Manchester City kick on and Madrid edge past Leipzig – Football Weekly Extra

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a proper football journalist mate exactly too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

So four familiar signs to the Champions League quarterfinals.

Manchester City and Real Madrid joined PSG and Bayern.

City's reserves saw off injury, ravaged ravaged Copenhagen with minimal fuss.

Two up after nine minutes didn't do a lot for the contest, but fair play for the Danes.

They didn't crumble.

Meanwhile, Rail were lucky against Leipzig on a different day.

Vinicius and Tony Cruz could have been sent off before the former put Madrid ahead.

Leipzig came back and had a host of chances to take it to extra time.

Is this just an aberration of a year for the Champions League or just gearing up for some epic quarter-finals?

Right now, the Europa and conference leagues are more exciting.

A really fun night in the championship.

Luis Suarez hand balls going unnoticed.

Comedy own goals and stealing Dean Austin's WhatsApps.

Then a a Premier League preview.

Liverpool-Manchester City tops the bill with Villa Spurs on the undercard.

That's quite the Sunday.

We'll discuss Tottenham taking concessions away for OAPs.

Seems nice.

A referee's been in touch to correct Barry's diagonal lines theory.

We'll answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning.

Welcome.

Hi, Max.

From the Racing Post, Mark Langdon is here.

Hi, Max.

And good morning, Lars Sibardson.

Hi, Max.

How are you?

Yeah, really good.

Thanks.

Because no one else asked.

So I thought, you know, somebody's there.

One person on the panel should ask you how you are.

Well, it's very kind of you.

Let's go to the Etihad, Manchester City 3, Copenhagen 1, then City 3-6-2 on aggregate.

1-0 after 5 minutes, 2-0 after 9 minutes.

You're just a Danish Sheffield United, said producer Joel.

But they weren't, because they did score a goal, and it was a lovely goal.

And, you know, they didn't capitulate Barry, but this contest was done after the first leg, probably done after the draw was made.

Yeah, I think I said that when we were covering the first leg, that it was done as soon as the draw was made, and

that's sort of indicative of the financial gulf between elite teams in the Champions League and also rounds who are doing their best, like Copenhagen, who I suppose their major triumph was getting out of their group.

And yeah, they didn't disgrace themselves by any means yesterday.

They had a lot of injuries,

but

it speaks volumes that Manchester City felt comfortable enough going into this game that they could rest Kevin De Bruyne, Foden, John Stones, Bernardo Silva, Nathan Ake,

Kyle Walker.

I think Roderick got the second half off.

And

the people who came in for them, the players

were more than competent and got the job done very comfortably.

Guardiole Kovic, Matthias Nunes, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bob, and even a couple of kids got a run out to get some Champions League experience.

The game was over, or the tie was definitely over 10 minutes after the first whistle.

And

Camille Greberes

dropped a bollock, you know, letting in that quite, you know, it was fairly viciously struck whip shot from Julian Alvarez, but he should have kept it out.

And I suppose if you're going to make a mistake like that, ideally, you don't want to be wearing a big blue mask on your face that makes you look even more conspicuous

but yeah it was just just a walk in the park for city wasn't it and i'm not sure how much more i could say about it no i don't i'm not sure i mean i don't know but i is there anything more you can you can say about it lars well just to again

point out that

You made the point that the tie was pretty much over when the draw happened.

I mean, I think under ideal circumstances, maybe FSA Coal could have made it interesting, but it just wasn't ideal circumstances.

They were missing a lot of players.

Their entire first choice midfield pretty much was unavailable.

The midfield three were 19, 19, and 18 years old.

One of them, I believe, started his second ever senior game for FSA Copenhagen

away at the Etihad, which is not ideal.

So they're kind of up against it.

uh in every way and then of course when you have that as the starting point it really doesn't help that you can see A from a set piece and then from a goalkeeping howler early in the game.

That's like things are not, it's just not going to be your night.

It's one of those you need absolutely everything to go right and everything to break your way.

And it was just the whole occasion, very much the opposite was the case.

It was tricky for them.

Yeah, and when you say break your way, I mean, you weren't talking specifically about Matthias Nunes, Mark, that moment.

Oh, that was, I mean, it was just, it was, because he was okay afterwards.

You feel like you can talk about it.

But

the camera first panned in on it, I was like, oh, no, that's not the way that finger should be pointing.

It was, it was terrifying.

It's not.

And there's also some footage.

Kevin De Bruyne showed very little sympathy when Nunez was trying to sort of show

the kind of how his finger was

at the time.

No, that was a...

a horrible moment.

I really,

I wouldn't be the bravest in those situations, Maxius, in terms of being able to sort of watch.

And, you know, some people seem to take great pleasure in sort of other people's pain at those points.

I struggled to watch it.

I do think just on Nunes that he's had a very slow start, I think it's fair to say, in terms of his Manchester City career.

Just started to see one or two moments as to why he was brought in

by Pep Guardiola.

And maybe it is, you know, in this wider position, just slightly wider that he's able to

show off his best when he was was playing centrally, particularly when Rodri wasn't there.

He wasn't playing to that level.

I just wanted to shout out, we spoke about him before on the Champions League sort of nights, but Lewis of Manchester City, I think Pep Guardiola will have a slight problem here in the not too sort of distant future because he will want to play more often than what the minutes he's getting.

And he's playing in Champions League games, and I think Guardiola appreciates all of his skills.

I just wonder whether they get to a Cole Palmer sort of point where

Palmer just said, I want to play football and they sold him to Chelsea.

Some stage, I'm sure Lewis will want to be playing regularly.

And at the moment, it's difficult to get in the city team.

He's a talented player.

Guardiola likes him, but it's hard to see where he kind of gets in.

Maybe just has to be patient with Cole Walker.

But in most other teams, now he'd be playing sort of every week in the Premier League.

Yeah, and actually, that's an interesting point you make about because he's an Academy product, then he's good to sell.

I think Barney made a point on Twitter, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but it feels counterintuitive that it is good for these clubs.

He was talking about Conor Gallagher.

