Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL: Second leg previews (Sept. 25 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 love women's football as much as your
- 0:12boys do, come kick it with us already.
- 0:14Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
- 0:17you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
- 0:19favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
- 0:22the show notes of this episode. I'm your host Dino de Suspitas
- 0:26and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Anglewood.
- 0:30What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic.
- 0:31That was a lot of football in the span of roughly 30 hours.
- 0:37We both have day jobs. We consumed as much as we could
- 0:40and it was, I think everything we consumed was mostly glorious.
- 0:43I would say so, man. I think even the ones that were
- 0:46a little bit less in contest, still still juicy, still
- 0:49interesting storylines to watch. And yeah, you called it, man.
- 0:52I think 11 matches and just a shade over 24 hours.
- 0:56That's a that's a tough haul for your boys.
- 0:58Even if we split the dock at 5050, you know, we're we're just
- 1:01out here doing our best. So this actually can be A2
- 1:03parter. We don't do a lot of two
- 1:05parters, but we figured we're going to break up next
- 1:08Wednesday's action Slavia, Praha, Gala, Taserai, Voloronga
- 1:12and Anderlecht, Wolfsburg, Fiorentina, Benfica, Hammerbee
- 1:15and then we're going to hit you with a Part 2.
- 1:16That'll include our arsenal talk or city talk, PSG, Juventus and
- 1:20the rest of that Thursday slate. So with that said, Mr. Grant
- 1:24angle, where do you want to get started?
- 1:25I'm. Going to get started with this
- 1:26frosty beverage. Imagine.
- 1:30Oh, I knew you would. I'm.
- 1:31Just going to hop on board. Excellent.
- 1:35Cheers to you. Cheers.
- 1:37I think we should start with Benfica versus Hammerbee, 1:00
- 1:41PM Eastern on that Wednesday, September 27th.
- 1:45We want to call it 25th. Wednesday, September 25th.
- 1:48Nelda, I know how dates work. Let's start there.
- 1:51What did you see in the first tie that has you excited for the
- 1:54second match? I mean, well, you already know
- 1:56I'm gonna start with Benfica. I have to.
- 1:58That's my squad. I thought the confidence was
- 2:00there from them. I thought the composure was
- 2:02there from them. I thought physically, you know,
- 2:04we made some jokes last season about, you know, they need to
- 2:07get in the weight room. They looked a little slight.
- 2:08I don't want to say they packed on the muscle necessarily, but I
- 2:11think they looked physically more.
- 2:13They just looked like a more mature team.
- 2:15And then I think speed wise, quickness wise, it's almost like
- 2:17those like speed agility drills. They looked a little faster.
- 2:20I'm not sure if it's just where we are in the season or you
- 2:23know, if they've actually been putting in that work, but I was
- 2:25really excited to see how they looked even post Kika.
- 2:28I thought they looked really good. 100% they looked ready to
- 2:31go. They were in a hostile
- 2:33environment. I will.
- 2:35I'll take a little bit of the Hammer Bee side on this.
- 2:37Hammer Bee famously have rowdy supporters over there in
- 2:41Stockholm. They were there.
- 2:43They unfurled a beautiful tifo before the match, had a big
- 2:46airplane on it and uh, pardon my terrible Swedish attempt.
- 2:50No Leafter V Mote Europa, which if Google Translate is not
- 2:54failing me, says now we take off toward Europe.
- 2:57Oh, I love that. I mean, just the vibes were just
- 3:00fantastic in there. They were scream singing at the
- 3:03beginning of the match, like very cool.
- 3:06But I'm totally with you, man. I'm glad to hear you kind of
- 3:08confirm it. Benfica just looked stronger,
- 3:11physically stronger than what we saw them last year.
- 3:15And you know, we talked about the physical nature.
- 3:16When you go up against Nordic teams with Swedes and Norwegians
- 3:19on them, you're gonna have to play a physical style.
- 3:21And Benfica was up for it. Yeah, I think it's partly that
- 3:25Benfica has had to play a scrappier style just from their
- 3:30their run through last year's Champions League tournament.
