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The Athletic FC Totally football show, European edition today. The fat ladies are singing all over Europe. In Syria, it's Turing Doe. There's a Roma-let-key game slip with the event as in Spain. There's news of Don Giovanni, Dos Santos and the Darviol Seville. Bundesliga, there's classic a gas with Bayern's latest big score. And France, with Marseille, Carmen from behind, against Leon and PSG hitting the high notes. All that and much more in this totally football show. Well, it's Monday the 2nd of March. As we bring you a brand new European runner on the totally football show, here in the studio, James Hongcastle. Hi, James. Hello, James. Feeling a little bit like you're the the John Kuzak figure from Bing John Malkovich, I imagine today. Oh, OK. As you look around the table. Well, see. OK, OK. That's three. That's three. That's three. Shave and headed, but bearded. Well, white men. Yeah. Oh, shave and headed by choice. Oh, wearing glasses, it's a choice. It's very much a choice. Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting, like, they sort of jacked Lang. Oh, yeah. They did the podcast who has shaved off his mustache. Oh, no. And so I said, next time I can win, I'll just, I'll shave off my hair. I'll shave my hair. You'll look wrong. I wouldn't do that. Yeah. But Jack Lang shaved off his mustache. Listen, if you've never seen Jack Lang, search out a picture because he's quite, he's a bit of a treat, isn't he, Jack? I feel he looks a little bit like we were just discussing Narkos. What a great show that was. Yes. The character played by Boyd Holbrook. I think he's the American DA agent. Yeah. Yeah. There's someone else who is a character in Better Call Saul, who is the absolute spirit of Moustacheau, Jack Lang. But I mean, clearly not anymore because he's no longer Moustacheau'd. Right. Another great show. What's a great TV show that you'd recommend? Seb, old but good. The wire. Or can it always go back to the wire? Yeah. Because you can always find a new thread through interest you with each rewatch. Well, right. And James. Good morning. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah, good job. All right. Paul, are you a fan of television? Yeah, I'm a huge six-feet thunder fan. I'm sorry, what? Oh, six-feet thunder. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never seen it. Yeah, never seen it. Really? Lalo Salamanca. Oh, really? Yeah, they hit, man. I can see that. Would you say that Jack Lang looks like Lalo Salamanca? Well, he did when he still had a Moustache. I'm not sure. I think he just had a Moustache. There is that that having a Moustache is half the kind of... In the same way now. In the same way now. Ball people often... Oh, you look like it's like, no, you're just bald. Right. Pit-ball. Yes. Three pit-balls. Thanks, James. Nice of you to say that and not one of the ball that he's... Thanks for being an ally. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What can I say? So you've all got... It's kind of... It's kind of our joke to make. Not yours, though, isn't it? Really? No, but what I would say is... He's got Tourette. It's okay. Our culture's not your costume. I don't think he's about to adopt my costume anytime soon, but, you know, put it out there just in case. Well, I don't know. I thought you might think because Tim Spears... who was previously quite a willy individual... One of us. Has now shaven his head, and that was quite a shot. He looks like he's done time in some San Diego joy. He looks like... That's kind of very politically insensitive tattoo. Maybe he has. Maybe it's all the next athletic long-read. I went inside a San Diego penitentiary to see how that... San Diego is getting up for the World Cup. American History X. You know the whole thing when that vibe, yeah, great movie. I mean, we could talk about great things to watch, but, you know what, funny enough, there's been some really, really special... special drama on the TV over the past few days and we'll... we'll be getting onto that. Shall we start? And I'm talking about the football. Shall we start with a bit of moment of the weekend? Paul, what was yours? Mine is an easy one to go to, because it's La Minya Malschatric. Paul del Barcelona. One of those moments of... what were you doing when La Minya Malschatric was heart-trick? What were you doing, Paul? I was at home watching with my dad, to be honest. Okay, what did he say? I mean, he's not that much of a big fan of La Minya Mals, because he's one of those characters who says that he doesn't like the outgoing character of La Minya Malsch. He's more like, yeah, that's right to be. Yeah, I know, he enjoyed that. And after a second goal, he basically stood up from the sofa and just celebrated it basically. All right. The second goal was like... unreal, really, really good goal. Pop! Paloose. Yeah. I have, by the way, with that moment of the week, I had a bit of a quiz question for you. Oh, okay. Because I have the list of the three youngest players to do a heart-trick in La Liga. Oh, yeah. Right. La Minya Malsch is now the first one. Yeah. The top of the list. And I wanted to ask you, who is the second one, which, and that's the wing to step, is a former Tottenham player. Giovanni de Santos. Oh, f*** me. Is he still current? No, no, no, no. But that was quick. You're not going to take that memory away from me. No. Oh, that was quick. Strange. Yeah, because my only knowledge of Giovanni before he signed the Tottenham was that hat-trick. And I remember thinking, goodness me, we've snagged an incredible them as your product for five million euros or whatever it was. And I mean, a lot, we don't need to go into what happened next. But as it turned out, we hadn't snagged very much at all. I was like, how his name translates, like, it's Johnny Toussaint's. Yeah, yeah. Hey. Isn't it of the same? There's an over the same thing. There's a great Harry Rednut quote. He was asked why I liked Giovanni wasn't playing as much for Spurs. And he said, if he could pass a nightclub as well as he passed a football, he'd be a player. Right. I started out of Harry Rednut, but ended up like prime David Beckham. Why don't I go squeaky? Why don't I do it this time? The unique version. Next. I mean, it went very nice. Next with that, that was extraordinary. I'd love to know what other bits, for example, Tom over there can do. Who was it you did the other day in quite uncanny fashion? You did a... Wayne Rooney, but I'd never tried it before, and I'm not convinced I'll be able to do it again. Go on. Try it now. I was doing, it was him, mangling the name of Pascal's Stroy, you call him much of the day. Yeah. You see Pascal Stroud comes in me behind, and he's got the space. It was better than the day. I swear. I swear, let's end it. We haven't brought Wayne Rooney into the studio. That was Tom Mohawk. That was very good. Incredible. I think that's my moment of the week. Yeah, that was brilliant. And on demand as well. And the pressure on you stepped up. Yeah, you're not having any more, because I think that might be the extent of it. No, that's fine. So what about your moment of the week? I, so you're also Kimmick's winning goal, what proves to be the winning goal, for Bayern Munich against British Dortmund. So the goal itself, fantastic. But if you go to the replay, and you see you're a success at Stanisage. So bare in mind, the goal is on the volley, on Kimmick's left, weaker foot. And probably about two or three seconds before he actually strikes the ball, Stanisage is already celebrating, which it's kind of the mark of ultimate respect, right? Because if I was about to take on a left-footed volley from 20 yards, no one would be pre-celebrating. You get to the cries of no or let off or whatever. And a really, really sweet strike. And just caught perfectly behind the camera angle. And a great goal for what was actually a really good occasion. Because so often in German football, that game, it gets so hyped up, it's really underwhelming because Bayern's power shines through. And it kind of did again, but it was still a really good contest set up by brilliant, brilliant, better technique. Very nice. Bayern, who were, of course, a feature of the Champions League draw. And Paul, the Atlanta other hat, will get until all of that soon enough. But James, you're moment of the week. Got too much choice. So many lovely goals. Insidia, this weekend. But you mentioned Atlanta. I think it's worth shouting out