I think it's good for these clubs to sell their prospects because they make 100% profits.

There should be a way, and I don't know how it is, because obviously, if a club values them, I don't know how it would work, but a way where you are incentivized to keep your Academy products rather than selling them.

I think what Barney said was

if you keep Academy products, their value should be

going

the plus side for

financial fair play, basically, or profit and sustainability.

So, say Gallagher is worth, I don't know, 50 million for the sake of argument,

then that's an additional 50 million, which means you can buy, you know, spend more on other bringing new players in and you get to keep Connor Gallery.

I suppose the difficult thing is who values them, because you can say, well, Rico Lewis is worth two hundred eighty-seven million pounds and then it's easy.

Manchester City would never do something like that, Matt.

Inflate the value of something to

put it in the plus side of their ledger.

I think you should retract that remark immediately and wash your mouth out with soap.

I absolutely do.

I will wash it 115 times.

And sorry to break with chronology, but can we talk about the Liverpool City game now?

Because it feels like such an enormous match this weekend.

We saw City last night.

We're going to see Liverpool.

They're in an early kickoff, Wetslavia Prague.

So City have got an extra day's rest.

Mo Sala is fit for Liverpool.

Mark, how do you see this game going?

Well, City's record at Anfield

is terrible.

There's been one win in about 20 years, isn't it, in terms of Premier League?

And that was during COVID when fans weren't there.

And Pep Guardiola, I think, has been spooked more than these players, actually.

At Anfield, he's made some,

occasionally accused of overthinking it.

And I would say at Anfield, he's done that too often.

Remember the Champions League game where he picked a very strange team that had Laporte at left back.

And so

I think if City play,

if Guardiola doesn't mess around with it and they play their

best 11, I think that City are in as good a position as they can be to win at Anfield and kind of end that hoodoo.

Because Liverpool, even though they're getting some players back,

I do feel like they've rode their luck slightly at times in the last few weeks.

And how fit are those players that are coming back?

Salah, for instance, return to training.

Are we going to see Salah at the peak of his powers?

And they've been just putting players in different positions and using a lot of younger players.

If City get the same kind of chances that Southampton did and also Chelsea, I just feel like they're much more likely to take them.

But a great game in prospects.

I mean, it will be difficult because of the atmosphere.

And if Liverpool win,

it feels like a very significant moment.

And even if they don't lose, actually, it feels more important for City to win than Liverpool.

Yeah.

And actually, it's always rare, Lars, isn't it, to see anyone go at City?

But, like, that is how Liverpool will play.

Yeah, it's something Klopp has talked about, actually.

I think Klopp is one of the very few managers who's got a positive record against Guardiola.

If you look at managers who Guardiola have come up against a lot, Klopp is the one who has the best record.

I mean, Guardiola has won 11, drawn 6, and lost 12, actually, of those encounters, which is quite surprising actually

truth be told i mean obviously the best record against guardiola is is nathan jones who has a hundred percent record against pep guardiola uh but we probably if we're going to have this conversation we probably have to have some kind of cutoff and and paul he's doing very well at charlton nathan jones now yeah also paul cook surprisingly has a hundred percent record against pep guardiola but again this this is the one game uh thing if you look at coaches that have coached him a lot of time.

Actually, Antonio Conte in seven games actually has a good record.

But point is, of the one, of his sort of regular opponents, Klopp is the one who has the best record against him.

And he does it, and he said it quite explicitly that you have to play on the front foot against Masha City.

He said this: you know, you have no choice but to play on the front foot.

And he said the option is you can sit back and hope they tackle each other and fall over or something,

and that you win the lottery and that they just won't do anything.

But that's not very likely.

He believes that is the only way to tackle Man City, which is interesting to me because the conventional wisdom is that you should sit back and hit them on the counter.

But Klopp, one of the few coaches who actually does have a good record against them, says that that is not the way.

And I wonder if there's something about like you need to disrupt their passing rhythm.

Like once they get into the groove, even if you're sat in a good shape and everything, they will pick you apart somehow.

Whereas if you can engage them slightly higher up the pitch and sort of disrupt that rhythm and

get them to turn more often,

that could be the way.

It seems to work, Klopp, anyway.

It's funny how we're phrasing it in that, you know, Man City, this unbeatable machine and liverpool you know you know have to try something given that liverpool are above them in the table barry and have lost fewer games i mean it's only one like their records are sort of virtually identical yeah i think liverpool will get something from this game i think they might win it uh we have made the point that manchester city haven't been playing particularly good teams lately um

and

this is a big test for them big test to their mettle which they may well pass, but away from home at a ground where the record isn't good against a manager who does seem to have Peps number a bit,

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Liverpool win this game.

And maybe it's because I want them to win it, just to shake things up a bit, make it interesting.

But

yeah,

I'd be pretty confident they'll get a result.

Yeah, and I don't know if this I always find this question slightly ridiculous, Mark, but you know, where will the game be won and lost?

Because, sort of, all over the pitch.

And Anfield,

where will it be won and lost?

Yeah, I mean, in all areas, I think, is

one would be, you know, Allison is such a formidable last line of defence for Liverpool.

And Kelleher has done very well

in coming in and replacing him.

And could have argued he was the player of the match in the League Cup final.

He made some very telling saves.

I still think for a game of this magnitude, going into it with your reserve goalkeeper is an area that if I don't support either team, if I supported Liverpool, I'd be slightly nervous about your reserve goalkeeper in a game like that because Allison is able to sprint off his line and in one-on-one situations.

And Titty are

the team that can get into those

positions a lot with a De Bruyne through ball.

You'd want Allison as that last line of defence, and so potentially there.

Um, I would say, if Salah's fit, that is another area where um, the game could be won from Liverpool's point of view.

He has trained for the last few days, he has scored.

I mean, I remember one unbelievable goal he scored against Manchester City at Hanfield.

And, um, so you play him with Diaz and Nunes, would you?

Yeah, yeah, I mean, as Lars was saying, I think you go out, you go at City.

If you've got that kind of firepower,

you'd be silly to sit back against them.