- 3:33And it seems like they did some growing up physically and now in
- 3:36this type of matchup. I mean, this is going to be
- 3:38something that I think gets woven through various parts of
- 3:41today's conversation. I really do think the experience
- 3:44matters, man, in this Champions League, Like I think we saw it
- 3:46today, you know, whether it's like a Slavia Prague coming back
- 3:49be Kay Hakken. Unfortunately, we'll get into
- 3:52that. The experience factor didn't
- 3:54quite hit on on your period of C Manchester City match.
- 3:56Talk about that one later as well.
- 3:57But sticking here, Benfica looked like some of those group
- 4:00stage matches last year when they would come out for the
- 4:03second-half ready with a little with a couple wrinkles, you
- 4:07know, some new stuff, some some excitement, some enthusiasm and
- 4:09then they were going to play you tough all the way down the
- 4:11stretch in the second-half. That's how they played the
- 4:13entire 90 minutes in this one against Hammerby A. 100% and we
- 4:16talked about it when we were on the Shades of Blue again for
- 4:19Watch That podcast. So you know, the crowd was very
- 4:22much in it at the beginning, like I mentioned.
- 4:24And then 23 year old Norwegian winger Julie Blakstad hits a
- 4:28laser off her left foot after her fellow Norwegian Katinka
- 4:31Tonberg won a header that fell perfectly into Blakstad's path.
- 4:36Hammerby starts it, they open the scoring one nil, the crowds
- 4:40going bonkers. That's a gut punch to a Benfica
- 4:43side and they still hung so tough.
- 4:45And I think you're exactly right.
- 4:47It's got to be partially that recent Champions League
- 4:50experience. Absolutely.
- 4:51And I think a player that we've called out a couple times,
- 4:54Christina Martine Prieto, she squeezes 1 past to kind of not
- 4:59the game up. And then I think you, you, you
- 5:01actually saw. But if you get a little bit more
- 5:03confident, a little bit more comfortable in the game, you
- 5:05know, 'cause now you've withstood that early goal,
- 5:07you've withstood that raucous environment.
- 5:10Hammerbee was tough, though. Yeah, all the way throughout.
- 5:12I think I've got in my notes. I don't think we've heard the
- 5:14last from this Hammerbee team, even though this tie heads back
- 5:18to Portugal. They're definitely facing an
- 5:19uphill battle headed to Lisbon down one goal on aggregate.
- 5:23They're going to need to muster a hell of a lot more shots.
- 5:26But I mean, if you think about it from their perspective, if
- 5:29the defense can hold up if you win regulation one nil, you can
- 5:33get this thing decks extra time and kind of see what happens.
- 5:36I think this is the match on Wednesday.
- 5:39There's probably not much doubt on that.
- 5:41Well, I don't know. We'll talk about some of the
- 5:42other fixtures that are going to happen on Wednesday.
- 5:44But I think if we're talking about teams with pedigree like
- 5:46Hammerbee and the Donald Svenskin and obviously Benfica,
- 5:49they're they're building that pedigree.
- 5:50I think this is probably the match on Wednesday I'm most
- 5:53excited to watch. Yeah, I think it's at least in
- 5:56the top 2 for me Wednesday. I've got I've got my another one
- 5:58we're going to get to in a second here.
- 6:00So yeah, man, you talked about it.
- 6:01Tough environment, tough matchup, very physical, a lot of
- 6:04chippiness out there. You know, I'm not sure if these
- 6:06two teams are natural rivals, but maybe there's something a
- 6:09little a little bit something. Obviously Benfica, they get the
- 6:13difference maker. What did you see?
- 6:15There talk about difference makers, Canadian Mary Aladu,
- 6:20what a pass through a lot of traffic.
- 6:23Let's go. The Canadian sends it through
- 6:25traffic of it. Ice Rd.
- 6:27Truckers, there's Moose on the trail.
- 6:29I mean, that pass is absolutely brilliant.
- 6:31And then Andrea Norton, really cheeky to kind of like get her
- 6:35foot under it and just ship it over the keeper.
