Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 2025 UWCL Quarterfinals Preview 🏆 Real Madrid v Arsenal | Bayern Munich v Lyon | Wolfsburg v Barcelona | Manchester City v Chelsea | UEFA Women's Champion's League QF Leg 1

Transcript

2025 UWCL Quarterfinals Preview 🏆 Real Madrid v Arsenal | Bayern Munich v Lyon | Wolfsburg v Barcelona | Manchester City v Chelsea | UEFA Women's Champion's League QF Leg 1 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:02
Oh. Hey, welcome to Into the Channel
0:05
podcast primarily about 1 football.
0:06
I am your host Dino de Suspidis and as always I'm joined by my
0:10
Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:14
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. It's, you know, first day of the
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work week. Get that out of the way and we
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have some Champions League football to discuss.
0:23
That we do. We are just hours away from the
0:27
return of the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
0:29
Very excited about that. Eight really solid teams for big
0:33
time matchups. I love that we're starting with
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the road teams. You know, just kind of a little
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spicy spice to the tie. You know, I think I've got, I
0:41
maybe have some predictions that you could be pretty, pretty
0:44
surprised about. Can't wait to unleash those.
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But with that said, four big matchups.
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Mr. Graningo, where do you want to get started?
0:53
You know what? It's Saint Patrick's Day.
0:55
I don't think either of us are Irish, but it's OK.
0:59
Not in the slightest. We're talking some football on a
1:03
Monday. the Champions League is back.
1:06
We might as well crack some brewskies.
1:08
Sounds great to that. Cheers to you.
1:11
So I mean it. I think it only makes sense.
1:14
Chronological order. Both of your teams tugging at
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your heartstrings. You're a man Conflicted.
1:20
You're a man with a foot on each side of the aisle.
1:23
In this match, let's talk about Real Madrid versus Arsenal.
1:27
Love it Yep, Rock on one side hard place on the other.
1:31
I want to start with Real Madrid.
1:33
So you know, I want to say I was really hoping that this was
1:36
going to be the season where they were going to kind of turn
1:37
the corner. We talked about all of the great
1:39
talent that they added, but I think the same issues.
1:43
I mean, they could be, I think, pretty optimistic making the
1:47
quarterfinals, which they didn't do last year.
1:49
But three straight matches versus Barcelona, 3 big losses,
1:54
combined score 13 to one. That's got to hurt in their last
1:58
four, their one win, one draw, 2 lot, 2 losses, including those
2:02
two to Barcelona, as mentioned and then their most recent
2:05
matchup versus De Portivo La Coruna, they fall behind on that
2:09
one twice one nil in the 24th minute 21 in the 62nd.
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They need an Olga PK in the 82nd to scratch out a draw.
2:17
I don't know, man like is it just not in the cards for Real
2:22
Madrid? Do they need like maybe like a
2:24
bigger, more foundational shake up or do you feel like they
2:27
might be coming into tomorrow's match up?
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I don't know, but with something to prove it and maybe, maybe a
2:32
more hopeful tone. I think that's an interesting
2:35
thing that happens in football, right, is that sometimes, you
2:38
know, you have some some bad losses and then you know, people
2:42
start counting you out and people start drawing like grand
2:45
conclusions about these kind of things.
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And then they can show up and play well.
2:50
But to your to your first point, these matches against Barcelona,
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like that first leg of the Kobe De La Arena semi final against
2:58
Barcelona, they just get cracked 5 nil.
3:00
It's not competitive. Bette Uelo scores in the second
3:04
minute. I think Payor scores in the 13th
3:08
minute. Like Madrid took that kick off,
3:11
go down field, Barcelona intercepts it.
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And then, you know, like I said, within within a minute 30, Bette
3:18
Uelo was just smashing in one of some long diagonal cross.
3:22
And they're just out of it right away.
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Like you could hear, you could hear it in the crowd.
3:27
It was like it was a mixture of silence.
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And I think you could hear one person in the, in the crowd just
3:31
go, no, oh, because like, it just keeps, it just keeps
3:35
happening versus Barcelona. I don't know how, how long.
3:38
You know, obviously Real Madrid, they, they formed their women's
3:41
club. They kind of like microwaved it.
3:42
I think they like bought another club and then, you know,
3:46
absorbed them. But as far as our pals over at
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Foot Mob go, the recent record versus Barcelona for Real Madrid
3:53
is zero. Wins, 0 draws, 15 losses.
3:57
Oh my God, so that's a mental, that's a mental situation right
4:03
there that that's a mental hurdle that you cannot get over.