A concern for me also in the Liverpool team would just be the midfield in terms of

what the free is and is Seboshlai fit because he's only just coming back.

Endo as well has had

some fitness problems.

So you just need to be at your maximum against Manchester City.

And Rodri hasn't lost a game in, it feels like forever.

I think it's about a year, isn't it?

250 years.

so um yeah that that midfield battle feels key so the goalkeeping positions of defense midfield and attack all seem like they're putting key areas

seems like yeah that'll do it now

perfectly for all right that'll do for part one part two uh we'll return to the champions league and real madrid sneaking past rb leipzig

Hi pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

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

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

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

But there's something new and exciting.

The remarkable Paper Pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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

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

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

Although, not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

As I look, Real Madrid won, RB Leipzig won, Real Win 2-1 on aggregate.

I mean, they weren't very good, Barry, Real Madrid in this game, were they?

No, not at all.

Very unconvincing over the two legs.

And

if it was any other team, you'd say they were lucky to get through, but they're not any other team, they're Real Madrid.

And what is it, Sid always says?

They always find a way until such point they don't find a way.

But

RB Leipzig will be kicking themselves.

They left it behind them in the first leg

and got away with it to an extent and then left it behind them again last night.

They should have won this tie.

They might argue they were a little unlucky.

I think they had a good goal ruled out in the first leg.

I'm not so sure Vinicius Jr.

should have been sent off last night, but I wouldn't have been outraged if he had been, and I don't think he could have been either.

I think he would have been out, I think he would have been outraged, but

he would have been outraged.

Well, I don't think his outrage would have been justified if he had been sent off.

And then, so he was there on the pitch to score an excellent goal set up by Jude Bellingham, who was

interviewed after the game.

It was very critical of his own performance and the team's performance.

And

yeah, Leipzig scored Woody Orban, who seemed to be in the thick of all the action with a good near post header.

Danny Alimore lifted one onto the bar in the 90th minute.

And they had other chances as well.

Zavi Simmons, once again, really impressed me.

I'm a big, big fan of his.

And

it's Real Madrid.

They got through.

They probably shouldn't have.

But they did.

And that's what they always bloody do, isn't it?

I actually thought Tony Cruz was slightly lucky, to be honest, but he was involved in that build-up for the first goal as well, Larson.

And there was one, I mean, there was one foul where he should have got booked.

I don't know if he did, where he sort of slipped, but he did take the guy out.

But there was one where he went really over the top, and he might have been lucky to stay on the pitch.

And had Cruz and Vinicius both been sent off, that goal is less likely to have happened.

Arguably.

Arguably.

I think Talinga would have had to do a lot of work.

He would have done.

Not beyond him.

I don't think any of them were like Stonewall scandalous decisions, but they were both sort of if the ref had given them as reds, I don't think they would have been overturned.

I mean, I don't think it would have been a clear and obvious error to

because the Vinicius shoved, there was a lot of force in this, and his arms were very high.

It was almost more throat than chest.

I think it's a very, yeah, very, very lucky, very stupid by Vinicius that.

But, you know,

Anchalotti said after the game that they almost kind of played with the brakes on, which I thought was good.

He said that the idea had been to press more and to have more energy, but the reality is that they played very slow, is that he said in the first half.

We played with low block, very slow, very little verticality, a lot of lateral passing.

And I kind of thought watching the first half that they were doing this on purpose because they were afraid of Leipzig's pace and the threat they have on the counter.

They just kind of wanted to take the sting out of the game.

But certainly they seem to have gone too far in that direction.

And just not much happened with Real Madrid in the first half.

And, you know, Leipzig had 20 shots over the 90 minutes.

Like, not a lot of teams go to the burnabout and have 20 shots.

And

I will go so far as to say I thought they were lucky, and you could say that they've been lucky before, and then they know how to ride these situations, and they clearly do.

But

such an opportunity missed for Leipzig, and you could see that on their faces at full time.

They were walking around, like, how did we lose this?

Like, this, this, this, did everything was kind of going in the right way, and then it didn't.

I mean, we're talking about lateral passes.

The one pass, which was kind of lateral, but was you know essential to Real Madrid's win, win, Mark, was the pass from Bellingham, and it is absolutely perfect.

I mean, it sort of looks quite straightforward, but he's running at pace, he delays it, and then it's got to be a bit like a putt because it has to just carry on with the run of Vinicius.

It's

so good, yeah.

And when Vinicius scored, he was pointing very much at Bellingham, saying, You've you've made that and you need to take as much credit for the assist was

a key part, really, of the way that that goal went in i still thought vinetius um finished it fantastically well but it's the only time that they combined really in in the four positions it felt like in in the whole game bellingham wasn't good uh by his standards apart from that moment but he even when he's not um playing at the top level he can still um you know do something special

Real Madrid's team selection, I mean, Ancelotti criticized the players and the way they played.

I mean, part of that was maybe down to his team selection of having the extra midfielder in there with Valverde, Tuameni, Croz, and Camovinga rather than Rodrigo, which handed Leipzig the initiative.

And just to agree with Baron Lars, really, over the two legs, thought Leipzig were the better side and had 13 shots on target to Real Madrid 6 over the two games.

And

perhaps it was just that lack of experience.

So Pender

is, I think, somebody that will go on and

to better things maybe than Leipzig because they do sell their players, but he's snatching at chances.

There were moments really where you just wanted somebody to have like that Venicius killer instinct there to score that opportunity.

But Seshco, Simmons, Olmo, Apenda, all 25 or under and I think they did themselves proud if that's not been too condescending really with the way that that actually played over the two games.

Carlo Angelotti is potentially facing nearly five years in prison after being accused of tax fraud in Spain.

Spanish state prosecutors are accusing the Italian coach of using a confusing system of shell companies to hide parts of his income during his first stint at Real Madrid a decade ago.

He's accused of two counts of tax fraud, which is punishable by up to four years and nine months in prison.

The prosecutors claim that during the period in question, Ancelotti only declared the income he received from Real Madrid, did not declare income from his image rights.

The image rights of Anchelotti.

I mean, that eyebrow must be worth

millions.

Millions.

