Real Madrid do it again in Champions League: Football Weekly Extra

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For goodness sake, Real Madrid, it's just silly now.

And with Josilu doing it, now you're taking the piss.

It looked like a team had finally done to them what they do all the time.

Bayan suffered, scored, held on, and then Real Madrid just did it back.

Noya, brilliant all night, but spilt that one at the vital moment in front of Josselu who then turned in Rudiger's brilliant cross.

The flag went up but he was on side.

Then the other flag went up but the ref blew before Matthias the Licht swept home.

Maybe the Rael players stopped but a big mistake nonetheless.

Ultimately Rael probably deserved it.

Vinicius the standout player but it's gut-wrenching for Bayern and Harry Kane.

Don't show me footage of him looking sad.

Also today stories from Europe, Girona in Spain, Stuttgart in Germany and a Scotsman in Italy.

We'll congratulate and thank Oxford United from the bottom of our hearts for condemning Peterborough to another playoff defeat.

At least I will.

We'll look ahead to the weekend in the the Premier League and rethink our attitude to making it big on TikTok.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Nikki Bandini, welcome.

Morning.

Hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hi, Max.

Hello, Archie Rintut.

Hi, yeah.

And for part one, cameo, as always, Sid, low.

Hello, Sid.

Morning, Max.

Well, you were up late, I guess.

So look, Real Madrid 2 by Munich 1, Real Madrid through 4-3 on aggregate.

Jez says, time-saving suggestion from next season, could Real Madrid enter the Champions League after the confusing new group stage?

I'd suggest they should join in the 87th minute of the second leg of the semifinal.

They generally look useless till then.

And Liam says, how many seconds before you mention Stoke City?

Well, there you are.

Sid, you were there.

I feel like we're going to have the conversation that we've had a few times.

How do they keep doing this?

I think the...

For all the words that were said yesterday,

the best answer to this question was probably Angelotti's shrug in the press conference.

So he sits down and he's asked basically that, how do you explain it?

And it was really quite a long pause.

He sort of shrugged and just said,

It's Real Madrid.

And

obviously, to be fair to

Angelotti and to Real Madrid, yes, they was a little bit different from some of the other ones because, as you've mentioned in that introduction, they were the better side.

They probably should have won it.

Had it not been for Neuer, they probably would have done.

And Vinicius had taken Kimmich to bits for quite a lot of the second half.

But that's precisely, I suppose, one of the the reasons why you allow yourself to believe that this time they won't, because it felt like Bayern had managed this really, really well.

And there's an extra element to add into

all of these things that happened with Real Madrid and this kind of seemingly mental game that's going on as well, which is to look back over the years and think, what is it that they do to opposition goalkeepers?

And you think about Ulrich, you think about Donnaruma, you think about Noye Este, obviously, you think about Carius in the final.

And these goalkeepers who make just absolutely bafflingly bad mistakes on a night when Paul Noya had been really, really, really good.

And he drops one at the feet of Joselu.

Yeah.

I mean, Josselu is a fascinating story, isn't it, Sid?

Like, I mean, Richard Jolly's saying he's now scored more goals in the Champions League semifinals than he scored at the Britannia Stadium is amazing.

stat.

Is that true?

Apparently so, yeah.

Andrew says, is he the best whatever happened to him story ever?

I mean, flop at Newcastle, mediocre when he returned to Spain, a Real Madrid hero after tonight.

Is this where I wave my hand in the air and go, if only there was an interview with him that people could read

on a popular British newspaper's web page?

Well, tell us about it.

I can't be bothered to read it, Sid.

What did he say?

Well, he did actually score on a cold, wet Wednesday night in Stoke, which obviously proves that he is the greatest player on the planet.

One of the things that was really striking about him actually talking to him about Newcastle and about Stoke was a kind of a sense of fondness for the time that he had there, even if it didn't go that well.

And him talking about having made friends there and the people at clubs.

And this is actually, I think, from the outside, something that we don't always appreciate is that players come and go and come and go really quite quickly in a lot of cases.

But the immense majority of people who work at clubs are still there.

And so, you as a player, and Joselu was talking about this, he said, I've still got loads of friends at Stoke.

None of the players, but I've still got loads of friends at Stoke.

All the physios, all the medical staff, all the backroom staff, and some of those were genuinely good mates of his or became good mates of his.

And he talked about being at his wedding and people from at his wedding, people from Stoke and Newcastle were there.

So, you know, these are people who form part of part of your life, I suppose, part of your journey, even if, even if they're not there all the time.

And there was a fondness for it.

I think he was annoyed about what had happened with Mark Hughes at Stoke and felt that maybe he didn't get the opportunities.

Then, of course, it was Benitez who took him to Newcastle.

I think there was a fondness for that.

But fundamentally with Joselu, there's just that feeling of there was no way this was going to happen.

And I don't mean last night, because obviously the interview wasn't wasn't done last night, the interview was done what six weeks or so ago, but that you were never going to get this chance to go to Real Madrid.

He'd been at Real Madrid, he played for Real Madrid once under Josie Mourinho, and he came on, he scored within seconds of coming on.

Cristiano Ronaldo assists, and he scores, and he thinks, wow, this is amazing.

And then doesn't go back for the best part of 12 years.

And then goes back, because bear in mind that last night he scores, and obviously, from a British perspective, we all look at this and go, This is the former Stoke and Newcastle player who maybe wasn't that great at Stoke and Newcastle.

This is also the guy who is at Real Madrid on loan from Second Division Espanol.

This is a second division striker on loan at Real Madrid, who, by the way, and here comes the other twist in all of this, given our perspective and given who they were playing against last night.

Corsellu basically comes to Real Madrid because Real Madrid effectively say to Carlo Angelotti, we're not signing Harry Kane.

Because, of course, there's a certain French guy that they're going to sign probably this summer.

That's amazing.

And so, so, and it works like that.

I'm still in my mind trying to work out, is is that really true?

