Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Spain Dominates Portugal 🏆 Italy Tops Belgium 🏆 WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MD2 Group B 5-0 1-0 [2/12]

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Spain Dominates Portugal 🏆 Italy Tops Belgium 🏆 WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MD2 Group B 5-0 1-0 [2/12] · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:03
  OK. Welcome to Into the Channel
• 0:07
  podcast primarily about women's football.
• 0:08
  I'm your host, Dino De Suspicious.
• 0:10
  And as always, I am joined by my coast, Mr. Grant Engel.
• 0:15
  What's up, man? I'm feeling all right, buddy.
• 0:17
  You know, as, as I continue to say, as news continues to get
• 0:20
  more and more horrifying in our country, here, we're locked in
• 0:25
  on this distraction known as the UEFA Women's Euro and the
• 0:30
  tournament continues deliver to deliver in the second day.
• 0:33
  So I'm just happy to kind of sit back, focus on the distraction
• 0:37
  and talk about it with you, my good man.
• 0:39
  Not the worst time for for our old friends at UEFA to roll out
• 0:43
  twelve straight days of of high level women's football.
• 0:46
  That's true, yeah. Oh my gosh, yeah.
• 0:49
  Day 2 in the books, a little bit of a different flavor from day
• 0:52
  one. Really good action, though.
• 0:54
  I think we learned some stuff. I'm excited to kind of get into
• 0:56
  this this episode and kind of unpack some of those bits that
• 1:00
  we might have learned about. So with that, said Mr. Grant
• 1:03
  Ingle, or you want to get started?
• 1:05
  Let's get started with like the main event.
• 1:07
  I think we did, we did chronological order on the on
• 1:11
  the opening day. It seems like Spain, Portugal
• 1:14
  would be hard to ignore. So obviously we're starting with
• 1:18
  Spain 5, Portugal nil. But I do just want to, before we
• 1:22
  get into the match, you know, we're a football podcast, we're
• 1:25
  football fans. I think everybody is kind of
• 1:28
  hurting and in mourning right now.
• 1:30
  I'd be remiss if we did not mention the tragic death of
• 1:33
  Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva.
• 1:36
  JoJo was a A forward for Liverpool and Portugal.
• 1:40
  Him and his brother Andre died tragically in a car accident in
• 1:44
  Spain. I thought UEFA handled it
• 1:46
  properly with the moment of silence before both matches
• 1:49
  today. And you know, it's just you,
• 1:52
  you, you hurt for their their family.
• 1:54
  Just absolutely tragic. Yeah, just devastating player,
• 1:58
  you know, play with a a great level of joy.
• 2:03
  And if he if he lived like like he played, I mean, you got to
• 2:06
  imagine that was a, you know, just a superstar of a person
• 2:09
  too. Just awful, awful news to kind
• 2:12
  of get right in the morning. No easy way to segue from there.
• 2:16
  I mean, I think a lot of the emotions definitely carried over
• 2:18
  to the match for sure. You know, Portuguese national
• 2:21
  anthem to start some of the Obrigado signs and the in the
• 2:26
  crowd and some of the photos. I mean, very, very moving scene.
• 2:30
  But yeah, just devastating news. Yeah, and like you said, no way
• 2:33
  to really segue out of that. But you know of of course they
• 2:36
  played the match after and Spain got started about as early as
• 2:42
  they possibly could. You know, we've we've talked
• 2:43
  about it in the across club football where you we have the
• 2:48
  competition between Barcelona, Leon, Chelsea and Orlando Pride
• 2:53
  of who's going to score first. Look like Spain picked up on
• 2:57
  that in this tournament, and Olga Carmona and Esther Gonzalez
• 3:02
  opened the proceedings with a bang.
• 3:05
  I mean, like, who am I thinking about?
• 3:11
  The defender, the center back? Oh my goodness gracious.
• 3:14
  Fatima Pinto nightmare game, impossible assignment trying to
• 3:18
  hold out a stair that ball from Carmona just devastating the
• 3:23
  control from a stair. Really hard to wrap your head
• 3:26
  around the the, the one thing I mean, I, I really struggled to
• 3:30
  figure out what was happening in that play until you look at
• 3:32
  Astaire's eyes and where she's focused.
