Real Madrid do it yet again to stun Manchester City: Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, another one of those Man City Rail Madrid games that the Eti had.

For a while, it looked like City were Real Madriding Madrid, Safarin conceding chance after chance, but somehow winning, Haaland scoring a lovely one and a penalty either side of Killian and Bappe's hilarious miss hit.

But then, Czechs, Wikipedia, returning city legend Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham in injury time, mean Real Madrid do it again and without virtually all their defenders.

Also, a Thunderbolt from Western McKenney helps Juve to a 2-1 win over PSV.

Dortmund win convincingly at Sporting, and PSG have a comfortable win over Brest.

In the FA Cup, they're still playing at Exeter.

We'll have live updates while Palace win at Doncaster on Monday.

There's the most subs ever made by one side in a game.

A lovely giant killing story.

Your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning.

Welcome.

Hi, Max.

Hello, Nikki Bandini.

Hi, yeah.

And Bonjour Saba, Philippe Aucler.

Bonjour, Bonjour Sava, Max.

Yes, let's start at the Etihad then.

Man City 2, Real Madrid 3.

I mean, a really fun game, Barry.

I couldn't work out if this was a classic or if

AI had made a Man City, Real Madrid Champions League game.

it sort of had all the things you'd expect.

But I was never really sort of surprised or in the most seat because I kind of thought all these things would probably happen.

Yeah,

you're probably right.

It's a good way of putting it.

It was definitely a tremendously entertaining game.

It swung this way and that.

Real Madrid sort of roared out of the traps.

Probably should have gone ahead.

scored a couple of goals, but it was City who took the lead.

And then they had a good spell.

Probably should have extended the lead, but didn't.

And then Real Madrid equalized, and so on, and so forth.

So it was very entertaining in that regard.

I wouldn't say it was a classic, mainly because there was too many big-name players missing, specifically in Real Madrid's defense, which was quite make-do and mend.

And too many good players missed too many good opportunities.

And

there were just too many mistakes and i think that's ultimately what cost city

uh they have an like an another capitulation to go with the several they've had already this season uh

sort of where they've been unable to close out games brighton fine order brentford psg man united all sort of spring to mind and and this is another one to go with that collection and it's kind of odd i think city will think they should have won i think they could have lost by a lot more

and

the game is nicely poised going into the second leg but it's difficult to see city

well it's difficult to see either so i'm keeping a clean sheet at the burnabout

so

city could pull it out of the bag yet but uh they they are

playing these you know sort of champions league equivalent of cockroaches.

I mean that in the nicest possible way.

They just cannot be killed enough.

No, they can't.

I mean, I don't know what you made of the defending, Philippe, but for the third, it's it's a real like there are three really basic errors, you know, like really basic errors.

Yes, I think there's probably if there's a degree

beyond basic,

uh, is there one?

Maybe rudimentary.

Would you say rudimentary?

Yeah, it is really rudimentary.

Yeah.

Mixture of tired minds and tired legs, I suppose.

Because on the face of it, to be honest, Manchester City's defense should have been more Salina than Real Madrid, considering the absences.

I know that, you know, Prubentia has been out for a while and so forth, having to put Louis back and so forth.

But honestly, yeah, I mean, it was comedic.

It was actually hilarious.

I have to say, if you were not a Manchester City fan.

But the thing is that could you not feel that something like this was going to happen?

It's now reached that level when you think, oh, they're leading 2-1.

It's going to finish 3-2.

It's reached that level where the players are starting to think that's what's going to happen.

And the defending, what can you say?

I mean, there was no defending to talk about, even if we shouldn't underestimate the fact that they looked physically tired.

I don't know if you had the same feeling as well that for some reason Real looked actually fresher, despite bringing on that spring chicken Luca Modric

in the second half, but they looked fresher.

There was actually a remark that Clarence Sadorf made

quite late last night after talking about the game.

And he said, the most concerning thing for Manchester City is that it's not as if they didn't try to hold on to their advantage after going and being too one up.

The problem is that they were unable to do so, and that they seem not to be programmed.

And I think when we talk about the

problems which are brought on by systematized football, we often thought only about the creative side of it.

Like it's too predictable, they do not have the, you know, when a couple of players are missing the inspiration or whatever the sharpness, they can't create anything.

But it also goes for the defending.

And

the system is not working anymore.

And you wonder if it is not a breakdown in a belief system.

I mean, we're going to go to a very, very deep, deep.

I mean, maybe

those players are now agnostic.

Maybe they're actually thinking God is dead or something like that.

And I know I'm just trying to inch my way into Sooth Corner and the next private hire.

But the fact that the belief system is no longer working is clear.

So when we talk about defending, it's not just the fact that they were not in place, they didn't track back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

No,

they just haven't got it in their minds anymore.

I think that just chimes really with what Pep was saying at the end of the game when he was being interviewed and asked about basically throwing it away again.

He said, well, it's happened many times before.

He repeated that over and over again in different interviews.

It's happened many times before.

And it really, like, he spoke like someone who is

not even at the end of his tether, is almost at this point of resignation to it, the way he was talking about it.

It was like, well, I don't, I clearly don't have the answer to it because it's happened many times before.