More Champions League semifinal goals than the Britannia.

So, he's got two.

He must have scored more than twice at the Britannia.

He must have done, surely.

I don't think so.

He got four for Stoke.

Yeah, and you can't ever question Richard Jolly.

Meanwhile, Archie.

There was just, I wanted to pick up on something Sid said there.

I was just, the thing I was picturing most was the mingling at Hosalo's wedding between.

There is a moment in the interview, actually.

There is a moment where we're talking to him about this and he said, oh, yeah, it came from Stoke and they came from Newcastle.

And apologies for sort of going down the cheeky route or maybe even slightly offensive route.

And I said, how did they behave?

Because certainly in Spain, British people have a bit of a reputation.

And he said, oh,

they were fine.

And there was a pause.

And I promise you, he applied the comic pause.

I'm not doing this myself.

There was a pause and he said,

I closed the bar at 2 a.m.

Meanwhile, I mean, it's interesting, Archie, isn't it?

Like, there are so many fine margins in this game.

And you just think about Neuer, who, look, I think those saves in the second half were mostly regulation, but the two in the first half were brilliant, especially one where there's another ball on the pitch.

And for him to make that mistake, if he doesn't drop that ball, then Thomas Tuca with these substitutions is a complete genius.

The glitch in the matrix here is that everybody's nodding along, not just here and saying, yeah, it was a deserved win for Real Madrid.

Nobody unanimously agrees on that, usually.

Usually it's, well,

they've lucked out again in some way.

So that tells you that by Munich, we're very close to Real Madriding Real Madrid.

And

that it was Neuer, as you say,

who made the mistake.

When he did his interview after the game, there was a complex about Manuel Neuer that I am not used to seeing and just seeing how broken he was.

Because...

He on that team has of a lot of high standards, probably has the highest standards of any any of them and the fact that he's even standing on that pitch after the injury he he had um from the skiing accident is i think it's been described as a two in ten that he gets back on the pitch let alone gets back to the level he's got back to so

yeah but there's a lot of focus about that double substitution to bring off musi alleron kane and bring on another stoke former stokes striker in Eric Maxim Chupermoting.

And Thomas Tuckel said, look, his hand was force.

He had to make the changes because of injuries.

And I think there is actually going to be an understanding for that merely because of what happened also with the late equalizer that wasn't a late equalizer.

But the bigger point to make with that is with the substitutions is that, A, his smart substitution of putting on Alfonso Davies for Gnabri got them into a winning position.

Many people wouldn't have picked Davies to come on, particularly because Davies' confidence has crumbled under Tuchel.

But injuries have plagued them throughout this season, and squad size has been something that has been mentioned on multiple occasions by Thomas Tuchel.

So, if anything, his point was proved on the biggest stage of them all with the resources

that he felt he had at his disposal.

But yeah,

ultimately, with that equalizer, I have to say, the one thing that is not being considered from a German perspective, having watched it back through a couple of times, Lunin did not dive.

Lunin had stopped.

Yeah.

And it wasn't that far away from him.

And I feel it's a little bit cheap to say, oh, but Dalish would have scored that.

It's still a terrible mistake.

Isn't it?

Tuchel said there was a disastrous decision from the linesman and the referee.

It feels like a betrayal.

The linesman says, sorry, but that doesn't help.

To raise the flag in a moment like this, the referee sees we get the second ball and we get the shot.

I don't know what you made of that bit, Barry.

I kind of agree with Archie.

It was an error by the linesman and an error that was compounded by the ref who could have ignored his flag but didn't blow the whistle.

But

would things have panned out the same?

Probably not because,

as Archie said, Lunan didn't dive, the Madrid players stopped.

But

we shall never know, and

it should have been allowed to play out.

That's why we have, you know, Varr play it out and it all gets sorted out afterwards.

I'm pretty sure the offside flag was incorrect

insofar as Masraoui was not offside.

I'm not so sure they would have scored if that hadn't happened.

The ball doesn't even reach Masraoui actually either.

No, it was Rudiger who won the ball and

then

Thomas Muller was first to the knockdown and teed up, delicked.

Yeah, and they could actually, I think just after the substitution is made and it's still 1-0,

and Bayern had this sort of four-on-two where Thomas Muller just can't play the pass and you think, oh,

they're just, I don't know, like, I don't know why I feel, you know, I don't know if I feel heartbroken for Bayern or just for Eric Dyer, but they must look at those moments and think, oh, there we get to the root of your problem.

Eric.

Just specifically Eric.

Everyone else wants to talk about Harry Kane, but Max just has it for Eric.

It was really interesting.

I watched this game with my brother, which I always find like catching some of these big European games with him fascinating because my brother's brother's like a he's a huge football fan but he watches arsenal he goes to arsenal game he's got a season tick he watches them specifically and so he doesn't sort of have this i suppose shared experience with me of having watched rail madrid do this over and over again and he was saying at a certain point oh this is more like a buy-in second now than a madrid equalizer isn't it and i said no they're going to score and it's and it's and there's going to be no rhythm or rhyme to it they're just going to score and i said that about um a minute before the nacho goal that got disallowed which was rightly disallowed but still you know and it really felt like one of those Madrid moments of there was no rhythm or rhyme to it, you know, take a swing at it, it deflects on younger defender.

And then the Manuel Noyer goal happens and it's even less rhythm or rhyme to it.

And it's, it's,

it is definitely more than just coincidence because I think these things become self-fulfilling.

There were other late chants in that game.

There was one for Masrawi where he just snatched it so hard and it could have been a much better chance, but his sort of sense of panic, you could see, was on him.

Madrid never had that sense of panic, whether it's Vinicius Jr.

or Chozalou, there never seems to be that sense of, oh, God, we have to do this.

And I was thinking about that, actually, even with the officials.

It's a mistake, no question.

And I think Thomas Douglas is completely within his rights to be angry about it.