• 3:35
  She just does not take her eye off the ball after it hits her
• 3:37
  in the shoulder pops in the air. She's now running under it, just
• 3:40
  figuring out all the physics and she's just locked in 0 blinks
• 3:45
  and ridiculous touch, like in like a touch.
• 3:48
  I've never seen anything like that, let alone to open the
• 3:51
  match. And then you had that goal kind
• 3:55
  of cutting through the emotion. It was a real, it was a real
• 3:59
  crushing way to start, start the match, start the tournament for
• 4:03
  Portugal. But to key in on Spain, I mean,
• 4:05
  what? What a way to get it rolling.
• 4:07
  I I thought of oddly that that the nightmare of a shot that
• 4:12
  Tyrese Halliburton hit over the New York Knicks, the one that
• 4:15
  hits the back of the rim and bounced like way up.
• 4:18
  That's kind of how the football bounced off of a stair's
• 4:20
  shoulder. And it just goes like way up.
• 4:22
  And, and you're right, she was just like super locked in on it.
• 4:25
  Like if you had to ask Fatima Pinto, like, OK, what's best
• 4:29
  case scenario? Like your, you're checking a
• 4:32
  stair here. What would you prefer one of the
• 4:35
  answers on the board would be, well, if she has to jump and
• 4:39
  kind of has like half her back to the keeper and has to just
• 4:42
  glance it off the side of her foot.
• 4:44
  I probably like my chances in that scenario.
• 4:47
  But like you said, the Gotham FC forward, current leader in the
• 4:51
  in the Golden Boot for the NWSL, current leader for the Golden
• 4:54
  Boot in the Euro, found found a way to get it done.
• 4:59
  Definitely found a way to get it done yeah and and Lori Lindsay
• 5:02
  was talking a lot about like, you know, just sort of like good
• 5:04
  fortunes and luck and yeah and I'm like, I don't know about all
• 5:07
  that. I mean, I think the play Ester
• 5:09
  gets another goal a little bit later in the match and they they
• 5:12
  just know where to go and where to be.
• 5:14
  I mean, a few minutes prior to that, Alexia was in a great spot
• 5:18
  for kind of like a similar rebound type right place right
• 5:22
  time type goal. So they're putting themselves in
• 5:24
  those positions to be able to make that happen.
• 5:26
  But when I zoom out from this match, obviously 5 nil, massive
• 5:29
  score line. You mentioned Olga Carmona and
• 5:32
  involved in the build up of the first two goals.
• 5:36
  You you mentioned Esther Gonzalez, we've talked about
• 5:38
  Alexia, Vicki Lopez. You could throw in there as a
• 5:42
  player that was mesmerizing. Just doing some wizardry shit
• 5:45
  out there. Christine Martin Prieto comes on
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  13 minutes late in the match two shots gets a goal looks really
• 5:53
  dangerous and and a player that Spain hasn't really had big body
• 5:59
  back to the goal. Hold up.
• 6:00
  You know, just an, you know, ice cold finisher like that from
• 6:05
  with using that physicality. Very, very interesting, but.
• 6:09
  All those players. Who's the first player you think
• 6:10
  you're going to think about when you when you circle back to this
• 6:14
  match mentally? Alexia was dominant.
• 6:18
  Crazy. I have a second player, but I'm
• 6:20
  going to leave them out of mode because I wonder if you'll talk
• 6:23
  about them. But Alexia was dominant and I
• 6:26
  wanted I, it got me kind of, it got the wheels spinning.
• 6:29
  So Alexia was on that World Cup winning team, but she was just
• 6:34
  coming off the ACL. So she appeared in seven
• 6:37
  matches, started three of them, only played 212 total minutes in
• 6:43
  that World Cup, you know, winning campaign.
• 6:45
  She notched one assist versus Zambia and no, no goals, no, no
• 6:50
  other assists, obviously just one in the entire tournament and
• 6:53
  played one minute versus England in the final.
• 6:55
  So she's a historic player. She's a beloved player.
• 6:58
  But it's like, and it's obviously you get your hands on
• 7:01
  the World Cup trophy. You're a part of it.
• 7:03
  You're a part of the culture. Everybody talked about, you
• 7:05
  know, her impact on that squad. It's it's one of those weird
• 7:09
  things though where she probably feels in her head like I wish I
• 7:13
  was at my absolute best. You know, the greatest players
• 7:16
  want to be at their apex when they win those kind of titles.