And I think that

belief is a really interesting way to put it, Philippe, I think, because on the British TV commentary, well, on Amazon Prime commentary, I guess, last night,

when it was 2-1 to City,

someone, I can't remember who it was, someone said something about, oh, anchilotti's raised eyebrow speaks a thousand words or whatever and i was thinking anchilotti's been here plenty and and seen his team dig it dig themselves out plenty and the next thing you know they score two goals and i think that's the point with madrid madrid's belief system is absolutely undimmed madrid's belief system is always we've got these great players and and we can find something from somewhere it was such an odd game i found it a really entertaining game but it was such an odd game because basically both teams kept scoring at the points when they should have been at their lower air but the points when the other team looked in control.

But I do think there was absolutely belief is an interesting way to frame it because I think that Madrid, for all they've had going on, and they aren't a team having a great season.

In fact, if anyone should be feeling nervous, maybe you could argue it should be Anchilotti who looks like he could potentially lose his job, even while winning La Liga, he could lose his job.

And yet,

really, at the end of that game, they just kept thinking, yeah, but we're still Real Madrid.

We can still score two goals.

And Man City, for whatever reason, let themselves make some really poor decisions in the last few minutes.

It's like they have to reboot Man City, just sort of turn them all off and turn them back on again.

And, you know, hope that works.

I'm kind of reminded of that time when many years ago, Laurie Sanchez used to manage Fulham.

They weren't doing very well at all, but he always used to argue that if games only lasted 75 minutes, they'd be near the top of the league.

And you're going, well, yes, Laurie, but unfortunately for you.

You know, so maybe that's a tack Pep could try

while trying to excuse his team's collapses.

It's an interesting stat because you messaged during the game, you know,

sort of halfway through, Philippe, you know, is Bellingham playing?

And he didn't do a whole lot.

He grew into the game, I guess.

But this stat from

Edo the 16th on Twitter, whoever that may be, non-penalty game winners in stoppage time.

Ronaldo, seven across his entire career, Messi, six across his entire career, Bellingham, six in the last two years.

Oh, my goodness.

This idea, this idea that he is, I mean, I, and I, I feel,

I feel like some people can say the word clutch.

It doesn't sound right coming out of my mouth, but I believe it's the right word to say.

That, you know, he just, he has that thing, which is quite hard to, it's quite hard to sort of pinpoint what it is, but he has it.

Talent?

No, okay.

No, no, no.

Talent helps.

It's true.

It's, you know, those

the famous quip about Graham Gooch asking, you know, Ian Botham after he took a wicket, you know, coming back, I think, from suspension for smoking weed.

And they asked him, who writes your scripts?

And

that's what you can say about Bellingham, because remember, you know, the golden the Euro as well.

I'd say Ian Botham's scripts have changed over time.

That's a

slightly.

Carry on.

Lord Botham.

Let's not forget.

Lord Botham.

Yeah, no,

it's a very special talent.

It's also perhaps he's one of those players who has the physical and mental resources.

He doesn't tire mentally either.

And therefore, he makes absolutely sure that he will be at the right place at the right time.

This is a very, very, very good talent to have isn't it yeah it is i mean i i i was certain he was exhausted all euros as i kept tweeting before he kept scoring goals in the last minute um

and then you i mean i don't know what i don't know what you liked more nikki out of mbappa's hilarious miskick or brahm diaz

not celebrating and everyone checking hang on who did he when was the when were the brahim diaz city years i've forgotten them five appearances no goals between 2016 and 2019 and then diaz obviously you don't celebrate because you're former club when you score, but if someone else scores a winner in the tournament, you can strut around like a peacock.

I thought exactly that, Max.

It was funny how he didn't celebrate his goal.

And then

I don't know.

I can't tell where the over-analysis is kicking in.

But was that a bit of a Haaland swagger that he was doing that strut after

the winning goal?

Was that another little coded dig from Diaz even?

Amongst it.

Yeah, it was very odd

to go from one to the other.

I try not to judge people too much on this stuff because, yes, he didn't play that much for Man City, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have personal feelings towards people he worked with and towards people who he liked at the club and who he doesn't want to rub it in their faces in their home ground.

So, who knows?

There could be things there, but it was odd that he went from one thing to the other.

I think the fact that Mbappe missed kicked the first goal was

Madrid's first goal was almost

symptomatic of how this slightly odd game was,

because there was some really good stuff in there.

And actually, I thought that

Vinicius, again,

sensational in parts for Madrid, and some of his best play was happening at the start of the game when they didn't score.

But then

when he assists the goal at the end, was he really trying to assist it or was he trying to chip to score himself and it doesn't quite go in?

Like the whole game felt a bit like that.

Things that weren't quite working.

Arguably, the one standout exception to that was Haaland, who took his goals very, very well, even the penalty very well taken.

And of course he hadn't scored against Madrid before, so that was a monkey off his back.

But it's reflective of who this Madrid team are.

They're a very uneven team.

They've got absolutely walloped a few times this season by Barcelona and they've had some low moments.

But there's just so much attacking quality, so much, even when the defence is, as has already been talked about, a total mess with half your defence is midfielders and playing out of position, that you still basically just know you can find a goal some way somehow and uh bellingham's ability to to score at the end is is its own thing as well but yeah when you've got vinicius who very possibly is the best player in the world and by the way let's not uh gloss completely over that uh little uh

tifo as they'd call it in english the the choreography with the Roderie on it and and a clear dig at him that I think he responded to pretty well.