Millions of Euros.

A couple of questions about the Champions League.

Barcelona, our friend saying, has the magic of the Champions league lost its magic um i don't know what you think barry you sort of mentioned about sort of potential viewing figures and the fact it's you know uh you know just behind a paywall etc i i mean i don't i don't know i feel like in the last few years we've been quite lucky quite blessed with some pretty amazing champions i think we're talking about real madrid their run to that final was just so ridiculous and there were some amazing storylines in that one i think we've sort of been quite lucky in the last couple of years and maybe we were just due a last 16 that wasn't that fascinating and it will probably set up four huge quarter-finals.

I was going to bring this up actually before I knew you were

before you alluded to the intro, and then I thought, oh, is it really worth it?

Because I just have these people who come out, and if you're in any way critical of anything to do with football, they

question whether you even like the game.

And obviously I do.

But,

right, we're 108 matches into this tournament and it's just

meh and i do wonder in the uk and ireland well certainly in the uk i'm not sure what the situation is in ireland where it's behind a paywall i i wonder is anyone watching it at all or you know i i would be very surprised if people's interest in it hasn't completely bottomed out or a lot of people's interest in it The real competition doesn't begin until the quarterfinals, at which point we've had 112 games so far the only surprise and i i say the word surprise in inverted commas was manu going out really and copenhagen going through in their place uh maybe ac milan as well it was a bit of a surprise them going out i would say half the teams in the last 16

have no realistic chance whatsoever of winning the tournament like none They just do not have a hope.

Real Sociedad, PSV, Borussi Dortmund, Lazio.

And even if Parussi Dortmund had won, or sorry, if RB Leipzig had won that game last night, you think all they've won is the opportunity to get knocked out in the next round.

But

I suppose the same is true for the Premier League, for the FA Cup, for you know, sort of all La Liga Serie.

You know, most people don't have a chance of winning it.

Yeah, I mean, I look, that group of death was good.

The way that last group stage ended was good.

Man United's results were actually fascinating, you know, the games against Galatasaray and Copenhagen.

I don't know, Mark, Lars, have you got any strong thoughts?

I mean, on Tuesday, I did switch over to Ip Switch at a very early stage, which I don't feel like I would have done too often previously.

We are changing the format for next season.

I don't know if that will bring about sort of more fun, less fun, or the same amount, but...

Not against the change.

We have to wait and see whether that works, but has been the same format for a while.

My overriding sense, though, is that it was just an unlucky draw, and that sometimes that does happen.

Ordinarily,

champions of Spain playing the champions of Italy would be a stand-up tight.

Just so happens that Barcelona and Napoli are not at the level that they kind of were last year.

Paris Saint-Germain finished second, could have drawn

any of those big group winners.

They ended up with a Sociedad team that ran out of steam sort of from when they finished top of a group that had Inter.

Yeah, it does feel

just a bad run of the draw.

I look at the quarterfinal or the potential quarterfinals.

We know Real Madrid, PSG, Man City and Bayern are in it.

If it kind of goes to form, you'd say Arsenal, Dortmund, Barcelona, and Inter, and that is a potentially great quarterfinal lineup.

And, you know, that's the price we've paid is maybe not the best last 16.

We want upsets, but then we want all the best teams to play each other.

Yeah, but what I would zero in on as something I think is an issue here is that you say we want all the best teams, but who are the best?

I think that by Labour Cousin, Liverpool.

It feels to me like that group is getting smaller and smaller, and I think that's part of the problem.

I think if we go back 10 years, it already felt like a problem that it's the same sort of 8, 10, 12 teams at this stage every year.

Whereas now, when you look at it at the start of the season, it's increasingly becoming a question of

who can feasibly stop Man City here.

And you look at

Inter, who are sort of far and away, the best team in Italy, and you look at their squad and it's like, I don't know, is Marko and Autovich is still hanging around?

Like, what's happening here?

And

it feels like

the group of teams that can feasibly win it is getting smaller and smaller.

And

as much as it was interesting that Abi Leibsig nearly knocked out Real Madrid yesterday, I was sat watching this match thinking, yeah, these guys aren't going to be the city, are they?

When I was looking at Real Madrid because they're just not looking very strong at the moment.

And

I don't know.

I think the way revenue is distributed around European football means a lot of it is being funneled towards the very biggest clubs.

Some of those clubs are very well funded already from other sources.

And it's just there is

the gap in resources seems to be getting bigger, which is then reflected on the pitch.

And

I think if it's lost its magic, is that it just feels like fewer teams can realistically win it.

And you're kind of hoping for the fact that they are not total one-offs, they're two-offs, but they're over two legs.

You can have upsets, I guess, more so than in a league.

But I think it is part of the wider trend of

more and more talent and more and more resources being concentrated in a smaller, smaller number of clubs.

Meanwhile, the Europa League and Conference League actually, Barry, conversely seemed really quite exciting.

And sometimes we sort of throw away Thursday nights and perhaps we shouldn't.

We do.

We throw away Thursday nights on this podcast.

And I throw away Thursday nights because I just want a night off from watching football.

So I haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to it, if I'm honest.

I don't really get involved in the Europa League till the quarterfinals or semifinals

because you know I want one

or maybe even two

weeks nights in a week where I don't have to sit down and watch a load of football.

There's a lot of other good stuff on telemax.

That could also be a problem dwindling interest.

I don't know if interest is dwindling but I'd be very surprised if it isn't because

if you want to watch it in the UK legally you you have to pay a quite hefty subscription to TNT Sports.

But, you know, but I mean, the Premier League is the same, right?

I mean, apart from Match of the Day, right?

So like a highlight show on Terrestrial, you think would be

a good idea.

Definitely, yes.

But

if you have a Sky subscription, there's lots of other good stuff on Sky.

If you have a TNT Sports subscription, I don't watch anything else on TNT Sports.

apart from the Champions League.

And I'll be honest.

If I didn't have to watch it, I don't think I would watch a lot of it.

I should say the numbers in Australia are very good, but that is, you know, the coverage is excellent.

Wow, yes.

When is Gladiators on?