I think exactly as Archie has said, you can't draw the conclusion that that would be a goal, but you can draw the conclusion that they've been denied a chance to score a goal.

And I think that after

however many minutes it had been, I mean, we were into like the hundred and what, the 110th minute by that point.

So late.

You're going to get officials who are on the edge of their nerves in a champions league semi-final as well and make mistakes it's true um can we talk about vinicius sid because it's interesting watched mbappe the night before sort of not deliver and then you saw vinicius just step up and go i don't think kimich is a natural right back and i'm going to show you all and he was just for about 20 minutes he was just ridiculous wasn't he i want to throw carlo anchilotti into this as well because

there's a constant theme around anchilotti which anchilotti once in a while kind of has a little little dig back at.

And there's this constant theme that Angelotti's great at managing egos, great at managing a dressing room, but not really a coach, not really

a technical coach, not a tactician.

And I suspect, obviously, I can't say this 100% for sure because, as far as I know, although I do need to go back over last night's stuff now, as far as I know, no one confirmed this or revealed this post-game.

But I suspect that that was a tactical shift that Anchilotti put in place at halftime, which is right, we load the left side because it wasn't just Vinicius.

He loaded the left side.

Bellingham was over there.

Rodrigo was coming closer to him.

Because we've seen an evolution.

I think we may even have talked about this before about how you fit Mbappe in with Vinicius and Rodrigo and everyone wants to play on the left.

And one of the things that's happened recently, and we saw this in the first leg away in Munich, is that Vinicius has become more and more of an inside forward.

And so you may be opening that space that Mbappe can play on the left-hand side.

And the inside forward thing, yesterday, wasn't working quite as well.

And then I think I personally, looking at it last night, it feels to me like a conscious decision at halftime.

Okay, let's put you on the left.

Let's get the ball wide to you and turn and have you turn and face the fullback and just go for him for a bit.

Or maybe even the whole game, but you know, for a bit.

And you're right.

It was about 20 minutes.

You thought, poor old Kimmich.

Lads, can someone come and give me a hand over here, please?

Exactly.

And he is, you know, he has.

key moments so often, Vinicius, even in those games when he's not at his best.

He's so quick, he's so electric, he's so willing to take people on that he makes a huge, huge amount happen.

And really and truly, had it not been for Neuer, then yesterday we might already be talking about, you know, Vinicius having won this game.

You get the brilliant Neuer save, you get those two runs when he gets to the byline, almost at the near post, standing by the goal and putting across.

I think it's Rodrigo misses one, isn't it?

It goes just wide at the post.

I can't remember what happens to the other one now.

And

he's a...

He's a fantastically exciting player.

He makes so, so much happen.

And by the way, I think, again, I'd have to check this because I don't have the numbers in front of me.

But I think if you look at the last three Champions Leagues, I think he has been the key player in three semi-finals in a row.

I thought you were going to say, I don't know for sure, but I think he scored more Champions League semifinals goals than goals at the Britannia, is what I thought.

The other side of that Vinicius running Kimish ragged is

where was Leroy Sane?

You saw how

you have to stop someone like Kilian Mbappe the night before.

You have to give your fullback support and you need to give him a lot of it.

And it was being pointed out on German TV that Tuchel was telling Sane to get back a bit more to provide more support for Kimmish and didn't.

And if I was Yosua Kimmish, I'd be thinking,

I need a bit more support here to at least,

yeah,

hold off this

wave after wave that is coming from vinicius he he did seem happier to let him him beat him on the outside at least and every time he did cut in it was blocked i could see why thomas ducker would also still he wouldn't be overjoyed but he was happy enough because they were at least blocking off the final ball

but still

the point i'd want to make on sane is for for all of his talent How often does he turn up in the biggest games?

And

he sure he has been carrying this pubic bone injury that has been making him even stay on at half-time to keep on warming up.

And maybe that's what Carlo Ancelotti's tactic was also predicated on.

It was about, well, Sane's only getting weaker.

Why not go more down the Kimmish side in the second half?

So

that for me stood out.

Just also on Carlo Ancelotti.

He is this man of class who demands respect from everybody.

Let's not forget that he was sacked by Bayern in 2017.

And I think that

he will not give this off because he is too classy for this.

But I think that still rankles somewhere within him.

You saw that in the pre-match press conference, Archie.

In the pre-match press conference, he was asked about this.

about why, you know, why did it not work at Bayern?

Why do you seem so much happier at Real Madrid?

And you could sort of see, even before the question was ended, because obviously, sometimes questions have a have a kind of a preamble, but it's clear where the question is going, even if the questioner hasn't yet got there.

And even through that first part, you could see Angelotti sort of ready.

Come on, then, keep going, let's have this.

And he didn't, I wouldn't say that he absolutely tore into buying because that would be too much.

But he did basically say, when you're a manager and you've got an idea and a way of working, you need support.

And if you haven't got support, you might as well be separated.

Now, admittedly, there's a sleight of hand there because you say, if it's not working, you should be separated, because that kind of implies that he walked away when he didn't.

He got sacked.

But

his point that he was trying to make was that, you know, I had this idea and I didn't get supported by the club.

He was then very quick to say, with both Rumeniger and Hunes, I get on okay.

But clearly he was having a dig at some on foot for, I think at the time, and you tell me, Archie, but certainly the impression at the time was for maybe not them not necessarily giving him the authority he needed against some of the dressing room heavyweights.

The biggest problem for him was who he followed.

He followed, I would say, the antithesis of the way that Carlo Anchilotti works.

He followed Pep Guardiola.

And that way of working was ingrained in the club that you need to be always on it.

And Anchilotti was seen as being too laid back.

I remember there was a story as well about his fitness coach smoking a lot.

And that's ideal.

Isn't it?

Exactly what you want a fitness coach to be doing.