Sassuala, who beat Atlanta on Sunday lunchtime. And this was quite unexpected, because Sassuala went down to 10 men after only 15 minutes. So it was a case of, oh, Atlanta gonna be tired after the comeback against Dortmund. But this was like a godsend for Atlanta. But no, Sassuala, five minutes after going a man down, got in front when they doubled the lead in the second half. Another beautiful goal from Eric Torsford, sort of outside the box, just center backs, don't know which way to go. Should we go with Bidadi? Should we go with Lorienti? And you just see the waves part for Torsdead, who could sort of carry on this run, and he said he's like, I'm just gonna have a go. Top corner, brilliant. To a lovely goal. You're right, there was some gorgeous, gorgeous. So many, so many. Five wins out of six for Sassuala. First year back in the top flight. Good Lord, a year out of it. So they've pushed themselves into eighth place. They've overtaken the likes of Lats, the likes of Bologna, who've been in Europe over the last few years. When they beat Atlanta, did their manager go on a run? So their coach is Fabio Grosse, 20 years after being the hero when Italy lost one of World Cup and could qualify for World Cups. Yeah. But Grosse, he's made this jump really. He's got a number of clubs promoted, and then he's decided to stay in the second division and take other teams up. And this time around, he's like, no, I'll commit Sassuala, and we're seeing teams in eighth, got a tough run of fixtures coming up, but to win five out of six and be practically safe already, is a good job. He's hugely impressive. Tom, you're my minute of the week. Well, sticking with the Fabio Grosse of theme. Oh yeah, I'm going to go for Marseille Lyon, which of course was the fixture before which he almost lost an eye in late 2023 after the Lyon team bus was pelted with missiles by Marseille supporters. Thankfully, no one in it lost an eye this time around. Absolutely, fantastic game. The third time out of the last four legal meetings, but Marseille have come from behind and beaten Lyon 3-2 with a goal scored in the 85th minute or later. On this occasion, they went behind in the third minute, equalized. Went behind again with 40 minutes to play, equalized. Pierre-Marie Goubamian got that equalizer, and then pops up again, first minute of stoppage time. Egor Pichal plays in Ethan Ieri down the left-hand side, low cross of Bamiang slides into score. OM win had Lyon won, which looked like it was going to be the case for quite a significant portion of the game. There would have been an eight-point gap between Lyon in third and OM in fourth. As a reminder, third place is an automatic champion's league qualifying spot in league at fourth place. You have to go by the playoffs. But because OM won, the gap is now two points. So they are right back in the mix for automatic qualification. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. All right, let's get into some of those stories in greater depth. We're going to begin, Seb, with the Bundesliga. This is the totally football show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Oh, listen. Against Svenson. Berlin-Hem. Kimmich. Die Bayern. Josuah Kimmich and his super-abschluss. His right foot is the stronger one. Well, there it was Saturday, T-Time. By a minute coming from behind against Brisha Dortmund. Having some problems with keeping a lead, those Dortmund boys at present, bringing Dortmund's 16-match-on-beaten run into the league to an end. And ending as well, the remaining questions about the title race, Seb. Yeah, 11 points, it's too much, it's over. And I suppose for Dortmund, for Bayern's convenience, because now you can start to ration the minutes through the Champions League. They're still in the Pokal, they're playing in a semi-final against Leverkusen in April. They can start being a little bit more sparing with minutes for Harry Kane, Josuah Kimmich, Conrad Lymer, Michaelise. You can spare a few players, which is great news for the rest of their season. For Dortmund, it ends their season in one sense, because there's nothing to play for in a kind of a title objective sense. They're still very well placed to be qualified for the Champions League, which is great news. And clearly the last year has been a big improvement on the two years prior to that, certainly in the league. There is now a discussion about what next, because during that game, Emery Jan suffered a cruciate ligament injury, tried to play on through it, but came off and is now out for the rest of the season. His contract is up in the summer, so he may well have played his last game for Bristol Dortmund. He is Dortmund's highest-paid player. His contract is up. In addition to which, question marks around Nico Schlotterbeck's future, because he's into his last 18 months. What's Marcel Savitz are going to do? Seriker, C is getting a little bit older. Maybe it's time for him to move on possibly. So it's kind of this fork in the road, where what do we do next? Do we go back to being the traditional perception of Dortmund around the sort of the club two cool years, where there was sort of Europe's elite finishing school, a title which really has been kind of usurped by some of the other clubs in Germany, I try Frankfurt, Erby Leipzig, of course. Teams that have also got very, very good at recruiting, accelerating talent. Do they move down that line? Do they carry on just consolidating their place in the Bundesliga as Germany's second-place team? Because that's something to create a little bit on bridge and irritation amongst their fans. They're not really, yeah, because they want to be aspirational. Everybody knows what the financial disparities are between Bayern and Dortmund. And if ever there was an example of that, this being the wrong approach, it was this game because for me, Dortmund played as well as they're probably capable of playing. They created a lot of promising moments, half chances. Ultimately, they just didn't have the technical quality to take advantage of them. And you always knew, the longer the game was going to go on, well, there's Germain Messiala sitting on Bayern, I mean, it's bench, Leon Goretski can come on, Kim and J. That talent's just different. And so there's a feeling that Dortmund's best opportunity of carrying a heavier punch, being able to compete, is by sort of lightening in the bottle moments where there's a sort of a nucleus of talent which explodes in a very short space of time. So we'll see what's next. But it's very interesting, but they played well. They played well. It's a good game. It lived up to its billing, fun, proper occasion, some great goals as well. Harry Kane up to 30 goals for the season, 12 away from beating Robert Lewandowski's single season scoring record in the Bundesliga, which sits at 41 goals. So interesting. But then I think we mentioned this last week, out to 11 points at the top of the Bundesliga now, probably over as the title race goes. How many minutes does Kane play? If they get through against Atlantis, which I expect them to do, that road to the final is full of all kinds of difficult tests that you're going to need a fully fit Kane for, which so far at the stage of the season Kane hasn't really been that way for Bayern. He's always carried like a back injury, a bit of wear and tear, or just a bit of fatigue as a result of playing every week. So lots of interesting things coming off it. I remember another big Bundesliga side, champions who expected to get past Atlantis, by Leather Coos, and I think their name was. Yeah, that's a really strange one. It was, when I think back to that game, a couple of years have passed, and I think we all got swept up by the Leather Coos in story and got so used to them just beating everybody in their way. Did almost, I remember that when the first goal goes in in that game, you can almost see the players didn't really know how to cope with it. They come up against a team that obviously were extremely well coached. Look, I'm probably the game of his career. Great, if I'm wrong there. There are a few weird selection decisions going back, looking back at it, especially in defence, a few rotation things, which I don't think Jabi Lonser would do again. But yeah, very strange night. I don't think this Leather Coos is going to make much of a noise in the Champions League. Against Arsenal. But they had to land a Bayern one. Everybody will have by Munich as heavy favourites. It was a tough draw for at least one remaining