The Champions League group stage concludes: Football Weekly Extra
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January 30, 2025
TLDR: Discussion on 18-game final round of Champions League fixtures and looking ahead to weekend's Premier League action with Robyn Cowen, Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen, and Mark Langdon.

In the latest episode of Guardian Football Weekly, host Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen, and Mark Langdon to dissect the thrilling conclusion of the Champions League group stage. A total of 18 matches produced 64 goals, leaving fans buzzing with excitement as the knockout phase looms on the horizon.
Key Matches Reviewed
Manchester City vs Club Brugge
- Match Summary: Manchester City faced Club Brugge, where they secured a 3-1 victory despite a shaky start going 1-0 down at halftime.
- Key Players: Ilkay Gundogan’s halftime substitution changed the dynamics, especially with Savino’s impactful second-half performance, eventually scoring a vital goal.
- Discussion Insight: The panel reflected on City’s resilience and the potential threats they may face in the next round against top contenders like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, despite ongoing defensive vulnerabilities.
Aston Villa vs Celtic
- Match Dynamics: Aston Villa edged past Celtic with a narrow 2-1 victory, showcasing their ability in the tournament while raising questions about their striker depth and the future of key players like Ollie Watkins.
- Highlight: Morgan Rogers shined with a hat trick, indicating his potential as a decisive player heading into the knockout stages.
- Panel Takeaway: The importance of finishing in the top eight was emphasized, setting Villa up favorably for the playoffs.
Liverpool vs PSV
- Key Points: Liverpool's first defeat of the group stage came against PSV, yet they still finished top of their group. The rotated squad provided mixed results, but standout performances were noted, including a unique goal by Bakayoko.
- Expert Opinion: Lars Sivertsen highlighted the importance of squad rotation in maintaining performance levels across matches, especially given the rigorous schedule.
Arsenal vs Girona
- Match Insight: Arsenal came back to win 2-1 against Girona, confirming their place in the knockout stages. The match showcased both the team’s depth and tactical flexibility.
- Discussion Focus: Mark highlighted Reham Sterling's struggles missed penalty, and with the emergence of youngsters like Nwari, competition in the squad intensifies as they look forward to the upcoming Manchester City clash.
Other Notable Matches
- Barcelona vs Atalanta: This thrilling encounter ended 2-2, with Barcelona finishing second in their group, emphasizing their resurgence in form despite lingering defensive issues.
- PSG’s Resurgence: With a 4-1 victory against Stuttgart, PSG showcased a new, more cohesive unit that impressed many pundits.
- Real Madrid's Quiet Dominance: Winning 3-0 against Brest, Real Madrid quietly built momentum heading into the knockout rounds, while questions regarding their squad composition and balance were raised.
Premier League Weekend Preview
As the Premier League action heats up with critical matches between Arsenal and Manchester City, Bournemouth facing Liverpool, and Brentford against Spurs, the panel provided predictions and assessments on each team’s current form and tactical setups.
Key Matchups
- Arsenal vs Manchester City: An intense battle expected, with Arsenal favored due to their recent form.
- Bournemouth vs Liverpool: A potential upset as Bournemouth’s resilience will be tested against a rotating Liverpool side.
Conclusion
The end of the Champions League group stage not only provided dramatic football but also set the stage for thrilling knockout matches. Teams showed signs of both vulnerability and strength, indicating an exciting close to the football calendar.
Stay tuned for further updates as the knockout stage progresses and premier league drama unfolds on weekends!
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, the final group game to the Champions League. All of the football, all at the same time, the final 18 matches produce 64 goals. We all describe every single one of them. Manchester City do the decent thing and give us some jeopardy before getting the job done over Club Bruce to secure a playoff place. Aston Villa go through automatically with a narrow win over Celtic. But will they have any strikers by the time the knockout stages commence? Will they need Eddie with Morgan Rogers getting a hat trick?
And as anyone checks on Ali McCoy's, elsewhere, Liverpool finish top despite defeat to PSV, whilst Arsenal finish with a comeback victory over Durona. Real Madrid find form just in time to lure us into a false sense of security before inevitably winning the trophy. We'll pick out the best bits from the night's action, issue an apology to the natural wine truthers, have your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.
on the panel today. Good morning, Barry Glendedding. Hello, Robin. The last Davidson. Hello. And Mark Glenden. Thank you so much for joining us. After your swanky do at the Gherkin.
Hi, Robin, you OK? Yeah, more on that later. Before we get to the football, the white smoke emerged from Guardian Towers yesterday. We are sending all of our love and congratulations to Max and Jamie on their newborn son, Willie Rushton, named after the private eye cartoonist and regular on through the keyhole, a beautiful little brother for Ian. Yeah, unfortunately, Ryan Lough's run of two goals and two has come a little too late to have his name bestowed on the newest Rushton.
Right, on the subject of sleepless nights, on to the episode that's been keeping everyone a football weekly on their toes, it's the Champions League mega pod. Yeah, so me and producer Joel were trying to watch the goal show on TNT Sports, and Joel rightly pointed out that it was the most pundits ever assembled, like the end of the Avengers, he described it.
I mean, I was watching it. My eyes actually started to hurt. I don't have TikTok. I imagine that's what it's like scrolling through video after video. I'm just on my feet, nose pressed up against the screen, trying not to miss anything. And I think I miss basically everything. Let's start at Manchester City. They beat Club Rouge 3.1. I mean, ultimately, it was comfortable in terms of the score line.