Maybe this is the problem.

Oh, that's Saturday.

Roma Brighton, Sprata Park, Liverpool, we've talked about, Benfinka Rangers, Freiburg, West Ham in the Europa League, Ajax Aston Villa.

There are some intriguing games there, Lars, aren't there?

Yeah, no, fantastic.

And this is often in terms of entertainment, I feel like this has been the way for a while.

I guess you have to be a bit of a football hipster to sort of look in this direction.

But if you if you want to join me and Langdon and Andy Brassell and the likes of us on the dark side here and sort of fully embrace the Europa League, I think you'll find it's often more entertaining than than the Champions League.

I wonder if it's because the stakes are just a little bit lower, they're just a few percentage points, like it's it's less sort of epoch defining, it it doesn't

obviously teams take it seriously, but it's not the end of the world to go out in the same way it maybe is when you start to get close to a Champions League final.

It feels like it's a bit looser sometimes.

It's often a lot of fun.

Yeah, well, it's not Jose Mourinho's not managing one of the teams because he doesn't get particularly loose even when it's a conference league.

Obviously, the Europa League this year, we've currently got the team that's top of the Premier League and top of the Bundesliga in it.

So

that immediately gives it added interest.

The gap between the best and the rest rest feels narrower because, even, say, a Liverpool might not pick all of their best players.

And so, in the Champions League, more often than not, you're not going to rotate.

I like the fact that you get to see different teams as well.

The Champions League, I mean, I don't know how many times I've seen Manchester City against Leipzig, for instance, but it feels like quite a lot.

Is it more than Everton?

Is it more than Everton to play Palace?

It can't be, can it?

And so, you know, you do get different teams with uh different ways of playing and that's that's quite interesting and yeah the the conference league i i was quite down on that when it it first came out west ham success in it and kind of how much joy that brought to a club and also roma as well actually has made me rethink that competition and the i act against aston villa is a a big game it's it you know so yeah i i like i like the thursday nights yeah how much short-lived joy it has given West Ham fans.

Yeah, big massive arms.

They're in the Europa League now, and they've got Freiburg.

And, you know,

they're living

for these Thursday nights now, my West Ham supporting friends that

haven't shut up about what happened last season.

So it might be a while, yeah.

I'm going to annoy everyone again and say that I like the Conference League, but I don't think there should be any English teams in it.

Because I think the whole point is that that

it's not for you.

You don't even go here, like playing the rich person competition with the other rich people.

I think it's been a mistake by or it's been a success by mistake.

Because, as Lara said, it it isn't for the likes of West Ham and Roma.

And West Ham should be winning it because they're the richest team in it by a fucking distance, you know.

But

there you go.

They still had a nice time.

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll look ahead to the games in the Premier League, apart from the Liverpool Man City one, and do some EFL as well.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly uh look so we've done the the main event on on sunday before that um uh mark villa spurs in the the race for fourth place the battle of the high lines, um, a game played entirely on the halfway line.

How do you see it?

I was wondering which player has been caught off the most in one Premier League, caught offside most in the Premier League game because I think Timo Werner might be going for that record this weekend because Aston Villa famous for being able to catch players offside and Timo Werner infamous for being caught offside.

So that battle of patience maybe uh will be where where that game is is won and lost i'll be at centre parks i've had to plan the uh i've had to plan the the weekend which is also mother's day i've had to plan it all around football unfortunately will you be on the rubber rings will you be cycling through no i'll be in woodland like a copse what will you be i'll be in the the sports bar um sort of yeah um unfortunately for for the family i bet there's a mighty centre parks buffet that you could head to mark must be a whole meat centre at centre parks as long as i was able to watch the football i i really had not not much of a focus really on the rest of the weekend it huge game in in the battle for uh top four feels like must not lose for certainly tottenham i would say because that gap i i think would become significant if villa get the win we don't yet know if fifth spot will um be sort of enough of the champions league and there's some direct head-to-head games so roma against brighton and freiburg against west ham um you know it's really important for anybody.

Coefficient tackles.

Yeah, they are.

They're not six-pointers.

I wouldn't know exactly what the coefficient point kind of average was there, but they're the equivalent of a six-pointer that those games between the German, Italian, and Premier League teams.

I think Aston Villa have bounced back to form.

I was worried about them a couple of weeks ago, but Molly Watkins is just a sensational sort of run and the way that he took his goals against Luton and that first half performance, particularly.

Yeah, I think it would just be a great game, but I think it's a difficult one to call.

Just expect goals.

I wonder if it'll be like, I mean, it is the footballing sort of large Hadron Collider, isn't it?

You're just kind of blasting things at each other in a very confined.

And I wonder if it could be like the bit in Oppenheimer when they're like, sure, like, are we 100% certain this won't explode the universe?

Like, when the whistle goes and everyone just kind of smashes into each other.

I just want to note, and obviously, Mark Langdon is correct, as he always is, about Villa's form picking up.

But in those three games,

they've beaten Fulham, Nottingham Forest, and Luton.

What I still want to know is how this Villa team works without Kamara in midfield when they come up against good teams.

That's something I'm still kind of

because I think

he is such an important sort of part of that defensive puzzle, and keeping that high line is all about you need to protect the back line, and you need to keep pressure on the guy in possession and stuff.

And it'll be different playing Tottenham than playing Luton, you would think.

So it should be fun.

Sam says, I'm sure you'll speak about the games, but please, can you speak about Spurs' decision to one, increase season ticket prices by 6%, already the most expensive in the league, and two, to remove concession prices for OAPs going forward?

Money grabbing and unnecessary, says Sam.

Barry, thoughts?

My thoughts are that it seems quite a grubby thing to do.

Ticket prices are going up 6%,

and supporters of a certain age approaching OAP them,

old age pensionerdom, will

now not get an old age pension pensioner's concession.

And those already on that concession, it's going to decrease year on year.

So, yeah, it just seems pretty grubby.

Seems typical of not just Spurs.

Well, a bit just Spurs, but of most Premier Leagues

clubs' attitudes towards their fans, but it'll be sucked up and there doesn't seem to be any shortage of takers for tickets.

