Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL PREVIEWS 🏆 Lyon v Arsenal | Chelsea v Barcelona | 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League Semifinal

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UWCL PREVIEWS 🏆 Lyon v Arsenal | Chelsea v Barcelona | 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League Semifinal · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome back. Since the channel podcast
0:08
primarily about women's football, I'm your host Dino
0:10
Desuspice. And as always, I'm joined by my
0:13
Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:17
You know, dare I say I'm feeling fantastic buddy, It's been long
0:21
enough. We've both been quite busy with
0:23
different things in our lives, but finally we are back.
0:29
Back, back, back. Yeah, so much football, NW selfs
0:33
cooking, Champions League's cooking.
0:35
We didn't get a chance to come right back after the first cycle
0:38
of the semi final, but I don't know, we found a nice little
0:41
cozy spot in between leg one, leg 2 to squeeze in a little
0:44
preview. I don't know man, where you want
0:46
to get started. Let's get started with the title
0:49
holders. But as we do that, you know,
0:53
there might be some pitch rust. But let's not forget about these
0:58
brewskies. It's been a week.
1:01
I think we deserve it. Well deserved indeed.
1:06
Cheers to that. Cheers to that sounds just as
1:09
good as it did Whatever whenever the last show was a week and a
1:12
half ago. Two weeks ago.
1:14
I don't even know who what what even is time?
1:16
Time is just a construct. Yeah.
1:18
What? What is time?
1:19
What are time zones out here on the West Coast now?
1:22
It's nice having sports nice and early, and then they wrap up
1:25
nice and early, too. I forgot, oh, you know, I was
1:27
gone for a couple years. Forgot what that's like so it's
1:30
been good man I'm a little bit behind but just slowly working
1:34
my way back, working my way back into form really you know takes
1:38
takes a week or two to kind of shake off the the cross country
1:40
move rust, but I feel like I'm getting it done yeah I.
1:43
Believe in you, buddy. We're going to fucking, we're
1:44
going to, we're going to win this match.
1:46
We're going to keep it going. You know, you can shake off the
1:48
rust while winning, as we've seen great teams do this year,
1:53
all year. So where to get started?
1:56
Let's get started with the title holders.
1:57
Like I mentioned, Barcelona 4, Chelsea one.
2:01
That's a that's a hefty lead to bring into the second leg of the
2:05
semi final. That's as bad.
2:09
I mean, I know it's not the worst loss that they've had, I'm
2:12
sure in their in their history, but it's the worst loss I've
2:15
seen Chelsea take since I've been covering them for sure.
2:18
They looked completely overwhelmed.
2:21
I'll tell you what surprised me the most.
2:24
Barcelona's physicality and their defense, their defense's
2:28
ability to bully Chelsea's offense.
2:30
Like you don't often see Chelsea's offense just kind of
2:34
wilt. You look at some of these stats,
2:35
shots 19 to four, shots on target 9 to 2, and it was just a
2:40
couple spots in particular, the optics of Irena Predatus or Esme
2:45
Brukes just kind of bullying JRK, like just physically just
2:48
dominating. I was just like, Oh my God, what
2:51
do you do if you're Chelsea's bombastic to kind of overcome
2:54
this? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a
2:57
great shout, man. The, the physicality, it looked
3:00
like the both sides are on 2 completely different levels.
3:04
It's just, you know, Brukes gets running down the wing and I
3:09
don't even know how many players on how many different teams
3:11
could keep up with her anyway. But it looked, it looked very
3:15
apparent in this in that first like match and I just don't know
3:18
if Chelsea has a solution for it in the second like.
3:22
I don't think so. Watching Brux, it's funny
3:24
because like I know you, you referred to her as the nuclear
3:26
weapon a few months back probably.
3:29
And her ability to just not even wind up and just knock a pass
3:35
with it looks like a like 100 mile an hour fastball.
3:38
It's just like you usually see somebody like run up to like a
3:40
free kick and like really lash it.
3:42
She's just able to do it in the run of, I don't know, mid stride
3:46
basically. She's just really something
3:48
else. She's so strong and she's just a
3:51
handful to deal with. I think in addition to that,
3:56
Barcelona just really put the pressure on in a way that it was
4:02
just jarring. I don't know, like, well, what
4:03
was your what was your take watching it?
4:05
Like just watching all these great Chelsea players and I
4:08
think, you know, seeing them physically get overwhelmed and
4:11
then just get stonewalled kind of at at every juncture it it,
4:16
it took me almost the whole match to really wrap my head
4:19
around what we were seeing. I think it, I think some of
4:22
people's frustrations with like Bon Pastor Ball were kind of
4:27
evident where you kind of look, I know people had wondered
4:30
sometimes about Leon's attack at times, like, you know, well,
4:34
they're too much on the back foot.