• 7:20
  And I started thinking about that today when she was
• 7:21
  dominating the game going she's 31 years old.
• 7:25
  She's a two time Bolendor winner.
• 7:27
  Like I said, she's got her hands on that World Cup trophy, but
• 7:30
  maybe not quite as satisfying as she dreamed of it being.
• 7:33
  Now she has this tournament and the next World Cup and she might
• 7:37
  just go and show out in this tournament.
• 7:41
  I could definitely see it. I think fat mob had Alexia Rey
• 7:44
  as her top rated player and then she obviously gets that the
• 7:46
  goal, the third goal, just stunning finish, you know, sits
• 7:50
  down the center back. I'm sick.
• 7:52
  Just kind of like her hit the brakes and then just a very
• 7:55
  clean finish. And then shout out to goatly
• 7:59
  Jackie Oatly, who brought this up on the on the podcast, on the
• 8:02
  telecast. She mentioned those players that
• 8:05
  didn't appear in the World Cup for Spain as a result of, you
• 8:10
  know, the tumult between the players and the organization.
• 8:13
  Claudia, Pina, Batri, Leia, Alessandri, who is awesome
• 8:17
  today, by the way, Mapi Leon also was mentioned, but it
• 8:20
  doesn't appear on this team. You think about those players
• 8:24
  too. Those are world class players as
• 8:25
  well. Pina.
• 8:26
  There's nobody playing better than Claudia Pina in the world
• 8:29
  right now. Obviously you already know what
• 8:32
  it what time it is and, and Alexandria had an awesome game.
• 8:35
  These players specifically, I think, are bringing something
• 8:38
  into this EUR did they, they did not appear on that world.
• 8:43
  So that, that getting their hands on the trophy, they're one
• 8:46
  or two levels removed from even that.
• 8:48
  And I, I think those players are coming in with a chip on their
• 8:51
  shoulder. They're not coming in like, hey,
• 8:53
  we've we've dominated everything wearing this shirt, you know, So
• 8:56
  I think this is this is a big, big tournament for those players
• 9:00
  and they were absolutely showing out as well.
• 9:02
  Yeah, I mean, you're totally right.
• 9:04
  It's a great point by you. I'm, I'm glad you you mentioned
• 9:07
  Christina Martin Prieto because obviously I'm excited for her.
• 9:12
  She's a 32 year old forward playing with Benfica after two
• 9:15
  really strong years with Sevilla.
• 9:17
  Her last two years with Sevilla, 12 goals, 2 assists in the 2223
• 9:21
  year, 17 goals, 3 assists in the 2324 season.
• 9:25
  You know Jack Jackioli mentioned it only recently got a first cap
• 9:28
  of the national team. But most importantly, another
• 9:32
  player that I can give the initials based nickname CMP.
• 9:36
  Let's go. Great finish.
• 9:38
  If you if you check the dock next to my team Prieto, I have
• 9:42
  an asterisk that says dangerously close.
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  That was the back half of that dangerously close to get to CMP
• 9:48
  territory. So as usual on the same page.
• 9:50
  Love it. Also, it's a shout out.
• 9:53
  I mean, as if we needed any further evidence that
• 9:55
  Aitanabomati is in fact a superhero.
• 9:58
  Just meningitis hospital played in the EUR.
• 10:03
  Just a few, you know, just if you give me a couple days in
• 10:06
  between there and then and I'll be ready.
• 10:07
  Came on, looked dynamic. You know, obviously Spain starts
• 10:12
  Victor Lopez in her place, who looked great as well, but Spain
• 10:15
  just absolutely loaded. And I think I think I might be
• 10:19
  ready to walk back by maybe the oddsmakers a little heavy for
• 10:23
  spade. I I'm, I'm fully, you know, I,
• 10:25
  I, I like to fancy myself a quick learner.
• 10:28
  I'm ready to walk that back. You know what?
• 10:31
  Sometimes you're presented with new information and you have to
• 10:33
  make new decisions. I understand that.