Barry, but there was a bit of jeopardy one mill down at half time, but eventually, I guess, they're a bit of helping hand, didn't they, but the quality told. Yeah, I mean, your description of trying to watch this is quite... Well, it resonates with me because...
On the face of it, it was very exciting evening. It was quite overwhelming to keep on track, or keep on top of everything with so much going on. You're raising games, 64 goals, few red cards, penalties, great goals, terrible misses, brilliant saves, awful goalkeeping errors. And, you know, how do you keep on top of it, Lord?
at the end of it all and when the dust has settled it turned out to be all sound and fury really because only two teams gay crashed the top eight party villain little going in at the expense of Milan and Aslanter.
And the city were the only team in danger of not qualifying to qualify to go from a non-qualification position into a qualification position. But it was still all great fun.
probably provided the nearest thing to a massive upset that we got in going behind Club Bruj. But ultimately, we're too good for them. Bruj went into this game on the back of a 20 match on Beaten Run, so they were never going to be pushovers. And so proved when they took the lead on the details, lovely right footed finish after.
Matthias Nune and Nune's had been easily beaten down the left wing he was playing it right back for City but ultimately City were just too good for them and they will have Raya Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next round.
They'll probably beat them. They'll probably go on and win. I'm not sure they're quite good enough, but they are starting to get direct together, aren't they? And things changed for them in this game when Ilkai Gundugan came off at halftime, Savino was brought on, and he had a huge influence on the game and ultimately scored the goal that put it beyond Bruges. Beautiful.
take down on his chest before fire and past that Simon Mingling, who was in gold for brood. So yeah, a great win for City and they have managed to just about avoid embarrassment.
At the moment, anyway, as you say, they're through, people saying they're through, but they still have this play-off, so we probably will lose a big hitter, won't we? Savino's probably been the highlight of a very patchy season, and I'm interested, Lars Pep Guardiola said ahead of this one that he was going to approach it without emotion. How did he get on with that, do you think?
I think the idea of pep approaching anything without emotion is silly. Like, I don't think he can do the big shop without emotion. And Frel is doing the big shop can get emotional. The question is, I don't even think he can do a small shop. I think just going around the corner shop to get a few bits for breakfast. I think even doing that, Pep would get very emotional. Can you imagine him in the...
The middle isle of little he would lose. I mean everyone gets emotional there I feel like that is it's more a case of like can you pick some bread and something for the for the morning and I don't think you can do that I think you've got really annoyed at the ineffective layout of the off license or something I believe the point is he did seem emotional.
And there was, this was the game where stuff was going on, right? This is the one I was drawn to as Barry said, okay, I asked him to kind of went up a tear, but that just didn't feel super significant, I guess, unless you're fans of that club.
The overall, this sort of crazy decision day with all these games, it reminded me of the BBFCs that are British Board of Film Classification, who sort of put these tags on film so their parents will know what awaits the children. There's one line, they're very fondant for a while, which is that the film contains mild peril.
And I think that the mild peril is what I felt throughout the game, really, with the exception of it. There was also one that I think contains moderate emotional intensity. There was a lot of that. A mild peril and moderate emotional intensity. Maybe not how you market this giant decision day, but that's what I felt. But there was a period in the city game in which
Bruges just had some really good opportunities on the counter. In City, I don't think they're fixed yet. Nowhere near. During this period before Christmas, when they kept losing every game, they were creating chances in these games. They just weren't taking them. They're still anytime they come up against the team that are capable of attacking them in any kind of way. They look so open. And they were period tearing, though Bruges have got like a quarter of their wage bill less than that.
Where they were just kind of cutting through them and and they were just not doesn't seem to be much of a midfield there now the attack is is rolling again for city They are creating goals again and probably corresponds pretty neatly with the return of Kevin de Bruyne and it's probably not entirely unrelated But I just think I still think if they come up against good teams, they'll be in trouble And they've signed players. I mean, I'm not sure signing two young center halves and a very good attacker in my mush will
We'll solve that softness, but I guess it means they might score even more goals. So the seats you have become quite an exciting team to watch, I think, for a neutral. And maybe that will continue throughout the rest of the season. I think that's a good point, isn't it, Mark? Because Solace actually had a shot, so he won all. So yet they do.
Give up quite a lot of chances still. It feels like that's going to take a while to fix. I mean, if this season at all, I'm not sure. Yeah, I've been quite disappointed really with the way that Pep has tried to overthink that midfield. Yeah, you just sort of stuck a kind of two experienced guys in there.
this time in Covid kitchen and Gunduan, we're seeing the broiler in there, Bernardo Silva, but it hasn't a brief Rico Lewis, but that that experiment seemed to have stopped. But there's no way of them nullifying counter attacks. The goal they conceded was terrible from their point of view to lose the ball on the edge of the attacking penalty area and then just suddenly be like three on three. It's just unheard of really for a Pep Guardiola,
team in that way. They have signed players, but they decided against buying a rotary replacement or just finding somebody in that position and it's when they come up against better teams and we know they've got a better team in the play of rounder by Munich all around Madrid.
are going to love playing against that midfield. I mean, it can't be anything other than the fun game. I think Nunez does give City a fair bit going forward. But as you'd expect of a midfielder playing a right back, he also looks vulnerable in that position. So against Real Madrid, I mean, you can only see it being a really high scoring and fun match. And I'm sure Arsenal are probably looking forward to playing City on the weekend.