4:35
They're playing too much like counter attack football.
4:37
We'll talk about the way Lyon plays counter attack football
4:39
later, by the way. But you know, where sometimes if
4:44
you play that style too much and then the other team has the ball
4:46
a lot, you you end up kind of probably looking around as a fan
4:51
or as somebody like us trying to to analyze this thing as fans
4:55
that you're just like, you have too many good players to play
4:59
like that. Why do you look so aimless out
5:00
there, You know, even against the, you know, the most elite of
5:04
the elite teams in terms of Barcelona, obviously next to
5:08
Orlando Pride. And like you, you just got to
5:11
wonder as a Chelsea fan, like, how is this happening to us?
5:14
But then when you see the way that first goal happens, the way
5:18
Alexia is able to control spin, turn perfect, pass, fucking
5:23
right into the middle of the field and Pyor is just able to
5:27
groove it in there. It's just like, I don't know
5:29
what anybody's supposed to do against that.
5:31
That pass, that Alexia pass, it's the the longer it rolled,
5:36
the better the pass got because it just opened her up more and
5:40
more and more and more into space away, away further and
5:43
further away from the defender by our really professional
5:46
finish. The first thing I thought about
5:47
was like a few weeks back when I'm like, all right, you know,
5:50
Pyre is like killing in league IF you know, and she takes she
5:53
takes a step. I want to see her score a big a
5:55
big goal and a big spot doesn't get a whole lot bigger than the
6:00
opening goal in the semi final against the Chelsea to kind of
6:04
like get the ball rolling in a match that I don't know.
6:06
It wasn't it wasn't too in in contest, but at that point
6:09
Alexia had already missed the penalty kick.
6:12
So there is some pressure nil, nil.
6:15
You don't want to go into halftime nil, nil.
6:16
So I thought that was a big spot for Pajor.
6:19
I think you're absolutely right. And you know from my notes I
6:23
wrote this. What if I told you that Alexia
6:26
would get APK blocked? Sandy Baltimore would score an
6:29
absolute banger and Hannah Hampton would have 5 total saves
6:34
with three of those saves coming from shots inside the box.
6:38
I just don't think like on the range of guesses that somebody
6:41
might make, I don't think a four one loss would be a lot of
6:44
people's first, second or third guesses.
6:46
Like, you know, 5 saves and three of those shots coming in
6:49
the box. I could see how some people
6:50
might say, well, that's that might be a little worrisome if
6:53
if you know, Barcelona's getting that many shots inside the box,
6:56
but but still like they were playing it pretty close.
7:02
And then as we talked, we've talked about many, many times,
7:06
your margin for error is just minuscule against Barcelona and
7:10
it's showed in the second-half. Totally showed in the
7:13
second-half and the the minuscule margin for error makes
7:17
me think of the about the the Baltimore goal that you
7:19
mentioned where Macario has to outdo a Patri like in a 5050,
7:25
like just an absolute dogfight. She squirts away from Patri and
7:30
she's got Aitana on one side and Alexia on the other converging.
7:33
And they get their a fraction of a second after she's played a
7:38
perfect ball ahead to Baltimore. One really good touch from
7:41
Baltimore, perfect finish. And then you realize, oh, they
7:45
have to be pinpoint on everything to beat Barcelona.
7:49
Like like it just has to be this successive string of six or
7:53
seven perfectly executed moves to even just get the one goal.
8:00
Right, yeah. And the one goal to to, you
8:03
know, bring them within one after Pina scored her first goal
8:07
and which, you know, we we got to talk about it.
8:09
But before we get to Claudia Pina, like when they're down 2/1
8:15
with about like 15 minutes plus stoppage time left, I know the
8:19
announcers were talking about it too, like, OK, you can live with
8:23
this if you're Chelsea. Like if you're down one goal and
8:26
you're going to the Bridge, like that's, you know, you could be
8:31
in way worse shape. The only problem was Claudia
8:35
Pina was there to make sure you're going to be in way worse
8:39
shape. It's so funny watching Pina.
8:43
I mean, we were talking about cloudy Pina, I think obviously
8:45
for since the beginning, but I think more seriously over the
8:48
last few weeks. Yeah.
8:50
And watching Pina warm up, I think it was like in the early
8:55
50s, like 52nd, 53rd minute, they just showed a quick shot of
8:59
her just like running in place. And it gave me flashback of M
9:04
Night Shyamalan's movie Signs where you see the the glimpse of
9:07
the the wiry alien creature just for two seconds.
9:10
Yeah. Because it was just like Pete up
9:12
where we are just like, oh, oh, oh, oh, this is bad.
9:14
This is bad. And then like it just cuts to
9:16
the game. And just like, what was that?