The optics, that didn't go down well.

but the point is when you look at how successful angelotti has been since then you wonder if that kind of approach is

would would not have worked better with the kind of quality that bayern had because if anything they've torn themselves inside out ever since then as well with the amount of coaches they've gone through lots of very good coaches as well yeah actually it's funny i remember going to a um a friendly between Bayern and City in Munich right after they'd made that change and yeah it was you could feel like there was still this obsession with Pep Guardielle around the place.

You just got Angelotti in, and that should have been like a big thing in itself.

But

I think that was definitely a situation where the history

weighed on the club.

I just wanted to pick up on Angelotti.

I think there's a few things here about Angelotti.

I think actually there's lots of tactical things that were done well in this game, and I completely agree with Sid.

I think he never gets enough credit for how good a tactician he is

that were smart.

I think that they, especially in the first half, really limited the supply to Kane very effectively.

And he's very good at that sort of the Italian phrase of Gabia, creating a cage around players and restricting access to them in ways.

But I thought that

another thing that was interesting was just that comment at the end of the game where he said that this is the best squad he's ever worked with.

Well, of course, it's easy for everyone to go, well, hang on.

You work with Cristiano, Ronaldo, and all these others.

I just wondered if Sid had any thoughts on that sort of framing.

Obviously, this is partly Ancelotti's, just Angelotti's approach is to make it not about him.

But I think it's sort of indirectly it is about him when he talks about this being a squad of good people and this being a relatively easy squad.

And, you know,

the risk here is that it sounds like I'm pointing the finger at Cristiano Ronaldo and saying he's not easy.

Because of course, what Ronaldo did is even if he was the worst man on the planet, he would still have been well worth having.

But I think what Anchilotti has been very keen on expressing is that with this squad, he doesn't have bad people.

He doesn't have a huge amount of kind of internal tension or strife.

Now, obviously, who knows if with time that could evolve.

If with new arrivals like Mbappe, maybe some of those fault lines can open up.

But I think it says something about Angelotti, even though he says it's about him, that that's the management of the squad and that's the way they are.

And I think he feels that one of the things that's happened is if you look through the Madrid squad, you've had players who maybe aren't starters make a key contribution.

Obviously, Joselo, yes, there is the obvious example, but Brahim has had key moments this season.

You've had big injuries.

Real Madrid have played almost all, well, basically the entire season without Courtois, pretty much the entire season without Militau.

David Alaba has been out for a lot of the season.

Even Vinicius was out for quite a bit of the season until Chris.

Vinicius' season doesn't really start until kind of late December, early January.

And so, and yet players have responded to it.

And Angeotti said something quite interesting at the weekend, and he said it as well about a month or so ago.

And he said something about how the difficulties that they had, he said, allowed them to get better commitment from players, a sense of, okay, this is serious, this matters.

And that tallies, I think, with his idea that he's used a few times before, talking about how he likes his defenders to be pessimists.

He likes them to imagine the worst.

And so if you're in that position where this is difficult, therefore we have to give more, rather than this is easy, therefore we get caught out.

And I think that's a big part of it.

And I think that's one of the reasons why Realm Dude over the years have been better in the Champions League than in La Liga.

Although this year they won the league by miles, because obviously La Liga requires you to turn up every week.

Whereas the Champions League is, okay, we're really good.

Let's be really focused for these games.

One other thing that I just wanted to ask, I want to drag this on too long here, about just the atmosphere in the stadium, because my brother was saying at a certain point, again, again, I'm just enjoying his input for this one, but he was talking about

the atmosphere in the stadium, even at 1-0 down with a couple of minutes ago, he said they keep cutting to fans and they're all smiling.

He's like, why is everyone still that optimistic?

He's like, Arsenal, normal would be this optimistic in a game.

And I didn't know if, said, if that's just the way that the camera was showing us something or if that is something real.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, there's definitely a sense that Realmjid fans believe it will happen.

I also think, actually, funny enough, that there was almost a sense that if it hadn't happened, it's like, well, I'm not going to say it's okay, it's not okay, but

Madrid have won the league, they won the Champions League a couple of years ago, they're in a semi-final that possibly a lot of people didn't anticipate, particularly as they were going to play City and then Bayern.

I also think,

I don't want to sound like an old cynic, but I also think there is something about the way that camera direction is done.

now and particularly in Spain.

I think it's lots of close-ups of the people in the posh seats in the front row who are there as tourists, who are having a laugh, laugh, who smile and wave when they see themselves on the screen.

And I've just sounded horribly dismissive and old school and cynical.

You want shit-faced people on the terraces, don't you?

That's what you want.

I sort of do.

Snarling with rage.

Can I ask Barry about Harry Kane?

Is he destined to never win anything?

This poor guy.

He missed a great chance to have killed it, by the way, yesterday.

I mean,

we're not really talking, you know, that hasn't been picked up on very much, but Kane and Kim, the header against the bar, which is

a Christmas, unless it's not, I'd have to say it again on the bottom of the face.

They blew for a foul.

Not for foul.

Okay, well, live, I just thought that is a really bad miss.

And I personally thought Kane should have scored the one he hit the side netting wheel as well.

I would agree with that.

Look, only time will tell whether or not he is destined to win anything or not.

He may very well win the Euros this summer.

I really hope he doesn't.

I'm not entirely convinced it really matters whether he wins anything or not.

I think it does to him.

Yeah, it clearly matters to him.

But when I think of, say, Alan Shearer, for example, I don't think Premier League winner.

I just think remember all the goals he scored and that quite dreary celebration of his.

But I think the fact that, yeah, he has a Premier League medal to treat, that's the only thing he won, isn't it?

He could probably have won a lot more, but he elected to play for his hometown club instead of a team who habitually wins because he could have gone to Manchester United.

But isn't part of the point the fact that he's just done exactly that?

That after all those years of playing for Spurs, he finally said, Actually, you know what?

It's time I win something.

And it's definitely not his fault, but it does feel a little cursed.

No, it isn't his fault.

But

I'd be pretty confident he will win something at some point.

And I hope it's with Bayern Munich or some other club.

Thomas Tuchel did say that his back went last night, and that's why he had to come off.