You know, just defend well against them and then you'll just will get opportunities. Let's move on to Aston Villa for Celtic 2. Barry, you had an eye on this one. I mean, it started. You were thinking this could be get ugly for Brendan Rodgers, but it turned out to be obviously a defeat for Celtic, but got themselves back in it. And I think it's been hearing him after the game. He spoke of his pride and they're into the playoffs as well.
Yeah, this was a brilliant game. It's the only one I watched in its entirety. I actually worked out if you watched every single game last night, assuming there's no added time and half time last 15 minutes exactly. It would take you 31 and a half hours to watch. No, that's right. Yes, 31 and a half hours to watch all 18 games.
Quite the box set. Yeah, I'll do that later and let you know how I get on Monday.
But yeah, this is a really good game, and it was... So Villa went in to his... with uncertainty surrounding the futures of Ollie Watkins and John Duran, both of whom Arosnall had put a bid in for Watkins on Monday. Apparently, John Duran looks like he might be off to Alanis Sauer. Said to go in, they'd just sold Kiyogo for Hashi to Raine in legal.
They know daisy made a camera character vickers one was suspended the other injured, and Celtic found themselves to nail down within four minutes to go goals from Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey hit the foot of the post. Ali Watkins had a shot cleared off the line by Alistair Johnson.
And you're really worried for Celtic at this stage. But they got back into it. Adamida scored two. First one was an excellent finish actually after hooking in a cross that was deflected his way. But ultimately Villa were just a little too good for them. One for two interesting game for Ali Watkins. He scored a goal. He assisted Rogers for his hat trick goal.
He had a John Terry dependency over the high and wide over the bar after his standing foot went from under him. He had a shot cleared off the line and brought two excellent saves out of Casper Schmichael. So I'm not sure. Did he have a good game or a bad game? Someone left. I'll defer at a game of someone who just
been told that Arsenal want to buy him. I'll defer to Thomas Tukal, who was in the stand. He can leave it up to him to decide whether he had a good game or not. But it was tremendously entertaining. And Villa go into the top eight. Their players were left standing around Luka Dean's mobile.
huddled around after the final whistle and because waiting for the result between atlanta and bar says they're going to the top eight centric it through and will face rare Madrid or Bayern and hats off to both of them I think they've both probably over achieved.
Yeah, I mean, I think they were both happy. I would have really liked, because we saw a lot of those scenes, didn't we, of players huddled around their phones, if there was like five transistor radios, all of them. That would have been nice, wouldn't it, a bit old school. Top 8 Finish feels very important for Villa, doesn't it, Mark? Because they have struggled post-Champions League, and just missing out those couple of games could be quite significant for them.
Yeah, I mean, going into the game, I thought actually Morgan Rogers was one of those that maybe was feeling the pinch slightly and hadn't been quite as impactful as what he had been earlier on in the season. Obviously, it soon turned that form on its head with his display. But, yeah, finishing in the top eight is important because if you look at kind of who Villa have got next, it'll be one of Spalting or Club Rouge or Atalanta or Brussia Dortmund and
You know, there's a couple of games there that won't be easy, but it certainly could have been tougher for Villa. They had some difficult games early on. You think like the Bayern Munich match that they won, they played Juventus, that Monaco away was never going to be easy. So I think they've done fantastically well to finish.
in the top eight and the rest will do them good and I can't believe how much they're going to potentially get for John Duran. It's on the last week. It's Saudi. Yeah, and they've done very well selling to Saudi.
What went that way as well. But if it's a choice of selling one of those, I know Watkins is 29, but I'd definitely keep all the Watkins of those two. I agree. But for the vibes, I'm going to miss him. I'm a bit sad about it, actually. And he is so young, isn't he, John, to run. So it's just, again, just a bit, really, but, you know, difficult. It's getting 60 million for a 29-year-old.
Better or worse than getting 64.5 million for what's the Duran 2122?
I think it's an arsenal of rival. That's the thing, isn't it? Or maybe. I just think it's also a case of Ollie Watkins is a player who's proved for many, many years that he is a very reliable high-end Premier League striker, whereas John Duran, as exciting as he is. I'm not going to do the whole thing because I did it on the other episode, but it's what a season and a half. He's been good. And even now, the numbers, like I said before, I don't trust that. So if we can get a big fee for him,
I mean, take the money and run, or maybe just wait for someone to inexplicably pay even more, which seems to be what happened the last time I brought this up. Let's wrap up the other UK sides involved last night. PSV beat Liverpool, so Liverpool lose their 100% record, but they still finish top. This was another fun game last, wasn't it? And you really enjoyed Baccioco's goal in particular.
I mean, it's still a line about the defender looking like a fire engine heading for the wrong fire, except there were two of them. There was synchronized wrong fire departures. I mean, that was absolutely tremendous from Bakayoko. Who is one of those guys? I thought for sure someone was going to snap him up in the summer. Very, very exciting winger. And listen, you can't really read much of anything into this result, because Liverpool didn't need anything, and they fielded a very youthful and rotated side.
But there were some nice goals and some good vibes, I suppose. Maybe not so, maybe Arne Schloss. Is it a bit sad for him to lose against teams from the Dutch league? Now that he's moved up into the big time, maybe that would annoy him a little bit, but I think the more... The thing about this is that he was very sensible and rested all his big guys.
