Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL: Group A and Group B Matchday 5 preview (Dec. 11 matches)
Transcript
- 0:03OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primarily about women's
- 0:08football. Before we hit the pitch.
- 0:09If you enjoy the show or loved ones football as much as your
- 0:12voice, you come kick it with us already.
- 0:14Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
- 0:17you'd like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
- 0:19favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
- 0:21the show notes of this episode. I am your host Dino de Suspitis
- 0:25and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
- 0:29What is that man? Feeling fantastic, buddy. the
- 0:32Champions League is back. It's been a long month without
- 0:36any Champions League matches, so I'm glad it's returning and I
- 0:39think we have another amazing slate.
- 0:41I probably say this every week, but that's because we like the
- 0:43Champions League, That's why the show's about the Champions
- 0:46League. So I'm excited for match Day 5.
- 0:48I think that's fair, man. I think I was talking to you
- 0:51about this little bit pre show, you know, like 7 of the 8 teams
- 0:54into the quarterfinals already. I was like, has the drama kind
- 0:57of gone from it? When you look a little deeper,
- 0:59there's a lot, there's a lot of this mad in this match day that
- 1:02that could really switch things around.
- 1:05One massive match that we'll get to here soon.
- 1:07But real stakes. I was I was kind of pleasantly
- 1:10surprised. The more I looked, I was like,
- 1:11OK, there's there's some real shit here.
- 1:13With that, said Mr. Grant Engel, where do you want to get?
- 1:15Started Let's get started with what I think is the match of the
- 1:18week in Group A, and it just so happens that we're going to go
- 1:22in alphabetical order by groups. Love that the timing worked out
- 1:26on the match days. Wednesday morning over here here
- 1:28in the United States of America. Wolfsburg versus Roma.
- 1:33Love it. Let's start here.
- 1:34This is the matchup of the week. Quick programming reminder,
- 1:38We're going to break this up into A2 parter.
- 1:39We're going to hit all the Wednesday matches.
- 1:41We're going to hit all the Thursday matches.
- 1:43I love that we're starting with Wednesday.
- 1:45We're starting. Or is this chronological and
- 1:47alphabetical? The rare double for the IDC.
- 1:50It's a dream come true for your boy.
- 1:52It's my favorite thing that we've ever done.
- 1:54Let's go. All right, before we dive in
- 1:59boys, going to dive into this ice cold, frosty refresher.
- 2:06We've been, you know, our timing on these beers.
- 2:11There's been a little inconsistent lately, which I
- 2:14think is probably appropriate as we're going to talk about
- 2:16Wolfsburg here. Yeah, I think that's that's
- 2:18right on point. But uh, first cheers to you.
- 2:21Cheers to the Champions League. Obviously cheers you as well, my
- 2:23Goodman. Little sippy sip and then we're
- 2:26off OK Wolfsburg. I'm not sure what to make of
- 2:29this Wolfsburg team. So this weekend A1 nil away loss
- 2:32to Leverkusen who's a real team Peter Vice was on with us had
- 2:35them in his top four. Their firmly the top four.
- 2:38I think they're tied for the top spot with Byron Wolfsburg back 3
- 2:41Marina haggering, Edina Minga, Katherine Henrich Swiss cheese
- 2:45on the day Leverkusen was getting most of what they wanted
- 2:4812 shots, 5 on target, the deciding goal.
- 2:51Wolfsburg now in Deja of falling into 4th place halfway through
- 2:54the front Bundesiga season. Prior to this one though, seven
- 2:57wins in a row, 25 goals for, two against for Wolfsburg.
- 3:01Then they get the 12 days off and then they lose to
- 3:03Leverkusen. I'm not sure if it's rest, I'm
- 3:05not sure if it's rust, I'm not sure what to make of it.
- 3:08But then you look a little closer at Wolfsburg and some of
- 3:10these results this season, they've played iron track,
- 3:13Frankfurt, Roma, Bayern Munich, Lyon and Leverkusen.
- 3:17In those five matches, one win, 4 losses.
- 3:21So tough to know what to make of this Wolfsburg side.
- 3:24It's a lot of up and down. You know, the data is a little
- 3:26noisy, I'll say that. That's a good way to put it.