I think he's very possibly the best in the world.

Mbappe has been considered the best in the world for a long time.

And I think he's had a bit of a rough introduction in Madrid, but starting to find his feet.

Bellingham, that the whole attack, there's just so much there that you know that even when it's not quite firing right, it's a decent chance they'll find ways to put the ball in the net.

Max, if you played, you know, that game where you've got to guess where the ball is, and you have a player.

Okay.

Now,

if you took the picture of the moment that Mbappe connects with the ball,

you erase the ball and you present that, it would look like it's the perfect posture to score one of the world's greatest goals ever.

He scores, it's not even a shinna, it's between a shinna and a near.

And it took half an hour to get in.

Like Edison's on his field, and you're like, everyone knows what's going to happen, but no one can do anything about it.

That's quite magnificent.

A sort of foyer mortar, you know, but that was absolutely magnificent.

and if he had struck it cleanly might edison have saved it because edison is so clearly wrong fitted by it going wrong possibly possibly but we've got we've got to ask about we've got to talk about this tifo because it was it was ridiculous and the way these things bite you on the ass when once you do when you do them um the other thing did you notice that the um i've always wondered who actually pays for these and who actually makes them uh well i think fan groups i think it's fan groups like newcastle have this crowd called War Flags who do really good TFOs.

And as far as I know, various fan groups chip in and pay for them.

And then they bring them to the stadium before the game.

Or I think maybe the day before the game.

Or if not, early in the day of the game

and put them where they want them.

But yeah,

that was funny last night.

Stop crying your heart out.

And a picture of Rodri kissing the ballon door.

I mean, they might as well just say, hey, Vinitius, I dare you not to be shit tonight.

Barney wrote, actually, Barry, that he thought that was Haaland's best game for City, given the stage, given the opposition.

Haaland, he said, was very good in a Haaland kind of way, total Haaland.

a masterpiece in minimalism without subtlety.

Has anyone ever completed two passes an entire half against Real Madrid, but at the same time weirdly dominated the play?

Until I read that.

No, obviously I read a Barney Collin and then have to agree with it, but I thought he was good, but I didn't see him being this being the best I've seen of Haaland, but maybe he's right.

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought it was his best game for City.

I think it's his best game in a while, but

it's quite a low bar because

he does have a habit of going missing from these big games.

And he obviously never scored against Real Madrid.

So

to get two, and I thought his first goal was terrific.

I was like, when Gardiol, because Guardiol started the move deep in his own half, and then he was there to chest Grealish's dink over the top into Haaland's path.

I was like, How the hell did he get there?

He was such a good goal, yeah.

Um,

Grealish is amazing, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I felt a bit sorry for Grealish having to go off injured, you know, because he got a rare start against very exalted opposition and was playing well, so he'll be

peed peed off that it, you know, he had to

go off with an whatever the injury was.

But

no, I'm going to disagree with Barney on this one.

I enjoyed, I mean, Foden came on, didn't he?

And actually, did really well for that penalty.

I'm not sure what Sabios is complaining about, having sort of cut Phil Foden in half for that penalty.

And even afterwards, Angelotti went, No, that's a penalty.

This is quite a good reference.

That was a penalty.

It is worth mentioning, Philly.

You know, we've touched on it.

Alibaba, Carbaja, Militau, Rudiger, Lucas Vasquez, all out.

Sort of makes Tottenham look like they're just done any injury problems at the back, doesn't it?

That list.

Yes, that's very true.

And you could see how Tromini is, Ascensio

once again did as well as could be expected of him, as he has done in the past few weeks.

Tramini looks like it really is not his

position of predilection, to say the least.

Now, I'm going to be naughty and ask you a question.

Do you know anything about the fitness fitness of those real madrid players and who might be able perhaps to be available again next week my feeling was that it's going to be the same is that and cheloti doesn't have any of the solutions that what he has at his disposal right now but again

you will notice one thing he never

he has never used this as an excuse or even an explanation for the poor performances of his team.

Never.

Which is absolutely remarkable.

I mean, some managers are like that, Philippe.

Una Emery is the same.

It shows, yeah, but that's that shows confidence in your players to start with.

And

that contributes to the belief system, doesn't it?

I mean, I suppose they are top of La Liga.

So, you know, if you're top of La Liga, it's easier not to, I mean, they haven't been amazing, but it's easier to not blame, you know, to not make excuses when you're top of the league, I guess.

When we talk about not making excuses, excuses without, we probably need Sid for the full background, but Madrid are on a full-on war with the referees in Spain.

And so there are some kinds of excuses that have perhaps been coming out in that conversation.

But I don't think, again, Angelotti is the hub of that.

And I think that

this was something that Clarence Sadolf was talking about after the game last night about how

he was talking about it from the frame of how Pep Guardiola was responding to the game.

Because I really don't think that this result result condemns Citi.

I think the way that Madrid are, the way that that defence is so diminished at the moment, it is far from inconceivable that you can go to Madrid and outscore them just because of those vulnerabilities.

But I think that listening to Anchilotti and Guardiola after the game,

when you've got Pep saying, basically, well, this just keeps happening and I don't know what to do about it.