And there were a few teams that didn't do that. I was kind of surprised to see some of the lineups with like Yamal playing for Barcelona and Arsenal, even though they rotated like Martin the other goal played 90 minutes, which I thought was quite surprising. But it was a bit of a honest loss kind of, yeah, completely changed, just get through the game and fine.
I enjoyed Arne Slott's interview afterwards, actually, with Five Life. He was like, I don't actually know what happens next. It was very funny. I do. I've got a graph in front of me. I've come prepared. Forward it to Arne Slott. He clearly needs it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe I should just do that. Yeah. A marital nalo came off. Oh, yes. We must mention this. The last three minutes.
Yeah, I just have this image of him in many, many years to come when he's sitting with his grandchild on his knee and the grandchild says, Grandad, you know, tell me about your Champions League debut. And he says, yes, I was 18 years old. I came on for Liverpool in the earth, 80, 30 minutes. And then I was sent off four minutes later because I accidentally kicked Johann Bakayoko in the bollocks.
And one hopes it's onwards and upwards for a marrow after that.
Do you know what? If that's his peak, I would take that. That's a wonderful story. Yeah, well-mentioned, very loved that. Jirona won Arsenal, too. So Arsenal already threw pretty much. And Wherry with a great goal. Actually, Jirona took the lead, didn't they, Mark, with the goal of a Nessa won his debut. Yeah, as we say, Channing is in a Robert Sanchez. And yeah, out of his goal, and actually tried to save it. So that could have gone a bit really bad, actually.
Yeah, it was actually it was better for him and Arsenal that he didn't save it, which is a strange sort of paradox through a goalkeeper, but yeah, they were better off that he wasn't good enough to get his hands to it. Yeah, not a great moment for Neto. Like Lars, I was slightly surprised that there were a few big hitters in that Arsenal team.
They've got Man City at the weekend, and I just expected a complete blanket, you know, reserve side almost, and even sort of the players that they were bringing on, like Declan Rice. But, you know, obviously, Arteza knows more about his players than me. It's been a good Champions League campaign for Arsenal. The negative will be Reheam Sterling. Yeah, he took that penalty, probably wanted to get
A bit full going for himself and he missed it. But with Nanwari playing as well as what he is, then Sterling's going to be out of the team anyway, I think. Another Arsenal news. Miles Lewis Skelly's three match ban imposed for red card at walls on Saturday. Has been overturned. Yeah, I think we'll just leave that there. We've had enough Arsenal chat. That will do for part one in part two. We'll wade our way through some more of the Champions League action. Just forcing games to go, everyone.
Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly Barcelona 2 at Atlanta 2. Who wants to take this one? I mean, again, two kind of quite fun teams at the moment. So Barcelona finished second. Lars, I mean, would you have those one, one of the favourites? It's difficult, isn't it? Because actually they haven't really been there or thereabouts in the Champions League for quite some time now. Listen, I think
There are, there aren't, I don't know how should I put this? I was about to say there aren't many good teams around, but that's clearly not true because good is like a relative phrase, like the ones that are the best around actually. But there are a few perfect teams around Europe at the moment. There are few teams that you look at and think, wow, there's no way past them. So I think Barcelona
They have some flaws. I mean, that very high line they play can be exploited, as we saw in that completely unhinged game against Benfica. There are ways of getting at them to put it mildly, but they've got such a repertoire going forward. Laminiamal is so good, and Raffaenia is playing incredibly well this season, and you've got like, when you've got guys like Pedri and Frankie the young Gabi pulling the strings in midfield. Obviously, they can be pretty much anyone, so you'd have them right up there.
They have, yeah, they have a bit of a, like a boxer with a weak chin, is that a thing? Like, it's definitely, they can't be got ass, but they're gonna be great fun to watch. It is something, it's kind of funny about football is that sometimes, like, teams not being perfect and teams not being absolutely brilliant is much better for entertainment value, because it means they're unlikely to just shut out the opposition. I feel like,
Barcelona can definitely put 6 or 7 past you, but they can also give you a few chances down the other end. So yeah, a team to watch if nothing else.
Yeah, Atlanta are also a fun team to watch, aren't they? Jam Pierre and Gasparini doing an amazing job with them. The draw wasn't enough for them to make the top eight. They finished ninth, which must be pretty painful. And they will be in the playoffs, either sporting or club brooch, await for them. Stuttgart won PSG 4. Barry, this was the saying, I think we've been saying this quite a long time. Worryingly, PSG is starting to be slightly more likable.
or are you not for turning? They were really good last night. I mean, this game, they could have played out a biscotti. A draw would have sent both them through, but PSG were not having any of that. Usmane Dembele, which we've talked at great, great tedious length about how hot and cold he can blow, but he was on it last night. Again, I think he's been quite good in PSG's last three games, certainly the last three I'd seen.
So he scored a hat-trick in their 4-1 win. I tell PSG look very impressive, very, very impressive, and they would be in my sort of potential winners of this competition on the evidence of what I've seen in recent games.
And I would not be credited with it anymore because they're no longer the PSG of yours that were always so comical to watch. And they just blew Stuttgart out of the water last night. Mark, in particular, I really enjoyed Barcola, his performance. They've really got some quite likable young players now, haven't they?