- 3:28I mean, I think I'm looking at him in a similar vein to you in
- 3:33the sense that we know they have elite individual talent on the
- 3:37field pretty much at all times, all all 90 of any match that
- 3:40they're going to play in. But you inject Linneth
- 3:42Berenstein, you lose Lena Obrador first, she transfers to
- 3:46Bayern Munich. And then obviously we're still
- 3:48hoping that Lena is getting a swift and full recovery after
- 3:51her ACL injury. But you have that little bit of
- 3:54shake up. But I think whatever is
- 3:56happening is that, yeah, this team is going to have those runs
- 4:00where they win a lot of games and they win by goals in the
- 4:03gold differential looks great and they look unstoppable at
- 4:05times. And then I think they're just
- 4:07going to have those hiccups. And probably what that is, is if
- 4:10you look at the tie ring of the best teams in the world and the
- 4:15top tier, you obviously have Barcelona and the Orlando Pride.
- 4:20On the second tier of the best teams in the world, I would say
- 4:23you probably have Chelsea, Lyon and a fully fit Washington
- 4:28Spirit. Now, I don't know if Wolfsburg
- 4:31is on that third tier or on that 4th tier, but they're probably
- 4:34on one of those two tiers hovering around Manchester City,
- 4:39Arsenal, Bayern Munich. I think you could probably put
- 4:42Roma in that mix. Please, people in the chat, let
- 4:44me know. Oh yeah, SK Braun, obviously,
- 4:46like let me know if I'm forgetting any other elite
- 4:50teams. BK Hakken perhaps if we want to
- 4:52stick in the Nordics. But you're just going to get
- 4:54some of this where they look unstoppable at times and then
- 4:57other times you're going to be like, what is going on out
- 4:59there? But I think the dangerous part
- 5:02for their fans is they don't know when it's going to come.
- 5:05And the dangerous part for opponents says you don't know
- 5:07when it's going to come. A. 100%, yeah.
- 5:09And I think Speaking of not knowing when it's going to come,
- 5:12I think this Roma side and their attack, you know, our guy Peter
- 5:15Weiss was on here talking about that 343 for Wolfsburg.
- 5:18And I think we had somebody to pop to the comments and maybe
- 5:21push back a little bit on that. I think that could be
- 5:25devastating for them in this one because they struggled with that
- 5:28Levicuzzin attack. I think Roma's going to be a
- 5:30little trickier to deal with. Definitely less familiarity.
- 5:33I'll say they're vulnerable. Like I think they're they're
- 5:36probably one of the most vulnerable top ish tier teams in
- 5:39the tournament, like the most gettable.
- 5:41Like when you look at like a Chelsea side or Leon or even in
- 5:45Manchester City, doesn't feel like you're going to see that
- 5:47stumble. We've already seen Wolfsburg
- 5:48stumble a couple times here in this group stage.
- 5:52Zooming into Roma though, they did beat Willsburg one no in the
- 5:55opener off a Giuliano penalty in the 14th minute this past
- 5:58weekend, 21 win over FC Como. Como scored first in that one
- 6:02and went to halftime one nil before Lucia de Gulialmo scores
- 6:06and Valentina Giacchini follows that up with a just a disgusting
- 6:11assist from Manuela Giuliano. Unbelievable.
- 6:13Go watch that if you haven't seen it.
- 6:15But then you look at Roma's record.
- 6:16Eleven wins, 4 draws, 3 losses in all competitions.
- 6:19You can zoom into their last six in Siriofa Manil.
- 6:22Five wins and one draw. So just one point behind second
- 6:25place for aren't Tina. But yeah, I think the match up
- 6:27to watch here is going to be Roma's attack against
- 6:29Wolfsburg's back line. Yeah, I think that's probably
- 6:32right. I think when you get elite
- 6:33football played by two great clubs, I think that's probably
- 6:36what it's going to come down to on either side of the field is
- 6:40can your can your defenders get in the way of the talented
- 6:43attackers? Can you try to break up those
- 6:44right passes, get in there and get blocked shots?