- 6:37I thought that was super awesome.
- 6:39I think Maladu, she was getting she was getting love on woso
- 6:42Twitter. Now, obviously we follow a lot
- 6:44of Canucks with our relationship with, you know, Miriam Karabi up
- 6:47there. She scores bangers.
- 6:48Follow that podcast immediately. But what a ball from Maladu.
- 6:52She was a star last Champions League as well.
- 6:55And I think, Yep, shame on us. Kind of like, you know, we we
- 6:58mentioned quite a bit the keeking Nazareth, Jessica Silva
- 7:01departures, not a lot of talk about Mimi Aladou and like just
- 7:04what she was able to do last year.
- 7:05I think she LED Benfica in goals last Champions League.
- 7:09Yeah, real player, great to see you're stepping up in a huge
- 7:11moment. But I do want to scoot ahead.
- 7:14Another one of the big dogs, maybe one of the looming giants
- 7:17taking on a team that I think we were both kind of looking at a
- 7:20little bit as as a potential dark horse.
- 7:23Wolfsburg, Fiorentina. They lock up next Wednesday,
- 7:262:00 PM. This one this one got.
- 7:29Ugly, you know, with all due respect, you know, they have to
- 7:32play the game. It's never over till it's over.
- 7:35But let me just say an Eva there G Fiorentina, this one's over.
- 7:40They got fucking smacked by Wolfsburg pretty much from jump
- 7:44street. You asked me last episode, who
- 7:46did I see as a potential dark horse?
- 7:48I said, you know, maybe they could get past Wolfsburg and
- 7:50make some noise in the group stage.
- 7:51Wolfsburg made me feel very foolish for that take right
- 7:55away. Their veteran center back, uh,
- 7:57Marina Hegering. She starts the bidding in the
- 7:59sixth minute with like this just very strange angle diving,
- 8:03glancing header off like off a corner kick in the sixth minute.
- 8:07And then she adds another header for a goal in the 24th minute,
- 8:11which I will say maybe a wee bit of a push off on the defender
- 8:15before she got to the header in the one in the 24th.
- 8:18But at that point it's two nil. We're within 25 minutes.
- 8:21And then when it got to the 30 minute mark, I was just like,
- 8:23this one might get real ugly. And I I thought real ugly might
- 8:27be 4 nil. Didn't expect 7 nil.
- 8:29Yep, this one got away from Fiorina.
- 8:31And I know you picked them as a potential dark horse, you know,
- 8:34but I did mention that that we had our eye on them.
- 8:37I was going to, you know, leave you out in the cold.
- 8:39Like, I appreciate it. I was, I was open to it.
- 8:44I think that attack that Wolfsburg attacked, well, First
- 8:47off, haggering. I mean, the weird angle is such
- 8:50a great call in that first header and somehow also
- 8:52perfectly executed. Unbelievable.
- 8:55They're defenders. It's just like what the okay,
- 8:57that's going to go in. We already know what kind of day
- 8:59it's going to be, But I was really excited about that
- 9:02Wolfsburg left side, you know where you got Lyneth Bernstein
- 9:06kind of like roaming around the middle.
- 9:07Alex pop out there, you LeBron out there.
- 9:09And it was just like felt like a like a tidal wave of offensive
- 9:13firepower and offensive skill that Fiorentina just had nothing
- 9:16for. And then you obviously get the
- 9:17two the two. I mean, what are you supposed to
- 9:20do? You know, like you're, you're,
- 9:22you're defending these incredible offensive players.
- 9:26Marina Aggering, a defender who, you know, we, we watched very
- 9:28closely, I think in this last Olympics where haggering, let's
- 9:32say, wasn't playing quite at the level that we saw her playing at
- 9:35this week for tatter struggles. But what once you see those go
- 9:38in and you've got a defender notching a brace in less than
- 9:421/3 of the match, that was only really one way it was going to
- 9:45go from there. And then Wolfsburg got their big
- 9:48guns warmed up. Yeah, I mean, and you mentioned
- 9:50it, Berenstein, Pop and bronze, they were a nightmare for
- 9:55Fiorentina's defense. And I get the feeling that, OK,
- 9:59I'll raise my hand. Perhaps I overvalued Fiorentina
- 10:02from watching some past highlights and then getting
- 10:04excited from these two qualifier matches.