9:17
Let me let me collect myself. I mean, she is an unbelievable
9:25
player. Maybe this scary.
9:26
I I went through this exorcis in my head.
9:28
I think for me, the second scariest player left in the
9:31
field, probably behind Diani for somebody who I don't want
9:36
running onto a ball at the edge of the 18 with a look to just
9:40
kind of like let one RIP. Like that's like the second to
9:42
last person. I think I didn't want to see
9:44
them see doing that. I don't know what was your take
9:48
away from the Pina game, but I actually I want to hit you with
9:50
a quick start line for Pina. Three shots, three shots, three
9:54
shots on target, two goals, one assist in 25 minutes against
10:01
Chelsea in a championing semi final and a yellow card.
10:04
Yeah, there we go. That's what I'm talking about.
10:06
That's a, that's like an ITC hat trick right there.
10:09
And it's. Like hitting for the cycle.
10:11
Yeah, it really is the 5 by 5 in an NBA game or something like
10:15
that. Like let's let's talk even more
10:17
about her staff in the Champions League.
10:20
She has nine goals and one assist from, you know, obviously
10:23
the one assist in this Chelsea match in 361 minutes.
10:27
So her her 90, her per 90. She has 2.24 goals per 90
10:34
minutes out there. And when I we look at our good
10:37
pals at fat mob, you know, they they show the per 90 for this
10:41
year's Champions League. That puts her in OO what's that?
10:44
The 100th percentile. So I think that's pretty good.
10:49
Her shots per 95.7, three 100th percentile.
10:53
Her shots on target per 94.24, the 100th percentile successful
10:59
passes if you was only one assist is she is she passing the
11:02
ball successful passes, 47.37 per ninety, 100th percentile.
11:08
She is terrifying out there, especially on the left wing.
11:13
And I know it's an old man saying, I know it's a corny
11:16
saying, but they're like just like 10 minutes into her
11:20
playing, she obviously already gets the goal.
11:23
She already has her first goal when she's out there.
11:26
And I was just like, I know she wears #9 but she is like 711
11:32
because she is always open, always.
11:35
Like I, you know, somebody has to check her.
11:38
But she, she hits The Jets when she needs to or she just creeps
11:42
into space when she needs to. She's a genius.
11:45
She's she's only 23 and this is how good she is right now.
11:49
It's crazy. Yeah.
11:51
I think it's making me think too about the second goal where
11:56
she's involved in the defensive midfield in that goal, kind of
11:59
corralling it like from the sixth position.
12:03
And then I counted it once. She unloads the ball, she runs
12:06
past 6 Barcelona teammates, she sprints past six teammates to
12:12
get all the way up field. And then Onabati, that's the one
12:16
where Onabati has got it up the right hand side.
12:18
And then Pina does the double. You know, she does the like the
12:22
one hand and the two hands, like come on.
12:24
And then like she just knew. She's like, if you put the ball
12:26
here, I'm scoring and a wicked angle like a little bit, you
12:30
know, like I feel like 7-8 times out of 10 or against, you know,
12:34
normal mortal strikers, that ball gets caught up in your feet
12:39
and it's a whole mishmash. And you know, I mean, but but
12:41
for that one, it just to finish so, so cleanly for her second
12:45
goal in just I think at that point she had been on for about
12:48
what, 1617 minutes, something ungodly considering the
12:52
competition. This player is just
12:54
unbelievable. And I mean, you, you mentioned
12:59
her age hard to, I mean, but you, you got to imagine she's
13:02
going to improve, but hard to imagine how and where a player
13:06
like this improves from here. Yeah, how much better can you
13:09
get? I mean, and we've talked about
13:11
her too, like, you know, she she's the best player on a ton
13:16
of teams out in the world. Like I don't think there's
13:20
there's any real dispute about that.
13:22
I mean, she's she's just absolutely fantastic.
13:25
And she's just, you know, part of the rotation for Barcelona.
13:28
You know, let's let's get her in there.
13:29
Can we get her 20 minutes? All right, great.
13:32
Go ahead. Warm next striker up.
13:36
There you go. I will.
13:38
Yeah, we we won't play Sydney Sheridan Live Today.
13:41
Let's just play Claudia Pina instead.
13:44
Yeah, tremendous luxury for the Champs.
13:48
And you know, you mentioned it. I've been on the Orlando Pride
13:51
train a little bit, I would say for the last 5-6 months, a
13:55
little bit. I think I I think I've got a.
13:57
Train. Yeah, I'm, I'm driving the
13:59
train. I miss my all my people out
14:01
there for sure. I feel like I've got to update
14:04
the power rankings. What it hurts me to do it, but I
14:08
mean, I got to be objective, man.