4:06
I mean, we saw Levante beat Barcelona.
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We saw, you know, Benfica obviously draw them last season.
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It's not, I mean, it's a great team, but not, not a OO and 15
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type team when you're Real Madrid and you've got, you know,
4:22
somewhat deep pockets of your own and world class players of
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your own as well. Yeah, I mean, you just got to do
4:28
better there. But I mean, you know, no offense
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to your your Gooners, they're not Barcelona.
4:32
I mean, they have you guys have great players as well.
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I don't even know when I say you guys in this match up.
4:37
I don't even know who I'm describing at this point, but
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Arsenal has great players too. But I think it's an opportunity
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for Real Madrid to just pick themselves up.
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You mentioned the, the, the, the draw this weekend.
4:51
They just, they just got to stop falling behind.
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We've talked about this like, and, and they've able, they've
4:56
been able to recover from it in certain other fixtures.
5:00
You're never going to be able to do that against Barcelona and
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you'll be putting yourself in a really tough spot if you do it
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against Arsenal. I think so.
5:07
And I think when you look at this Real Madrid side, where
5:10
they're probably vulnerable, I think is in the defense,
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probably in the center of the field for sure.
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Maria Mendez and Antonia at center back, some combination of
5:20
defensive midfielder, Philippe Angle Doll, Sandy Tolletti,
5:23
Caroline Weir. Those aren't players that
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defensively strike a ton of fear, you know, into, you know,
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opposing attackers. I think we're Renee Slager's and
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Arsenal maybe kind of stumbled onto an interesting front four
5:38
with Alessia Russo at the 9, Marioni on the left, Freedom on
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him at the 10, Chloe Kelly on the right, who's been getting
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more and more minutes and I think developing more and more
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chemistry. I think that four has the
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potential to provide real, real problems for that Real Madrid
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defense. And if they do come out flat,
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you know, it could be two nil, 3 nil 3-1 at the half kind of
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situation, because Arsenal's a team that it's not a front
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running kind of team. But once they get cooking, you
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know, you know, a Caitlin Ford, you know, develops confidence
6:11
when she sees Alessia Russo do something.
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Then like Stenius might come in and you might see some Beth
6:16
Meade minutes. And I I think they they
6:18
definitely pick up the you know, they definitely snowball in
6:21
momentum as an offense. So I think from that standpoint,
6:25
this Real Madrid defense and this Real Madrid kind of like, I
6:29
don't want to say mental make up, but but sort of like they're
6:32
their proclivity to kind of fall behind.
6:35
You know, that that is something that maybe represents maybe like
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a lack of focus or, you know, just not, not able to kind of
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like stay locked in from the first minute could be a real
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problem for Madrid. Yeah, definitely.
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I mean, you know, they they notched the three one win over
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Everton over the weekend. Passing lanes were wide open.
6:56
I think some of that is Everton's defense.
6:58
I think some of that is what Arsenal was able to do with
7:00
their movement. Emily Fox has really, you know,
7:05
I know she's always had some of this in her game, but it feels
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like the past month she's been on a real heater in terms of her
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passing ability, getting way forward.
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She's dangerous inside the 18, you know, playing players in
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ripping shots herself. Like she's looks, she's looks
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super confident lately. And if Real Madrid is going to
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be out here, you know, kind of fucking around the way they have
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been, it is a recipe to potentially lose 3-1 to Arsenal
7:32
in their own building. I think that's super live for
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sure. I'm just so you know, checking
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out Emily Fox, 26 years old at this point.
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She's probably at that age and at that stage in her career
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where it's like I'm ready to take a leap.
7:46
You know, like obviously she believes that, you know, I think
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she she lost out to some minutes, but there's a lot of
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like, you know, rotation there. But I don't know that her spot
7:54
on the US possession team is fully, fully cemented.
7:56
Cemented. It it's it's.
7:58
Close and I think for this Arsenal side, you know,
8:02
obviously they've got McCabe on the other side, they've got nice
8:04
stronger like they've got good players that could you know,
8:08
also, you know, push for some for for some minutes.
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And I think Fox has it in her game.
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We've seen her score spectacular goals.
8:15
I think the passing. It'd be great to see that
8:18
continue to evolve, but you know, she's got the skills to do
8:21
it now. It's just about like in big
8:23
spots against big teams. Can can you actually make that
8:25
happen now? I'm glad you brought up like the
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left back, right back situation because Fox on one side, McCabe
8:31
on the other, both of those players have the tendency to
8:33
kind of work their way up field, Mosey around the park a little
8:36
bit, you know, to kind of explore, explore the space, You
8:39
know, for all the theater kids. I think they they have, you
8:42
know, that that you know, tendency to do that.