Yeah, him and he definitely the stand out. I think for me, I know Dembele got the hat trick, but Barco, he was the creative force really, and a real thorn in Stuttgart side and Dewey as well that plays sort of sometimes through the middle. He can play wide. There's a fluidity to the team. It lacked that star quality of Mbappe and that headline grabbing
but maybe that's not a bad thing given hasn't really served PSG that well in the past and yeah under pressure PSG of always well it feels like they've always buckled maybe that's doing them a disservice but it does feel that way and they were under huge pressure the last few matches of this Champions League campaign to beat City 4-2 and then to go away to Stuttgart and win that game as well
It feels quite un-PSG-like really, and there was a turning point in the game when Donnaroomer made a brilliant stop when it was only 1-0 and PSG went up the other end and made it too. But yeah, I've been impressed with the way that they're finding a new way to play without the star names.
They've got some tough games coming up still, I think, in the Champions League. So in terms of winning it, this might not be their season, but I feel like they're heading in the right direction. Just to make sure Filippo Clare isn't touching in his study here, I think we should make clear that we still, or at least I still think, like a nation-state buying a club and then pumping so much money into it that the entire national competition becomes irrelevant.
is still a bad thing for the sport and not something that should be happening. So I'm not quite ready to like embrace PSG as a wonderful concept, roundly speaking, but at least the team, yeah, now is not filled with like, it's not a complete mismatch of players who shouldn't be there.
But they now make sense as a football team. And they've signed one of my favorite players in the world, Richard Carter Scalia as well. So I guess I'm suffering with a lot of cognitive dissonance when pondering PSG as an entity right now. Because I think they're fundamentally bad for the sport, but also they're a team I'd pay to watch right now. So that's where that's where that's where that's how that works. That's the sports washing happening right in front of our eyes.
Yeah, being washed, thoroughly. They'll play Monaco or breast in the playoffs, so I guess a sort of French Derby if that exists at all. But I think, actually, Lars, the story, Lil 6, a final one in terms of French teams. I mean, what a campaign they've had. And because they absolutely smashed final blast light, they've made it through a straighter without a playoff.
Yeah, and they're really fun. I think they should be said about little as well, because they're not, again, not a lot of glamorous names that you might have heard of, but like, whatever I've seen, watch them play, or in this case, watched highlight, because there were 105 games yesterday, but like, they're, they've got a lot of like skillful guys who can do fun things. One of the guys who really made an impact in this game was, uh, Osam Saroui, who is born in Norway, but plays for Monaco, who's like a really skillful, tricky winger guy, low central gravity, great touch, all of this.
And they've got a few of those. So if you do end up schedules permitting, watching Lille, they're a good watch. And definitely one of the teams we've done better than expected in this stage. Three own goals in this game, two for Trowna. And Jonathan David scoring a brilliant goal. He seems to be very perennially linked with other teams elsewhere. I think his contract's up in the summer. Could be one to watch.
Yeah, a tip of the hat to Findors, Guernard Trainer, who scored, provided an assist and scored two long goals in this game. Johnson Davis didn't start, but he came off the bench and scored for a little. Julian Laurent was on match of the day last night, and he
suggested he might be probably not good enough to go to one of the Premier League teams, and then said, but he'd be ideal for Aston Villa, which I'm not sure why the Villa fans would make of that. But I know what he meant. Everyone knew what he meant, but they all ripped the pace out of them anyway. I'll be honest, I don't see a great deal of Johnson. David, but his name seems to crop up a lot, and he looks good from anything I've seen of him.
Real Madrid beat breast 3-0. Mark, they're doing it again, are they? Are they lulling us into a false sense of security? Yeah, if they end up with Celtic, rather than Manchester City, they'll start to fancy it. They are playing better now than they were, I suppose, in that midway bit of the league phase, where they looked in the same kind of trouble as what PSG did. I mean, in terms of this game, they did allow 23 shots, which
again i think we spoke about sissy didn't we're not being able to control matches i feel like real Madrid are in the same boat really so if it does end up real Madrid man city it should be really fun but yeah they eventually just got too much quality for bress who have had a fantastic campaign themselves and
You know, the fact that they've qualified, I still think is one of the stories really of this Champions League, but up against that the might of Real Madrid eventually, that attacking sort of false came to the fore. And Rodrigo, who has had some injury problems, got a couple of goals, and I always feel like Real Madrid
When Rodrigo plays, he just balances the side slightly better maybe than when he's not in the team, because he does do a lot of work off the ball that maybe a couple of the other forwards are not that interested in. They've had a run of impressive performances now, Real Madrid, racking up the gold tallies and Bapley starting to look more like himself, even though he didn't score in this game. And it has not escaped my notice that that has co-insided with Vinicius Jr. being unavailable.
Now, Vinicius Jr is obviously a great player, but it remains a huge question mark about how it all fits together, how you start with Mbappe, Bellingham, I.G. Lee also Rodrigo and Vinicius Jr. in the same team in a way that makes sense. I'm just not sure it does make sense.
Yeah, it is a thing to watch in the coming months how Carlos Lotti figures that one out and because Rodrigo was really good in this game. Rodrigo is always the one that when we're trying to do the sort of, how is this team meant to work out? How do you get this front line to look balanced? Rodrigo tends to be the one who stick on the bench, but as Mark Langdon says, they always look a bit better when he's on the pitch.