side, and quite a surprise to even find them there because they came into last week's Clash 2-0 down from the first label. What are my magnificent performance they came up with, James? Yeah, I saw David Walker, the producer of cliches and one of the guests on cliches tweeted. I thought it was a spot on how all of Athelanta's goals in that game came at the right time. There was an early goal. There was one on the stroke of half-time. There was one on the hour mark, and then there was one to kill it in stoppage time. And what a game as well. I mean, when Dortmund got back into it with that goal, midway through the second half, I didn't think, oh, no, that's sort of it now. But for Nicola Christavitch to put his head where most people wouldn't put their feet and to get the scars across his face and that he did. And then for Samadzitch to choose that penalty to take. He doesn't take penalties. No, and he decides to properly blast it and it goes top corner. It's kind of Kevin Preseman-esque penalty. So Athelanta, sort of again, keeping the Italian flag flying high in Europe. You guys have just been talking about them winning the Europa League against by a leather cousin. A little bit up and down this season, even with Paladino, we've seen that in the extremes between that first leg and the second leg against Dortmund. We saw it, for example, even at the weekend, where mitigating circumstances aside, you would have expected them to maybe beat Saswarla with 10 men for 75 minutes. It was Athelanta's first defeat in the league in 2026. But let's see. They'll have some players back. I mean, that was speaking to people at Athelanta before the second leg against Dortmund. What they were really worried about was they had some in the injuries. Raspodora, who they signed in January, wasn't fit for that game. De Kettelair wasn't there. Edison, who is one of the best midfield players in the league, even if he's been inconsistent this season, he was a doubt for that game. So it was a feeling that they have more to come. Certainly, the biggest test of all, although a test they're looking forward to, because Bayern is the one big club that throughout this eight-year period of Athelanta being relevant in Europe. It's the one big club they haven't played. Actually, when that game was reaching its final stages, I was on a train between Munster and Dortmund, and it's a patch of track where the Wi-Fi signal is absolutely dreadful. And so you have all these people in the carrier trying to keep up with it. And at the Wi-Fi kick back in, when the penalty had been scored, and you kind of, different people's Wi-Fi signals, you know, came back on at different times, you had this sort of ripple of misery. Down the carriage. The carriage, yeah. Did people walk from one end of the train to try and remain in the car? No, it was no. And I was at the train and ground the day after, morning after, to speak with Greg or Cobal. And yeah, pretty quiet. He was very, very good for him, I will say, because obviously we've all had enough horror stories of things being cancelled last minute. When that happened, then he made it some steak. I thought, oh, I'm going to say, maybe just turn around immediately and go straight back to Hamburg. But he came and did the interview, did more time than he was, he promised was, was very, very good, was very gracious. And, yeah, top pro, top pro. OK, yeah. But I love because as you mentioned there, draw this weekend, one one with mind-sleeves and down in six spots, kind of six points of the Champions League places. They do have a game in hand there, which they're going to be having midweek there at Hamburg, a game that was previously snowed off back in January. Yeah, I was actually, so I was going to that game and a scouting friend of mine came over from England to watch it, and it was, it'd been snowing very heavily in the few weeks before. I remember the pictures you took. Yeah, absolutely. And we got to Hamburg Central Station and two hours before kick off and my friend had obviously traveled all the way over, come over that day, got up at like four o'clock in the morning. And we found out with 90 minutes notice that the game was off, and they read it out over the Tanoi in the station in German. And there was a brief second where I'd heard what had happened, but he didn't speak any Germans who didn't know, and I just thought, I was like his wife, I think. I didn't want to tell him, right? Just he was the one happy person left in the station for about 10 seconds. What did you do with him instead, Seb? Well, he got an early night, because he was actually traveling on to, I think, to see at Leipzig. So he was staying in the city and then moving on. So he got a game. It wasn't like he had to go straight back, but yeah, it wasn't a great moment. But yeah, let's see. I mean, Leipzig isn't lost. Our tour, their wing back, their Brazilian wing back of the weekend, and he's probably going to miss. He'll certainly miss the hamburger game. He will definitely miss at least the first leg of the Arsenal game, which is a blow they can really do without considering the strength of Arsenal, and you can't afford to take absentees until that really. So let's see, but I said yesterday, like, I think, great for them to get to this point. Good for their education, this young group of Leverkusen players. They'll learn a lot by playing against Arsenal, and it's a kind of a free hit really, Jimbo, I think. Okay. As it stands, then, if they do win midweek away at Hamburg, there will be only three points, but in half an time in third and Leverkusen will still be in sixth place. But right in the mix, half an time Stuttgart, Leipzig and Leverkusen, the four teams essentially battling over two spots, Stuttgart got a big win this weekend, at home to Walsburg, Leipzig were two-one winners at Hamburg. Yeah, Walsburg have got trouble. No, they lost four-neil to Stuttgart, and that's starting line up. I mean, so for context, financially, I would say Walsburg, clearly they have the historic patronage of Volkswagen. They are a member of, I suppose, the upper middle class in the Bundesliga. This is terrible under performance for them to be 17th. They spent nearly 70 million euros in the summer rebuilding this side of the players who started against Stuttgart, Christian Ericsson, Lover and Meyer, and Muhammad and Mura was in there. This team should be nowhere near where it is. They got trouble, especially because on Saturday, St. Pauli went to Hoffnheim on one. St. Pauli, he'd started the weekend in 16th, who under Alexander Blesin through the autumn, went nine straight games, went nine consecutive defeats in the league. A lot of clubs who were to sack him, even coaches who allowed to stay in position would have struggled to revive what looked like a really, really flat group, really flat playing group. And they went to Hoffnheim on one, and ended Hoffnheim's unbeaten record at home, which stretches back to October. Berlin performs excellent goalkeeping performance by Nicola Vaseel, the Bosnia national team goalkeeper, who took a nasty couple of blows to the face in the process, but made some truly excellent saves, and they deserved their win. A bit of a pasting on the expected goals front, but they defended well, goalkeeping is very good. It's got a lovely, lovely counter-attack in goal, too. So, well, then St. Pauli won't done Alexander Blesin. It does look tight down that end of the table as well. Hydenheim, in last place, are fully eight points from safety. Wolfsburg, currently in the other relegation spot, then there are only two points away from a playoff position, but it's Wolfsburg, Verdebrem and St. Pauli, might some cool, or really within reach of one another. Yeah, I know it's very, very tight, and St. Pauli, you're at home to Eintrak Frankfurt next weekend, so that'll be a chance to move further on up the table. But yeah, it's very tight. The only thing I would say at the moment, I think Hydenheim, are probably gone. I think that game against Bremen. Bydenheim. Fairwellerheim, yeah, it's tricky, so some of the players were interviewed afterwards, as was Frank Schmidt at the head coach, who's done amazing work. They brought them up from the fifth tier of German football, the longest serving professional coach in Germany. It's been a little bit of a bridge too far this time, and you could tell by some of the body language and the responses to that Bremen lost. Hey, well done, Daniel Tuen, though. The Bremen had coach. His first