8:45
That could open things up for Athenaeus senior Brune Albert
8:50
Redondo if she's in the game. Linda Kaisedo, who head coach
8:53
Alberto Toriel said that, you know, would be ready for
8:56
tomorrow's battle against Arsenal.
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So I think that would be one thing to watch in addition to
9:01
Steph Catley at center back, who has also been vulnerable.
9:05
So you know, if you're if you're watching the defense, I think
9:08
you know, there there is there is a potential for Arsenal to
9:11
get a little bit over exuberant on offense and maybe leave some
9:14
space behind for some of those dangerous RAH Madrid attackers.
9:19
I think that's totally fair. And you know that that's just
9:21
how it happens in football. I alluded to it a little bit,
9:24
but you see a match or you see a team have a bad stretch of
9:28
matches and you're like, OK, I guess this is who they are.
9:30
And it's, it's hard for the human brain to sometimes be able
9:33
to square these things and be like, well, it could have been a
9:35
bad day for multiple players at the same time, yadda, yadda,
9:38
yadda. I think to your point, this
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match probably of the four, probably has the widest range of
9:47
possible outcomes. Like you could see you could see
9:50
a big Arsenal win by two goals. I think you could see a draw in
9:54
this one and Real Madrid just comes out like make Caroline
9:57
Weir scores a banger early, Linda Kaiseto shakes loose and
10:00
then runs by defenders on a counter or something like that.
10:03
I think that's all possible just as much as it's possible of
10:07
Arsenal getting like squeaking out A1 nil win and just like a
10:10
weird grinded out match. I I just think this is going to
10:13
be one of the most interesting matches of the two days for
10:16
sure. I think I fully agree with that.
10:19
I could see, I think if Madrid's going to win this one, it's not
10:22
going to be 1 nil. It's going to be more like a
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three two, you know, sort of shoot out.
10:26
But on the flip side, I totally agree Arsenal could could hang 3
10:29
on on this Madrid side as well and then really kind of lock
10:32
them down. But you know, I think there
10:34
there will be space. Madrid will get opportunities.
10:36
Do you want to make a prediction?
10:43
Everton No, yeah, sure. I like how I use my screen and
10:48
say yeah, yeah, I think yeah. Ali sent no scores.
10:53
No, let me say, give me, give me Arsenal 2 to one.
11:00
OK, I like it. I'm going to go Arsenal 3 to
11:05
one, I think. I think they kind of like big
11:08
girl, this Real Madrid side. OK, I like it.
11:12
Let's Fast forward this one tasty match up.
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Tuesday 4:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM Pacific Bayern Munich will host
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the finalists from last year, Olympic Leone in.
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I'm going to say this is my most anticipated matchup of the four.
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I'm really excited about this one.
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What are you gonna be looking for?
11:35
Bayern Munich came out really swinging in that match.
11:38
First Wolfsburg on Friday I I was able to avoid spoilers so I
11:44
didn't watch it until Saturday night until after all the NWSL
11:48
action was over and I managed to avoid all spoilers.
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I sat down, watched and he's Byron ended up winning 3 to one
11:56
over Wolfsburg. That was a hell of a game.
11:58
I don't, I don't think Wolfsburg played poorly in it.
12:02
I just think Byron looked great like they were, they were
12:05
running into space. They looked fast, they looked
12:08
decisive. They were, they were playing,
12:12
they're playing passes like long passes on the ground, which I
12:15
thought was interesting. The announcer had noted, I think
12:18
if I understood him correctly, he had noted that Wolfsburg won
12:22
70% of Ariel balls in their previous match up.
12:26
And it as soon as he said that it was like Byron was making a
12:30
concerted effort to play most of their passes on the ground and
12:34
they were kind of frying Wolfsburg with that adjustment.
12:36
So I thought that was really interesting and they're going to
12:40
need every bit of luck and skill and luckily they have a lot of
12:45
great players, but they're going to need everything to beat Lyon,
12:48
even in Germany, I think. Yeah, I think watching that
12:53
Byron Wolfsburg match up, interesting to hear that you
12:58
kind of felt like those teams were close 'cause I I felt like
13:02
Byron was well in control of that one.
13:05
And you know, not they didn't necessarily dominate, but I
13:10
don't think at any point they were any kind of afraid of
13:13
Wolfsburg coming in there and beating them.