14:10
Like this team playing like that, if they play like that,
14:16
there's no team that could even draw them on a neutral field.
14:20
I don't think with all of that talent, all their big guns, they
14:24
had everybody out there, you know, for the most part.
14:26
I think you mentioned short and live, that's a player could have
14:28
lost some minutes, but you know, Vicki Lopez gets in, Engen comes
14:33
on for Moppy. Like pretty much they had
14:35
everybody, I think at their disposal, you know, to to they
14:38
they had some really good injury luck.
14:40
But I got to think the way they're playing, what they just
14:44
did to a really, really good Chelsea team.
14:47
Hard to hard to argue that there's a better team than this
14:50
Barcelona side globally. Yeah, you know, I I think that's
14:55
that's probably right. And you know, we we obviously
14:57
always show love to the Orleans. No Pride, who are the double
15:00
winners in the NWSL and have a great team and have, you know,
15:05
arguably the world's best #9 they have the greatest player
15:08
who ever lived even in her advanced prime.
15:11
And Marta, they have a great defense.
15:14
All all those things still play, you know it.
15:17
It's just we talk about the big four of Barcelona, Leon, the
15:23
Pride and Chelsea. Barcelona just played a match
15:27
where they just made it look like you can't even mention
15:30
Chelsea with us right now, which is tricky to say considering the
15:34
results of last year's semi final where Chelsea went to
15:37
Barcelona and beat them. So, I mean, you know, football
15:40
can be a fickle game, but that was convincing to say the least.
15:47
Convincing, yeah, 1000% for sure, Yeah.
15:51
So we'll see. I think, you know, the total
15:54
uphill battle for Chelsea. I you know, you hope to see them
15:57
come back and you know, like kind of really put their foot in
16:00
the gas and then really make something of it down down that
16:03
many. You could see them kind of I
16:06
don't know. It's got to be such a tough task
16:09
kind of facing a team that good with that kind of deficit.
16:12
But I don't know what are you expecting to see when when they
16:15
they run it back for the second leg?
16:17
So we talked about a few weeks ago.
16:18
I just, I want to mention something real quick.
16:21
You know, Sonya Bom Pastor picking Sam Kerr to make the
16:25
Champions League, you know, semi final roster and not me official
16:30
or maybe it was just the knockout stage roster.
16:33
I can't totally remember. I think I can't remember if he
16:35
had to pick rosters before the semi finals.
16:37
Doesn't matter. I digress.
16:39
And Sonya Bom Pastor had a quote to some degree that was like, it
16:43
was a tough decision to leave me official off and put Sam Kerr
16:48
on. And I jokingly said like, with
16:51
absolutely no disrespect to me official, it can't possibly ever
16:55
be a difficult decision to leave Sam Kerr off the roster.
16:58
Even if you think there's a 1% chance that she could play.
17:01
Because Sam Kerr, you already know what time it is that she's
17:03
hurt right now. But she is the best #9 in the
17:06
world. It's, it's I, I think it would
17:08
be really difficult when healthy.
17:09
It's hard to argue against it. But you know me official, she
17:14
gets her first goal. I think she played 46 minutes in
17:17
that last match for his Crystal Palace.
17:19
She played like a handful. I think she played like 5
17:22
minutes against City. She played like 20 minutes in
17:24
the match after that. She's kind of building, building
17:26
things up. She looks strong.
17:27
She looks she looks active out there already for Chelsea.
17:31
But I want to read some quotes from Sonia Bone Pastor.
17:35
This was in her pre match presser I think before that
17:37
Crystal Palace match. These quotes are courtesy of Sky
17:40
Sports, Bone Pastor said about Sam Kerr's availability.
17:44
Quote, I'm not in a position to give any time frame on her
17:47
return, but she won't be involved in the games this week.
17:50
She went on to say. Quote Sam is progressing in a
17:53
rehab, but I don't have enough elements to say we will see her
17:56
this season. Hopefully yes, but it's
17:59
difficult for me to say End Quote.
18:02
So that's a bummer that you know, Fishel is kind of coming
18:06
into into some level of form. You know, like I mentioned, she
18:10
gets the goal against Crystal Palace and had a couple other
18:12
opportunities against Crystal Palace where she looked good out
18:15
there. But you know, I don't know who
18:18
you're putting out there to overcome a three goal aggregate
18:22
deficit to Barcelona, even at Stamford Bridge, and this is
18:26
where I'm just going to put the hater glasses on real quick.
18:29
Chelsea has as much of a chance of advancing to the final as
18:33
Manchester City does. It's not.
18:35
Happening. I think that's fair to say Yeah,
18:40
on the broadcast they were talking about that that all
18:42
important second goal and then you know the part.