• 10:35
  I respect you for that. We don't dig our heels in on too
• 10:39
  many things. I mean, we have our, we have our
• 10:40
  moments. I realized we haven't cracked a
• 10:43
  beverage. I would like to crack a beverage
• 10:45
  in honor of that, in honor of the the flexibility, the
• 10:49
  progressiveness. Cheers to take flexibility.
• 10:53
  Exactly cheers to you my good man.
• 10:55
  I, I do also, I mean, while that's true, we also need to, to
• 11:00
  talk about take integrity and things of that sort.
• 11:03
  And there was only one man on the, on this podcast, maybe only
• 11:06
  one man nationwide, who knows, with the bravery to pick Spain
• 11:11
  to win this tournament. And that would be me, El hombre
• 11:15
  Valiante, a guy brave enough to pick maybe one of the greatest
• 11:20
  teams ever assembled to win a tournament.
• 11:22
  So no, I mean, in all seriousness, they they looked
• 11:27
  unstoppable. It's the opening match.
• 11:30
  But if you're Italy and Belgium, you got to be looking at that
• 11:34
  thinking, OK, so maybe cross that one off which, you know,
• 11:38
  maybe we'll talk about it. But I think really leads us into
• 11:42
  an extremely, extremely important match between Portugal
• 11:46
  and Italy. And that's happening happening
• 11:48
  on Monday, July 7th. You have to look at that match
• 11:51
  for those two teams now as especially if you're Portugal,
• 11:55
  this is the tournament for us, this is how we stay alive.
• 11:58
  It is the tournament for sure. And I think we'll we'll get into
• 12:02
  Portugal. I think actually still alive,
• 12:04
  though. Still very, very much alive
• 12:07
  because is it wild to think? And this is just a testament to
• 12:11
  how Spain, you know how good Spain is, But I don't think
• 12:15
  Portugal played that poorly. I don't think they played poorly
• 12:19
  at all. I think they got they got beat
• 12:21
  on on specific plays. And the magic of Spain, Well,
• 12:25
  it's two, it's 2, it's a 2 parter.
• 12:27
  So you look at five of their players, which I just off the
• 12:29
  top of my head. So it's Vicki Lopez, Alexia
• 12:33
  Batri, Battier. And what Barcelona player am I
• 12:37
  missing? Pina in the starting line up,
• 12:40
  right? So it's 5 current Barcelona
• 12:41
  players, Alessandri, new Barcelona signing, Mariona, old
• 12:45
  Barcelona signing. 7 out of the 10 field players are essentially
• 12:49
  Barcelona from our best team in the world, our best, you know
• 12:52
  what Leanne called maybe the best team maybe of all time,
• 12:57
  sort of in that category you are.
• 12:59
  And you're just taking 6-7 of those players, putting them on a
• 13:02
  national team and then complementing them with Ester
• 13:05
  Gonzalez, Olga, Carmona, Mendez, you know, just just the little,
• 13:10
  the little dips and drabs of, of, of great players to kind of
• 13:13
  like to compliment. It's it, it's really
• 13:17
  unbelievable. Like just what they're, they're
• 13:20
  able to put out. But I thought Portugal, again, I
• 13:22
  don't think they played that poorly.
• 13:24
  Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain just has the ability to identify that
• 13:28
  there's a moment here, right? Make a run like the Alexia run
• 13:32
  is perfect. It comes from Madiona, like the
• 13:35
  other side of the field, the other side of the halfway line.
• 13:37
  What a pass. 4550 yards in the air and Carmona was dealing
• 13:42
  Madiona was you know, she was dealing on that play and Alexia
• 13:46
  is able to make those runs. Ester is may able to make those
• 13:48
  runs because they know the ball can get there from anywhere.
• 13:52
  You know so it's like fuck yeah, why why not run like I'll just
• 13:56
  here we go. Let me go.
• 13:57
  Let let's let's let it RIP. Maybe the ball just kind of gets
• 13:59
  right to me and it's a tremendous advantage that no
• 14:04
  other team that turned it is able to do it at that level with
• 14:06
  that level of frequency. Yeah, especially with that level
• 14:09
  of frequency. I think that's the key point.
• 14:11
  Yeah. Yeah, totally agree.
• 14:14
  Cal Dente, I thought, I mean, she was fantastic too.