13:15
I mean, pernia harder. She's in insane form this
13:19
season. You combine her frown Bundesliga
13:22
and champs EIG appearances. That's 23 total, 17 goals, 2
13:27
assists and this is a player that steps up in big games.
13:30
Two goals versus Wolfsburg in this most recent match up, she
13:34
scored twice versus or she scored in two different matches
13:37
against UVA in the Champions League, scored against
13:38
Volarenga, scored against Amtrak Frankfurt when they when
13:41
definitely needed that one and then obviously hung a hat trick
13:45
on my arsenal in the group stage.
13:47
So this is the player I mean cooking, absolutely cooking.
13:52
You look at Claire Boule. Claire Boule, six goals, 11
13:56
assists for her in 23 appearances for the 24 year old.
13:59
And then Julia Gvin, you know, I think 25 year old defender,
14:02
she's just flat out one of the best players in the world for
14:05
me. She can do everything.
14:07
She's just electric. And and I think I was a little
14:12
lower on Byron after the Georgia Stanway like injury.
14:16
I was like, OK, well, they're sunk, you know, no way to kind
14:18
of get around that. But I think they've kind of
14:20
plugged the hole pretty effectively.
14:23
I think Zadrazil's been good in the midfield.
14:25
Carolyn Simone has gotten more opportunities to kind of like
14:28
put service into dangerous areas.
14:30
And you already know, like they've got the finishers to
14:32
kind of like really hurt you. Whether it's Schuler or
14:35
Damyanovich or I mean, they're just loaded.
14:38
And I'm going to save it for my predictions.
14:42
But suffice it to say, I think Byron is super live at home
14:45
against Leon. OK, sure.
14:48
I like it. Let's.
14:49
Well, I mean, I look forward to hearing more about this.
14:52
Yeah. Georgia Stanway.
14:53
What? She had the surgery on her LCL
14:57
last month, so I think it's still going to be ours about 30
15:00
days ago. So I she still has several
15:03
months until she comes back. Shout out to our pals Blue and
15:07
Gulshan in the chat. Thanks for hanging out with us.
15:11
Let's let's talk Leon because I mean, you're out here talking a
15:14
little reckless already. I don't know where you're going,
15:17
Leon. Leon has played three league
15:21
matches in the last month. And again, we always say this
15:23
with the caveat that, you know, Premier League Arkema in France
15:28
is not the most competitive league.
15:30
But in those three matches in the last month that Leon has
15:33
played, they've won by a total of 19 to one.
15:37
That's including their recent 8 to one drubbing over ROMs on
15:40
Friday. All the usual things happened in
15:42
that 81V over ROMs Hegerberg brace.
15:46
She scored in the 5th minute to open the proceedings.
15:49
Du Mornay got a goal, Wendy Renard headed in a goal, and
15:53
Ellie Carpenter got a brace. OK, so maybe not all the usual
15:57
things, that one was a bit unusual, but Leon is just.
16:01
They just look like a flying death machine right now.
16:04
They, they, they are faster than everybody.
16:06
They're, they're striking the ball better than everybody.
16:10
They just look like they're on a on a mission coming off that
16:14
that heartbreaking loss in last year's final.
16:18
I yeah, you know, I'm kind of 5050 with you.
16:22
I'm, I mean, I think you zoom out and I agree with you.
16:25
I think this team's going to be there late, late, late, late,
16:28
late, late into this tournament, and they certainly have the
16:31
firepower to do that. I just do question, you know,
16:36
they, they kind of, you know, skirted through the group stage,
16:38
you know, no problem. I mean, they're, they're,
16:40
they're obviously dominant, you know, but I, I definitely feel
16:44
like this match up in Munich might be their toughest test of
16:49
this season, you know, and I, I think that's kind of saying a
16:52
lot, you know, considering that, you know, they they do play in
16:54
France and then obviously they, they survive the group stage.
16:58
I'm going to be looking towards, you know, Melchi du Mornay to
17:03
see if if she can really kind of like stamp herself into this
17:07
Champions League. Chewinga on one side, DNE on the
17:10
other. You know, we'll see probably I
17:12
kind of mentioned Hegerberg gets a start defensively, you know,
17:16
obviously Leon's rock solid. They're going to really make it
17:18
tough for Bayern to score just because they're they're so
17:23
disciplined. Renar and Gio back there.
17:25
But you know, Carpenter out on the wing.
17:27
I'm sorry, like Carpenter out wide, you know, does have the
17:30
tendency to kind of, you know, work work her way upfield, Bosch
17:34
on the other side as well, or Suava if she plays.
17:37
So that could those those could be some opportunities.