It doesn't make you feel like he believes they can go there and get a result.

Whereas I think even if Madrid had lost, you still would have seen Anchilotti be the same even keel that he always is.

And I think that's something that is just the nature of them.

Pep has never been the most even keel.

He's always very intense.

He's always very,

he's always, I can't find a better word than intense right now, but

he's that energy.

But I do think that at this moment,

perhaps the city need a bit more of that Anchilotti energy of, you know what, calm down.

We're still brilliant footballers.

We still are very capable.

Let's keep our heads and keep in mind that this is still an open tie.

It's a one-goal difference.

Do you think that

he is himself losing some of the belief?

Yeah, no, I really do.

And that in this case, you know, when you have Anchilotti, who in some ways is an absolute genius of a manager, but he's the arch pragmatist.

He's the man who always finds the right solution to the right problem, to the right question.

Whereas Pep is the one who wants to ask the questions all the time.

And then suddenly that's not the case anymore.

And maybe he's also lost that grip on his own beliefs.

I mean, he looked so when they scored the third and it just panned to the dugout.

And there's him and the guy who, like others, I always for a second think is Kevin Keegan, were both so slumped and just there, just you know, literally, it was just, I suppose it must be so weird for him.

I mean, it must just be so weird for Pep to be going through this.

I can't think of a moment in his career like playing, managing ever to be in this

kind of spiral, which does make it.

I don't know what you think about it, it makes it totally fascinating.

It is fascinating.

I mean, at the Layton Orient game on Saturday, I don't think he sat in the dugout at all.

I think he spent the whole time standing on the edge of his technical area.

But the Orient fans were giving him loads about getting sacked in the morning, blah, blah, blah.

And there was a like a pathway between the front of the stand nearest us

and the

fence surrounding the pitch.

And there were loads of fans just ambling up and down going to the loo or going to get refreshments or whatever throughout the game.

And at one point during the second half, this

big burly bloke with a pork pie hat and a very long, z-top style beard sort of just decided to wander up towards the city dugout and started giving Pep a load of abuse and, you know, giving the Nest Cafe sign.

And

Pep could hear every word he was saying and turned around and started giving him loads back.

And it's just quite unusual.

And he must be thinking, like, who the hell are you to be giving me this sort of abuse?

And your man wasn't really ushered away by stewards or anything.

He just said whatever it was he had to say, none of it complimentary, and then just wandered off down towards the

back down

towards the corner.

It was really funny.

Anyway,

let's see.

We've got what?

Newcastle the weekend then, Real Madrid.

I think Real go to Ossa Sooner on Saturday.

So, yeah, we'll find out next week who'll go through, won't we?

And that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do the rest of the Champions League games last night.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's start in France, Philippe.

Brest-Nil PSG 3.

What did you make of this?

Presumably, the whole of France was supporting Brest.

I think not just the whole of France.

I think outside of France, everybody was supporting Brest.

But it was, to be honest, it was the draw that everybody feared.

That's the last thing Brest wanted was to play PSG, whom they haven't beaten in donkeys years.

And that's a very, very old donkey, right?

That donkey has been put to rest a long time ago.

They had just lost 5-2 to them in the league.

I think they had two draws and 18 defeats out of the last 20 games.

There was not this element of this is fantastic.

This is new ground, breaking new ground for us to play against

a rival that probably we will never have a chance to play against again.

And so you put all that together and you thought I was really fearing for them as soon as the draw was made.

But

well,

PSG, if you talk about the game, PSG did one thing that they don't do, they haven't done very much until then, which is to start the game on the front foot at quite a high pace and really putting breasts under pressure.

And Brest were not able to deal with that.

They really,

I mean,

even the fact I was looking at the pitch thinking, well, it looks a bit like a fifth-day pitch on a test match, so maybe that will even things a little bit.

There were loads of dry patches and so forth.

It'll turn.

It'll turn, right, if you get it in the right areas.

Absolutely.

But, you know, you had those banners, and these banners had definitely been made by the fans, by the way.

You know, Impossible is not restoire and all these sort of things.

And the public, by the way, was absolutely absolutely astonishing from the first to the last minute they had a ball absolutely they had a ball they did didn't they because because when when den bele scored the second like at the time the whole breast fans are swirling their scarves bouncing up and down it was like the goal didn't happen they just carried on like here we go we're here having a great time they carried on And it's very rare, actually, that you see,

because they all have the red and white scarves, some homemade, by the way.

And it's very rare that you see three sides of a stadium doing it at the same time.

It was so beautiful.

It was absolutely beautiful.

And I think that's the kind of memories that people will keep from it.

And there was a reaction from them after Vitinia

scored.

And they hit the post.

I think Sima hit the post.

Ludovica-Jorg had a great game.

Again, what a player he is.

And let's hope they can get him for good because he's only on loan there.

But then they were a little bit overenthusiastic, exposed themselves and PSG,

who suddenly have got a Dembele who knows where the net is, which is honestly something we thought would never happen, ever.

And to be honest, he might soon forget where the net is because that's Dembele we're talking about.

And then that's it.

And I wouldn't say they crumbled because they fought until the very end.

You know, Eric Roix finished the game with something like

in a formation where there were about nine strikers.

But they tried and tried and tried, but I'm afraid that the writing was on that wall from the moment that the draw was made.