• 14:17
  I thought that would be maybe the the, the player that you
• 14:19
  were going to mention. Sometimes I I overestimate your
• 14:22
  Arsenal bias. The Arsenal glasses, if you
• 14:25
  will. I got a quick note on that mark
• 14:29
  in my notes. Madiona took an awful foul and
• 14:32
  she took a, she took a kick to the leg, but she was standing
• 14:35
  right next to the microphone area.
• 14:37
  So you can hear me like, and I just went full Daniel Larusso's
• 14:41
  mom at the karate tournament. I was, I was like, I'm just
• 14:44
  like, very, very protective of Madiona.
• 14:47
  So, you know, the Arsenal fandom, you know, peeks his head
• 14:50
  out in different ways. That's outstanding.
• 14:53
  And not that she got kicked, but that you reacted that way.
• 14:55
  Yeah, I mean, she was, she was absolutely dealing 2 assists on
• 14:58
  the day. So like, you know, especially if
• 15:00
  you're going to have Olga Carmona from left back and then
• 15:04
  Caldente in like right midfield, right wing territory.
• 15:07
  It's just like Jesus where there's, as we always say about
• 15:10
  Barcelona, no relief for the opponent.
• 15:14
  Yeah, none whatsoever. Passing was crazy too.
• 15:18
  They Spain was able to put together 8.27 passes per
• 15:22
  incomplete pass. That's a lot.
• 15:24
  That's that's that's the ball picking around quite a bit
• 15:27
  before you're able to get to it. Portugal just 3.3.
• 15:30
  But yeah, you alluded to that, that big battle between Portugal
• 15:33
  and Italy, which is probably going to decide the 2nd place
• 15:37
  slot for the quarterfinals and it's going to be a big time
• 15:42
  clash of styles. I think Portugal kind of saw saw
• 15:45
  a little bit about what how they want to play.
• 15:49
  Not to too much success, but I think Italy, you know, in that
• 15:53
  match versus Belgium, I think we learned a lot about how they
• 15:56
  want to play and how they plan to play in this tournament.
• 15:59
  Yeah, I think so. Portugal, you know, you're just
• 16:02
  going to get smothered and even if you're like, OK, we'll let
• 16:06
  the other team have possession and we'll run on the counter.
• 16:10
  When the other team is Spain, it's like almost impossible to
• 16:14
  dig yourself out of it at times. It's just like, you know, it's
• 16:18
  the the most frustrating matches to watch as a fan, at least in
• 16:21
  my perspective, is when your team is just has their back in
• 16:26
  the in the defensive third for the whole match.
• 16:29
  And then when you do get the ball, the only relief is to kick
• 16:32
  it is to like basically punt it away and and give possession
• 16:36
  back to the other team. That is that is the most like
• 16:39
  frustrating feeling for me. Like when I'm watching it for
• 16:41
  like one of my teams are getting their asses kicked.
• 16:43
  And it's just like they do the same thing that Barcelona does
• 16:47
  because of that continuity that you talk about all the all the
• 16:50
  players. And sorry if I missed this, you
• 16:52
  talked about the players in the starting lineup.
• 16:54
  They brought on Yana Fernandez, Beta Uelo and Bone Matisse.
• 16:57
  So it was just like, here's an influx of more Barcelona players
• 17:01
  and then they bring they also bring in Ateneya, who fits your
• 17:04
  other point of Oh yeah. But then we have this other
• 17:06
  great player who plays for Real Madrid.
• 17:08
  It's just like Yana Fernandez is, too.
• 17:11
  Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I did, yes.
• 17:14
  Oh my bad. But that's two gods.
• 17:15
  No, all good. Steve Martin was a prop comic.
• 17:18
  It's all right. Way inside, way inside joke.
• 17:24
  Hopefully for the five people who get that shout to you.
• 17:27
  Five. I'll give you the under on five.
• 17:29
  Yeah, that's true. To your point, real quick
• 17:34
  touches touches in the opponent half 356 to 28.
• 17:38
  I mean, that's like a 1212 to one advantage for for Barcelona.
• 17:42
  It's a monster, monster number. But I do want to shift ahead
• 17:46
  Italy and Belgium. I don't know that we have to go,
• 17:50
  you know, too deep on this one. You know, if you're into the if
• 17:54
  you're into the rock fight variety, this this was a match
• 17:57
  for you. You know, the the stats.