17:39
I think the real key is like, you know, now you got me
17:42
thinking about those those passes on the ground, you know,
17:45
and you could just picture, you know, cloud bull, like, you
17:47
know, just dealing from that standpoint.
17:50
And then, you know, maybe kind of catching Lyon a little bit
17:53
off guard just because I don't think that they've they've
17:55
really faced this level of competition.
17:57
They've they've almost been playing 25 or 30 pre season type
18:00
matchups, you know, and now they're going into a bit of a
18:02
cauldron in Germany. I think that's fair.
18:05
I mean, you know, they had the two matches versus, versus
18:08
Wolfsburg in the group stage 1 won the first match.
18:13
They opened the group stage winning that 1-2 nil.
18:15
They closed the group stage winning one nil.
18:19
And it, you know what, you, you kind of opened my eyes to that.
18:22
I, I think you're probably right that at Bayern in a
18:27
quarterfinals got to be the toughest, toughest test for them
18:31
this year. So it's going to be interesting
18:32
to see how they respond, what they, what they're, what they
18:36
look like against Byron's game plan.
18:40
Man, let let's get to the prediction.
18:42
Wait, let let me get my prediction.
18:44
Let me get my prediction out of the way.
18:45
I think it's, I think it's a 2 nil victory.
18:48
We haven't even I want to give the the credit.
18:51
Leon's defense is just suffocating right now.
18:55
Like they they're scoring on you, but they also just don't
18:57
let you do anything without a lot of pressure.
19:02
So maybe maybe I'm too high on Leon.
19:04
I guess we're going to find out tomorrow.
19:05
But I'm, I'm saying 2 nothing Leon in Germany and they just
19:09
stamp themselves and let it be known we're here to win this
19:12
tournament. Yeah, I like that.
19:16
I could definitely see that happening.
19:18
That's a that's a very live outcome.
19:19
I'm going to go to 1. Bayern, I'm going to say that
19:24
maybe they get they get an early goal, maybe harder catches, Lyon
19:28
sleeping a little bit early. They go up one nil and now they
19:31
they get real cagey. You know, now it's like, OK,
19:34
let's protect it. That that's this is their only
19:36
real shot. You know, I think they've you
19:39
know, if you're Bayern, you got to feel good.
19:41
Obviously they they miss out on the quarterfinals last year,
19:45
they are playing from behind in Fram Bundesliga make up that
19:48
ground and now we're firmly in the driver's seat in that
19:51
league. And this is sort of like, you
19:57
know, it's not quite win or go home, but you know, you're going
20:00
to have to go to Lyon next week. You don't want to go in behind
20:03
the 8 ball, otherwise what's the point?
20:05
So I think we're going to get Bayern's best tomorrow.
20:08
I can see harder scoring early. I can see the game getting real
20:11
like nip and tuck and then maybe Bayern pulling out some magic
20:14
late. Couple other players to kind of
20:16
keep an eye on or maybe one player to keep an eye on Alaris
20:19
Hitler, who our guy Peter Weiss Weissy kind of like, you know,
20:24
shouted out early in the proceedings.
20:26
I was shocked. She's only she's still only 18
20:28
years old. I think she's like 18 years old
20:30
in like 100 and something days, according to FB ref.
20:33
Super fluid athlete. She looks she kind of moves a
20:37
little bit like a little bit like Melche Duvernay, but and
20:41
then also a little bit like Lily Johannes, like just very fluid
20:45
as an athlete and very fluid as a football mind too.
20:48
She can kind of make passes, distribute, makes good
20:51
decisions. I mean, they're tremendously
20:52
good decisions for a young player.
20:54
So that's a player that I think not a ton of tape on could could
20:57
kind of surprise Leon. But yeah, I'm going to rock with
21:00
two to one Bayern Munich tomorrow.
21:03
OK, I love it I mean I, I love how bold that is you know our
21:09
pal Toros in the comments. Thanks for hanging out with us.
21:12
Agrees as they think Bayern could win in Germany, but they
21:16
might not have enough over 2 legs.
21:18
I think that's super live as well.
21:22
Yeah, Alara, you know, they, they talked about her on the, on
21:26
the, on the broadcast that they, she's been just been going by
21:30
Olara recently cause some idiots have kind of Co opted her last
21:34
name on, on social media over there.
21:37
But yeah, Olara, 18 years old, born in 2006, November 27th,
21:42
November 27th, 2006, which makes her a Sagittarius for anybody
21:47
who keeps track of those kind of things.
21:49
Not sure what it means in the footballing sense but she has
21:52
looked absolute absolutely dynamite recently.