Dorman beat Shaktar 3-1, perhaps the highlight of this one, Barry was the Shaktar goal. You could just see it coming when they cut to this on the goal show and you see a team playing out, just passing it through their defence and then back to the goal, keep you think, oh dear, something's brewing here. I'd be honest, I don't remember that. I don't blame you.
My main take-out from this game was some brussey dorkmans, uh, through grassy score two, and looked a certainty to complete his hat-trick with a brilliant downward header that was incredibly saved by the Shaktar goalkeeper. His save was so good that Grassy actually congratulated him on keeping it out.
I'll finish this part with the Dinamo Zagreb 2 Milan 1, absolutely gutting for Zagreb. They needed to win, but also have results elsewhere go their way. Yeah, just absolutely devastating, but this is going to happen, isn't it, with occasional teams when it's like this, when you're relying on other results. So yeah, win for them for Fabio Canavaro, but the sporting equaliser kept them out of the playoffs. That will do for part two.
We'll keep on going in part three. Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly, Juventus nil Benfica 2, Juventus mark. Not very impressive, just generally this season. Yeah, a very strange season under Tiago Mota.
They thoroughly deserve to lose this game too, Neil, to Ben Ficke as well. They've drawn a lot of games in Syria. Their football hasn't been as exciting as what. I think they would have hoped it will have been. You know, Motel was a progressive manager at Bologna and Bologna have felt he's absent, but in moving to Uve just hasn't worked out. And even though they had 67% possession in this game,
It was Benfica that created the chances and thoroughly deserved the win. Strange time really for Juventus because they do some things well.
But it's not all coming together and the pressure is starting to grow on motor as well. Do you think they're cursed? I mean, it could be just like one of those. I've been watching quite a few horror films recently and a lot of them, the protagonist has done something bad in their past and they're just being haunted by badness, whether through their own guilty conscience or just the universe trying to rebalance some things.
I'm just going to throw that out there and maybe for legal reasons. No, we don't have to because it's all, they're all convicted and it's fine. They did bad things. And maybe the gods of football are putting that right. If only that was the case, Lars. I mean, that would, I mean, there'd be those gods of football have been sleeping on quite a few things. I'd say that's the only thing.
The sleepiest gods. The gods are football. Just forever nap time. And then they just wake up and say, oh, that looks like something we should do something about. So I'll go back to sleep.
Felipe, we've been trying to awaken them for quite some time. The narcoleptic gods. The gods are full, that's what they are. Intima land three Monaco, nil. A hat trick for Altara Martinez, we're into Finnish fourth. Bayern three Slovan, that Bratislava won. Thomas mother 56 champions lead goals. I mean, Barry, this is in the category of all the Croatians tired yet. He's still going.
Yeah, it's remarkable longevity. And he just seems always to be having a really great time, which, you know, fair play to him. He, Harry Kane was on the score sheet in this one as well. You sort of glossed over into there. I'd have them down as potential winners. I think Bayern as well are obvious candidates. And Thomas Muller will still be playing for them in 15 years time. Almost certainly.
A third entry into my very niche subcategory of great goals that didn't mean a lot yesterday. The 3-1 goal for Slava and Bratislava by Marco Tolich. Tremendous stuff, like really great footwork and then just smashes it up the near corner. I'm almost certain everyone missed that. But if you want to cruise the internets and find, I mean that was number three. And there is at least one more to go if we get there. But yeah, there were a few of those yesterday.
Mark, 12 is a slightly underwhelming finish though, isn't it, for Bayern Munich? Yeah, they paid the price and they now face the prospects of potentially facing Man City. The defeat to Feynold was the one that was just totally bizarre to lose 3-0 to a team that then loses 6-1 the week after.
The funniest thing I found about this game was that towards the end, buying realized that there was a fair chance that they were going to be playing Man City. There were definitely messages going on the pitch because at free nil, they were desperately trying to score more goals to get them up above Richard Dortmund in the table. And I think that's why they got caught on the counter attack. And if they do end up with City and then going out, really only got themselves to blame for some
You know, that terrible result in Rotterdam. I know they had a lot of the ball in that game, but Bayern shouldn't be losing through in that game. Sporting one, Bologna one. They were sporting second in the table after four games under Ruben Ammarim. But their point means they claim 23rd spot under place in the playoffs and they're up against Atalanta or Dortmund.
Results elsewhere then. Levocues and tubes, Sparta Prague, nil for inverts and Nathan Teller with the goals. Big Win for Atlético 4-1 over Albie Salzburg, young boys. Ooh, it's been a painful campaign for them. Defeat to Red Star and Sturm grads won. Leipzig, nil. Lars, I know you wanted to talk about another magnificent, meaningless goal. I mean, it's the less.
Yeah, it's the last time I'm saying this in the episode, and I think we can all be relieved about that, but like the third entry into the great, but ultimately not super important goal, a Galar Kanga for Savena Svesza. Just a great hit. Like, if you're a fan of a good hit, just great shot. And as it emerges, I was really, who is this guy? He used to play for a team in Gabon called Missile FC.