• 17:59
  I think pretty pretty even doesn't mean that this was a
• 18:03
  great match. What what what did you see in
• 18:05
  this one? Or actually let me let me walk
• 18:06
  that back. What did?
• 18:07
  What did we learn from this one? Belgium's better than I thought.
• 18:11
  I, I, I wanna start there. I mean, I agree with that.
• 18:14
  Yeah, yeah, it was a pretty rocky rock fight.
• 18:17
  I think that's that's totally fair to say.
• 18:20
  I wanna shout out somebody who left a a comment so on on our
• 18:24
  preview YouTube show. Shout out to at I am the under
• 18:31
  score Rai. Don't know if they're talking
• 18:33
  about a residential advisor at A at a university or not, I'm not
• 18:36
  sure. The Rai guess could mean many
• 18:38
  things. I digress.
• 18:40
  Who left this comment on YouTube 2 days ago?
• 18:43
  Quote. Italy, Portugal and Belgium are
• 18:46
  at a similar level. End Quote.
• 18:49
  And you know, they went on to to say like, you know, if Kika
• 18:52
  plays and Itana doesn't play, maybe Portugal might have a
• 18:55
  little bit of a shot. Obviously we didn't get Kika,
• 18:57
  but the the point about Italy, Portugal and Belgium are at a
• 19:00
  similar level. I had responded it was like, oh,
• 19:03
  maybe I must not be that familiar with Belgium's game.
• 19:06
  And to see Belgium play Italy pretty close like this.
• 19:09
  It seems like, you know, at least in this 1st result that
• 19:13
  worked out pretty well. It seems like that might be
• 19:15
  true. What I would say though, for
• 19:17
  Italy and Belgium and I, I already kind of had it had this
• 19:22
  feeling for Belgium. That's terrifying to see that
• 19:25
  that Spain Portugal result, because now you, you wonder, are
• 19:28
  you are you essentially walking into the wood chipper?
• 19:31
  But Tessa Volart 32 year old inner strike inner Milan striker
• 19:36
  1 frown Bundesliga with Wolfsburg a couple times in the
• 19:39
  mid twenty 10s. Had ten goals and three assists
• 19:42
  for Inter last season. I thought she played well.
• 19:45
  I thought she was the bright spot for Belgium.
• 19:47
  But that that old Catanaccio defensive style, that counter
• 19:52
  attack style from Italy, it it ruled the day on this one.
• 19:56
  Yeah, I mean, Belgium had some success possessing the ball, had
• 20:01
  some success passing, had some success moving the ball up
• 20:04
  field. But really, I kind of, I think
• 20:07
  really the midfield is where things got a little choppy, you
• 20:10
  know, for them just couldn't, couldn't really breakthrough.
• 20:14
  And I think you look at that Italian midfield, De Guli, Elmo,
• 20:17
  Ariana, Caruso, Giuliano in the middle, Severini and Boutine all
• 20:21
  the way on the left. Like that's just a lot of it's a
• 20:24
  lot of roadblocks to try to get through.
• 20:27
  And then the second-half was just littered with fouls and
• 20:31
  stoppage of play and felt like there was a sub every 2-3
• 20:34
  minutes felt like we went, we went through all through, like
• 20:37
  all, all 10 substitution windows, just very choppy.
• 20:41
  second-half, couldn't really get going there.
• 20:42
  But you know, in this one, Caruso gets the goal, perfect
• 20:46
  placement, big time goal in a big time moment.
• 20:49
  And, you know, you just kind of see what Italy wants to do.
• 20:53
  They want to be rugged. They want to kind of pinball a
• 20:55
  little bit. They want to like, you know,
• 20:57
  breeze you up, especially in that midfield, and they want to
• 21:01
  pick their spots, you know, and, you know, just find
• 21:04
  opportunities and and feel like they're going to cash in.
• 21:06
  But I I like I like that they have an identity.
• 21:10
  I think outside of Spain, the other seven teams that we've
• 21:14
  seen, there's some stuff that you can look at there.
• 21:17
  But you know, Italy, you feel like, OK, I understand what
• 21:19
  they're trying to do and I understand that they want to try
• 21:22
  to one nil 11, you know, way deep, deep into this tournament.