18:46
Oh my God, I'm the worst at this.
18:47
But the the commentator who who's great today Sharples
18:50
partner was also like, yeah, I think the second goal might, you
18:54
know, might make might make it so that the tie's over.
18:58
You know, in retrospect was just like, wow, it got so much worse
19:01
for Chelsea. Let's move ahead, though.
19:03
The other semi final, Leon versus my Gunners, the Arsenal,
19:10
the the French side heads to the Emirates and gets it done.
19:15
You know, a very championship like performance walks away with
19:19
two to one win. The stats were close.
19:23
I think if you look at the play on the field and kind of like
19:26
take a little bit of a magnifying glass to it and then,
19:28
you know, start to match talent for talent.
19:30
You know, I think that was it was a little bit of an optical
19:33
illusion. I'd be interested to get your
19:34
take. But yeah, at the end of the day
19:37
Leon walks away with a big Rd. win 2 to 1 heading back to
19:41
France. I think that's fair.
19:45
I think if you know, watching the match and looking at the
19:50
talent, the disparities, obviously there, we feel like we
19:53
talk about it a lot with Leone and Barcelona, especially
19:57
Chelsea against a lot of other teams.
20:01
I thought the talent disparity was evident.
20:04
But it's not like, and I know you're not saying this, but it's
20:07
not like Arsenal's deficient of talent.
20:10
And I really liked I did like their second-half.
20:13
I thought they were real scrappy.
20:14
I mean, they had good, really good stretches where you could
20:17
you could argue that they may have deserved a second goal in
20:21
that match. Throughout other portions of it
20:25
kind of, you know, when they eventually get the penalty, it
20:27
felt like a little bit of a a ball don't lie type situation of
20:31
like, OK, they deserved this one at at some point in the run of
20:35
play. But Lyon is a weird powerhouse
20:42
that doesn't have to have the ball to dominate the game, and
20:47
that they they just have genius, reliable midfielders, they have
20:53
great goal scores, and they have one of the greatest groups of
20:56
defenders in the world. Yeah, one of them not even
21:01
appearing in this one, right? A little bit of the Fool's goal
21:04
that I was talking about, but I was watching this one on The
21:07
Zone, obviously, and had to step away for a minute and it was
21:13
right around the 15 minute mark. And I'm watching it and I'm
21:16
like, OK, 15 minute, I gotta hit pause, gotta step away for a
21:18
minute. And at that point I'm like, I'm
21:20
feeling good. You know, It's like, you know,
21:23
it's even, you know, there's some chances.
21:25
I think Flo Pollock on the The Zone broadcast talked about
21:31
absolute legend football flow. You already know what time it is
21:35
talked about. Oh, OK.
21:36
Well, that that early chance for freedom on them, like within the
21:39
first minute, she's like, well, this got to be encouraging for
21:41
this Arsenal side. I was like, yeah, does have to
21:43
be encouraging. I am.
21:44
I'm very encouraged, you know, on this Arsenal side.
21:47
But then as as I paused it and then it stopped and my mind goes
21:52
quiet a little bit. I'm like, this is a fucking
21:54
trap. This is an absolute.
21:56
Like Leon is I, and I wrote it by notes.
21:59
Leon is walking us absolutely into a trap.
22:02
And it's exactly what you said. You know, you zoom out, you look
22:04
at some of the stats possession 58 to 42 Arsenal shots 11 to 10
22:10
Arsenal shots inside the box 8 to 4 Arsenal on target shots on
22:14
target 4 to 4. Even the the the very disputed,
22:19
you know, XG stat on the show 2 to one I'm sorry 2.1 for Arsenal
22:25
1.0 for Leon a big advantage there as well.
22:30
I'm not sure and it's it's weird because the stats had one thing,
22:35
but then I keep thinking about Leon.
22:37
I'm sorry, not Leon Leanne, friend of the show Leanne
22:39
Sanderson, Champions League winner for for my arsenal.
22:43
Damn right. She was very critical of the
22:45
Gunners at halftime, you know, and and just the talent gap.
22:48
I I thought she kind of went went even further, maybe a
22:51
little bit too far. I'm OK.
22:52
Well, you know, it's there were still chances and you know, this
22:55
game is still very much in the balance and even now the the
22:57
tightest in the balance. But I did think in those
23:00
moments, and it does come down to those moments where on one
23:04
side, you know, you look at their first goal, it's Lindsay
23:06
Heaps who makes a nice play. Ellie Carpenter who receives,
23:12
makes a nice run, great ball ahead to Diani.
23:15
And then we've talked about Diani and then how dangerous she
23:17
is passing one or striking it, you know, just when, when she
23:20
has the option. Like, I mean, that's like the
23:24
worst, the worst player we're talking about Pina.