This is a tremendous moment for, for, for nominative determinism because that, that was an absolute rocket of a shot. It's unlike Neto. Unlike Neto, on the other hand, who is named Neto very much did not stay in his Neto. So it's been a mixed day for, for, for nominative determinism. And I have had too much coffee this morning. And Robin, as you alluded to, I was at a swanky do with some sponsors last night for the Champions League and
They had all 18 matches on TVs and during the first half of Young Boys, it's been a spread to game, the kind of stream on it froze after 30 or minutes. I think I was the only person that noticed. There wasn't many eyes on that Young Boys game. There was a fantastic moment though, right at the end where the
the visiting goalkeeper was booked for time-wasting and it was so obvious and blatant time-wasting. I was just thinking like nobody cares like who else cares about winning or lose but obviously it means it means a lot from a financial point of view but yeah it was a lovely moment when
Gutser, I think his name is, was determined not to kick the ball out. He was just waiting to be yellow-carded. I just wondered how many people were actually bothered by that game. Oh, I love that the thought of you pulling it at someone's sleeve. Mr. Please.
The TV is frozen. Anything else of note chaps that we should talk about before we leave the Champions League behind?
And Lango just going, hang on, hang on, the stream for young folks. Savannah Svesza has frozen. Someone has to fix this. It was like, this is, this is, this is why I hold this man in such high esteem. Absolutely. Yeah. I'd like to think I would also have done that, but not that many other people. So, you know, I, my, my, my, my full credit and hats off to you, Mark, like that.
It feels like it feels like an updated version of the if a tree falls in the forest. Like if the stream for young boys Savannah Svesla freezes at a swanky corporate do in the gherkin, but no one notices. Has it actually happened? It's a it's a it's a philosophical. Exactly how much coffee have you had?
I mean, this is this cup here. There's also I had this one. This is a drink that is like coffee. Ah, I read can not not sure what's in this one. Yeah, I have a fair idea. Just a couple of random observations that I made knows of just
where AC Milan's Eunice Musa got really stupidly sent off for two daft yellows, and Dynamo Zagreb's Luca Stonkovich shushed him after he got his second yellow and then more or less waved him to the pavilion, which is not a
is frowned upon in cricket, but perfectly acceptable in football, obviously. And Fabian Bredlov, the Stuttgart goal keeper, made a quite incredible save to stop a Dezire Dewey shot from going over the line after he'd connected with a Bradley Barcola cross. Oh, yes. I mean, how he kept that out, I just don't know. So, yeah, there were a couple of things I noticed that haven't been mentioned so far.
And the only one for me to add to that last month, I've had a couple of Red Bulls already by the sounds of him, but the Red Bull organization have had a terrible champion. Oh, yes. Yeah. Maybe RB Sortsberg would have expected to, well, they certainly would have expected to, and I'm better than have a minus 22 goal difference and only three points and finish 34th. But I mean, you like to have three points and finish for a second is, you know, definitely not good enough for them.
Yeah, a bad Champions League for the Red Bull organisation. Yeah, Jurgen Clappell sort them out, won't he?
Well, back to the gherkin, though, because this was the hot topic of chat yesterday after you said that's where you were, Mark. And it was asked by our brilliant producer, Joel, whether you like gherkins. And the answer is absolutely love gherkins. I wasn't even sure that I didn't really sort of put them in the vegetable category. I think it's because you can buy them in a fishing chip shop that you kind of, if you can buy in a fishing chip shop, does it count as a vegetable?
Yeah, I know, I do absolutely love gherkins. I mean, but you can't eat too many of them, I would say. So it's a hard vegetable to, you know, to take in on a regular basis. What did you think they were if not a vegetable?
Never really thought about it. Are we into sort of our capers, a fish are not territory here with the sort of. Yeah, but like I say, I just think if you've seen a fish and chip shot, is it really?
No, that's a very good question. We should mention that Max said on the group chat yesterday that despite just having his second child, this was the most significant thing that I have to him all day, finding out that Mark Langdon actually does like Gherkins. Sorry, sorry, just to be clear, there's capers are not and never have been fake. I know, I brought it out because we had this discussion on the board many years ago and it was a confusing time for everyone because capers are clearly not a fish.
Lars, you've had whatever Ali McCoy's task. And I would love some if I'm being perfectly honest. The knockout phase playoff draw takes place tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Not quite as much parallel as typical draw as teams when you have two possible opponents. I'm sure they'll string it out. There was as much they can as they usually do with these things. The first legs will take place on the 11th or 12th of February, followed by the second legs on the 18th of February.
I feel like there should be more of a break. That's that's what happens when you have these group games still going on. After Christmas, you know, I thought, yeah, no for a couple of months, but no two weeks.
Well, we've absolutely whipped through that. Well done, everyone. So let's do a quick Premier League preview. A few really good games. We've got Arsenal Man City, as mentioned earlier, Bournemouth against Liverpool, Ipswich against Southampton, Ipswich very much needing to win that one. Brentford against Spurs, Mark. How are you feeling? I think it's formed really. I've almost given up now.
It's been a shocking season in just about every way possible apart from the cuts, but Premier League high hopes at the start of the season to maybe finish in the Champions League spots.
If they're not careful, they can end up sort of fighting to avoid a championship. Spot, the difficult game at Brentford, they just need to get the injured players back. I went on a rant the last time I was on a bat, Daniel Levy, so I won't go back to that one. But the club of neither bats nor sacks, Posterkoglu, this month, he's been calling for players. They desperately need reinforcements until they get them.
They just look so vulnerable. They've got a lot of injured players and then the ones that have been playing every week are now absolutely knackered and they're starting to pick up injuries as well. So yeah, it goes from bad to worse. I heard somewhere.