- 10:07They couldn't do anything. Wolfsburg was destroying them on
- 10:11set pieces. They were destroying them on
- 10:13crosses into the box. Eula bronze goal is just off a
- 10:16cross. She's able to bring it down with
- 10:19way too much space and just drill a missile into the side of
- 10:22the net. But then you see Pop and
- 10:24Birenstein floating around there.
- 10:25It's like one of those three is gonna have some space almost at
- 10:29any given time, and you might be drawing dead on any of those
- 10:32plays. Absolutely glad you reminded me
- 10:34this because this 1 ended 7 nil. We talked about the haggering
- 10:38two goals. Yeah Alex Pop adds a hat trick
- 10:41on top of that you LeBron who you mentioned she scores in the
- 10:4344th and Peter vice favorite Vivian Endeman 83rd minute goal
- 10:48to make it a touchdown with the extra point.
- 10:50This stat I think has been I think one of the show MVP's,
- 10:54I'll say it's basically what's the shot on target rate.
- 10:57So of Wolfsburg, 16 shots, How about 13 on target?
- 11:01Come on, man, what are you going to do as a goalkeeper?
- 11:04What do you do? You're not going to save 13
- 11:06shots. No, I mean not 13 good shots
- 11:09from great players like. From Wolfsburg, Yeah.
- 11:11So, yeah, this one, this one got out of hand for sure.
- 11:13I also, I think I'm ready to dust off a take my man.
- 11:16So let me know if you're ready for this.
- 11:18Let's go. I might be ready to pencil in
- 11:20Wolfsburg into the knockout stage.
- 11:23I don't think there's any way. I know it's been 1 explosive
- 11:27match and you know, they obviously had that little slip
- 11:31up in front Bundesliga. But I don't see with this squad,
- 11:35this roster, them playing like that, I don't see this team not
- 11:38surviving the group stage. I mean, like they, they just
- 11:41seem loosely on the level of of those other top four teams that
- 11:46that we have yet to see in this qualifying phase of the
- 11:48Champions League. I cannot wait to see whose group
- 11:52they fall into. Are they going to play Chelsea?
- 11:54Are they going to play Barcelona as a RE in a remit 2 rematches
- 11:58of the final from two years ago. I'm totally with you.
- 12:01It looks like, I mean, they look great.
- 12:04And you know, I started to say earlier, maybe I overvalued
- 12:07Fiorentina a little bit. I think I completely
- 12:11underestimated the potential Wolfsburg revenge tour because
- 12:15that's it seems like it. And now they add the nuclear
- 12:18weapon, Linneth Berenstein, and it's just like, holy crap, they
- 12:22look completely overwhelming. Now we got to do the calculus.
- 12:26Did I think too highly of Fiorentina?
- 12:28Did I not think enough of Wolfsburg was a combination of
- 12:30both And that leads to 7 nothing.
- 12:32I got to tell you in football, not a lot of things lead to
- 12:35seven to nothing. So I'm I'm start I'm skewing a
- 12:38little more toward I think Wolfsburg might be incredibly
- 12:41dangerous. I love your already penciling
- 12:43them out of the group stage take.
- 12:45I just can't wait to see who they draw.
- 12:46How about how about that third and fourth group stage match
- 12:49where they go back-to-back, they they start to develop some of
- 12:53that bad blood. Let's get a Wolfsburg,
- 12:56Barcelona, back-to-back, match three, match four and group come
- 12:59Bay. I mean, that would be just sick.
- 13:01I love it. That's what I'll be rooting for.
- 13:03Barcelona, Wolfsburg, back-to-back.
- 13:05I think that would be it's must watch television.
- 13:07Let's go all right, let's keep it moving.