winner, Oster Bundesliga level. Yeah, he's been given a bit of a hospital pass with that squad, but Tuenelvin, and a game could not afford not to win, basically. So, well done, Hyden. There you go. Well done, you said. What a great roundup of the Bundesliga. Let's see how James Horncast offers with the leaders from City Anne next. This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence Phil Hay, James P.S., Oligate, and the very best football writers around. Well, Sunday night, Stadio Alipago in Rome. It was the big top four chasing showdown, Roma, up against the eventors. Youvee, who themselves have featured in a remarkable comeback attempt in the Champions League last week. Again, coming from the Bundesliga team, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, who won the Champions League, coming from behind in a brother more successful fashion, ending up with that 3-3 draw, James. What lessons to draw from this 3-3? Well, say what you like about your event, to step in and fall in some of the best games in Serie A, and in the Champions League this season. I mean, if you go back to the opening weeks of the campaign, the 4-3 against Inter in the David Italy, the 4-4 against Dortmund, the Gallo Tassarai game where they come back, 3-0 up, Zieg Rover has the chance for 4-0. Yeah, they could have gone through without having to go to extra time. And then in this game, a comeback. And I think this was a massive opportunity wasted by Roma for two reasons. Juventus, three of the last four games, have been down to 10 men. They play extra time against Gallo Tassarai. They've got their captain Manuel Ocatelli, who's played well since he's been at the club. He's suspended. I think if there's ever a time where you can beat Juventus or expect to outrun them, better them, it should be in this game. Roma get themselves a 3-1 up with 20 minutes left. And then I wouldn't say capitulates, but give away two avoidable goals. And for Roma who haven't been in the Champions League for seven years, they had, in their hands, the opportunity to put seven points between themselves and Juventus. And eight points between themselves and Gasparini's old team, Atalanta, who, as we've mentioned, lost a Sassuola on the day. So I think Regrette's Roma certainly have a few, but as neutrals, what a game. What a game. And what a goal back at the start to make it 1-1 from Concy Sal. Shot of volley, isn't it? It's extraordinary. You couldn't hit that any sweeter. No, outstanding from Sisko, Concy Sal. Also Wesley Françer. That was his goal for Roma earlier on. Wesley the Farm Boy. Wesley the Farm Boy, yeah, the Farm Hand. So just didn't let us down on any level this game. And I think for Juventus, they see it as a point gained from a losing position rather than two points lost. They've come through a gauntlet of fixtures, which have been very unforgiving, where they've often played really well in those games, but little injustices or big injustices, if you're a Juventus fan, have stopped them getting as many points as they perhaps should. But to be sort of still in the hunt for Champions League football, just as the calendar is easing off for them, and the rivals for their final top four plays. Well, Roma and the Europa League, where they will play Bologna, and I think if they were to get through that, they might play Neil or Ashton Rilla, because Bologna could get through that as well. Como this week have the first leg of their Copper Italia semi-final against Inter. And Atalanta obviously still in the Champions League themselves. So Juventus have kind of a clear calendar, to just focus on finishing top four. And with Speletti, you wouldn't bet against them doing it. The only issue, I mean, we've mentioned how entertaining these Juventus games have been all season. We're not used to Juventus conceding this many goals, and being involved in these kind of seven goal thrillers, or eight goal thrillers, or six goal thrillers. So they definitely have to tighten up at the back if they are to get that fourth place. As you say, currently there are four points between them and the Champions League positions, Roma in the fourth spot. Three points ahead of Como, says Fabricata's Como, then Yves, then Atalanta Roma continuing this problem with winning games against the big clubs. Yeah, I mean, they're in a position to win this one against Yves. The only one that people kind of credit as a big win was when they played Lazio in the Debe de la Capitale early in the season, but as we see Lazio, kind of shambolic this year, transfer in bargos, fire sales in January, you know, ooh, look, we're gonna build a new stadium, blah, blah, blah. Okay, maybe sort of out the team first. But they have beaten Como. I think we should look at Como as a big team now, because Como, the team that are making everybody nervous. You know, they put in that excellent performance against Juventus a week ago. They beat Lecce the weekend when they went behind, early on in that game, and then found themselves three one up anyway at half time. And that was without Nica Paz, who was sort of dropped for this game. So Como are really, I think, making the likes of Atalanta, Roma, Yves, sweat. Even maybe Napoli and Milan, I think, will be wary that they cannot take their foot off the gas between now and the end of the season, because Como have this continuity that it gives you pause for thought, it makes you worry. I think they could definitely gate crash that top four. There you go. Napoli, we're back into third place themselves. This weekend with a two one victory away at Verona, second goal coming from Romelu Lukaku. He's back. He is. I think this was, it wasn't the most beautiful goal of the weekend, of which there were several, but it was the most moving goal of the weekend. Giovanni, vai mezzo il tiro di Lukaku, Lukaku, al ultimo ballolo del mezzo, al novanta sayesimo, Lukaku beats Napoli al mentegovi. He scores with the last kick of the game. He has been making this sort of come back from a really bad injury. Last summer, he snapped the tendon in his hip flexor. And so he's been sort of eased back in since mid-January. He's made these cameos, where he's never played more than 20 minutes. And I think a lot of people have focused on the fact that he was decisive for them last year, but in a different way from what we used to, in that he was double figures in assists. He led the league in assists last year. And they needed someone to step in and replicate that for them. And Rasmus Hoyl and sort of been doing it. And then we focused on this injury crisis, which has relented or really harmed Napoli's title defense. And I think a lot of people overlook the fact that Lukaku has been grieving. His father passed away in September at age 58. And he took everything off his social media, apart from photos of him, his brother, and his father. And when he scores the goal, that wins them the game. And obviously, the Napoli bench spills out onto the pitch, all his teammates run over to him. And you can kind of see that he just wants to be on his own in that moment, sort of points to the sky, whispers a few words, takes off his shirt, for which the referee books him. And then when the referee is booking him, he sees that he's in floods of tears, Lukaku. And he's actually using his shirt to wipe his tears away. And his post-match interview was, you know, one of the most moving I've seen for a long time, because he's sort of hanging back. And he's there with the Napoli skipper, Dran Jezus. And Dran Jezus gives his answer. And then the presenters like, come in, Ron, come in. We want to talk to you. And he tries to talk, and he can't. He just, he keeps choking up. And he says, you know, how hard it's been. He had never expected to lose his father so young. And you've got a sense that he's found moving on in his daily life really difficult. And he says, yeah, I do this for my kids. I do it for my brother. I do it for Napoli, because before I came here, these were the words to use, I was dead. So to see him have that moment, I think it put in perspective what he's been going through. It put in perspective Napoli's season as well, that yeah, Antonio Conter thought it spoke quite eloquently after the game about, you've all been focusing on this stock pile of injuries that we've had, but it's not just injuries. It's kind of personal issues as well. And so leaving that aside, if we can, a massive goal and win for Napoli to stay in third place, because again, if they'd dropped points in that