21:56
Yeah Nope Sagittarius Scorpio right on the cusp there so I
21:59
could see you know, the the all the duality in her game for sure
22:02
all right let's skip ahead Wolfsburg against the Champs
22:06
Barcelona. This one's going down Wednesday
22:09
1:45 PM Eastern. We just saw Wolfsburg, you know
22:13
kind of fall to this Byron side. We've been tracking you know
22:16
Barcelona for the better part of a couple years here.
22:21
Where's your where's the 1st place?
22:23
I mean, obviously this, this is a, a very imbalanced matchup,
22:28
probably the most imbalance of the four.
22:29
Where this that's kind of where I stand.
22:31
What are you going to be looking for, you know, maybe from
22:34
Wolfsburg or from Barcelona? Where's the 1st place your eyes
22:36
are going to lock in on this one?
22:40
I think it's got to be like, you got to have a Berenstein game, I
22:44
think. I mean, just to just to even
22:47
have hope to stay in it. They couldn't beat Mahmudovic
22:52
who which we, I guess, I guess, or Mahmudovic, pardon me, which
22:56
we didn't talk about much when we talked about Bayern, but she
22:59
looked great in goal against Wolfenburg and they and they
23:02
just couldn't beat her. So, you know, they they need to
23:06
take care of their chances. Alex Pop in that Bayern match,
23:10
lot of talking to the refs, which I know is not new for Alex
23:14
Pop. I, you know, I've, I've kind of
23:16
come to figure that out over the last few years, but you're just
23:20
not going to have, you're just not going to have any room for
23:23
that against Barcelona. The margin for error is already
23:26
tiny. We talk about it every time we
23:28
talk about Barcelona. You can't, you can't be yelling
23:31
at the refs up and down the field.
23:32
You have to be 1 trillion percent locked in at all times
23:37
if you're going against Barcelona.
23:39
And even if you are, you are, you have a tiny chance of
23:42
winning. I think this one, I think this
23:45
one could get ugly late because I don't want to disrespect
23:48
Wolfsburg too much. I, I think they have, they
23:50
obviously have a talented squad, but you know, this might be one
23:54
of those ones where the scoreline stretches after the
23:56
75th minute. I agree with you on that and
24:00
we'll see what kind of line up Romeo rolls out for Barcelona.
24:06
When you think when you look at this Wolfsburg sign, one thing
24:08
that's sneaky interesting about their line up, this is a young
24:12
team. Their average age for the last
24:15
match up against Bayern was 26 years old and that's including
24:22
the three senior players, Alex Pop, 33, Svenyuhu 34 and Lynette
24:26
Beardstein 28. So those are your 3 vets that
24:29
are over 25. Everybody else is 25 and under
24:32
and they've got a bunch of 20 twos and 20 threes on that side.
24:35
When you look at Wolfsburg defensively as well, you need a
24:39
Mingus or Islander. Caitlin Dykstra struggled
24:42
against Byron, unfortunately, and either Vivian Endemann's
24:45
probably going to drop or Lynn Williams on the other side.
24:47
They're going to have their hands full for sure against
24:52
Barcelona. I don't want to say they're
24:55
they're necessarily in real trouble, but you know, if they
24:58
struggle to kind of contain that Byron side, I think, I think
25:01
Barcelona's going to come in and there's a good chance there's
25:04
going to be Wolfsburg heads just spinning, you know, trying to
25:08
keep up with that Barcelona attack.
25:11
Yeah, I think that's a great call.
25:13
You're you're spot on. Lost my place in my notes.
25:17
This is why we don't do this show live all the time.
25:21
You're you're right on about Caitlin Dykstra and who James
25:24
Thorogood, who is very quickly becoming one of my favorite
25:27
announcers in football. Our guy, our guy.
25:30
Absolutely our future pal because we're going to get him
25:32
on the show at some point if he's if he's kind enough to join
25:35
us. He was not shy about Caitlin
25:38
Dykstra kind of falling asleep on one of those goals, which,
25:41
you know, it's just what it's just what happened.
25:43
And I think Dykstra has has imported herself pretty well
25:46
over the course of the season. But if you do that against
25:49
Barcelona, it's like a 99% chance they'll convert.
25:53
And then you can't, you can't play.
25:54
You cannot play behind the 8 ball against them.
25:58
Yeah, because it's, you know, they're not going to give up
26:01
much on the other side either, you know, with Mappi and
26:05
Torrejon and, you know, I mean, just kind of like what they
26:08
they're set up. And then even Katakoy super
26:10
experience, World Cup experience, Champions League
26:13
champion, Champions League winning experience as a keeper.