- 13:09Wolfsburg Fior and Tina that's happening 2:00 PM eastern the
- 13:12game right before that noon eastern Slavia Praha will be
- 13:16hosting Galatasaray. I watched most of this one.
- 13:19I'll say oh good. And buddy, this one was wild.
- 13:24The the environment was nuts. I watched it with the the
- 13:29Turkish announcer, definitely the Mike Watts of, of the
- 13:31Turkish women's football announcing was, was doing his
- 13:34thing today. The the one moment that I don't
- 13:37think I'm ever going to forget at this point in the match.
- 13:40It's the 48th minute, so it's tense.
- 13:42Nil, nil. Slavia Praha's probably looking
- 13:45a little better and these three teenage boys kind of are looking
- 13:47nervous in the crowd. And then one of them, probably
- 13:50like a 1415 year old kid, takes a giant drag of a cigarette.
- 13:54Let's go. I got to rewind this and watch
- 13:59it Turkey, man. They they, they're out there
- 14:03doing their own thing. That is fantastic.
- 14:05Yeah, really great, great moment.
- 14:07Great bellwether for the Skull and Tasha right side because
- 14:10Andrea Stashkova scored maybe 7 minutes later.
- 14:13The breakaway was incredible. 2 perfectly, perfectly plays
- 14:19passes, one over the top to switch the field right to left,
- 14:22the other one to bring it back the other way, puts it right
- 14:24into the path of Stashkova and she breaks the game wide open.
- 14:28And then from there, it was basically back and forth.
- 14:31I mean, Prah looked like the better team.
- 14:33And that was one of those things where it's like, you know, this
- 14:35team looks crisper, They look more technical, they look a
- 14:38little sharper. But Galatasaray, I think like
- 14:41they have a little bit of the like the Roma from last year, a
- 14:46little bit of the Brown from last year, like they play
- 14:48physical, they take chances. This was a great, great match.
- 14:52Anybody listening that missed this one, go back and watch the
- 14:54second-half because it was absolute fireworks.
- 14:57And then, of course, the experienced side, Slavia Praha
- 15:00ties the game the 98th minute at the absolute death.
- 15:04Well, I appreciate the update. You know, Full disclosure, your
- 15:07boy was was all over the place at this time of the day.
- 15:11I did watch the Turkish version of the highlights to see that
- 15:14equalizer at the end. Turkish announcer complete.
- 15:17No sell on the equalizer, whatever Turkish is for.
- 15:22Yeah, goal. Slavia Prah.
- 15:25That was pretty much his his reaction at the end.
- 15:28And then you know, they blow the whistle as the equalizer hits.
- 15:31So I appreciate the heads up. I will be going back to watch
- 15:34the second-half. So after Galatasaray goes up,
- 15:37was that when it started to just be back and forth like that?
- 15:40Because that's what I could kind of see from the highlights.
- 15:42Or was it pretty open for most of the match?
- 15:45For most of the match, it was, I would say Prop being the better
- 15:48team, getting the ball slightly into better spots.
- 15:53Galatasaray was tough, though. They were definitely looking to
- 15:56break. You know, that's kind of where
- 15:57they wanted to, yeah, get their bread and butter.
- 16:00And then they made a big sub. They brought on Habsatu Diallo,
- 16:04who was involved. I I think in the second
- 16:07Stashkova goal, and that was just basically Diallo making a
- 16:11run up the right side, just roasting whoever is trying to
- 16:14run with her beautiful cross back right into the danger area.
- 16:18Stashkova knocks in the second one.
- 16:20I mean, the whole place is going bananas.
- 16:22The announcer is going crazy. And then credit to Praha, like
- 16:27didn't miss a beat, didn't blink twice, just kind of stuck with
- 16:30it, played their game. They got an own goal a little
- 16:32bit later that they definitely had a hand in producing, and
- 16:34then they got the Super late equalizer.
- 16:37OK, I'm excited. I'm very excited.
- 16:40So I can see why when I said, you know, Hammerbee, Benfica, I
- 16:45was mostly looking forward to that.