Because

can you imagine for the players how much more difficult it must be?

You know, you've just been beaten by those guys and you're meeting them again in the Champions League.

It's not as if you're meeting, you know, I don't know, Boris Herdmund or whatever, and then you suddenly think, well, actually, we don't know.

They don't know anything about us.

We might surprise them.

The problem is that they know everything about each other.

And basically, the result was quite logical.

I thought the score line flattered PSG a little bit.

Brest could have gone ahead when Donnaruma hoofed that clearance straight out of Georg's head and it sort of ricocheted the wrong side of the post.

They had three very good chances.

Seema hitting the post and then brought a good save out of Donnaruma later on.

Ashrafimi almost scored a comedy own goal, but it hit hit the post.

So I think Brest are unlucky not to have a goal, at least one goal, to take back to Paris.

Yes, I'd agree on that, but there was not one moment in the game where I felt they're going to do what they have done to so many others in the competition so far,

because they were also put under an awful lot of pressure.

And this PSG team, anyway, is a bit of a new beast that we got to get used to it.

It's a more dangerous beast, and it doesn't crumble as easily as the previous incarnations.

But anyway, yes, the scroll flattened it would have been lovely if they could have got a goal, got a goal, but it was not to be in, well, the tie is over, basically.

Well, but if rest do get through, what a collapse we're in store for next week, eh?

We can only hope.

To Turin, you meant us to PSV1.

I think, Nikki, we should start with just how beautifully Weston McKenney struck the opening goal for Juve.

Yeah, that was a really, really well-taken goal, wasn't it?

Well, I don't know if you heard Monday's pod, but if Wilson was here, he'd have found

another Juventus player whose ear was offside.

This is in relation to the Birmingham player, Euato, who scored an absolute similar issue, a better version of this McKenney goal, but it is just the pure technique.

And we know these guys can kick the ball beautifully, but you don't see it that often.

And when they do, it's...

it's just so it's just so pleasing i think nikki yeah and and to strike it so cleanly on a,

it's a long, it's a long rebound, but effectively it's come back on the rebound.

It was a really nice goal for Juventus in general because

the genesis of it is Federico Gatti, who's a centre-back,

pressing high up the pitch, winning the ball, and being involved in getting it back to McKenney.

The whole

moment felt like, oh, that's the kind of football that Thiago Motto wants his team to play.

And I guess in contrast to perhaps the city madrid team game where you could look at it and say there's a lot of players uh in that matchup are you thinking okay this is this is a swan song for them this juventus team is is young it's it's i think the average start average age of the starting 11 was 25.

they are a team that's got ideas but it's been so rare that we've seen them in any sort of consistent way under undermott this season it hasn't been a consistently performing team they weren't a consistently performing team even over the course of these 90 minutes so you had this wonderful goal and then you had letting PSV get back into it through Ivan Perisic.

And in the end, Juventus win through Mangula and you're not quite sure what to take away from it all because, yes, it was a lovely, lovely goal from McKenny and definitely seek it out because it's a beautifully clean strike, as everyone's been saying from outside the box.

Really straight arrowed into the top corner of the net.

But I still don't know.

how confident I am that Juventus will even make it through the tie.

They should.

They're better than PSV.

They definitely should.

And PSV themselves, another team

you could say are missing a lot of players.

Malik Tillman, the American who's been brilliant for them in midfield is missing.

Another American, all of our Americans this tie, but Ricardo Pepe, who's been very effective off the bench for them, I think he's actually their top scorer, also injured.

I think he's out till the end of the season now.

So

a diminished PSV team in a sense.

And

Juventus didn't close them out of the tie in the way that perhaps they should have been able to.

So I think it's still pretty open this one.

But yes, a very nice goal from Western McKenny.

Nikki, were you surprised?

It actually goes for all of you.

Were you surprised by actually how good PSV were at times and the problems, the extent of the problems they posed to Juve?

I wasn't expecting that.

I thought it was one step beyond, so to speak.

But they actually, even after they went one nil down,

they were extremely threatening.

they were very well organized.

And I'm like you, I think it's going to be very tough for you, they in the Netherlands.

Yeah, I mean, Peter Bosch could manager, they're top of the league in the Aeroda Fizzi, they're playing very, very well domestically.

Um, and I've said the PSV had injuries.

Listen, Juventus have got their own defensive injury crisis, Bremer's out, Juan Cabal's out, those are both long-term, but also Cambiazzo and Calulu both went out recently, so their defense is about as makeshift as Real Madrid's is, but at a lower quality as well.

Um,

so uh, they they have got defensive injury problems.

But it's quite a, it feels like a bit of a pivotal moment for Juventus this last part of the season because Mott has come in from Bologna where he clearly achieved something amazing, got them into the Champions League, playing really interesting football that was very flexible, all about position swapping, very modern.

He's tried to bring that to Juventus, and there's been times when we've seen these glimpses of it.

And I think the McKenny's goal absolutely does epitomise the best of it because, again, Gatty is a centre-back and he's all the way up winning the ball, capitalising on a mistake with the press to win the ball, and then getting down to the byline to cut it back.

But the overall

consistency of the play just isn't there at all, and it feels like it could cost him his job.

Certainly, if they miss the Champions League, and right now, they're fifth, which may or may not be good enough to get into Champions League next season.