So the thing that bugs me about it is that it

seems so unnecessary because

match day

ticket money is such a small part of any Premier League club's revenue.

You know, we know down the pyramid, clubs really rely on ticket sales and sales of refreshments and beer and whatnot but that's not the case in the premier league you know any premier league club could easily let everyone in for free or for you know a nominal amount of money and it would not really affect the balance sheet at all

so it's very it's grubby and it's grasping am i allowed to know what your season ticket costs mark what it will go up to oh i i haven't got a season ticket max i go I go virtually every week.

Jump the turnstiles.

Good for you, eh?

Yeah, exactly.

I'd skip through with somebody

with an OAP.

No, no, yeah.

Very sprayedly.

I go to about 90% of the

games, but I don't have a season ticket and I prefer to members, which went up a lot last year and also just via the ticket exchange and to pick up my, there's always tickets available via that means.

So this doesn't directly impact me, but Tottenham have been celebrating how well they've been doing financially, and so yeah, I agree.

This just feels crass, you know, just don't sign Mana Solomon.

And maybe just, and if you said to Spurs fans season to go, do you want Mana Solomon or do you want to pay six percent?

You go, well, and that to me is kind of you know, that's the figures we're talking about here.

And Tottenham don't need to do it.

And they're ruining, certainly impacting that relationship that's slowly been built up by Possikoglu.

Everybody's pulling in the same direction.

And I would say before the end of the season, you will hear more kind of anti-Enoch chanting, which

I totally understand, but it just is disappointing that it's come to this.

On Saturday, Arsenal played Brentford.

We presume, Lars, that they will make easy meet of Brentford before sitting back to enjoy Super Sunday.

That seems likely.

It was very good for Brentford that they put in a performance and got a draw against Chelsea because I'm getting to the point where I'm a little bit.

I think they'll be fine just because there'll probably be three worse teams than then in there, but I'm a tiny bit worried about Brentford.

If this was a normal relegation battle, I'd be quite worried about Brentford.

You know, the long-term injury to Ben Mee coming on top of things is that I think pretty much their entire normal first choice back four is out now.

And for a club like Brentford, that's not an easy thing to absorb.

And I think, again, if it was a normal relegation battle, I think they'd be in big, big trouble.

But for now, Burnley and Sheffield United are what they are.

And I think one out of Everton, Forrest, and Luton are going to finish below them.

But

it's not a good time.

They've picked a good season to have this season, to put it that way.

Like, for the kind of season where a lot of things go wrong.

This was the right season for it.

And I think they'll be fine.

But yikes, tough to be Brentford right now.

Yeah, I think it's a good point.

So of those three, Everton go to Old Trafford, Luton go to Palace, Forrest go to Brighton.

Barry, of those three, who do you see

being happiest come tea time on Saturday or Sunday, given Brian Forrest play on Sunday?

I would not be massively shocked if Everton beat Manchester United.

I wouldn't be massively shocked if Luton beat Crystal Palace, and I wouldn't be massively shocked if Forrest beat Brighton, because Brighton Palace and Manchester United are all quite unpredictable.

With Everton, Luton and Forrest, you kind of have a a what you're going to get.

Uh, they'll probably all score a goal, uh, they might score more than one.

And

uh,

I'm looking at Man Yu Everton, and I'm thinking, yeah, that Everton could pull a bit of a surprise here and win that game.

One of those surprises that wouldn't be a massive surprise, if you know what I mean.

Sounds to me like you will be unshocked come the end of the weekend, whatever happens.

I would say, I mean, it's it's an interesting

set of fixtures, actually, just looking at them all.

Yeah,

I'm just looking at Everton.

I think they might do something at all Trafford.

A really fascinating one because Everton are having just a bewildering season, and it's confusing to me, especially because you might remember Sean Dice from the good old Burnley days.

His whole thing was that the numbers were atrocious, like they were conceding so many chances, so many shots, but they kept winning.

And like the numbers suggested that this team should not be winning games.

Now we've come full circle with Daish at Everton because the numbers suggest that Everton really should be winning a lot of games.

They're sort of, they have, I mean,

I've got it in front of me.

They've got like the, they've got the fourth lowest XG against in the league.

Like so on expected goals.

They're like Champions League level defense.

And their attack is, their attacking output is pretty decent as well.

They're mid-table in that regard.

But a huge part of it is they're putting, I looked into the numbers this week as well.

They put in the second most crosses into the box in the league.

So the sort of get it wide, get it forward, get it into the box thing, it's working.

The problem is when you get the ball into the box, the thing that awaits them is Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Betto, who are now

the most wasteful strikers in the Premier League this season.

And that's just not me.

I mean, if you...

That's great to have both, isn't it?

Yeah, you can do it to have both.

This is the thing.

You can do a thing where you take

the number of goals,

well, the number of goals a player has scored minus the XG to get like the differential between the XG and what's actually happened, and you get some semblance of whether they're wasting chances or not.

And Calvert Lewin is by some distance the most wasteful striker in the league.

And if you adjust it for like per 90 minutes on the field and take out all the noise and the stats and all the players that haven't played a lot,

the second most wasteful per 90 is Beto.

So you have like the two least effective strikers in the league is what Everton have up front.

And it must be driving Sean Dice absolutely crazy because the team is doing so many right things.

So I completely agree with Barry.

Logically, Everton should do something here.

I just sense that what will actually happen is that Calvert Lewin and Betto will have a ton of air shots, and then Bruno Fernandez will hit one from 30 yards that goes off of Tarkovsky's backside and in, and United win 1-0 or something.

That seems like what will happen.

We were talking about Tottenham ticketing there, and Newcastle are away at Chelsea on Monday night.

And

Newcastle fans, travelling Newcastle fans, have been kicking off because

the club have taken to doing at-away games, doing spot checks

on who's carrying the away tickets.

So if the identity,

if someone has a ticket they shouldn't have, whoever should have the ticket, they lose all their points and are no longer eligible for away tickets.

And Newcastle fans have taken grave exception to this

because they're basically someone who, you know, Newcastle is a long way away from a lot of places that they have to travel to play away games.