- 16:46I'm I'm doing so with only 50% information because I didn't
- 16:50watch nearly enough of this match between Prada and
- 16:52Galatasaray So I take it this is the other match you're very,
- 16:55very excited to see. Bingo.
- 16:57This is the one. All right, let's jump to
- 17:00Wednesday's last match. So Valeranga and elect, they
- 17:03lock up Wednesday, 12:30 PM Eastern.
- 17:06Valeranga jumped out big time on end like today.
- 17:09Went up two nil, drew themselves a red card and Elect pulled one
- 17:12back. That 1 ended 21 from what I
- 17:14watched of this one. Balranga look better now.
- 17:17This tie goes back to Oslo. With Anderlecht down a goal, I
- 17:21think it'd be really, really tough for them to survive.
- 17:24Yeah, absolutely. I mean, going home to Oslo got
- 17:26to feel good in top series in this season.
- 17:28Ten wins, 0 draws, one loss, 30 points in the league.
- 17:33Sitting, sitting top of the table.
- 17:35Got to be feeling pretty good off Road to HO for Andrew left I
- 17:39would say. Yeah, I think Valranga look like
- 17:41the better team physically. They'll be a little bit the
- 17:43stronger team as well. This one, I mean, obviously not
- 17:46the same goal differential as Wolfsburg, Fiorentina, but this
- 17:50one also maybe kind of feels like a rap, but maybe those are
- 17:52famous last words. We're going to be back in about
- 17:54a week once we know the 12 that survived.
- 17:58And then if so, facto we'll have our 16.
- 18:00So it's going to be exciting. We can sort of like start to
- 18:03maybe have set up some fantasy matchups.
- 18:05We already have one. I think Barcelo Wolfsburg.
- 18:07We've got loosely penciled into something that we were dynasty.
- 18:10All in all, though, it's going to be a really good day of
- 18:12football next Wednesday. We're about a week away from
- 18:14getting our first four or our next 4 into this year's group
- 18:18stage. Kelly yeah, and I will say next
- 18:21week's matches coincidentally overlap with pre planned time
- 18:25off that I had like it was tough for me to to watch some of
- 18:28these. Had to watch a decent amount of
- 18:30football on Wednesday night after work, which, you know, it
- 18:34wasn't so painful for me. It was a pretty positive
- 18:36experience. We'll talk about about that on
- 18:38the next episode. We previewed the the second leg
- 18:40of those matches. But yeah, I'll definitely have
- 18:43to tune in. Want to see more of Alarenga.
- 18:45Haven't seen enough of them in top series.
- 18:47And trying to keep up with obviously RSK Braun.
- 18:49Shout out to the Brown Battalion.
- 18:50Of course. Let's go.
- 18:51We miss you. We miss you in this tournament,
- 18:54but you've never left us because you're the coolest people in the
- 18:56universe. So, you know, you're still right
- 18:58there with us. Yeah, and we've never left you.
- 19:00Exactly. Of course it's ride or die
- 19:02around here, so. So yeah, I'm very excited to
- 19:07watch the full match of allering it.
- 19:09Absolutely. The last thing too is like I, I
- 19:11looked probably a handful of times trying to watch a little
- 19:14bit of Zing Bolton and Mura Mura Mura.
- 19:16This is going to be just a running gag of me not knowing
- 19:19how to pronounce this, but not my fault and I'll explain to you
- 19:21why. Couldn't even find a stream for
- 19:23that match. Wow, not a single one.
- 19:25All I could find was some people doing their very amateur Eli
- 19:30Manning, Peyton Manning version of Zing Bolton and Mira, you
- 19:33know, I mean. Shout to them though, you know,
- 19:35we're amateur. Dino didn't mean any disrespect
- 19:39with that. Obviously we're all amateurs out
- 19:41here doing it. I will say I do.
- 19:43When you're like hovering over the YouTube videos, it's like,
- 19:46OK, which one has the actual game action so I can say
- 19:49something about these matches. So I'm with you on that.
- 19:51I gotta ask. I mean, so you got Praha and
- 19:54Galatasaray. They start at noon Eastern.