match, you know, I think we would be talking about Coma again in terms of being this team that is keeping all of the teams above them very honest, apart from who Coma played in the cup this week, which is Inter. Yeah. It's Iso Inter, who are now almost certain to take the Scoretto. They are 10 points clear of Milan, who are in second place, and who face them next weekend in the Derby della Madonina. But even a win there would leave the gap, not far short of insurmountable. Milan this weekend continued there, usual habit of struggling to beat the smaller sides. They took until stoppage time to get past Jamie Vardy's Cremenezia, although it wasn't Jamie Vardy's Cremenezia by the time the goal was finally a row for Milan. He'd been hooked about an hour in, Inter meanwhile did their usual job on a smaller side. In this case, Danieli did Ossi's Genoa, who they beat, 2-0. That's now eight wins in a row for the Nerazzuri in the league, of course, in the Champions League. Not so much. Yeah, 14 out of 15 wins in the league, which is why they've opened up this gap, which prior to Milan scoring in the 89th minute, they were 13 points clear. And certainly the questions that reporters were putting to Christian Kiwi was what you make of the atmosphere around your football club at the moment, because it looks like you are going to wrap the title up very quickly. This is statistically in the league, I think the third best season Inter ever had in terms of points. And yet, the reception of this is, it's almost like you're on the brink of relegation, rather than being on the brink of a championship in Christian Kiwi your first season. Right, what was it? Is there a big reason perhaps that there might be that perception of Inter enough? Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. I mean, one is the Bodo game, which I'm judging by your attitude to this. My attitude is very quick to forget. A team that reached two championship files in three years when they were probably about to go bust between one and the other. And everyone looked at those championship files and said, how has this Racktag bunch of free transfers and many United Rejects got this far? And so, I mean, if that is the framing of how Inter was seen going to these games, maybe going out to Bodo game shouldn't be as big a surprise. Oh, that's fair. But I think what was surprising, what I think was a surprise about last week's performance was that Bodo Klimt deserve a lot of credit and they had a fantastic game in the Arctic Circle in the first leg. I think everybody expected into to come out with an attitude with much the same desire and fight and hunger that Atalanta and Juventus showed subsequently. But I think they did in the first half. They played well in the first half. Just couldn't finish, right? To Ram's 1v1 misses a chance. They have seven or eight corners. Corners for Inter this season have been like penalties. I've scored 15 goals for them. Don't score for many of those. I don't think I can play really well in that second leg. And I think if you look at the metrics, Bodo's goalkeeper for goals saved above average. He's the highest in the championship this season. So he's having a good season. I agree with you, James, that Inter should still progress against Bodo. And in fact, speaking to some people around the club, they were furious that they'd gone out because they understand what the international perception of Inter is. And how important it is to carry on in the Champions League because the Champions League is so much more lucrative than Serie A. Just going another round or two rounds further is worth so much more than winning the league. But I think for a guy like Christian Kivu, when he got the job, people said, this Inter team's at the end of a cycle. This team's over the hill. To have been 13 points clear fleetingly on Saturday nights, I think he would have taken that. And I think some members of the club would have taken that because, again, I think one of the reasons why people are so down on Inter even domestically is they're treated as a team that has won four league titles in five years, rather than two because they've lost two on the final day. And so people are very critical of them because of that. But their fans were, being at the stadium on Wednesday night, they were largely indifferent to going out. They were singing lots of anti-Asimilar songs on the way to the Metro because I think it meant something to them that their rival for the title this season has been Milan. Milan's next league title would be the 20th. So for Inter fans in a very provincial way, stopping them during that means a lot. And I think they have been hurt enough by this team reaching Champions League finals and using Champions League finals that, in some respects, going out means we don't have to go through that anymore. We spoke to both England fan Martin Schleepness, the morning after who commented on the surreal atmosphere at Santero. And the fact that there didn't seem to be any particular drama or trauma to that exit, but possibly there's plenty remaining from previous disappointments. Well, there you go. They do at least look good in the league. Ten points clear of Milan coming up. The Copper Italia semi-final on Tuesday against Cuomo with Lancio against Atlanta on Wednesday. I shout four, the incredible Demaco goal from their victory over Genoa at the weekend. That was gorgeous. Yeah, ball over the top, which he runs on to, left foot volley across goal, drew some comparisons with a goal that Totty scored for Roma against Santero a two decades ago. But Genoa's coach, Daniel Didosi, who was a teammate of Totty, who was like, lads, no. Come on, like, let's leave Totty's goal where it is in the pantheon of all time great city at goals. Well done Federico Di Marco, but Totty's so bad. Just watch it now. I mean, lovely goal. And from a player who's... The way he meets the ball without form. Yeah, the fact doesn't have to break strides in off the base of the right-hand post, beautiful. But I mean, that Totty goal against Santero, I mean, that is... Siamma's here, do you? Hey, let's be serious, let's be serious. So, but then you go there, lovely. Let's not be serious. Any further? Because next up, it's Paul Balouse with La Liga. All right, Paul. Big Seville Derby this weekend, eh? Woof, so much drama. Anthony, with the overhead kick, Alexis Sanchez, sending everyone scurrying to their team lineups. Absolutely, one of the games of the weekend. And yeah, quite, quite incredible to see how we ended up. Betty's basically, they gave it the way of our top favorites. They matched the better team, I would say, overall, in La Liga, they were winning too, Milat Hall time. But then Manuel Pellegrini, I think that they got to compless and they just waited, hit back, and just gave the ball to Sevilla just to do whatever that they wanted to. And Sevilla took the chances. Alexis Sanchez scored just after the break. And then in the last minute of the game, a local boy, Isaac Romero, just put the equalizer to two. And a big drama unfolded after the goal because of celebrations. Again, Isaac Romero put his shirt on top of the corner flag, all the bad players that were on the bench just run at him and talking, what on earth are you doing here? You are disrespecting us. And yeah, a normal scene for Sevilla Derby, which is one of the, possibly one of the hottest darbys in Spain and a game that I would encourage anyone just to see if they have the chance. Yeah, the stadium looked absolutely magnificent there for Betis, but a two to draw the result. Alex, how old is Alex's Sanchez now? I think he's 36. He'd reach veteran stage when he was at Marseille and that was like three years ago. He's on his last legs and 37. 37. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He basically, he could only play for 60 minutes. He was taken off after 60 minutes because he was knackered. But the header that he scored, like the cross from Osso from the Sevilla left back, it's really good. But the header is like top glass. Like you just switch it from the to the far corner, really strong header, really, really top glass execution. Excellent. Paul, you told us about L'Amin Yomal's hat trick, his first ever career, hat trick in Barcelona's four-one win over Villarreal. And indeed, your father's reaction to it. We're still waiting to see whether Real Madrid can respond. They play this evening Monday this evening as we record, but as it stands Barcelona with a slightly more healthy lead, I topped the table of four points. Because it's not just the title race that they have to consider. There's also the Champions League draw which has seen fit to pair them with Newcastle. Were they happy with that news in Catalonia? Yeah, yeah, they were absolutely happy. I think that if any Barcelona fan could have imagined the best possible draw, that was it, basically, because they got Newcastle instead of PSG. And then if they go through, potentially, they're going to face either one of Adlitico or Tottenham. So they avoid that Liverpool that could fall in that category as well. And to top off like the dream scenario that all the Barcelona fans had on the Champions League draw, Real Madrid will play against Manseille, which was also warmly received by all the Barcelona fans. Oh, now that you get to go back to Newcastle. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to go back, though, because Leia will. OK, maybe Leia will take the restaurant recommendations. I mean, she really will. Yeah, yeah, she really will. Yeah, yeah. Better she listens to you because if she listens to me, she's going to end up in Nandos. Well, nothing wrong with that, Paul. No, no, no, no. Barcelona's lead then four points of a Real Madrid ahead of their clash with Hetafi on Monday evening. Adlitico Madrid beat Obiedo and moved above the Ariel into third spot. Betis are a further eight points back after their consecutive draws. Copa del Rey semi-finals come midweek, and we've got the return of the Barcelona Athletico clash, which last time had. So Diego Simeone's side tramping four nil this time back at the camp now. What a wait, Paul. Yeah, yeah, that's it. I wanted to mention that because basically Simeone played Adlitico Warner against Obiedo on the weekend and Simeone played, he basically irritated all the squad. Just looking towards like the return leg of the camp now, he doesn't want to leave anything for chance, because they know that Barcelona will try to do their best and just to create this sort of remontada atmosphere. And it's basically what Barcelona are doing right now through social media. After La Mindema Alhatri, he used his Instagram account just to post a message, 1% of chances, and 99% of faith, looking already towards Tuesday. And there was like the general call from like the Barcelona players after the Villarreal game saying, look, we need everyone here on Tuesday, because we are going to try it, because we believe that we can make something happen. But we need the fans and everything. So because the Athletico are massive favorites after the four nil we need the first leg, but everyone in Barcelona is getting ready for one of those nights on Tuesday and hoping for the remontada. They had it done to them by Roma, by Liverpool, of course, but they've done it themselves, most famously, to Paris Centre-Band, do you believe, Paul? I think they have a chance. I think they have a chance, although, I mean, if I had to guess who's going to go through I think Athletico is still well on top of this. For what I... No, but I mean, for what I sense from like the dressing room and everything, they really believe that they do have a chance. OK, I mean, for nil, not that dangerous, the scoreline, but we're Barcelona, to score one of those well-timed early goals. Who knows what that could do to the fragile Athletico mentality? What have you got to say? Paul, obviously, we've had some really weird results from English teams in the Champions League this season, you know, even struggling size doing pretty well. What's the response being in Madrid towards the Tottenham draw? Just because, obviously, like, over here, almost seems like a buy. What's the attitude in Athletico? Athletico were very happy, if I can be honest. But for Athletico, it was also like a dream scenario, because they sort of avoid the other side of the draw, as well, they know that Tottenham is not going through the rest moment either, so yeah, I think that the reaction was really positive against Athletico. The only club that, complaining a bit, or like, said that it was a kind on them, although the draw was from Madrid. Who cast dispersions as to the impartiality of the draw process, Paul? Yeah, well, we have a tendency here in Spanish football, just to blame everything apart from, I mean, just to find for guilt is elsewhere, and in draws and in refereeing and in everything, national sports, but you'd say, we came out of the super league for what? When is this going to catch a break? Yeah, and in real Madrid, the one long history of being unfaivoured by the authorities. It breaks your heart. What else should we know about the weekend in Spain, Paul? Yeah, possibly we should talk about Rafa Mir, and what happened at the game between El Teo and Español. I don't know if you heard about this, but the game was stopped by five minutes, if I'm not wrong, in the 80th minute of the game, after Español right back home at El Hilali, reported racial abuse from El Teo striker, Rafa Mir, was formerly at Wolverhampton, maybe you remember him. As I was saying, 80th minute of the game, and the referee activated all the anti-racism protocol, the game was suspended for some minutes, and eventually it was resumed. The tricky thing is that when it happened, El Teo were trailing to one, and ended up getting a two-two draw, thanks to a late penalty, that was scored by Rafa Mir. After the game, the referee in the report of the game he revealed what El Hilali reported to him about the incident, and according to the Español player, Mir told him, you came here to Spain on a small boat. Rafa Mir on his side, he has denied it, and his version is that in an agitated dispute, he said to El Hilali, I'm going to destroy you, something like that, and now there's a full investigation in coming from the Spanish authorities to see how it ends up, and if they can prove anything, basically. Sorry, Paul, do they sound similar? I will destroy you, and what is alleged to? Yeah, because basically, what he said in Spanish is two beneath the empatera, which like the patera is like the small boat, and like the version that Rafa Mir says, is like the voy a de准ar la cabeza. All right. Which was that? You can judge. You can judge if it sounds similar, it's up to you now. Echoes of the Crystal Palace Hooligans account of what he shouted at Eric Cantana, tried to the Kung Fu kick incident. Well, the accusation was that he had just shouted a torrent of basically racist, xenophobic abuse at him, all sorts of effing and jeffering, and his account was that he said, it's an early bath for you, Mr Cantana, off you go. You can see how they could have been confused, one for the other in the heat of battle. It's also the facial expression definitely matches that occasion. It's an early bath for you, mate. Pretty nice, Tom. Quite the man of a thousand voices. Oh, South London, Tom. Well, I'm going to move on, Paul, that's fantastic. Anything else from Spain ahead of the mid-week cup games? Yeah, it's not going to be via the bit of a bubba here. Of course. Oh, yeah. It's not going to play. Right. It's not going to play against Hitafe. He has an injury. He has a knee sprain. He missed a benfica game. He's going to miss the game against Hitafe. And he's expected to miss the next weekend's game for Ramadrid. And the best case scenario is that he makes it for the month city game. So basically, he has a knee sprain, and it's been reported in Spain today that he's been unhappy with the medical services at Ramadrid. To the point that he has taken a trip to France just to consult a specialist on his knee injury, to basically tell him what to do, because he has been covering this knee sprain for weeks. It's not, he has not improved a lot. And yeah, now he is stopping for a couple of weeks, and Ramadrid are just giving him time to assess if he can make it back for the month city to jump just like that. Could be huge. Could be huge. Yeah. We should have a speedy recovery, of course. A new book about Keeling and Bappy written by our former sort of very much current friend, but former colleague, Julien Laurent. When's that out? March? This month, I think. Maybe May. He's so busy. Julien Laurent. He's always doing something. He is, and he's buying a football shirt. I've been doing this podcast writing a book. Yeah. Anyway, that's something to look forward to. Huh. Another thing to look forward to, a legal roundup, courtesy of Match of Zadez, very own Tom Williams. That's next. You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richards, and