- 6:47Can you stop Endemond from playing Alexandra pop into the
- 6:51middle, Jones Dotier into the middle, on with the keeper,
- 6:54things like that. I'm not ready to.
- 6:56I'm obviously not ready to write Wolfsburg off yet.
- 6:59Anybody who's been rocking with us the past couple months, I did
- 7:02predict 2 convincing wins over Galatasaray.
- 7:04Check, check. And then I predicted getting the
- 7:07victory over Roma here. Now that it's going to have to
- 7:10be a little convincing at least two to nil or three to one, they
- 7:13want to win by two goals. And so let's get into everybody
- 7:16loves explaining tiebreakers. I think that's what everybody's
- 7:19favorite part of any podcast is. But as quickly and concisely as
- 7:23I think I can explain it, The first tiebreaker when two teams
- 7:27are level on points are points in head to head matches among
- 7:31the tie teams. So Wolfsburg has to get this win
- 7:34over Roma to make sure that they're tied 33 there and points
- 7:37against each other. The next is goal difference in
- 7:40head to head matches among among those tied teams.
- 7:42So if you're Wolfsburg and you can win 2 nil and you can pull
- 7:46ahead of Roma on that head to head goal differential, you'll
- 7:50be feeling OK. The extra tricky part here is
- 7:53you go play Lyon. If you're Wolfsburg in the in
- 7:56the final match day, you're probably drawing dead in that
- 7:59match. It's going to be very tough to
- 8:01beat Lyon. Now obviously on the flip side,
- 8:03Roma goes and plays Galatasaray. So if you just take care of
- 8:06business, if you win this one by two goals, you should be in good
- 8:10shape to progress. Yeah, and that's huge because
- 8:13Roma is the type of team A that I think could erase a lead or at
- 8:17least cut A2 nil lead in half and B, kind of lock things down,
- 8:22muck it up, get physical. I could definitely see this one
- 8:25ending in like a really gritty draw maybe, which would
- 8:29essentially almost put Roma through.
- 8:30But yeah, great call on the schedules and looking ahead to
- 8:33match Day 6, because those final group stage matchups absolutely
- 8:36matter. And yeah, I think if I had to
- 8:38make a prediction, I think Roma gets a result that they like
- 8:41here. OK, they go to Germany and get
- 8:43it done. That's the prediction.
- 8:45Not sure they get the win, but I think they get the draw.
- 8:47OK, I like it. The other Group A match up.
- 8:50Both of these by the way, going down 12:45 PM Eastern, 9:45 AM
- 8:54Pacific for my guy gal Tastrai hosting Leon.
- 8:58Not sure there's a ton to talk about this one.
- 9:00We're going to see what the Leon lineup looks like with just one
- 9:03more point or a Wolfsburg draw or loss.
- 9:06Leon basically takes the group. Yeah.
- 9:08And I think that was pretty much expected going into this week.
- 9:11Expect them to make a deep run. I'm with you.
- 9:14I think this is a lineup watch kind of match to see who gets
- 9:17some playing time, who's going to get the majority of this
- 9:20match and who might come in and get, you know, 1520 minutes of
- 9:24some some cardio out there. I think it's worth noting that
- 9:26between the UEFA Women's Champions League and the Premier
- 9:29League in France, which is used to formally Division UN
- 9:34Feminine, formerly Division UN Kema, now the Premier League,
- 9:38Leon has only dropped points once this season and that was a
- 9:42nil, nil draw versus Perry FC in October.
- 9:44That match was a banger. And Leon across the Champions
- 9:47League and the Prem. I have a + 54 gold differential.
- 9:52I did that math looking at my my own courtesy of our powers of FB
- 9:56ref, so if I'm off by one or two my bad.
- 9:59But I'd say they've looked pretty convincing so far this
- 10:02season. I would say so.
- 10:03And I think to amend one of my predictions for this one, I
- 10:08think we're still waiting for Tabitha Chewinga to really like
- 10:10kind of breakthrough. I know she's scored but thinking
- 10:13back to last season when she's at PSG just wrecking everything
- 10:17and giving this Leon side had headaches for sure.
- 10:20We haven't quite seen that yet for Lyon and I can imagine maybe
- 10:23some reshuffling lineup wise and maybe looking to get a player
- 10:27like Chewinga going. Yeah, I love it.