So, some away fans are sort of exchanging tickets or moving up, not for exorbitant fees, just for

a mate who lives in London, give it to a mate who lives in London, sell it to someone for face value, whatever.

But the club is basically accusing them of touting when they do this and punishing them for it, and punishing them punitively.

I think if you're caught doing it twice, your season ticket is taken off you.

And you know, these are the hardcore Newcastle fans.

I can't believe I'm sticking up for them, but anyway,

now some bootlickers will say, oh, well, you know, there's an official channel through which if you're not using a ticket, you can

give it back to the club and it'll be sold to someone else who can use it.

But this is something Newcastle fans have done for years.

And fans, loads of clubs have done it.

But the club are really cracking down on this.

And it just seems, again, grobby and unnecessary and

a bit shit, to be honest.

Can I be a bootlicker in this instance?

So I don't want to necessarily talk about Newcastle, but

because Premier League Away tickets are set at £30,

it's very easy now for,

you know,

to throw away that £30

in some respects in terms of the person that's got a lot of loyalty points will just buy the ticket.

And they will buy the ticket and maybe they'll go or maybe they'll pass it on to a mate or maybe they will sell it for a profit.

But it just creates

this cycle of nobody else ever being able to go to away games because the ones that have got the most points and now don't necessarily pick and choose which games they're going to.

They'll just buy them for all 19 away games and they'll get the points and nobody else can then can then go.

So I'm not saying Newcastle, what they're doing is right and that there's not kind of a more balanced approach, but

I can see a kind of another side to it, I would say, just for balance.

Yeah, okay, fair enough.

Well, you both totally convinced me.

And Mark,

you spoke last, so that's where we are.

Oh, look, we mentioned how tight it is at the bottom of the championship yesterday.

Huddersfield lost to Cardiff.

They remain level on points with Sheffield Wednesday, who Barry revealed on yesterday's pod have been in the same position for nine years.

QPR got a big point against West Brom.

Amazing handball clearance by Cedric Kipre.

To be fair,

I think one of the defenders puts his hands on his head like it's

he doesn't think it's a handball.

So I sort of forgive the ref because even the opposition aren't totally sure it's a handball, but it is

proper, dirty, you know, and very clever.

and definitely a penalty and a red card.

But Max,

if somebody scores a goal like that, they're lambasted as a cheat, aren't they?

And that's really disgraceful.

When a defender does it,

they're never

sort of treated the same way, are they?

I would say.

No, that's true.

I wondered if even I'd saying clever, if I felt like saying it.

I just thought the way he did it was sort of

masterful deception, I guess.

Slate of hand.

Literally.

Filthy.

Filthy cheat.

Brilliant Watford-owned goal.

And on the subject of Watford, someone who was sitting behind Coventry's head of recruitment, Dean Austin,

apparently seemed to be screen-grabbed his WhatsApps with the Coventry manager, Mark Robbins.

Austin was watching Watford's draw with Swansea.

He wasn't entirely complimentary about Watford.

The Athletic are now reporting that Dean Austin is considering legal action, writing the Athletic understands both Austin and Rob Siegel, the agent, are deeply concerned by the incident and believe their privacy has been breached.

UK law outlines that individuals have the right to privacy and protection of their personal data.

Sharing messages without consent could potentially breach their privacy rights and data protection principles.

So I'm not exactly sure what we're allowed to say.

In sort of basic terms, Barry, Dean Austin was messaging saying, these are shite.

And I hope the GAPA doesn't get sacked.

I think we're allowed to say that.

Because, you know,

it's not a huge secret that they're shite.

Yeah, it's a weird one.

I suppose whoever took the screenshots, he was lucky he wasn't sitting behind Christian Horner, wasn't he?

But

it does seem a bit of a lousy thing to do, but it's quite funny.

I don't necessarily know who this chap is going to sue for breach of privacy.

Is it the guy who took the photos and put them on Twitter?

I do notice he's taking them down now.

I suppose it peels back the curtain of what we sometimes, we sort of think these things should be more technical and like more,

there's just be more to football than, you know, when you see like, I don't know, a team talk in one of those behind-the-scenes documentaries and they just say, come on, lads, let's fuck them up.

You go, come on, it's got to be more than that.

Just like someone going, I think their centre-backs are useless.

We should lump it up to him.

You know, that kind of thing.

You sort of think, surely, I mean, obviously, that's what you would do in a scouting report.

You'd go, I think this is where we could beat them.

But, Lars?

Without going too much into what it says, they've been very lucky, really,

in terms of what you're texting people during a game.

This is extremely mild, I think.

Even saying that a player is a bit rubbish, like this, this could have been so much worse for the guy involved in footballing terms, in terms of talking smack about people.

But also, like, a couple of months ago, I was on a flight, and the fella in front of me had two phones.

And throughout the entire flight, he was texting his wife on one and texting a mistress on the other.

Like, very

blatantly, like, just kind of holding them up so the entire row behind him could read some very colourful language, particularly on the mistress phone.

It wasn't Dean Austin, was it?

You sure it wasn't?

No, yeah.

It looked like he was, yeah, not Dean Austin.

So I just think all things considered,

this could have been much, much worse for Mr.

Austin.

And you just kind of count your blessings, I think.

Paul got in touch to say, I'm slightly offended by Barry Glendenning asserting that referees just run in diagonal lines.

Laughing, crying emoji.

That's just not what a modern referee does.

Here's the GPS tracker from my last match.

Just under six miles covered, but apparently we're uncoordinated and unathletic, Max.

I mean, the run does look like someone isn't sort of, they basically covered every blade of grass.

Can't complain.

Like they really have covered all of it.

5.67 miles.

Yeah, but I would argue that a lot of the lines in that diagram are diagonal.

I think

what I refer to as a diagonal, referees, those in the trade, refer to as a lazy S.

Right.

And it's a kind of a pattern they run, which is a...

okay.

I mean, it's lots of, it's everywhere.

The guy's gone everywhere.

A lot of it is diagonal.