now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta, and enjoy us in glorious technicala on YouTube, at The Totally Show. Hey, there's Koop de France this midweek. Koop de France. Koop de France. We've got Strasbourg against France. Laurie on against Nice, Nice in real trouble now. I'm usually for a Jim Ratcliffe side, they're all the way down in the relegation fringes. Marseille take on Toulouse, and then the team who Marseille beat on Sunday night, Leon on Thursday evening will be up against laws. What again, that was on a big night for big matches. What again, that was at the Villa Droom, Tom. Yes, and Habibé already, under a bit of pressure, after Marseille lost 2-0 away at Brasden in his first game. And with this vital need to win, I mean, a draw would not have been good enough. They are absolutely desperate to qualify for the Champions League, ideally to qualify automatically. There's a piece in Le Keep this morning about the state of the club's finances. They've been selling an awful lot of players recently. Frank McCourt has put an awful lot of money into the club in recent years, hasn't always got that much of a return on his investment. And going back to the end of last season, there was this feeling that if Elham didn't get into the Champions League, it would be a catastrophe, and that was a specific word used by Medi-Benassia, the sporting director. And it's no different 12 months on. As I said, when we were talking about it earlier, they lost, there would have been eight points off Leon. But having won, they are now only two points behind them, and we'll go into that cup game against Toulouse with a bit of momentum. And the cup is hugely important for OM, in that they've not won it since 1989, which is an absurdity for a club of that size. The fact that PSG are out of the Coupe de France, having been eliminated by Paris FC means that, basically, all the teams left in the competition are thinking, right, this could be our season. And so you've got these kind of twin objectives, a top three finish on one hand, Coupe de France success in the other. And they couldn't have got off to a worst start against Leon and Sunday night. Three minutes in, Emerson is trying to play out from left back. His pass is blocked. And Hendrick, not even really a pass, just kind of helps the ball onto the edge of the box. And the entire OM defence has rushed across to the left side of the pitch. He almost got the sense that they were kind of like over-motivated by the need to start strong and, you know, kind of send out a message. And Quentin Deliso is left totally on marked the edge of the box, takes a touch and sticks it in for his third goal in three games. Ego Pachal came on at half-time, equalised, with a classic Pachal goal cuts in from the left, kills one in to the bottom right corner. And then Paolo Fonseca sent on Remy Ambert, 18-year-old centre-forward, the latest Pepit, or, you know, little jewel of the Leon production line. He puts Leon back in front with 40 minutes remaining, but then Pierre-Hammer, Ego Balmer, Yang equalises, and then tucks in the winner in stoppage time. And it is the kind of result that only Marseille capable of, you know, everything suggests that they should not be able of pulling off results like this. You know, you are never building on solid foundations at OM, and particularly this season, with the departure of Roberta Deserbi, the head coach, the departure of Paolo Longoria, the president, which I think was confirmed today, just constant movement and upheaval, and yet, right when they needed this result, they got it. And it's, yeah, basically, re-launched their season. Bonnery, with Grino, you have to pay Char, pass an appellate. Yeah, bonnery, pay Char, bonnery. La fois pour Papillon! Ah! Ah! Liberty, encore, et toujours, Messieurs-Dames! Le voilà, le bonheur, et t'arrivée, alors, je vais l'autre homme. Bon, pas bien, trois. On l'a plus clionné, deux. Good Lord, just two points, then, between those two teams, as they chase, the third Champions League spot, the top two places in Liga, still occupied by Paris Saint-Germain, and Lance. But perhaps the decisive weekend for the destination of the title, Tom. Yes, it was four points now, the gap between PSG and First, and Lance in second. Lance played really well on Friday night, at way at St Hazelborg, got a one-on draw, which is not a bad result, all the big team struggle at St Hazelborg. Lance found themselves a goal down after 18 minutes. Beautifully taken, goal by Joachim Panicelli, St Hazelborg's Argentinian number nine. There's a miss hit back pass, he's kind of left a bit short, by Smiley Gannier, young Lance centre-back. Panicelli kind of steams onto it, and then scores with a kind of, like, Carol Paborsky-style, slightly Raoul-esque, scoopy chip. Watched it about ten times, and I still don't quite understand how he did it, which loops over the goalkeeper bounces into the net, but Lance were basically dominant, had lots of the ball, equalized through Mamadou Sangay, young Marlion midfield, that beautifully crisp, left foot kind of half-volley on the edge of the box on the hour mark, and Lance had a lot more chances to win it than St Hazelborg did. They had 25 attempts at goal, so it was with the funny one in that, you know, looking at the game, they might have felt frustrated not to have won in the context of the title race. It gave PSG the opportunity to then, you know, open up a bigger lead, but, you know, going into this game off the back of the home defeat against Monaco the previous weekend, you know, we at least saw lawns kind of, you know, back to something approaching their best, and then, yeah, following day, PSG put together, pretty routine, 1-0 win, away at Lahav, and the kind of classic PSG performance, I mean, Lewis and Ricke, you know, makes things up as he often does in terms of his team selection. They were totally dominant. They scored one goal through Bradley Bakolo. He's now scored headed goals, I think, in two of his athery appearances, if he's not something you really associate with him. And he played through the middle, a centre-forward, because Usman D'Ambelli is still sidelineed with the carf issue that forced him off in the first leg of the Chambers League playoff tie against Monaco, and so Bakolo was given a run through the middle, and it's very much not his natural position, but he's such a wonderful footballer. There's a real kind of freshness and freedom to his game when he's playing well. It was a very unconvincing header for the only goal of the game, Lee Kang-in, who started on the right, thinks in a cross and he kind of runs in behind, and very unconvincingly heads it in, but there were some beautiful touches. There was an outsider that the foot pass for Lee a few minutes later. There was another cross that should have been converted later on in the game, so he's in top form, and PSG and our four points clear, 10 games to go, and it does feel like this is probably it, or be it, as we've said so many times, in the last few weeks, PSG continue to look some way off the heights that they reached in the second half of the last season. Perhaps they're building towards something Tom. Meantime, the Chambers League will see them pitted against Chelsea, and, Lee Kang-in, I've given them five days off in between, the two Chelsea legs, that's nice. Yeah, I mean, this has been a feature for a little while. I mean, the lead for professional, the body that the manager's, Frances professional leagues is very keen to do whatever it can to help French clubs to shine in continental competitions. And so frequently, what you see is, clubs with an upcoming European fixture being allowed to play on Friday night, for example, given favorable kickoff times. The LFP did this with PSG throughout last season, and it worked pretty well, because they obviously won the Champions League. So there's kind of an acceptance of it, but it is nevertheless slightly peculiar for PSG to request a weekend off and to be told, yep, sure, yeah, we'll fit that in at a later date. What was the reaction to getting Chelsea and the draw of the team that had ended their spectacular run in the club World Cup final last May last July? Last summer. It's hard for PSG to think about any potential opponent in the Champions League with enormous confidence, just because they have been so patchy, and they were again in the second leg of the playoff round tie against Monaco drawing 2-2, and actually