- 10:29I think it's a good idea. It's kind of one of those things
- 10:31where you look to get one of your star players going before
- 10:35you ramp up into like the really critical matches.
- 10:37So if you can get her going as you enter the knockout stages
- 10:41and have her feeling really, really good.
- 10:43And then you have obviously Du Morne and Dionne on the other
- 10:47sides. Now we're really, I mean, you
- 10:49know, we're already talking about a contender to win, but
- 10:52you want to try to sharpen that as much as possible going into
- 10:55the knockout stage. Yeah 100%.
- 10:57Any other final Group A thoughts before match day 5 kicks off?
- 11:01Galatasaray, this is your first foray into the UAE four Women's
- 11:04Champions League. You know, you've had some some
- 11:07tough results, but I think you've comported yourself well.
- 11:10We look forward to seeing you back in this tournament many,
- 11:12many times. Obviously we get a couple more
- 11:14matches. This will be Galatasaray's final
- 11:16home match of the UAE for Women's Champions League.
- 11:19So hopefully their fans show up and show out.
- 11:22And you know what, we'll always have that kid in the stands who
- 11:24is smoking a cigarette. So hopefully that young man's in
- 11:29attendance. Let me just say, look, I'm not
- 11:31some kind of puritan, but it's not good for you, kid.
- 11:35So like I, you're starting way too early.
- 11:38I get it and we've all done it. But I mean your lungs will thank
- 11:41you later if maybe it maybe a chill out a little bit.
- 11:44All right, let's shift gears. Group B, 3:00 PM Eastern, 12:00
- 11:49PM Pacific. Let's get started with Chelsea
- 11:52FC-20. What do we need to be looking
- 11:54out for these two teams? So Chelsea beat 23 to one on
- 11:58match day 2 as some people might recall.
- 12:00I think the big flashbulb memory from that one is Micah Homano's
- 12:04just laser beam of a strike from like 30 plus yards out.
- 12:08It was not a great moment for Welsh keeper Olivia Clark for
- 12:1220. You don't like to get beaten
- 12:13from there. You could tell if you like, she
- 12:15put her head in her hands after. It was also just a really great
- 12:18strike by Himano. You could I, I think Clark was
- 12:20probably too far off the line, but still great hit by Himano.
- 12:24I think I'm going to remember that one moving forward.
- 12:26And Himano has certainly proven she's dangerous from any area
- 12:30out there. So she's going to be firing.
- 12:32Oh yeah. I think in this one, I expect
- 12:34Twente to play really hard. I think this is largely more of
- 12:37a lineup watch game. I want to see who Chelsea put
- 12:40out there. I believe Twente is going to
- 12:43play hard, but they are five points back from a Champions
- 12:46League qualifying spot in air to busy round right now.
- 12:50And so there's a part of me that kind of wonders, if you are in
- 12:53the management of that club, do you say, hey, maybe we peel back
- 12:58on who we're putting out there on the field and we focus fully
- 13:01on the league so we can at least have a look at getting back in
- 13:04this spot next year, I think. A case can be made for that.
- 13:07I mean, you, you take the flip side of that and it's like,
- 13:09well, let's, let's try to stay as sharp as possible Match
- 13:12against Chelsea and we were us really kind of pushing
- 13:14ourselves, you know, might pay some dividends.
- 13:16The other point is that Twente has basically been bounced from
- 13:19the quarters. So, you know, we already know
- 13:21it's Chelsea going through, it's Real Madrid going through from
- 13:24this group. Taking a second to look at
- 13:26Chelsea. Nine wins from 9 matches in the
- 13:28WSL, 5 point lead over City at the moment, 9 points out of
- 13:33third place Arsenal. I think the thing that's
- 13:34interesting here, Sonia Bompastor, I think wants to kind
- 13:38of like, if possible, try to clinch that WSL Championship
- 13:42early because Chelsea won't be facing the same league
- 13:46competition that a Barcelona would be or a Leon would be.