And if you do lose your job, then does the whole project project go out the window?

But I'm saying all this, and they are an interesting project in that, again, very young starting 11.

But it does feel like a project where they've made some sacrifices over the summer that have kind of all backfired.

You look at a player like Dean Heisen is allowed to leave and go to the Premier League where he's doing very well for next to nothing.

Someone who is an embodiment of this next-gen project they've had going, where they have their next-gen side that now plays in the lower divisions and produces these great talents.

But instead of developing those players and bringing them through like we thought they were going to, they sold a lot of them in the summer to bring in a couple of players like Douglas Lewis, who hasn't been a success really from Villa, expensive signing, and Koopminers from Atalanta, who I really have such a high opinion of as a player, but again, has really not shown his best so far in Turin.

So

they're at an odd moment where it's not quite clear if the project's working.

And I do think this next part of the season, the last part of the season, is going to have a defining impact for Motta personally and also for which way this project is facing in the summer.

Also was the moment that I realised that Ivan Peresich was playing for PSV or still playing at all, I'd say.

But what a brilliant first touch and not a bad finish either.

He was really good, just not on the goal.

Like he had a really good game, as did De Jong up front.

The two old-timers in that team definitely played well.

Sporting the old Dortmund 3.

What did you make of this one, Baz?

I won't lie.

I only saw the highlights package of this this morning and it struck me as a game of of two halves uh sporting

had three good chances in the first half smacked one off the bar from distance conrad harder at a shot from distance that seemed to swerve just before it got to greg or cobel who stuck out an arm and and was very lucky to keep it out i think quite fortunate save but a good save and uh

harder had a pullback to how pedro somebody or other sorry I can't read my writing on the edge of the area his weak shot was um

very

yeah his weak shot his shot was very weak and and he should have done better uh and then brussy dorpin hit their stride adieimy gittins pretty good julian brand

and uh garassi scored a grey header for cross in from the right and he brilliantly yeah fabulous just a fabulous header textbook crossed the back back in the direction it came over the keeper and into the top corner um

so looks like the tie is over

and

again like breast i think that the score line slightly flattered borussi dortman full credit to anyone at our next live show wearing a sporting uh shirt with something or other on the back

yeah um just to to stress again how seru girasi was once again absolutely magnificent because not only did he score this incredible header, which means his neck muscles, I don't know they're something else, to be able to hit the ball with such power when you're actually loving the goalkeeper, it's quite extraordinary.

But also the assist,

the cross.

Oh, yeah, for Pascal Gross, yeah.

For Pascal Gross.

And I actually loved Pascal Gross volley because it's with the thigh, but he means it.

It's not a Bappe moment like a Niasht Schinna.

It's a thire, but he means it to be, and he meets it really beautifully.

But the cross is absolutely superb by Girassi.

And I think, I mean, I was talking with some German friends before the game who were all telling me that, oh, Borisa Dortmund, they're not in the greatest of place at the moment.

There are lots of players who are off their game.

And it seems that one,

the players who were off their game, like at the EME, for example, they're back.

Julian Brandt, as well as had a very good game, and it might be the...

the game they needed to actually spark their season, spark the season again.

But again, Seru Girassi, now now top goalscorer in the Champions League at the moment.

10 goals in nine.

That's pretty impressive.

That Brent and Adaemi counter-attacking combo to score the third goal was brilliant as well.

Yeah.

Felipe, you wrote a piece about Man City earning more than Aston Villa in the Champions League despite finishing 14 places behind them.

Are you finding holes in the new format?

Well, the thing is that it's nothing new that it's not just sporting merit which is being rewarded financially in the the Champions League.

The fact is that the new formula,

the problem it has is that there is a massive rise in the money which is distributed, I mean 25%,

basically, from 2 billion to 2.5 billion.

And the thing is that the way it's distributed, far too much is distributed on the merit of the so-called market pool, which the old market pool, which is the size of your T V market, but also on the UFR ranking coefficients, which means you reward clubs which have done well in the past, and you don't necessarily reward the club which are really doing well in that particular season, as they should be, which is why PSG got more money than Lille, which is why Manchester City got more money than Aston Villa, which is why PSG got shitloads more money than Brest, who were really the team of the competition until this knockout phase.

And you can carry on, you look at the case of Celtic, you look at the case of,

I mean, Arbie Leipzig for me is absolutely appalling because they were rubbish, they were kicked out of the competition, yet they've made more money out of the competition so far than six of the clubs which qualify for the knockout rounds.

And it's purely based on what's happened in the past.

So

the end result is that you've got the clubs which were in the club, the clubs which are in the club, are doing very well indeed.

And even if they failed, they're doing better than some clubs which are doing better.

And the other thing is that when the new format was announced, which has got some good sides to it, and the first one to hold my hand is to recognize it, you thought, well, it's going from 32 teams to 36 teams and

many more games.

You think, well, that's a chance to have more national champions in.

But there's only one extra national champion.

There's only one slot.

The rest goes to the same old, same old.

And so you end up, and the money which is offered, and just I'll finish with that, but the money which is offered by this competition also is of such magnitude that those teams from lesser leagues which manage to qualify for it and well done to them find themselves with a financial advantage over their rivals in the domestic league, which is such that they have no rivals left, that they win the league year on, year on, year on, year on.