having a really wobbly end to the game, if Valt fast doesn't completely cock up a stoppage time ahead of her, Monaco equalizing, it goes to extra time, and who knows what could have happened. So they still look somewhere off the pace. They had a great record against English clubs in the Champions League last season. They beat Liverpool and Aston Villa and Arsenal in the knockout rounds, but of course that Chelsea game conjures up memories of the club World Cup final, the feeling in France, and I think there is a degree of truth to this is that PSG had just run out of gas, and they did look extremely leaky in that game. It's good club that is owned by that way all the day. Deeply ironic, you might say, but that aside, Chelsea found out a way of exploiting their weaknesses and... Different manager back then, of course. Yes, yeah, Enzo Moresco. In one of his great triumphs, sort of overloaded the right flank, put coal palm and lots of really interesting positions, PSG never got going, and then you had this very unedifying conclusion to the game. There's big kind of shoving match at the final whistle. Lewis Enrique slapped Joppedro and got away with it. Nothing, nothing... It became of that... That's how little it registered. Yeah, it's such a non-Lewis Enrique thing to do. Trump suddenly starts walking onto the pitch, and everyone's like, what? Yeah, yeah, that... As well, I mean, it was very clear until the end of the day. Everything, I think, that happened at the club World Cup, almost though it was a dimension of its own. Different manager for Chelsea, but then the new fellow, Liam Rosene, has also had some success against Paris Saint-Germain, of late. Yes, one against PSG towards the end of last season, and when PSG were kind of already starting to shift their focus and look at the Champions League, but yeah, a coach will know PSG extremely well, who will, I'm sure, look at that Chelsea victory from the club World Cup final, because PSG haven't really changed very much as a team. It's still the same starting 11 when everyone's fit, albeit that has been a very rare occurrence for PSG this season. You have PSG as favourites, I think, but once again, we are still waiting for them to show up, and you tend to think, well, when they have to, they will, but they really will have to against Chelsea, I think. And Chelsea, the kind of team who, you know, they feel like one of those kind of old-fashioned cup teams, you know, league consistency is difficult for them because they've got such a young squad, because they get players sent off on average every 50 minutes or so, but they're capable of, you know, causing big teams, big problems. Indeed. Well, there you go. PSG await Chelsea in the meantime, four points clear at the top of league. Just to mention that their counterparts across the road at Paris FC enjoyed a winning start for their new manager, former PSG boss Antoine Kumbari, well, I've been trying to pronounce him the way you did last week, Tom. Kumbuari. Kumbuari. You have to be very careful with the way that you pronounce his name as a viral flip from one of his press conferences last week demonstrated. He was being presented as Paris FC's new head coach and a journalist, a young female journalist, asked a question to, I think it was, I think it was possibly Antoine Arno, who's a representative of the owners, about Kumbuari and what it was that, you know, had attracted the club or prompted the club to appoint him. And when she mentioned him, she said Antoine, rather than, you know, Monsieur Kumbuari or whatever. And Kumbuari interrupted her and said, look, coach, please. There you go. Look, coach. And everyone saw that on social media and thought, what an arbad. Well, but after winning start... Is this nickname golden head? Yeah, well, I think that was from the famous goal that you scored against Real Madrid in this kind of era-defining cup winners' cup comeback back in the day when he was a bruising centre-half for PSG and he scores this thunderous, stoppage-time winner. What a golden head. TET DOOR. Yes. One of those examples of a foreign name that sounds better in English than it does in... Le Tiktor. ...the original French. Yeah. Anyway, good start for him and a cracking start continuing for Frank A's since he took over... Look, what is the convention for dressing coaches? Just to finish off the sentence. Since he took over from Habib Bay at Ren, they've won three on the bounce-on and a right back in the mix for, well, possibly even top three, Seb. Sorry. What is the convention for addressing coaches in press conferences in France? Is it first name? Is it... What's yours? Depends on... It's not a coach. Yeah, well, it depends on the extent to which the person asking the question knows the coach. Right. And there's a kind of an individual perspective to every interaction with a coach or player in the French media because you have to think about whether or not you're going to use two or whether or not you're going to use voodoo. And that is an absolute mind-failed and having spoken French for a very long time, it still stresses me out like an awful lot because some people get very offended if you use the wrong version. You would start out with the voodoo. You would always start out with a voodoo. And then she'd add the two and I add the two. Yeah, but if they're in this state. Yeah, so in this state, in Italy, but that mind-failed, you're alluding to... If you use the kind of voodoo or in Italian lay, don't know what it would be in German. And then someone else after you uses the two form, you are almost like, whoa, whoa. But you're allowed to do that if the person doing it actually knows the guy. Yeah. You ask your question very formally, you use voodoo and you use all the voodoo forms. The next guy's like, okay, you know, did you? Mongolo, my butter. Ali, is it German? That sounds like German. Didn't have jules in mind. That is. Well, it just came through. What's that lovely Italian football expression about someone who's very comfortable with the ball? And it's, he calls the ball to, like he uses the informal. Yeah, I think that's it then. Yeah, yeah. Very nice. Well, you should write a book about that kind of thing. That was a great idea, James. Do you know what? I think I might. Let's say, I'm just kidding actually because Tom has written not one but two or the same book twice. Might be the same book twice. Are there two editions? Is there one or two? Yeah, there's another one edition, but it came, it was updated. Updated in 2024. Almost like a new one. Almost like a new one. Yeah. Better as a consequence. Do you speak football? Available in German, French, Czech. Italian? Polish and Japanese. And Japanese. Japanese, yeah, yeah. And it looks really, it's got a very mad, like, cover as you would expect if a Japanese person. The Japanese one. Yeah. But not in Italian. I guess Italians think what kind of British person possibly tell us how to talk about football? Well, because most of them are words for talking about football or English anyway. Yeah. Well, so off in the case. Yeah. Yeah. You know what we could chat about this all day. Listen, oh, Tom. Last little nugget from Liga. Yeah. A part-warming story at Monaco, Anje. Oh, yeah. 18-year-old Monaco midfield Samuel Nibombe, Belgian youth international, collapsed, and had a cardiac arrest during a youth game against Rehen at the back end of last season. Very serious, had to have CPR on the pitch, defibrillator, the works, long recovery process. Is now back in the first team squad, made his Monaco debut as a substitute at the part they prowess in the Champions League game last week, and then came off the bench against Anje at the weekend for his league and debut. Very heartwarming story. He's also six foot six. She's very tall for an outfielder, so you can't miss him. Yeah. Good stuff. Crouchy. Yes. It's a finder, an equivalent of the pizza crouch next. Well, it works on that. We'll work on that. Very good. Thank you so much, Tom. Many thanks to you as well, Seb, to James, to Paul, earlier on, producer Lucy, and you, listener, we'll have another euro roundup for you next week ahead of those last 16 matchups. Have a great week in the meantime, and from all of us here, let's goodbye. You've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For other great podcasts, just like this one, including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for the Athletic in all the usual places. 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