23:27
Diani is number one in my my terrified power rankings of who
23:30
you don't want to see. And that ends up being the
23:33
difference. They have a plus players at
23:36
almost every position. Barcelona does.
23:38
I'm sorry, Arsenal does not have a plus players at every
23:41
position. And that is just where that that
23:44
difference kind of like rears its head is in those small
23:47
moments like that where the game kind of like literally goes one
23:50
way or the other. Yeah, I think you're right.
23:52
And I mean, you've, you've talked a lot about Mao Chi Du
23:55
Mornay being in that best #9 in the world conversation for a
24:00
while now, for months. And you're spot on.
24:02
And like, when you talk about players who can just do amazing
24:05
things, Du Mornay could have had a goal from 30 yards out that
24:09
rocks off the crossbar that made me like, stand up off my couch.
24:13
Like, whoa. Lee.
24:14
Yeah. What is like, Speaking of it?
24:16
Yeah. Like, what was that?
24:17
And then, you know, she obviously gets gets the winner 5
24:21
minutes after, after Mariona's penalty.
24:25
It's just, you know, they're those two clubs, Leona and
24:28
Barcelona, they're just in a place right now where you have
24:33
like, you know, again, we're beating the dead horse.
24:34
But the margin, there's no margin for error, virtually no
24:37
margin for error. And it's funny that you talk
24:40
about it being a trap because Lyon is just lulling you into
24:45
this false sense of security where you're just like, all
24:47
right, we can hold the ball versus this team and then it's
24:50
three passes and you're finished.
24:53
And and even then, you know, Amel Majuri's coming off the
24:57
bench or, or like, you know, like you pointed out, Wendy
25:00
Renard didn't even appear in this in this match.
25:03
Like Eugenie Lesamere is going to come off the bench or, you
25:07
know, Ada Hegeburg, the all time leading scorer in the history of
25:10
the Champions League, is going to come off the bench.
25:11
Like, you know, they they they're just absolutely stacked.
25:15
They're completely confident. They feel like you know from the
25:19
beginning that this is their revenge Shore and I'll I'll say,
25:24
you know, they should be feeling pretty good going home.
25:29
But even with that talent disparity, this is I don't look
25:31
at this at all like the Barcelona Chelsea thing.
25:35
Obviously there's a massive difference between being down 1
25:38
to 2 instead of 1 to 4. But if you're Arsenal, you're
25:42
down one goal going going into France like and and they've come
25:45
back from pretty tricky circumstances already in this
25:49
tournament. Now the downside is Leon is not
25:53
Real Madrid. Yeah, and Leon also a team since
26:00
we've been covering them for sure that likes to start fast
26:03
and and likes to shoot to the top of your who scored first
26:06
leaderboard, Leon, definitely a great bet amongst that field.
26:11
And yeah, I think to your point, if Arsenal do get the first goal
26:15
of the match and it's even, that's probably the best you can
26:19
hope for. I mean, we talked about it last
26:20
week or in the preview. It's like a what's best case
26:22
scenario. I'm not sure if I, I, I, I
26:24
landed on one, one or two two, but I thought that that was that
26:28
was probably best case scenario. Arsenal could have probably
26:33
snuck in one of those Manem had a chance, you know, Russo as
26:36
well. There was definitely some good
26:37
looks. But again, that's, that's the
26:40
difference between these two teams probably.
26:42
But I, I agree with you. I think Arsenal is pretty.
26:45
They're not dead in the water the same way Chelsea is.
26:48
And I think if they can, if they can sort of squeeze out an early
26:52
goal, and I'll tell you what, you've mentioned this a couple
26:56
times this season. I want to see 25 Rosa Cafagi
27:01
minutes. I don't care.
27:03
I really don't care what else is going on.
27:06
Like that is a player that can be enough of a curveball.
27:10
We haven't seen Cafagi do pretty much anything this this season
27:14
for sure in the Champions League.
27:16
I'm not sure how many WS element she's logged, but if she's
27:19
healthy, I think that's a player that should see some time.
27:25
I mean, I think, you know, if you're talking about one goal
27:29
could be the difference between making the Champions League
27:31
final and not. I think she's a player that's
27:34
more likely to pay off in a big way than she is in a negative
27:40
way, you know, to cost you on the other side.
27:42
So I think the upside is there for that for that player.
27:46
I'd be dying to see some some Kafajum.
27:48
It's just especially if it's nip and tuck late.
27:51
It would be a massive swing. So again, this is Curtis,
27:55
courtesy of our pals at Fat Mob. She played 9 minutes against
27:58
Crystal Palace on March 30th and then just a bunch of goose eggs,
28:03
man. She played two minutes against
28:05
City in that in that 4 three match that they played back in
28:14
February, that 4 three win over City.