26:17
So if you do somehow get all the way past Katakoy is a big
26:20
gamekeeper, you know, like you just trust her.
26:24
I mean, you know, shot stopping. She's she's right up there with
26:28
with some of the best. There's a reason why she's just
26:30
kind of like sharpened into that into that position for them.
26:34
And then Barcelona just on the attack, you know, like, whether
26:37
it's like, I don't know, Eva Pye or facing her old club where she
26:40
played eight seasons, 96 goals, 121 appearances during her time
26:44
at Willisburg. You look at what she's been able
26:46
to do for Barcelona, 16 goals, 18 appearances.
26:50
So she's cooking Sydney Shurton live the 18 year old Come on.
26:55
Against Tenedife she had the highest fat mob rating, 8.9 for
26:59
an 18 year old in a proper League F match.
27:02
I mean that's, that's wild. You know, they start her on the
27:05
left, Vicki Lopez on the right. Think of just how much youth
27:09
that is, how much big time experience those players are
27:12
gaining, you know, so as like, you know, players age out, like,
27:15
I mean, they're, they're just developing.
27:17
They're they're doing it so intelligently from a personal
27:20
standpoint, Like I think since I've been watching Barcelona,
27:22
yes, they're loaded, but I feel like every match there's one or
27:27
two. You could never predict their
27:28
lineup. I feel like.
27:30
And I think you know that in a tournament like this is really
27:32
going to pay dividends. Yeah, 100% that's a great point
27:35
about their line up. I mean, you know, I think in the
27:38
Tenerife match, Aitana Bone Mati two time Balandor when it comes
27:43
in to start the second-half. OK, cool, that's great.
27:47
I feel great about that. If I and the player she replaced
27:50
Alexia Boutias, who scored The Who scored the opening goal.
27:53
So it's just like, I don't know what you even do with this line
27:55
up. You're you're so right about
27:57
shirt and Libe. She had two assists in that
27:59
match, could have had three if if another chance had got put
28:03
away. He has been absolutely on fire
28:06
recently and it's just another nuclear weapon that this team
28:10
has that they're just able to deploy as they see fit.
28:14
Yeah, absolutely. I'm super excited to to see what
28:18
Barcelona looks like and see how they kind of get warmed up
28:20
because you think about that attack, whoever it is on the
28:23
wings, Bariuello, CGH or the youngins.
28:27
I mean, as you know, they stretch out that Wolfsburg
28:31
defense, you know, that's going to leave space for either at
28:34
Nitana in the middle, Batri Pina or Pie or even worse, like
28:38
farther upfield. I think they're going to have
28:41
this. They're going to, I don't know.
28:44
We can make a prediction now. I think I'm with you.
28:46
I think it does get a little ugly.
28:49
I'm going to go, I'm going to go oof.
28:55
I don't know how I feel about this, but I'm going to do it.
28:56
This is where my heart's at. I think it's 5 nil Barcelona.
28:59
I think it's AI think it's a proper smashing.
29:02
OK, I like it. And not nothing against
29:05
Wolfsburg. I, I just, I just like the pick.
29:07
I'm also going to predict five goals.
29:09
I'll say 41. Barcelona.
29:11
I think Wolfsburg gets one at home, but I don't think it's
29:15
ever I don't think the result's ever in doubt.
29:18
Yeah, I like that. All right.
29:20
So some good alignment there. The alignment continues and
29:24
shout out to everybody rocking with us.
29:25
Toros, who mentioned Golshan Blue, you already know Carlo,
29:29
you already know those are guys. Casey, Flip Andfold, welcome to
29:33
the party. Not a name I recognize, but you
29:35
already know. According to Casey Flip Andfold,
29:37
we rock. We rock.
29:38
We rock with you guys in Kansas City, KC baby, we rock with the
29:42
KC as well. You know, great great NWSL
29:45
squad, pretty decent BBQ so you already know what time it is.
29:48
That's my, that's my NWSL championship pick.
29:51
So, you know, and it's honestly Kansas, Kansas City, MO is a
29:54
city that I have not been to in the United States of America
29:58
that I absolutely want to go to. And the atmosphere in their home
30:03
stadium makes me want to go there even more.
30:04
And now that I know, now that we have the KC Flippenfold cosign,
30:08
we got to figure out a way to get out there eventually.
30:10
So we appreciate you, man. Yeah, I, I, I passed through
30:14
Kansas City, spent one night there, hit a jazz club.