I'd point out that from a Bayern perspective

and from Kane's perspective now this season, in the DFB Cup, when they went out to third tiers Brooken, Harry Kane sat on the bench for the entirety of that before they were beaten with virtually the last kick of the game.

It's emotional for you, actually.

Not at all.

And last night,

when he goes off, they're 1-0 up.

So I think even more so for Harry Kane, the fact that he will have felt powerless to do anything about either of these things

must only twist the knife.

Oh, well, he'll win the Euros, as Adam says, in a good way to end part one.

Who'd have thought that Arthur Kane's moved to Bayan, his first trophy would be the Euros with England?

Here we go, we can hope.

That'll do for part one.

Cheers, Sid.

Cheerio.

We'll be back in a tick.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Hank writes, I voted for your book, Max, me, Barry, and mainly Wilson, but I'm a big fan of the pod.

Should I be banned from voting for your book?

I think that was your argument against fans voting for Goal of the Month.

He makes a very, very good point.

But you can.

SportsbookAwards.com.

Go to page two.

Send Europa League tonight.

Leverkusen, tuning you up on Roma.

Atalanta, one apiece with Marseille.

Leverkusen, Archie, now just five games away from a completely unbeaten season.

That is ridiculous.

It is.

And

I've had a ringside seat for the second half of that at least.

And

it's very strange to see a team where, in comparison to what we've seen over the last two nights with Brisier Dortmund by Munich, buyer Levakus and try and control a lot more of the game.

What they are trying to do is a lot harder, and they've done it.

So for Chabi Alonso to do this

within

like his first,

these are still his first years of full management, is so impressive.

And

to

find a balance in this squad where he does have some exceptionally talented players, Florian Wierts at the top of that, turned 21 last week, Alejandro Grimaldo on the left-hand side, Granite Zhaka,

who has been excellent in the center of midfield, Jonathan Tar, who he's rejuvenated.

But the way that he's managed his squad is something that actually you would point out, particularly

with regard to Bayern Munich as well, and how he's got a good enough squad there to be able to rotate often enough to keep people fresh and to still bring the intensity.

And one other thing I'd say,

so often when you make big decisions

in a big game and they go against the grain, you can be accused of doing a Pep Guardiola and being like, oh, why is he tinkered with what's worked so well?

Giabi Alonso's done just that for some of the biggest games in the season, at home to buy in Munich, playing a front three that nobody thought he would play, away to Roma playing a front three as well,

whilst leaving two strikers on the bench in Patrick Schick and Victor Bonniface.

And these gambles have paid off.

Everything that he touches turns to gold.

On top of that, a ridiculous number of late goals that they have scored.

I think it's now

in their last 14 games, they've scored 13, which have been within the last 10 minutes or later.

And often it is later.

I'll stop there because otherwise I could just go on and on and on about how good this team is.

Then you won't get any chance chance to talk about Fulham.

Barry, you had a question?

No, I have an

existential quandary, which it may be a stupid question, but if

Barlekusen lose 1-0 tonight but still go through, does that count as their unbeaten run being over?

Yes, 100%.

It does, right?

Okay.

Yeah, I think so.

And I reckon by now you're so close.

And the two games they've got in the Bundesliga are not on paper difficult.

So they've got these, and the cup final is Kaiserslauten, right?

So it's these two games.

It's this one and Atalanta or Marseille, providing they get through.

He even wrested five players at the weekend.

Frimpong, Grimaldo, Boniface, Ta, Wurz, all rested.

I'd be very tempted to just keep...

And they still hammered Aintrach Frankfurt.

But yeah, it's quite risky at this stage of the game to be wresting so many big names.

And Nikki, we don't expect Roma to get anything.

They were comprehensively outplayed in the other league.

But Atalanta home to Marseille, one apiece.

Like Atalanta should

Marseille are quite a basket case of a clear.

You've got no idea what they'll do.

But you have to hope that Atalanta will make it.

Yeah, I think they're the favourites, but I think exactly as you said,

it feels open.

And you think about even that first leg, Abamayang had chances to score for Marseille.

I think Marseille are a team that absolutely can carve you open.

And I think Atalanta, watching them these last couple of weeks, they are they're a team that's showing signs within the team of being tired, of being fatigued.

There's certain players who aren't playing in the top levels, but then you have a couple of players, and in particular, it's Januka Skamaka and Twin Cop miners who are both playing so well that it's keeping the level up.

But it does feel like the performances are a little bit uneven at the moment.

But at the same time, I mean, Skamaka's on

an absolutely unholy tear.

I think he scored in something like 10 of the last 12 games, and he's scoring brilliant goals as well.

He's really, really on fire at the moment.

Sorry, i have another one for you max yes if buyer label cues will get to the final and lose on penalty okay where are we then that's a good question i still think it it does it tarnishes an unbeaten oh it definitely tarnishes it but does it officially count as a defeat bookies are like after 90 minutes but none football fans aren't after 90 minutes are they they've got a win they've got a win no because if if it's a knockout if it's a knockout game you either go through or you don't and you've you can't like not have lost if you didn't go through i i think technically technically it's a draw though if you lose a final television question like a fishing yeah technically doesn't technically is like

we need to go to uefa we you know this pod has been long enough before we start ringing uefa to find this out let's cross that bridge eh what about fiorentina that they they're through they definitely deserve it drew one apiece in bruges went went one down equalized with a late penalty they've had lots of chances in that second half didn't they oh then my goodness they had so many they've also um they've they've missed a lot of penalties this season i think it's five already this season so they get this penalty in the 86th minute, I think it was.

And you're not really expecting them to score it if you've been watching a lot of Fiorantino this season.

You think, well, this is the chance, but inevitably they miss it.

But Beltrand doesn't.

He scored it.

And

I think

really nothing going to get

anywhere near as much attention as lots of other managers who've done incredible work.

And certainly the one at Levikus and Chabi Alonso.