- 13:50I think both of those teams are going to cruise in their
- 13:52domestic leagues. But if Chelsea can kind of like
- 13:55run away with the WSL a little bit, take some of the pressure
- 13:58off, even if it's just one or two, maybe three matches at the
- 14:01very end of the season, those could really compound in a big
- 14:04way. Especially when you think about
- 14:06the injuries from last year, the mean officials, Sam Kerr, you
- 14:09know, Millie Bright, Myra Ramirez from the first, who you
- 14:12know, dominated the first Barcelona matchup and then has a
- 14:15knock in play in the second one. Barcelona in advance is the rest
- 14:18is history. I think that's some recent
- 14:20trauma for Chelsea. And I think they they really
- 14:23want to do what they can and like, let's not slip up in the
- 14:26WSL. Let's make sure that we're, you
- 14:28know, we've got a lead and we can sort of maneuver a little
- 14:31bit with lineups, try to keep everybody relatively fresh.
- 14:34Yeah, well, I think you're probably spot on.
- 14:35And they already have a good look at it.
- 14:37So I mean, they've already notched a win over Arsenal,
- 14:39they've notched a win over Manchester City.
- 14:42So they're in the driver's seat for it.
- 14:43I have been known to yell at pundits, not to their face
- 14:49because I don't meet any of these people.
- 14:51But like in my time, like listening to podcasts and then
- 14:54watching things on television. I do get a little annoyed when
- 14:57you're 25% of the way through a season and somebody goes, well,
- 15:01the title is theirs to lose, surely, right.
- 15:04It's like, well, probably not If you have more than 3/4 or about
- 15:073/4 of the season yet to play. I think I might be a little I I
- 15:12could be I could be guided into saying that the title is it's
- 15:16pretty much Chelsea's to lose like five points ahead of city
- 15:21with already a pretty a fairly convincing, obviously minus
- 15:24Lauren Hemp, but a a fairly convincing win over city already
- 15:28in their back pocket. I think you're right.
- 15:29I think Bon Pastor has the team running really great.
- 15:33I think this this little strategy of, hey, I'm going to
- 15:36play Mercario the last 45 minutes of every match and
- 15:39nobody's able to guard her or physically move her off any spot
- 15:43she ever wants to occupy. I think it's a that's a nice
- 15:45strategy by when your bone pastor.
- 15:47It seems to be working very well.
- 15:49Totally agree with that. Yeah, I think in my head, Kat
- 15:51Macario was somewhere listening to our USA #10 conversation and
- 15:55just laughing her ass off. Yeah, just like, okay, this is
- 15:59this is a high comedy. She was awesome today against
- 16:03Brighton. Brighton's a tough team.
- 16:05They came into they came into Chelsea's house, really pushed
- 16:08them, had real chances, multiple points throughout the match.
- 16:12This 1 ended 4 to Chelsea, The score line.
- 16:14This one could have had like 10 different outcomes, could have
- 16:17been 4/4, it could have been 54, it could have been 31 for a
- 16:20match that was played in pretty shitty conditions, like you
- 16:23could see the corner flag like getting whipped in every
- 16:25direction, the rain coming in sideways.
- 16:28What I'm going to take away though, is kind of how scrappy
- 16:30Chelsea was. Yeah, you look at those first
- 16:32couple goals, new skin, new skin, muscles, one in to help
- 16:37Chelsea breakthrough Aggie Beaver Jones, ABJ on the second
- 16:40one, good old fashioned, Let's get some pressure on the keeper,
- 16:43kind of steal something there. So you know when the beautiful
- 16:46Chelsea offense is not running, you know the girl right in on
- 16:49the left and can run on the right and you know just all the
- 16:51angles and the sharp cuts and all that isn't isn't doing it
- 16:55Chelsea. It's cool to know that Chelsea
- 16:57can still kind of grid out a game score goals in that way.
- 17:00And then when you look at the four two score line, those two
- 17:02kind of scrappy earliest goals end up being the difference in
- 17:05this one. Yeah, I mean, that's that's well
- 17:07said. And you even have the
- 17:08combination with them where you have the beautiful Chelsea
- 17:12offense shows up for a second when the aforementioned Cat
- 17:14Macario throws a pass that looks like it was dropped in by Peyton
- 17:19Manning to Lucy Bronze. And then the ugly starts
- 17:22happening where it just kind of like ping pongs off bronze from
- 17:25the keeper, but then there's Kanaru to tap it in for the
- 17:28goal. It's like, OK, so you got a
- 17:30Little Mix of the beautiful offense and then the
- 17:32scrappiness. They just look nearly impossible
- 17:35to be in a lot of situations. They're so deep.