• 21:26
  See how far they can take that because that's how they're
• 21:29
  built. I like that.
• 21:30
  I think that makes that makes a lot of sense.
• 21:33
  And you know, shout out to our pal.
• 21:34
  I know we've given, you know, Fox a little bit of stick early
• 21:39
  and you know previously that we don't necessarily love all of
• 21:42
  their editorial choices. I'll tell you they got one thing
• 21:46
  right and we obviously we talked about we like the Jackie Olli
• 21:50
  and Lori Lindsay pairing. They got another thing right
• 21:53
  today. Our pal Arsenal, great Champions
• 21:56
  League winner, 3rd place medal in the World Cup winner Leanne
• 22:00
  Sanderson on the call for this Italy, Belgium match.
• 22:04
  And I just made a note of it at like it was somewhere like
• 22:07
  around the 20th minute or something like that where Caruso
• 22:11
  has a shot, takes a shot from from around the top of the 18
• 22:15
  and Leanne immediately goes, she can do that.
• 22:18
  She has that ability to to take and make those and then what do
• 22:23
  you know, right before halftime, Caruso makes it happen and
• 22:26
  scores it. Leanne does that so often on
• 22:30
  NWSL broadcast like that. It's just like you can almost
• 22:34
  see it coming where she'll mention something earlier in the
• 22:37
  match and be like, yeah, that'll probably bear out later.
• 22:39
  Yep. No, no, she's the best.
• 22:41
  I mean, did she pull out? The Caruso's got that in her
• 22:44
  locker. You know what, I don't remember
• 22:47
  that from the exact it wasn't it wasn't at that shot around the
• 22:51
  20th, but I know she said that she she had it.
• 22:54
  And then, you know, Leanne's also good for this.
• 22:57
  I feel like we're friendly enough with her where I can give
• 22:59
  her a little bit of shit on this when she scores the goal.
• 23:02
  Leon's like was talking about that earlier because Leanne
• 23:06
  similar to us, she likes to be like, hey, you remember when I
• 23:09
  said that? I was definitely totally right
• 23:11
  about that, which, you know, part of why she's the GOAT.
• 23:14
  Absolutely. Just rewind that.
• 23:16
  Speaking of the goat, how about goatly double L4 for four?
• 23:21
  I mean, if Fox wants to kind of right the ship, like there's
• 23:27
  there's 22 heavy hitters that that you could just count on.
• 23:30
  I mean, but good performances, I mean like 4 four matches in two
• 23:35
  days. They got to be doing these
• 23:37
  remote, obviously, but oh, I'm sorry, no.
• 23:40
  Yeah, three out of four. Three out of four, that's my
• 23:43
  bad. Yes, they did 2 yesterday, 1
• 23:44
  today. OK, OK, yes, completely threw me
• 23:47
  off. Obviously we're talking about
• 23:48
  Leanne Sampson, so that's that's obviously my bad, but.
• 23:50
  Dude, dude, math errors I had I said there were like 70 group
• 23:54
  matches yesterday. So like, you know what we're
• 23:57
  we're getting rolling. It's it's the first match for us
• 24:00
  in this euro as well. Let's get.
• 24:03
  Them out of our system that's that's that's what I like to say
• 24:06
  all right cool. So Italy, Portugal, that one's
• 24:09
  coming up soon. Do you have a, do you have an
• 24:10
  early pick there? Like what are we thinking?
• 24:12
  Where are we leaning? I know this this isn't TBP but
• 24:16
  what how are you feeling? I'm going to say Portugal
• 24:19
  bounces back. I'm not going to be a prisoner
• 24:20
  at the moment. I like the way Italy looked.
• 24:23
  I mean, so, yeah, Di Giuliano played well.
• 24:26
  Giuliano played well. That's all pretty predictable.
• 24:28
  You saw them, you know, link up and make some passes.
• 24:31
  Obviously the health of Kika Nazareth is like top headline.
• 24:35
  You know, I, I, I still can't find a ton of information after
• 24:39
  she had the I think it was an ankle injury a few months back
• 24:42
  and you know, she's obviously she's in the squad trying to
• 24:44
  make her way back. I don't know if today was too
• 24:47
  early, but the next match might be might be the right time.
• 24:51
  So that's going to play a heavy factor.