What I liked was a lot of people in the replies to him were like, only six miles in 90 minutes.

I could run further than that.

As if distance covered is important for a referee, not decisions made.

It's just how far have you run, you idiot.

And I would also suggest that perhaps if he did run in diagonals, he would be refereeing at a higher level than,

what was it, under eight girls, he said the game was.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Brilliant if he's getting involved in helping out with young people's football, but you know, run more diagonals, run further, and you'll soon be doing MLS games.

I replied saying, I like how people are having a go at you for not running far enough.

He says, for all the hours of entertainment, I'm happy to return the favour.

Ironically, this was youth-girls match.

He says, yeah, Premier League players average six, Premier League players average six to seven miles a game.

So I thought I was doing okay.

I mean, that is true.

He's, you know, he's he's running as far as I don't know, Eve Basuma, then he's probably doing all right.

Well, I, yeah, I

generally try to go on at least a six-mile walk every day, right?

I'm not running it,

and it's a fair old yump, but it's a lot of ground to cover in a straight line or a diagonal.

Uh, well, I

have a fixed route, which there are actually some diagonals.

Oh, right, okay.

Do you have a whistle?

You know, you're one step away.

You could be the next, you could be the next David Coote.

Uh, Pete says, Who's looking forward to Cheltenham more?

Barry or Mark?

I mean, I think I know the answer.

Um, uh,

uh, but you can answer it, Mark.

Looking forward to it.

I'm not going this year, so I don't know if Barry trumps me on that one, but I have booked Friday off, um, a traditional Friday off, um, and I'll be um in the pub watching.

So I don't know if that trumps Barry's um well, I'm going for the lot of it.

Uh, I always feel hopelessly out of my comfort zone of Cheltenham and I do think as a sports festival it is quite overrated and the organizers need to do something about it soon or it's going to really really lose its lustre.

There's too many races

and the quality of the races is increasingly poor.

How many races should there be?

Yeah.

Well it used to be one.

I would say at the moment there's 28 races.

I reckon about

six a day for three three days, 18 would be plenty.

Okay, yeah, good works for me.

I'll see what I can do.

I mean, I think yesterday I was going to try and make the big clubs less greedy, so I'm still working on that.

But once I've achieved that, the thing about Cheltenham, when I go to work at Cheltenham, because I don't work in racing any other time, so A, I have to do loads and loads of swatting, and B,

I don't really know anyone there, and everyone else at it's a very incestuous bubble, the horse racing world.

So if you're an outsider, everyone else knows each other and you're sort of sitting there just looking.

So Ed Chamberlain always says hello to me and has a chat with me.

So he's nice.

Yeah, he's nice.

Yeah, he's lovely.

Does Frankie Duttori not say Frankie Duttori doesn't ride over jumps, mate?

Oh, my apologies.

I'll get you some intros, Barry.

I can introduce you to Barry Gerity and Ruby Walsh.

You'll be absolutely fine.

Ralph says, I enjoy all your podcasts.

Looks like you're expanding your best wishes to people who are having any surgeries.

We have somewhat moved into all medical procedures.

On Thursday morning, I'm having a parathyroid surgery.

If all goes well, it should be a simple process.

I'll be out in a couple of hours.

Most weeks, when you have a podcast on Thursday, I hear it before 9 a.m.

when I'm scheduled to check in for my surgery.

All of your personalities are fun and give different perspectives, which I appreciate.

Barry usually gives best wishes, but it'd be nice to give someone else a chance.

I'd love to hear from anyone who is willing.

If any of you are traveling to Oregon, please let me know.

I presume that's listeners as well.

I would happily host someone and then take them to a Portland Timbers or Thorns game.

And it's an experience that many of you probably would not expect to see.

Take care and thank you, Ralph.

Well, since you gasped, Lars, give it a go if you could, if you could wish Ralph well.

Well, just I have been.

Well, well, I wish you well, of course.

I mean, this is a very serious thing.

And I just want to say to

like, Portland games are fun.

Many years ago, I went to the Portland Timbers versus Seattle Sounders Derby

in Portland, and it was really good.

Atmosphere was tremendous.

And any sort of European people who are snobs about MLS should go and check out.

That's a very good example of a lively and exciting local derby.

So

anyone from the Football Weekly family who wants to go and take this man up on his offer, I think you should.

As for me, I am going to take in some MLS quite soon.

Oh, great.

On the 16th of March, I'm watching FC Dallas versus the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the weekend after, I'll be at LAFC versus Nashville.

So if you watch a confused, bearded Norwegian,

either at Dallas or at LAFC versus Nashville, you can come up and say hello, or you could leave me alone.

That's entirely up to you.

Maybe I'll do the best wishes then at this point.

And some best wishes to Ralph that I thought Lars was supposed to do.

I gave him best wishes.

Actually, did he do it?

I said good luck with the searcher.

On the subject of LAFC,

I think you did it.

Was that Hugo Luis's debut when he was covered in snow?

Second game.

Second game.

Absolutely brilliant.

Away to Ariel Salt Lake and some snow happened.

And it was, yeah, it was.

And at the same time, it's looking like a pretty goofy MLS season because I watched Inter Miami versus Orlando.

And the sort of Inter-Miami swashbuckling front line of Luis Suarez and Messi and the lads were just absolutely on fire.

You worry about the Orlando's high line when Luis Suarez at the age of 57 keeps getting in behind them.

But

it was a very good watch.

know i think we're kind of back to sort of goofy mols with some of these teams so you know if you are of a nocturnal inclination in europe

pay attention uh all right that'll do for today uh thank you barry thanks max thanks mark thank you max thank you lars thank you max uh before i go can i point you in the direction of our new series on artificial intelligence i mean not our not me and barry

hasten to point out uh it's called black box and each episode follows a different story episode two which has just been released is a mind-bending story about a six-month guardian investigation into a company called Cloth Off.

It generates deep, fake, porn images and has been causing havoc around the world.

The team have been trying to find out who is behind it.

Search and subscribe to Black Box, wherever you get your podcasts.

New episodes are released every Monday and Thursday.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Christian Bennett.

This is The Guardian.