- 17:38They're so well managed. I mean, they've been well
- 17:40managed obviously for many years now.
- 17:43But you have a new voice in there.
- 17:45And I just, I don't know, man. They look like stronger and
- 17:49stronger contentious every passing week.
- 17:52And like to your point, they can win ugly too.
- 17:55Yeah, I think I'm this close to saying that Chelsea's my pick to
- 17:59take the whole tournament because I think that they're
- 18:02they're playing so sharp. And to me, I'm kind of sitting
- 18:05on the sidelines a little bit because I want to see how the
- 18:06WSL season kind of unfurls here. But if they get to like 12/13/14
- 18:11and they're still at like no loss or they haven't dropped
- 18:14points or they're they're kind of like in that neighborhood and
- 18:17can maybe kind of coast a little bit, save a little, put a gas
- 18:20for the knockout stage. I really think that that WSL
- 18:24season getting sharpened by that tough competition, couple teams
- 18:27really pushing them and Chelsea still kind of able to hold them
- 18:30down. That could be the formula for
- 18:32them just being like, no, we're just we're better, We're
- 18:34stronger, We're more mentally tough.
- 18:36We've got a champion coach behind us.
- 18:39We've got the experience, we've got the sour taste from last
- 18:41year. These are all incredibly
- 18:43important components for putting together a deep title run.
- 18:46Sounds like I realized they didn't make the final, but do we
- 18:49have of a 2014 San Antonio Spurs type situation?
- 18:55They lose the year before in heartbreaking fashion to your
- 18:58Miami Heat who earned it By the way, nice shot by Ray Allen, the
- 19:00second greatest shot in the history of the finals.
- 19:06I digress. That's an absolute absurdity.
- 19:09No, no, we're not going to digress.
- 19:12I'm just kidding. Let's digress back primarily
- 19:14about one's football. We'll get back to it.
- 19:16Yeah, well, after the show I'll tell you why Kyrie Irving shot
- 19:18was better and more important. But I at any rate, yeah, I think
- 19:23they have that extra layer of motivation and that could play.
- 19:26And if they win their group and then Barcelona finishes in
- 19:29second in their group, which we'll talk about in the next
- 19:31episode, how early might we see that matchup?
- 19:35That would be incredible. And I'm sure they have, they
- 19:37must be feeling those types of feelings about last season and
- 19:41they know they proved to themselves that they're at
- 19:43Barcelona's level or were at Barcelona's level.
- 19:45And to kind of go out like that, you know, the Buchanan red card
- 19:48will remember that one could be a perfect confluence of of
- 19:51motivating factors for them though this season to kind of
- 19:54actually get it done. It could be and yeah, if you
- 19:57decide to pick them I will. I will wish you well.
- 20:00But I I say all of that with you could have all the motivating
- 20:04factors you want and you can still lose to Barcelona.
- 20:07Yeah, that's fair. Well, I said I was this close
- 20:08and there's still time. I want to at least get to the
- 20:11group stage before, you know, go all the way out on these limbs
- 20:13here. I like it.
- 20:14The other groupie matchup, Real Madrid heading to Glasgow to
- 20:18take on Celtic. What do we need to know about
- 20:20this one? Well, one way traffic mostly in
- 20:22the first matchup on match day 2, it ended up being 4 nil Real
- 20:26Madrid, but I still don't think that was totally indicative of
- 20:29the way the match was played. It was one nil, I think almost
- 20:32to all the way to the 70th minute, maybe right exactly into
- 20:34the 70th minute. But even then, Celtic really
- 20:37kind of parked the bus. I think they knew what time it
- 20:40was going into that match. They're playing in Spain.
- 20:42I will say to their credit assertion, Noonan had forced
- 20:46Misa Rodriguez to make her one save of that match, but Misa
- 20:50Rodriguez only had to make one save that match.