28:19
She played the full 90 against Bristol City.
28:21
But I think that I think that was a cup match maybe.
28:24
But yeah, I mean, since since February 2nd, she's played a
28:29
total of 11 minutes in the side. So I, I don't know what it is,
28:33
man. I don't know if if she, I mean,
28:35
she was on, she was on the bench in the last Champions League
28:38
match against Lyon. So I, I would imagine it's not
28:42
fitness. So I don't know what they are
28:46
hesitant about yet. So I'm with you.
28:48
I'd like to see it. It would be a it would be a
28:50
gigantic swing with especially with, with, you know, the semi
28:54
final still in the balance when you're only down one goal.
28:57
I think, I think it's worth taking because you're looking at
29:01
this Leon defense who doesn't concede.
29:03
You know, you got to imagine if Renard's fit, she's going to be
29:06
in the match. But I guess we'll we'll see
29:08
about that. Or if it is, it was funny.
29:10
It's funny to see some bots in there and not spot, not
29:12
Tarseani. They're, you know, practically
29:15
$1,000,000 signing. We can talk about that one
29:18
later. If Arsenal could sneak through
29:22
it. It does feel like it's got to be
29:23
like a quick strike or I don't know, a glancing header or some
29:27
Steph Catley doing something on a, on a free kick.
29:29
That's weird. You know, just but if they are
29:31
able to do something like that, I don't know.
29:33
I I think you got to kind of like really kitchen sink it if
29:36
you're in a slaggers and just be like, I think we have to
29:40
overplay these hands because we're always with the shorter
29:44
stack of chips pretty much at every turn.
29:47
So if there is an opportunity, we we might have to do something
29:49
a little a little unconventional to to make it happen.
29:55
I think that's totally fair, man.
29:56
I like it up my, my prediction or like key to the game or
30:01
whatever, whatever nonsense cliche I want to throw out
30:04
there. It was much, much more boring
30:06
than that. I, I just think you, you're
30:09
going to need your absolute best players to, to step up.
30:12
I think one of the things I said is one thing I have in my notes
30:15
is you're just going to need to get a Russo goal in this next
30:19
match. Like you got to get at least one
30:21
from her. And then you can, you can pretty
30:23
much set your watch to Cal Dente playing well in a big game.
30:27
It's what she it's what she's been proving that she does, you
30:30
know, this whole season, this whole Champions League.
30:33
So I think you got to get one from Russo and then and then see
30:36
where you're at and, you know, think about your chances.
30:39
I, I want to say one more thing about Leon's defense here.
30:42
They played a largely rotated squad in their midweek.
30:46
In their midweek league match, their two nil victory over
30:49
Nance, they played three teenagers, but this was their
30:52
back four. They had Sofia Huerta, who is
30:55
tied for first and all time assist leaders in the NWSL.
31:00
They played Tarsiane as one of their center backs.
31:03
Then they played our old pal Elma Utila Nelhag, formerly of
31:07
BK Hakken, who I frankly just sometimes forget is on Leon's
31:11
team at this point. And then Sofia Svaba, that back
31:16
4, Huerta, Tarsiane, Nelhog, Svava, that's better than a,
31:22
that's kind of way better than a lot of teams back fours in the
31:26
world and those that four will virtually never play for.
31:32
For Leo, that's wild. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to
31:36
go this far, but I'm, I'm running through the four versus
31:38
fours and wondering if like I would take those four versus
31:41
Arsenal's 4. I would for sure take like,
31:45
especially with city's health situation, the first thing I
31:48
thought was like, I would take that for today.
31:51
Absolutely. Yeah, it's absolutely loaded.
31:54
All right, So we'll see what the line UPS look like.
31:57
And I, I think, you know, I, I talked about that front 3 for
32:01
Leon, you talked about Du Mornay and just kind of how dangerous
32:03
they are. Yeah.
32:06
That, I think is the match up to watch, you know, can Arsenal's
32:10
back 4 plus whoever they have at the six.
32:14
We'll see if Von Domslar's back or if it's Zinsburger again.
32:18
If that defense can hold up against that, that Leon attack
32:24
when they're at home, I think it's going to be a whole
32:26
different beast to kind of like keep them at Bay.
32:30
And realistically, it's probably going to have to be all all 11
32:35
defending, you know, to make sure that because I think if you
32:37
give up a goal to Leon, I think it's over.
32:41
You know, you, I don't think you can count on getting too out
32:43
there. You know, again, anything can
32:47
happen, but I think it's it's it definitely starts from the
32:50
defense and probably trying to snipe one rather than like a a
32:54
high scoring affair where you just basically outscore Leon in
32:57
their house. I don't I don't see that
32:58
happening at all. So I don't know.