I thought that was such an interesting point because you just obviously we don't spend any time thinking about the Slovakian league or the Serbian league, and then you find out that actually, or you know, or whatever.

And so, actually, these when we see these teams, they're you know, the plucky underlog in the Champions League, you know, let's hope young boys can do it or whatever.

But actually, it turns out that perhaps the young boys are a bad example, I don't know, but like they're a very good example,

yeah, and they just like blitz their league.

So, not only you know, you're so ruining football leagues all over Europe, basically.

You're absolutely doing the opposite of what you set out to do.

I mean, the case of young boys, they're actually so bad this year that even with the extra money, they young boys

basically make about twice as much money as the nearest, as the next club in the league, the Swiss league, which has got, believe it or not, huge financial problems.

And the same goes for Slovak and Bratislava, the same goes for Celtic.

The same goes for, I mean,

Red Star Belgrade.

It's just ridiculous.

They basically, they are champions.

They take part of the Champions League or the Europa League.

And then they get the money, which enables them to be champions again.

which enables them to qualify for the next Champions League, which makes them, and so forth and so on.

So the system self-reproduces.

and in the end, what suffers the most is domestic leagues, which nobody is interested in anymore.

And so which is why the system doesn't work.

Naldi for part two, back in a second.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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

Players, everything.

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

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

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

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

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Because new sweet and smoky special edition gold sauce is here.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Week.

Glee Puddy says, Will Exta Forrest be finished before you record the pod?

Yeah, I mean, this game went on forever.

I mean, there was already 10 minutes injury time before one year got quite a bad injury.

I think he broke his nose, so I hope he's okay.

By the end of extra time, it was just before 11 p.m., I had Matt Upson on Co-Comms for the the international audience he sounded exhausted you know it was very very funny new in the dugout doing the penalties he looked back to dying jedi he was sort of misty and it was anyway exeter put up a good old fight there baz in that game but ultimately wasn't to be unlike arna slot nuno uh did bring the big guns on a trip down to devon and uh he needed them in the end really uh to because he fielded a second string side or a largely second string side but he was able to call on some big name players off the bench and

they got through by the skin of their teeth on penalties

and

now they will

yeah they're home tie against Ipswich in the fifth round which I you know you would probably expect them to win and I think this FA Cup draw it's quite exciting actually.

We could have an interesting winner of the FA Cup this season because no Liverpool, no Arsenal, no Chelsea and out of sorts, Man U and out of sorts, Man City.

So

it's up for grabs.

Yeah, there's a great thread by uh someone called George Thorpe, BBC Journalist, who sent it to me.

He says, When you look back at all the finals since 1985, only two of the current 16 remaining, Man United and Man City, have won the FA Cup.

Six others, Villa, Cardiff Palace, Millwolf, Newcastle and Forest, have reached the final but lost.

It's guaranteed to drop by two for the sixth round as four of the losing finalists play each other.

We could have a scenario where nearly half the last eight won't have been in FA Cup final for several decades.

And you know, it's got a list of where the non-Manchester teams last reached the FA Cup final.

Bournemouth and Argyle never, Wolves 1960, Burnley 62, Preston 64, Fulham 75, Ipswich 78, Brighton 83, and Smith must score.

Forest 91,

Newcastle 99, Nilwall 04, Cardiff 08, Villa 2015, and Palace 2016.

But so that's fatty.

It is really, yeah, it's beautifully poised.

Obviously, Palace won two now at Doncaster.

It's going to be United City final, isn't it?

Of course it is.

Yeah, yeah, of course it is.

James emailed in to say Howdy Football Weekly.

I love hearing people's messages to you when you drop them through an episode.

So I thought I'd share one.

Watching Plymouth beat Liverpool this week was quite emotional.

It brought up memories of my dad, John Fahey, telling stories about when he played for Bedford Town in 1964.

They were then in the Southern League, but they beat cup favourites Newcastle United 2-1 with dad scoring both of the goals past future manager Jock Wallace, who was keeping at the time.

I'd give a kidney to get some footage or even better photographs.

I understand why the Paparazzi weren't out in force for this match, though.

He went on to be the top scorer in the Canadian league for two seasons with the Serbian White Eagles, where he was driven to score by the fact fans would celebrate every single goal by invading the pitch and jamming money into his underwear.

As long as we're talking...

he also memorably dealt Sean Connery such a hard tackle during a charity match that Connery's manager, Sean, stormed onto the pitch and tried to cancel the game.

Love your work.

Thank you, James.

Beautiful email.

Thank you, James, for that.

Bit of AFL.

Leeds beat Watford 4-0 at Vickeridge Roads, put them five points clear at the top of the championship, having played a game more than Sheffield United.

Frank Lampard's Coventry moved to within one point of the playoffs.

They beat QPR 1-0.

It would be a pretty remarkable season if they do make it in.

Leighton Orients showed no signs of a Man City hangover.

They were 3-0 up against Mansfield, who have fallen off a cliff after half an hour, so it stayed.

And Birmingham, against all odds

and against the run of play, defeated Cambridge United 4-0.

We had two shots.

Two shots, none on target.

One of our players scored a volley, own goal, as good as the Pascal Gross one.

How's that going?