• 24:54
  But I'm going to do the thing where we're, if we're going to
• 24:58
  like talk about like gambling ideas or whatever, where one
• 25:02
  team gets a win, the other team gets smashed and then all the
• 25:06
  square betters come in and go, well, obviously the team that
• 25:09
  won is a million times better than the team that got smashed.
• 25:13
  And that's not always the case, and in fact is often not the
• 25:17
  case in these kind of tournament situations.
• 25:19
  Yeah, and like I said, I thought Portugal played pretty well.
• 25:21
  I wouldn't be surprised if Portugal wins and advances.
• 25:24
  But obviously Italy very, very live in in that type of match
• 25:27
  up. That match up is going to come
• 25:30
  down to the style. You know, is it is it rough and
• 25:34
  tumble or is it kind of like open with with space to move?
• 25:38
  Belgium had space to move and they knocked the ball around
• 25:41
  pretty well. And I think they were pretty
• 25:42
  sharp, but they just couldn't couldn't get all the way through
• 25:45
  through Portugal. I think we'll we'll have a
• 25:47
  little bit more success there. But I think if they if Italy
• 25:50
  lets Portugal knock the ball around like that, I think it
• 25:53
  could it could put them a little bit behind the 8 ball.
• 25:56
  So we'll see. But either way, that's going to
• 25:57
  be a super exciting match up. And we've got more football
• 26:00
  tomorrow. Group C Denmark taking on
• 26:04
  Sweden. Germany my pick to win the whole
• 26:07
  thing in action versus Portland. Poland, my good man.
• 26:12
  Although I would watch Germany play the Portland Thorns.
• 26:16
  I would watch that match like I'm trying to think does does do
• 26:18
  the Thorns have any German players?
• 26:20
  I don't think so. No, Rao's not on there.
• 26:23
  Yeah, So what the fuck is going on with me in port?
• 26:25
  Like why can I doubt? That's weird.
• 26:27
  You you got him on the brain. I mean the the last couple weeks
• 26:30
  of the NWSL season you've just been like yo, this team is way
• 26:34
  better like and you weren't even that down.
• 26:36
  I don't think you were as down on them as I was pre season, but
• 26:40
  you, you know, you, you were looking at him early.
• 26:43
  So maybe you just got Portland on the brain.
• 26:44
  It is the a distant second, but still the second best city in
• 26:48
  the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, yeah, No, I hear that.
• 26:51
  And they've got a tough one in in Germany, so we'll see if
• 26:53
  they're able to No, Germany, take it on Poland tomorrow.
• 26:56
  My bad. We'll be back for that one to
• 26:59
  our our 12 days of UEFA Women's EUR 2025 group stage football
• 27:03
  coverage. Off to a, I mean, just smashing
• 27:06
  start. We're just crushing it.
• 27:07
  Geography, math, I mean, just C pluses all the way all the way
• 27:12
  across the report card. All right, man, I think we did
• 27:15
  it. Anything else you want to hit
• 27:16
  before we get out here? No, we've done it man.
• 27:18
  CS get to grease. It's been done for some into the
• 27:22
  channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
• 27:24
  for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or loved
• 27:25
  ones football as much as just boys do make sure you kick in
• 27:27
  with us each and every single week.
• 27:29
  Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast where you
• 27:31
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• 27:33
  favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials
• 27:36
  except one in the show of this episode.
• 27:38
  And the big thank in my coast as well, Mr. Grant Angle for always
• 27:41
  being an A+ partner. You already know what time it
• 27:44
  is. I appreciate you bro.
• 27:46
  Likewise, buddy, and if any young people do listen to the
• 27:48
  show, which I think the metrics show like some try hard in
• 27:51
  college, though, don't do the don't be seized to get degrees
• 27:55
  person graduate with some honors.
• 27:56
  Try hard. It's cool to show effort.
• 27:58
  It's it's cool to to care about what you're doing.
• 28:02
  Just look at all the elite players who are watching in
• 28:03
  these tournaments. It's cool to be engaged and do
• 28:06
  your best. And so thank you for rocking
• 28:08
  with us while we try to do our best and sometimes fall short of
• 28:10
  that, but that's OK. We'll keep on trying.
• 28:12
  Thank you again for rocking with us and we will see you all.