33:00
We'll see a lot to a lot to be excited about, But I don't know,
33:04
man, did we cover everything? Anything else you want to hit?
33:07
I think that was, I think that was it.
33:09
And, and also in that first like, yeah, we saw Marjorie, she
33:13
got the assist. But yeah, we didn't even see
33:17
Motto Jean. We didn't see the Brits, We
33:18
didn't see Lace on there. So, you know, they just got a
33:22
ton of players. And I think I do personally, I'm
33:26
going to hold my hand up for some accountability here.
33:29
We do. I don't, I don't mention Endler
33:31
enough because she is a damn good goalkeeper and she makes
33:34
she makes plays back there. She's protected by a great
33:37
defense, obviously, but she she comes up big in spots.
33:41
Yeah, so I had the same thought. She's definitely at the level.
33:45
Arsenal didn't really test her too, you know, too too, you
33:49
know, too heavily too on target out of 10.
33:53
But yeah, and there's a type of player where, you know, you you
33:56
definitely have trust in her. And I feel like she is at the
33:59
level of that defense. You know, I don't doesn't feel
34:01
like they're they're covering up for her.
34:04
And I think if Leon is able to advance to the final, I think
34:07
we're going to see Endler definitely put to the test.
34:09
So 100% excited about that. I want to go to a new segment
34:15
that we've got here called Episode Calendar.
34:17
So we'll be back to recap the Champions League semis.
34:20
Obviously, I imagine we'll have thoughts on the Champions League
34:23
final. Also next week we'll talk NWSL.
34:25
Six weeks in the books, really good sample size.
34:28
Going to be a lot to talk about there.
34:30
Yeah, roughly 313th of the way to the NWSL season.
34:34
So I think I, I imagine that we'll have some thoughts come
34:37
next week. But yeah, some good football
34:40
this weekend. We're in the midst of it right
34:41
now. Friday night NWSL happening, I
34:42
think well, no longer as we speak, but definitely NWSL
34:46
weekend and we get Champions League this weekend.
34:48
We will be back early next week or maybe late, late late Sunday
34:53
night for the night owls. But yeah, could be a lot of
34:56
football and a lot to talk about.
34:59
And I appreciate you for rocking for rocking with me did making
35:03
making sure making making it happen and working with your
35:05
boys schedule. So I appreciate you a little pre
35:07
emptive. I appreciate you.
35:09
Likewise. Well, you know what, I
35:10
appreciate you too. And if I if I could make one
35:13
suggestion, what, what's the name of this segment?
35:15
Is it upcoming show calendar? What was the title?
35:17
You gave it episode calendar. Episode Calendar I The only edit
35:22
I want to make is parenthetically after it subject
35:25
to change because you never know.
35:27
Because we're fucking pretty busy.
35:29
I we got a lot going on, but you know, the football never stops
35:32
and we love it. So, you know, we're making our
35:35
best effort Episode calendar. We're making our best effort,
35:38
but it's subject to change. Maybe that's too wordy.
35:41
We'll we'll workshop it some. We need like an alternate voice,
35:45
like a subject. To change.
35:47
Just so like it's tagging on at the end.
35:49
All right, man, this brother, there was some of the channel.
35:52
Thank you, thank you, thank you for hanging out and being
35:54
patient with us. I really, really appreciate it.
35:56
I know we appreciate it as a show.
35:58
If you enjoyed the show or a Love 1 soap as much as your boys
36:00
do, make sure you can with us each and every single week.
36:03
Like if you liked, subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple
36:06
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36:08
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36:11
We want to hear from you. We love hearing from you.
36:13
Links to all of our socials except one.
36:15
The shout outs of this episode and a big thank you to Michael's
36:18
as well. Mr. Grant Angle, you know,
36:20
always in my starting line up. A couple more matches to go
36:24
buddy and we're going to be raising that trophy you already
36:27
know as the world's pre eminent Champions League show.
36:29
I appreciate you. Likewise, my good man, we will
36:33
be lifting the trophy and you know what, I know it's early,
36:35
but maybe I'm going to make another prediction.
36:37
I think our our absolute #1 squad, I think they might be
36:42
lifting a trophy this year too. I just want to just just let
36:45
everybody know, remind everybody in top Syrian SK Braun top of
36:49
the table. Five wins, 0 draws, 0 losses.
36:53
Got a + 18 goal differential, 24 two against, absolutely cooking.
36:59
Shout out to all our pals out there who've been letting me
37:01
know. I've been able to catch up on
37:03
the highlights afterward. You know, the Brahm Battalion,
37:06
we're always rocking with you. We appreciate you.
37:07
Thank you everybody for checking out the show and we will see you
37:10
all next time.