But Vincenzo Italiano, to take Fiorentino in consecutive years to a European final is

seriously impressive stuff.

And it would be great for them, I suppose, after losing the final last year to West Ham, if they can get that catharsis and win it and go to the Europa League next season.

Sure.

Or they could lose it to another Claret team.

If Aston Villa can overturn a 4-2 deficit at Olympiakos, the atmosphere will be something else in,

is it Piraeus in Athens?

Well, the final's also in Greece, so if it's Olympiakos, it's an away game for Fiorentina, so it's definitely a tough final either way.

The thing is, Baz, given Vida's position in the Premier League and how far Tottenham are away, they can leave absolutely everything out there, and they will probably still be all right for fourth place.

You'd imagine so.

I don't think this task is beyond them.

My only concern would be how knackered they all looked at the weekend, and they haven't had, obviously, a chance to rest, but

I would give them every chance of overturning this if they can muster the energy.

In the Premier League this weekend, then, Archie, Fulham's job is to create a twist or a turn in the title race with the 12.30 kickoff.

Will they oblige as they host Manchester City?

Shall I just get the ticket prices stuff out of the way?

Yeah, yeah.

There we go.

So I think

that

we've already shown that we can beat and deny a title contender because let's not forget, as Arsenal fans will remember too well, we've taken four points off them.

It could have been six had Adama Triore

finished off a chance at the Emirates earlier in the season as well.

That's a very big if,

as I've discovered.

So

there's been a video of some of our players flying kites at the training ground this week, which has gone round being like, well, Fulham are taking this very seriously.

They're not, aren't they?

Almost be building sand castles to be more on the beach than flying a car.

It was part of the training session to be fair.

I think it was outside of that.

Look, even in the game against Arsenal where we did get over the line, Bukayo Saka still had big chances.

And these are the things that you need to go for you if you are going to beat, even deny

a team of Master Cities and Arsenal's quality.

You need to still ride your luck at a certain moment.

I'm not not quite as confident with Issa Diop at the back instead of Tosin Ada Rebayo.

He's not been playing since I think it's clear that he will leave on a free in the summer.

Still, I think Fulham are capable of doing it.

Yeah, maybe never know.

I would just place the chances of it happening at around 20%.

Right, okay.

And then Arsenal, Nikki, go to Old Trafford.

And

clearly, no rational person would say that is a problem for the way Arsenal are playing at the moment.

It's not how football works.

Well, but Arsenal don't win at Old Trafford.

Like, they don't.

Like, that's not a thing that Arsenal of any sort of recent history have doing at all.

I think it's since 2006, if you want to count games in front of actual sporters.

So, yeah,

I'm actually quite pessimistic about this one.

And I appreciate that when you look at it rationally and you look at United getting thumped by Palace and the run that Arsenal have been on, there's no logic to it, but it's still Arsenal at Old Trafford.

At the bottom bat, so Burnley 24 points, Luton 26, Forrest 29, Forest have lost their appeal.

Burnley go to Tottenham, Forest hosts Chelsea, Luton go to West Ham.

Where do you think we'll be by the end of the weekend?

So Luton goes to West Ham before Forrest hosts Chelsea.

That's the five Forest Chelsea is the 5.30 game.

So,

look, we saw how dismal West Ham were last weekend.

David Moyes is now, it's been confirmed that he will be leaving at the end of the season.

I think if Luton can't win this game, then that's it.

They're done, and they should win this game

against a West Ham team that literally has nothing to play for and clearly isn't arsed

because their performance on, was it Sunday, was just pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

So

there's a chance they could, you know, just play for the fun of it and

swap Luton aside.

But this is a game.

Luton have to win this, you would think, and

should win it and may not win it.

I mean, I don't know if they should.

Do you think Moyes?

I think I've covered every possible base here.

Moyes takes a handbrake off and just plays absolute total tick-at-tack of football.

You're watching West Ham

for a bout of the back.

In my Spurs pessimists hat, I'm thinking, I see Burnley, you know, Spurs have lost four in a row.

Like Burnley, like

a high press, it could be a ridiculous game that.

And then there's another part of me that looks at Villa running on fume, still in the conference league, have got Liverpool and Palace, and think, well, Spurs have got Burnley and Sheffield United.

So if they win both those and Villa don't get a point, then they could get Champions League if they beat Man City in midweek, which is obviously a big old if, isn't it?

We've got some criticism.

We've got some feedback, Barry, on Will's Play Palace.

I I like the way your brain went through

kind of a filter there being like criticism.

No, no, no.

I need to be positive.

It's feedback.

It's feedback.

Wow.

No easy way to dress this up.

This is regarding Crystal Palace and how well Glasner's doing is Barry's saying Joel Ward has slotted seamlessly into Glasner's Crystal Palace team.

He has played one minute in their last four games.

Hashtag Fabianski, he says.

But, Barry, you presumably were talking about Crystal Palace, Joel Ward being awarded the Chairman's Award Award for Outstanding Contribution, which he did win.

Good, good for him.

Didn't he make his

400th appearance for Palace quite recently?

I think it was 400.

I don't know.

I mean, clearly, I didn't know either.

It's very impressive, yeah.

Well, I didn't correct you, so I was.

Did he do anything wrong in that minute?

He looked like a changed player.

He was much more attacking than under Roy, wasn't he?

You could just sense in that 60 seconds.

Very good question.

I just presume he's always playing for Palace.

Ever since Steve Coppel, he's had to play right back in every single Crystal Palace team since 1988.

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll do a bit of Serie Anne Bundesliga.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Nikki, Scotland International Louis Ferguson, we've had questions about him, we've never asked them, has been presented with the Bulgarelli number eight award given to the best midfielder in Serie A.

How impressive has he been?

That is,

there presumably are lots of excellent midfielders in Serie A, so that is some achievement.

Before Nikki goes off on this one, can I just say I read about this the other day, and not only did I not know Lewis Ferguson was playing in Italy, I don't recall ever hearing of Louis Ferguson.