- 20:53Madrid was really kind of moving the ball up and down the field.
- 20:57But I I'm going to, I'm going to do a little bit of a thing here.
- 21:00I think this one could end up being a sneaky good match
- 21:03because I think if the squads are somewhat rotated, So Celtic
- 21:07is trying to make up ground in the Scottish Women's Premier
- 21:10League. They're currently 4th in the
- 21:11table and Real Madrid, they have two matches in hand from
- 21:15Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, who they're sandwiched in
- 21:18between and the league of F table.
- 21:20If you're real, you think, OK, I have more matches to play.
- 21:23I got I got to squeeze some extra matches in here.
- 21:26If you're Celtic, you're like, OK, we got to fight back in our
- 21:28own league. Even if the squads are a little
- 21:30rotated, I think that could produce a relatively up and down
- 21:34entertaining, pedal to the metal kind of match here.
- 21:37Yeah, I think I agree with you that this one could get
- 21:39interesting. But I think it if it were to get
- 21:42interesting, I think it'd be interesting the other way in
- 21:44maybe like a nil nil or maybe Celtic grabs 1 early and then
- 21:48it's 11 and it's late and what's going to happen.
- 21:51And I think what's what's important to note here is
- 21:54Chelsea and Real Madrid can still kind of flip flop for that
- 21:57one seed, two seed in Group B. So the door is not closed on
- 22:00Madrid yet. I think if both teams go into
- 22:03match day 6 where they'll face each other, Chelsea, Real
- 22:05Madrid, sign me up for that. I really hope there's stakes
- 22:09involved in that one. But let's assume that both
- 22:11Chelsea and Madrid both win. Chelsea be up by three points.
- 22:14Madrid could catch them. It's a one goal goal
- 22:17differential. Chelsea pulled out the first
- 22:19match 3:00 to 2:00. That's right.
- 22:20And match day 6 heads back to Madrid.
- 22:24So if they're within three points, that one seed and we've
- 22:28talked about it time and time again in our Champions League
- 22:30coverage, you do not want to be a two seed if you're a two seed,
- 22:33you've got to probably beat 31 seeds to win the whole thing.
- 22:37Much, much tougher. If you go in as a 1, you would
- 22:39at least get to play A2 in the first round and then who knows
- 22:42what happens from there. But Real Madrid have the look of
- 22:44a team that I think off at least offensively can hang with
- 22:49anybody. Now defensively, I think not
- 22:51that they're they're shaky, but they're not the the most
- 22:54frightening team you're going to have to kind of go up against.
- 22:56So I think the recipe in this one for Celtic is let's keep it
- 22:59low scoring. Let's stay disciplined
- 23:01defensively and try to take this Madrid team into deep waters.
- 23:04Kind of see what happens because much like Galatasaray, this is
- 23:07Celtics final changes in matchup.
- 23:09We're not sure if they'll be back next season.
- 23:11Fingers crossed for them and their return.
- 23:13So I'm I'm also expecting a killer environment in Glasgow.
- 23:16Oh, yeah, man, buddy, you might be swaying me on this one.
- 23:21If if you're Madrid, Madrid, and you even have the possibility
- 23:24of, hey, we have a match in our building with Chelsea.
- 23:29And we had even talked about after match day one, the
- 23:32importance of Madrid pulling back that second goal.
- 23:35If I remember correctly, Chelsea was kind of in control.
- 23:38And then Madrid, I think they might have pulled one back
- 23:41before halftime. And then again, they pulled in
- 23:44the the second one back late. And we had talked about it like,
- 23:48hey, that could make a real difference in this.
- 23:50So you might have swayed me where if you're Madrid, I think
- 23:54you play everybody and just say, hey, we notched this win.
- 23:57And if you know, you obviously pointed out to me off show.
- 24:00You pointed out to me, hey, man, make sure you watch Real Madrid,
- 24:03Sevilla in Liga F, where Real Madrid is apparently just
- 24:07playing. Hey, we shoot from wherever we
- 24:09want on the field at any point and we might make it.
- 24:13Yeah, I mean they were blasting from everywhere and every goal
- 24:16in race to be a match was better than the last.