- 19:58Valarenga, Anderlecht 12:30 PM Eastern.
- 20:02Are we double screening in the background while work is is
- 20:05going? Like what are we, what are we
- 20:06doing here? What's the setup?
- 20:07I'm not a big double Screener. I'll say yeah.
- 20:10It's hard with football. I like the game and I like the
- 20:13scoreboard. I like the scoreboard.
- 20:14Watch so good. Slavia Praha Galasaray 22.
- 20:18Obviously now they're going back to Praha Valarenga.
- 20:21Anderlecht doesn't feel the same.
- 20:23Kind of in the balance. If we get an Anderlecht Rd. goal
- 20:26now it's back even. And then like, you know, I
- 20:28might, I might have to make a call there.
- 20:30You know, the half an hour difference is pretty key too,
- 20:32because one goes to halftime that you can watch another 1415
- 20:35minutes of the other one. It's all very fluid.
- 20:37You know, it's all about adjustments, you know, in game
- 20:40adjustments, pregame adjustments, post game
- 20:42adjustments. But the the last point I was
- 20:44going to make real quick is the great part about watching these
- 20:46teams and there's a lot of new teams in the field, as you
- 20:48pointed out last week. The fun part about it is like
- 20:51each of these matches features one team that we're going to get
- 20:54to know very, very, very well over these next few months in
- 20:58the group stage. We're going to know them inside
- 21:00and out, where their strengths and weaknesses are and just kind
- 21:02of like be able to build those bonds, open up our hearts, as
- 21:05mentioned last week as well. Totally right man.
- 21:08I was actually thinking that too.
- 21:10Like when I was like, oh man, I'm so busy with work, like I
- 21:12don't have the chance to watch all of these matches.
- 21:15Once we get into the group stage, it becomes so much easier
- 21:19to like really dive in, look more at the history of all 16
- 21:22clubs, 16 teams that we can get acquainted with.
- 21:26We'll have a plenty of opportunities for brand new
- 21:28friends, the UEFA Women's Champions League, it's a
- 21:31celebration of life. It's not just a football
- 21:33tournament. Absolutely let.
- 21:35Me just say you've dropped two absolute bangers.
- 21:37I believe you dropped not the first ever ipso facto in the
- 21:40history of the pot. And secondly, you just talking
- 21:45about, I want to digest this, I want to circle back on these
- 21:48things. I just like I like the corporate
- 21:50speak making its way in here, plus an ipso facto.
- 21:53You're on top of your game, my good man.
- 21:55Yeah, I was, I mean, I was going to run it by you, you know, run
- 21:57up the flagpole early show. But then I was like, you know,
- 22:01we'll table it and circle back to it later next week.
- 22:05There we go, that's what we got to do, and we'll be ready to
- 22:07circle back to it. Synergy, synergy, love it,
- 22:12right? All right, man, I think we did
- 22:13it. That was Part 1 of leg one of
- 22:17Round 2, a few evil Women's Champions League qualifying
- 22:20phase. Let's fucking go.
- 22:22A sincere thank you, Thank you, thank you for watching,
- 22:24listening, following, liking, subscribing, just playing,
- 22:25hanging out with your boys. Stick around.
- 22:28Part 2 is right around the bend. Remember to like if you liked
- 22:31and subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
- 22:34podcast, or wherever you like to watch or listen.
- 22:36Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app, links to
- 22:39all of our socials in the show notes of this episode, and a big
- 22:42thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant Engel for Wednesday,
- 22:45Thursday, Sunday, doesn't matter.
- 22:47My guy brings it. You already know what time it
- 22:49is. I appreciate you bro.
- 22:50Likewise, buddy, I mean, I think you're the absolute best women's
- 22:54football podcast host in the world, and ipso facto, everybody
- 22:58should keep on watching. I don't even know if I use that
- 23:00right. But yeah, stay, stay tuned.
- 23:02Check us out. We're going to talk about the
- 23:03other matches in the next episode.
- 23:05We'll see.