promotion battle.

A Turkish team who have had eight and a half pairs of their boots stolen in their preseason camp.

Andrei Krull has become the second player to play on all six continents.

And then we've got the Marshall Islands with their vanishing kit.

It's a climate change awareness kit, which is

amazing, and their bid to join Oceania football.

And similarly, the return of football to Niue Island, which only has 2,000 people.

Football has disappeared for about 45 years.

But it is back.

They were once members of Oceania Football Confederation.

Forgot that they were.

Oceania Football Confederation also forgot that they were.

They got back in touch when they started playing football again and said, Great news.

We've just read that we're a member of OFC.

OFC said, Yeah, you were, but because you've been inactive, we're going to kick you out now.

So they got kicked out for letting OFC know they were active.

Right.

Because they were inactive.

It's good to know that football admin is the same all around the world.

What's that island called?

Neue, which is near New Zealand.

It's

N-I-U-E.

And it reminded me of my greatest message that I ever got back from FIFA back in the day when when I was in Micronesia and we were trying to get FIFA attention.

Sent a message to FIFA which said, due to bad protocol, this message will not receive a reply.

How long did I spend with my email written saying, just to let you know, that was technically a reply?

I didn't send that.

So it's sort of in the middle of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and the Cook Islands.

Yep, and yeah, under 2,000 people, but they are playing football again.

And there are now a clutch of nations in that region who are outside of FIFA, who are all just starting to put football programs together.

So it's quite an exciting time, really.

Oh, great.

So, yeah, listen to the sweeper pod, and you get all the bits that we don't get to.

So it's a wonderful compliment in many ways to us.

All right, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Thanks, Nick.

Thank you, Nax.

Thanks, Paul.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Silas Gray and Jesse Howard.

Our executive producer is Christian Bennett.

This is The Guardian.