And then you watch the replay going, oh, come on, Liam.

Don't put it there.

And

Charlton beat Peterborough.

Peterborough, also hopeless.

So that's the only thing going well for us.

Walsall in League Two had been running away with it.

They drew one all with Gillingham last night.

Haven't won in five.

And so the door is open for a whole lot of clubs, Knotts County, Bradford, Doncaster, Wimbledon, etc.

Onto any other business.

Another busy couple of days for Inios, Spaz?

Yeah, Matt Lawton.

I think it's Matt reporting in the Times that further redundancies are planned at all Trafford, um

sir jim ratcliffe and uh dave brails for apparently ready to let go another hundred staff they have already i believe uh made jackie kay the head of team operations who's worked at the club for 30 years made her redundant news is also broken that uh the all blacks rugby team are suing ineos for pulling out of a sponsorship deal three years early

um they they I think it's worth three and a half million quid a year.

But Ineos just decided they're not going to pay anymore, or they haven't honoured the contract, so the All Blacks are taking them to court.

Ineos thinks this is very unreasonable behavior by the All Blacks, and all this is being blamed on economic challenges affecting the chemicals industry.

Now, Ineos, they're not scraping by their latest accounts suggest they've made profits well over,

I think, one and a half billion quids so big sir jim won't go hungry but it it's quite sad what's happening at old trafford uh i get that maybe the staff numbers are bloated but to let someone like jackie go who's giving her giving her life to the club you know it's just it's indicative of an organization that has got no soul i think but maybe you know i'm i'm not i would never be cut out for the cutthroat world of business so you're telling me I'm dying.

Barry's diary of a CEO, I would definitely listen.

Philippe, you wanted to invite Club World Cup ticket prices?

This sounds exciting.

Oh, it's really exciting.

As you know, FIFA is having and the organising committee are having loads of trouble trying to shift those tickets because they were very, very expensive and as a result of that the prices have been slashed.

But there's a catch.

Like if you say if Max Rushdon I mean and and we know that uh from Bayern fans who had pre-booked their tickets, that's for the knockout round, right?

So you pre-book, and it was very expensive.

Like you were talking like 2,000 euros or something like that for all the games, including the final and not in the top category.

And now those tickets are available at a cut down price because

nobody wants them in the right manner.

Who would want to?

And you think, okay, so I'm going to cancel my ticket, the old ticket, which I haven't paid for yet, but I'm going to buy the new one at the better price.

That makes sense.

Yeah, but if you do that, you're going to have to pay FIFA a cancellation fee.

And it's not going to be £1.50.

It's going to be 10% of the value of the expensive ticket, which means that if you've purchased, like, say, a package for 1500 Euros

and you want to buy the new package, which is at 400 euros, you're still going to have to pay 10% of 1500 euros to FIFA

because they got the prices wrong and they got the competition wrong anyway.

And by the way, should your club not qualify for the knockout round, this cancellation fee will be kept by FIFA.

There is no small profit.

I think

the Brelsfords

and Ratcliffe's and Infantinos of this world,

they all belong together.

They have the same mind.

They don't realize that it's peanuts, that they manage to antagonize people for peanuts, but they still do it because there's an extra euro, an extra dollar, an extra squid to be made.

And so they do it, then

they run over people, they eat people and disgorge them, and they do things with tickets, which is admittedly not as serious as sacking people who've given their lives to a football club, that's for sure.

But it's still quite revealing of who they are, really.

It's all the same trough, isn't it?

Yeah, loads of snouts, lots of snouts, big trough,

you know, and us.

And us staring at the trough, going exactly.

What are we on this farm?

I don't know.

David says, daft stato question: What's the maximum number of substitutes that's ever been used in a competitive professional match?

Hartz had seven tonight in the Scottish Cup.

This was a couple of days ago.

Five regular, one concussion sub plus one extra time sub.

Only three outfield players did the full 120 minutes.

Seven might be the most.

That's what we think.

It would have to be post-five subs being instituted, which was 2020.

So yeah, seven.

It feels like a vet's game.

It feels like a game I play and no one plays no, you know, rolling on and off.

You could you could get into like the reads with this one because, for instance,

the

Interfiorentina game the other day that got resumed a couple of months after it was paused because of Eduardo Bove's cardiac arrest.

Both teams were allowed to make swaps to the team that was playing on the day that the game was paused because

of,

well, lots of things.

Some of those players, teams have had injuries, new signings, things like that.

So do those count as additional subs?

I feel like if this was a question for the knowledge, this is the sort of angle we'd be getting into.

No.

Actually, there were two good points actually from the last part.

No, one on that note of a game that's being replayed, as Jez said, should Everton be forced to have Sean Dice in charge instead of Moyes for the rescheduled Derby seems seems certainly fair and KD did say equal parts disappointed and disgusted Max that you went with Nostra Basmus instead of Bastradamus when mentioning

Barry's clairvoyancy is that decision has that decision kept you up at night ever since it is for me I mean there are other things keeping me up at night but let me tell you if I if I do get a spare hour where I've got my own time I will think about that I knew I knew in the moment I'd got it wrong but sometimes we all make mistakes.

Uh, anyway, uh, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Nikki.

Thanks, cheers, Philippe.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you, Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

We'll be back tonight.

This is The Guardian.