The other day, the Premier League could have seven teams in the Champions League next season. So you could have your top four and then if they get a fifth qualification place through the coefficient, there's five. Then there's scenarios where if Spurs are man united with the Europa League, that's another one. And if Villa
were to win the Champions League, they would also be in that's assuming City finishing the top four, which they may not or top five, which they may not do. So yeah, there could be seven Premier League teams in the Champions League next season, which would mean there'd be half the Premier League would be playing in Europe and Sundays would be a very busy day for Premier League football all next season.
Last we mentioned Arsenal City. Yeah, it's kind of two teams that you're not really sure what you're going to get. I mean, both clearly have big qualities. I mean, Arsenal might be favourites, but they're still slightly unconvincing at times.
Yeah, I feel actually quite strongly that I think Arsenal will win this, just because whenever I watch City, their attack has improved, but they're still so, you know, susceptible to counters and they're still not enough solidity in that midfield. And it seems that teams are just kind of running through them and even teams that are not that good. The only counters to that is that they did beat Chelsea last week, which I did not think was going to happen. And maybe that was Chelsea having an off day.
And it could just be that when you're adding Marmusch to that attack, I mean, him and Holland, there was already a couple of little moments of them connecting with each other. And I think Holland will be delighted to have an attacking player who gets a little bit closer to him and actually can dovetail off him a little bit.
It could be that they'll just, their attack will really start rolling and they'll, they'll just score so many goals that these defensive deficiencies are not, but that much of a problem. But I still think Arsenal should make hay out of that sort of midfield weakness that city still has. I mean, we inclined to think Arsenal should win this, but yeah, football might happen.
And Barry, I think we can officially say Liverpool are going to play someone good this weekend, can't we? Yeah, wait, Bournemouth. It's a hard one to call, really. The way Bournemouth are playing at the moment. If Liverpool were to slope up here and Arsenal didn't capitalise, then you've got to say that's probably it, isn't it?
I just can't call the Bournemouth Liverpool game. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised the Bournemouth beat them, but Liverpool probably have enough about them to go down there, do a professional job and see them off. And I do think at some point
Bournemouth's injuries are going to catch up with them and the players who are playing week in week out will naturally just get tired, become exhausted like Tottenhams have.
Finally, onto any other business. In what is a very, very guardian section of feedback, we've had a lot of correspondence from Monday's pod on Will Unwind's thoughts on natural wine. Here's one example email of many, apparently, from Oscar. Hello, Guardian Football Weekly. I was listening to the pod while at work pruning a vineyard in Alsace. Oh, listeners, honestly. After a spot of wild swimming.
Yeah, it's a Guardian column, isn't it? It's your textbook Guardian column from Jack GPT and was very disappointed about the disparaging and misguided remarks made about natural wine. While everyone is entitled to both their opinion as well as their consumption of boring industrial, chemical, laden, plunk, disregarding the efforts some folks are making and trying to craft something more soulful.
as well as less destructive for the environment, is to risery and unfair. One can argue that in the context of the entire multi-thousand-year history of wine, blindly sticking to this one, new-fangled, post-war industrialised expression of wine as the only good one out there, and stubbornly refusing anything else, is quite an ANGE way of looking at this beautiful fermented beverage.
Kind regards Oscar. Oscar, that is magnificent. Barry, you sent us a picture of your setup yesterday watching the games and you had a glass of wine. I'm assuming not natural. No, it was natural wine. I think it was Campo Viejo plonk you get from the offie.
Depending on what day of the week it is, it's anything between eight and eleven pounds. I don't really understand what natural wine is, but I'm wondering, are natural wine enthusiasts the same as craft beer, boars, and if so, and does natural wine have bits in it, and is it, you know, suffused with fennel or chocolate or something? And if so, I want nothing to do with it.
I think Oscar is just shoved down his prunas in disgust, probably. He was like carving and pruning something beautiful and some sort of shape, and he's just cut the top off from that. I envy Oscar, what sounds like an idyllic existence pruning vines in our sass. I fancy a week of that, I think.
On any other business as well, someone on blue sky, I can't remember who, but they texted me or they sent me a photo of some goals in Bournemouth. We were discussing whether or not there are goals in Bournemouth or why there are so many goals in Brighton and not any in Bournemouth. So he did provide picture proof that there are goals in Bournemouth.
Mm. Were they holding today's newspaper? Because I'm not sure. You know, it's like, you know, fake news. I need to see a bit more of that. I went to the beach in Bournemouth this summer and I can confirm that there were, in fact, goals on the scene. They were there. I believe I have seen the goals. Okay. Okay. I can trust you, Lars. I also jinked for Fairborough to Georgia Natural Wine. So this, any other business segment is right up my alley.
Oh, okay. Anything else to add on the natural wine? It's quite good. But what I think, what I'm kind of agreeing with Barry on is that it's possible to like stuff like natural wine and craft beer without becoming a total bore about it. Like, you can just say, I drink a bit of it. It's quite good. You can leave it at that.
Well, I think that's enough natural wine chat, but today I'm sure we'll have more next week. My thanks to Barry. Thank you. Cheers Lars. Thank you Robin. And thank you Mark. Thank you. We'll be back on Monday. Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Our next actually producer is Phil Maynard. This is The Guardian.
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