I have no idea.

The hurtful moment I realized that Baz doesn't read my Guardian columns, because I've written about him several times.

It's all right, Baz, it's okay.

He's had a great season.

This award, the Premier Bulgarelli number eight, with number eight in English for some reason,

it's been reported slightly differently in Italy, but when I look at the information about the award in Italian, they actually say it's awarded to the best Medzala, which is not quite the same as saying best midfielder.

Medzala is an Italian position that doesn't quite translate perfectly it literally means half wing but basically it's box to box midfielder in any case um it's it's a a recognition of a brilliant season he's had it unfortunately as i think um well barry won't know but lots of people know he's actually

knee surgery recently so he's out and he's going to miss the euros which is a blow for scotland because he's been he's been absolutely brilliant for this bologna team that is currently fourth in serie and is on course to gate crash champions league qualification i just mentioned the job vincenzo italiana is doing at Fiorentina, but actually within Seria, I think Thiago Motta is probably the manager of the season.

It's been a few really impressive managerial efforts this season, but Motta very much has put Ferguson at the centre of his plans.

He's given him the captain's armband quite often.

That has been rotated around a bit because Motta has this very sort of collaborative idea of what the team is and captaincy being this something bigger than just one person.

But he's a yeah, he's a barnstorming box-to-box player who's been scoring goals, been settling into Italian life brilliantly and was having a wonderful season right up until, unfortunately, blowing his knee out.

I don't think we've actually talked about Inter winning the title.

I know they lost to Sassuolo in a sort of opened the door for them at the bottom with them, Udanese, Empoli, Frozinone, Calgary.

Guys, tight down there, isn't it?

How many games to go?

God, that is, that is, the bottom is really exciting, isn't it?

Yeah, well, this is sort of, I think, going to be a great piece of football trivia in years to come.

If Inter can avoid defeat the next three games the season, which is all they've got left, then they will have lost just two games in this league campaign.

Who'd they lose to?

Both of them the same team, Sassuolo, who are on course for relegation.

Sassuolo, who always seemed to be the fly in Into's ointment.

They've beaten them as many times as they've lost to them since coming up to Serie A.

I think very much we won the league and we've been off flying our kites at training perhaps a performance from Intel this weekend.

Yeah, it's been an incredible season for Intel winning the league.

If we haven't had a chance to talk about that, I think I've certainly waxed lyrical about the football they've played a few times this season.

For Simone Nzagi, I think it's this really sort of deserved crowning moment to the work that he's done since coming in there.

You remember that it was Antonio Conte won the league there and then basically does what Antonio Conte does, which is leave saying, oh, I can't take this forward anymore.

They're not giving me everything I need.

I need even more.

It's impossible to take this project forward.

And Nzagi has taken the project forward, even while having players leave and

key start as head off and solve to keep the finance going on on the debtors they've got.

But La Tala Martinez has been brilliant, Marcus Tram's been brilliant, but the whole team has been just really wonderful, fluid, brilliant football.

Not this weekend, though, when, as you say, Saswala beat them and the relegation fight is definitely going to be extremely tight in Italy.

Archie, you wanted to mention Stuttgart, who we haven't discussed at any length this year.

Were it not for Bayer Levakusen, then we would be talking a lot more about Sebastian Hernes' Stuttgart.

And that is Sebastian Hernes, the nephew of Ulli Hernes, the famous Bay Munich club president, now honorary president, but also the son of Dieter Hernes, who himself was not a bad footballer back in his day.

And Sebastian Hernes is stepping out in his own right as a coach.

Because being the coach of Stuttgart is not an easy job.

Since they were knocked out of the round of 16 by Barcelona in the Champions League in 2010, I count, not including interim coaches, they've had 16 of them.

And last season alone, they had four.

Sebastian Hernes was the fourth to step into the breach.

And when he did, they were bottom of the Bundesliga.

And it was April.

And yet, he managed to save them.

in the relegation playoff.

And six of that starting lineup in the relegation playoff away at Hamburg, Ito, Anton, Carazor, Mio, Girasi and Fjurisch have been major parts of this team which has gone on to qualify for the Champions League quite comfortably in the end and playing such an entertaining, swashbuckling style of football that has been so easy on the eye on a budget which is less than half the size of Dortmund's.

And the fact that they sold Mavropanos to West Ham in the summer, Endo to Liverpool, Sozo went abroad as well to Ajax, I think it was.

It's an incredible job.

And the players I'd highlight: Seru Girasi has been excellent up front, scoring more than a goal a game.

On loan from Brighton, Dennis Undav has played his way into the German national team.

Valdemar Anton at centre-back as well is seen as a straightforward pit for the national team.

Albeit, just a little aside on that.

The fact that Nico Schlotovak and Mats Hummels are in a Champions League final now with Borussia Dortmund causes major headaches for Julian Nagsman as the national team coach, who, if you want to see how unlikely it was that Byron Dortmund were going to get this far in the Champions League, you only have to look at a quote from him after the last batch of international games where he said, I don't think there'll be more than one or two changes to this squad.

And in that last squad, there was only one Borussia Dortmund player, and that was Nicholas Fulkrug.

So,

this run that Bayern, but especially Dortmund, have made, is going to put real pressure on him.

And the fact he's taken quite a few Stuttgart players with him as well.

That is the biggest sign here.

The fact that Valemar Anton is there, Chris Furish, as well on the wing, who has been linked with a move away, unsurprisingly.

Undav as well.

There's one I feel like I'm forgetting, but it's been an incredible season to watch.

And the fact that a very big symbolic thing in Germany is when you, as the coach, are invited up onto the fence of where the hardcore are standing.

And Sebastian Hernes had said that he was only going to get on the fence when they've achieved something.

Well, they have achieved something.

They have qualified for the Champions League.

And what's more, even sweeter, beating the team that they view as their...

It's not Karlsruhe, but it's almost as big.