- 24:19Just like upping, upping the stakes.
- 24:21The senior Bruin won. The one was insane.
- 24:23Yeah, I just looked at it. I looked it up real quick.
- 24:25You're absolutely right about the Chelsea Real Madrid matchup.
- 24:28It was 2 nil. Chelsea Alba Redondo cuts it to
- 24:32two one right before halftime. Mara Ramirez puts him up three
- 24:36one in the 53rd. Linda Chisedo pulls 1 back in
- 24:38the 80. 4th. To make it 3, two, that could be
- 24:42a huge goal. We'll see Lot to track.
- 24:45I'm going to be really excited. Match Day 6 is going to be wild,
- 24:47but these match Day 5 matchups? Real, real stakes.
- 24:50Even though the quarterfinal teams have, for the most part,
- 24:52been kind of sewn up, I think there's gonna be a lot to
- 24:54lookout for. Absolutely, man.
- 24:56I mean, I'm I'm sold. I'm even more excited for these
- 24:58matches than I was heading into this program, which, you know, I
- 25:02feel like that's a little mini commercial for the show, so
- 25:04hopefully you guys are as well. But yeah, just to let everybody
- 25:07know, I'm floating around on Blue Sky, We're floating around
- 25:10on Twitter. These matches are happening on
- 25:13Wednesday, the middle of the day or the middle of the morning.
- 25:15So I'm in full, no spoilers alert.
- 25:17So I won't be looking at social media.
- 25:19And then I'm going in blind after working hours and watching
- 25:22these. But it'll be prime Wednesday
- 25:25evening viewing for your boy. Good to know, good to know.
- 25:28All right, quick Programming reminder Part 2 coming up, we're
- 25:31going to look at all four Thursday matchups.
- 25:33That'll be a separate episode, so look out for that in your
- 25:35feeds. End of this week we'll be back
- 25:37with a Match Day 5 recap slash match day 6 preview and in the
- 25:40coming weeks we're going to drop our best 11th for 2024.
- 25:43We're going to look at the list from ESPN and the guardian, give
- 25:46them the business if needed. You know, I think that was a
- 25:48couple things that, you know, raise an eyebrow with your boy
- 25:50and I'm going to have to I don't know, I'll I'll shake a fist or
- 25:52two on that episode. Let's go February 7th.
- 25:54This is a big one. After the UEFA Women's Champions
- 25:57League quarterfinals draw, your boys are going to be alive.
- 26:00Once we've got all of our matchups, we can get pumped up
- 26:03as soon as that wraps, hop over into the channel and we will be
- 26:07breaking down all four matchups, probably losing our minds live.
- 26:10I don't know a good amount of profanity.
- 26:12It might be you're a little early in the East Coast, but
- 26:14that's it's a Friday. Maybe some beers might be
- 26:16cracked. Social conventions be damned.
- 26:18It's going to be a lot of fun. So make sure make sure you're
- 26:20subscribed and locked in All right then Champions League
- 26:23Wednesday, very excited. Anything else you want to hit
- 26:25before we get out of? Here I think we covered every
- 26:27possible angle from all matches on Wednesday.
- 26:30I'm ready. Love it.
- 26:31All right, man, I think we did it.
- 26:32This man. I never stepped into the
- 26:33channel. Sincere thank you, thank you,
- 26:34Thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
- 26:36subscribe and just playing hanging out with your boys and
- 26:38remember to like. If you liked, subscribe or
- 26:41follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast
- 26:43or wherever you like to watch or listen.
- 26:45Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
- 26:47Links to all of our socials, including Blue sky.
- 26:49We might have to add Blue sky in the show notes of this episode.
- 26:52A big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant Angle for
- 26:55hitting stretch run, being ready to go.
- 26:58You already know what time it is.
- 26:59I appreciate you bro. Likewise, Buddy, two matches
- 27:02left in the group stage. I feel like we are in top form
- 27:06right now. We're ready to go finish this
- 27:08thing out strong. We appreciate all you guys for
- 27:10rocking with us. Always dropping knowledge in the
- 27:11comments. Thank you very much and we will
- 27:13see you next time.