Bayern Munich, who is seen as the Southern Derby in Germany.

That they beat them quite comfortably at the weekend was extra satisfying for Stuttgart.

Archie, are hipsters favourite St.

Pauli?

Are they set for a return to the Bundesliga?

They are.

They're very close.

They could have sealed it away at Hamburg last week in the Derby, but

they fell short in the end.

To be honest,

it was a deserved defeat.

Some of the worst refereeing decisions I can remember in a game

during that, even with the addition of VAR.

But they've been having an incredible season under their 30-something coach, Fabian Huerzilla.

That they've been playing such good football and outplaying Hamburg, and that Hamburg, it doesn't look like are going to make the relegation playoff, even once again, tells you

that, yeah, they've been

it's quite a it's quite an achievement to do that in a second division where also their budget is not on a level with quite a few ex-Bundesliga clubs who have come down recently.

And

it will be refreshing for the league.

I think it is

pretty close now.

St.

Pauli just need a win to get over the line and they're playing at home to

relegated Osnabruck this weekend.

It should be a formality.

Oh, and just to name the other Stuttgart player, Max, Maximilian Mittelstedt, who last season...

Yes, I thought it was.

Right.

Last season was being relegated to the second division with Herta Berlin, was signed for 500,000 Euros by Stuttgart and has now been called by Julian Augsman one of the top five fullbacks in the world.

So yeah, what a journey.

Nick says, can we get a drunken voice night from Robin Cowan?

Yes, a huge night for Football Weekly Regulars.

Robin Cowan and George Elek as Oxford United got past Peterborough.

Thank you.

2-1 on aggregate, 1-1 on the night at London Road.

They haven't been in the championship this century.

Oxford United, they'll play Bolton.

They were up against it for quite a lot of that, especially right at the end, throwing their bodies on the line, but they're through.

So good luck to them.

Gavin says, we shout out for Falkirk.

36 league games unbeaten.

85th minute penalty to make it 2-2 after going 2-down at home on the last game.

Only the third team to do it outside the old firm.

Proper seasons, not 18 game ones.

Yes, well done to Full Kirk.

Youngledore says, hi, Max.

Big fan of the pod.

I'm a tree surgeon, so I listen from the top of a tree most days.

He asked a question about refereeing, which we don't have time for, but huge fan of people listening up trees.

If anyone else is listening up a tree or up something tall, footballweekly at theguardian.com.

What's the highest working job?

Yeah someone has listened to Football Weekly from?

Yeah.

I don't know.

I mean,

it doesn't have to be working, Just the highest up.

Yeah, the highest up.

Not like, you know, oh, I live in La Paz, you know, above sea level.

Yeah, maybe some pilots, but, you know, tree surgeon is good.

Well, my mate Gav listens in his high tower crane every day.

Oh, that's good.

That's beautiful.

I think he sent me a

text yesterday when he you'd ask if a manager had ever broken my heart, and I said, no, just a series of women.

I don't want him laughing too much high up a crane, just in case it's a windy day.

Anyway, and Theron says, Barry, TikTok gets stuck in.

Seriously, Barry doing life advice or Barry doing quick movie reviews and explaining them to Max would do numbers, says Theron.

And Alyssa's been in touch to say, hello, my name's Alyssa.

I'm a 20-year-old frequent listener of the pod, somewhat familiar with the demographics of TikTok users.

I was amused by the conversation in the most recent episode, because more and more of my peers' parents seem to be on TikTok these days.

And I imagine, at least age and interest-wise, they probably resemble more of your average listener than I do.

In other words, I think you'll find at least some of your audience on the platform, or at least the mythical TikTok algorithm will bring you to them.

I wanted to say thanks for making this pod.

I've been listening since the 2021 season.

It's often been one of the only things I can tolerate during slumps in my mental health.

My favorite episode is the post-Euro 2020 final podcast.

Sorry, how dare you, Alyssa?

I'm looking forward to Barry's commentary as England either progress or crash out.

Sorry for the long email.

Thanks for the pod.

Best, Alyssa.

Yes, a reminder that we are all now on TikTok, tock instagram and youtube and we are still preparing the behind the scenes barry content whatever that whatever that means i think that

to do with barry giving advice on tick tock i i could imagine barry re-recording um bas luhrman's wear sunscreen oh good yeah i think he's got i think he's got a good voice for that and and he's he's got the right sense of authority to be able to to pass that off but i think

with his own life advice injected into that, well, I wore a sunscreen for the first time this year yesterday.

So

something to think about.

Just finally, Gavin says, I sat through the pod with anticipation at the build celebration of Essex and East Anglian football, thinking, well, the East Anglia inclusion is just a crowbar a mention of Ipswich, but surely they'll cover the Ithsmian Premier Champions.

Not a word.

Not just champions, but a record 100 points.

Won the title with several games to spare.

Great Wakering, Spitz, Romford, even Northampton, FFS, Hornchurch, not a word, showing your anti-urchin bias.

It is real.

The agenda against urchins and Hornchurch is real.

Thank you so much to Gavin and Keith as well, another Hornchurch fan who wanted us to mention it.

And that'll do for today.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

I'm going to squeeze in one more thing I meant to mention earlier, which was for the Scots, because it seems to be a very Scottish-focused ending of the pod.

Josh Doig was the man who set up Sasswallo's winner against Inter.

So, if Scots want a rooting interest in the Italian relegation fight, which goes all the way from 14th down to 19th, Saswallo have Josh Doig citing for them at left wing back, and he's playing quite well.

A many fit bar corner right at the end.

Cheers, Baz.

Thanks.

Thanks, Archie.

If we're fitting things in, if Football Week had episode titles, I think Nikki's quote of Max has it for Eric would win it here.

Yeah, okay.

I don't remember.

I don't remember that.

Oh, yes, Eric Dyer.

Oh, poor Eric Dyer.

Anyway, Football Weekly is is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Mayne.

This is The Guardian.