30:17
Good, some good food, rock, you know, spent, I don't know, 18 or
30:21
so hours there. Very cool vibe.
30:23
Like very unique, very unique vibe.
30:25
So hopefully, I don't know, hopefully our foray into women's
30:29
football, you know, takes us there at some point.
30:33
Toros in the chat. I think Wolfsburg's hopes are
30:35
with a doing it for strut approach mentality.
30:40
You know, there there's a lot of motivation motivating factors in
30:44
the in this world. Doing it for strut.
30:47
I don't know, maybe not in the top ten, top 10,000 of
30:51
motivating factors. Or maybe I'm, I'm just maybe
30:55
there's some, some interesting strut stuff that I I'm not sure
30:57
about. I hope he doesn't have some
30:59
terrible disease and now I just look like a total ass.
31:02
But either way, I don't think it's going to matter.
31:04
I think Barcelona does what they do and heads back to Spain with
31:09
a with a healthy, healthy lead. I believe he is leaving
31:16
Wolfsburg at the end of the season.
31:20
Toros, please correct us if we're if we're wrong here.
31:24
I think that's what's happening. And maybe that's why they they
31:27
would do it for Strut. But yeah, you know, you, you got
31:31
to have you got to have some kind of motivation going in
31:34
there. It's just when you look across
31:35
the field and there's Poutaeus and Bonemati and you know, Mapi
31:40
Leon Evapai or it's Selma Batiuello, it's like, OK, we got
31:45
to do it for somebody, let's try.
31:50
All right, so we'll we'll watch that one.
31:51
And now the big one. Manchester City versus Chelsea,
31:58
Wednesday, 4:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM Pacific coming off.
32:03
Yeah, that League Cup final. You know, I want to start here.
32:08
Do you feel like it's better for Citi how that League Cup final
32:11
went? Do you feel like it's worse?
32:12
Like, you know what, what's what's that?
32:14
Where do you land on this? It's such a good question.
32:17
It's it's such a good question because I don't know, man.
32:22
Like like on one hand I was like, OK, we looked pretty good.
32:27
We concede in the eighth minute to Maya Ramirez.
32:30
And then we ended up kind of like holding tough.
32:33
You know, you get the equalizer on the Fujino banger.
32:37
You have City had more of the ball.
32:39
They had more shots, 17 to 12. They had more shots on target,
32:42
six to five. They had more corners, which I
32:44
think is surprising against a team like Chelsea, sometimes six
32:48
to two. City had the advantage there.
32:50
And so I was like, OK, like they could hang with them.
32:54
But then on the other, on the other hand, they City played
32:58
well and they could hang. And again, I go back to it.
33:02
I don't mean to like beat and beat this dead horse, but the
33:05
margin for error when you play these top level, like the the
33:09
top 4 elite teams in the world, Barcelona, Lyon, Chelsea and
33:13
Orlando Pride, obviously when you play those four teams, you,
33:17
you just don't have any margin for any real error.
33:20
So the Yui Hasegawa freak unlucky own goal that will undo
33:26
you. And and so now you have this and
33:28
you have this big disappointment and now it's OK, Everybody try
33:31
to forget about that and play a Champions League match.
33:34
I don't feel wonderful about it. Yeah, I think I I've, I've kind
33:38
of landed on both sides of this because I think you look at the
33:42
city line up, they clearly wanted that one bad, you know,
33:45
for whatever reason. They wanted to win.
33:47
They came ready to win. They played really well to your
33:50
point and then fell short. So there is the possibility that
33:55
now you run it back versus this Chelsea side and they're a
33:59
little bit of like Barcelona, Madrid, they're they're kind of
34:01
in your head a little bit and you got to kind of overcome that
34:03
mentally. The flip side, you know, we see
34:06
this obviously in college football too.
34:07
You know, tough to beat the team, you know, multiple times
34:09
in a year, you know, when when they're high stakes.
34:13
You could imagine that maybe City learns some stuff here.
34:16
Obviously the Fujino goal was amazing, but it could, I don't
34:20
know, it could just be that Chelsea kind of has their
34:23
number. When you look at Chelsea, I kind
34:26
of think one player that you know, is an entertaining watch
34:29
for sure just 'cause she'll just like RIP it from me.
34:31
She'll do whatever, RIP it from anywhere.
34:33
Shoot Kaduskin. I think once you get past that
34:35
part, she's a really solid player in the defensive
34:39
midfield. She's just always in tough
34:41
spots. She's she's just an extra
34:43
defender. Like it's almost like in the NBA
34:45
where you know, there's like double s happening everywhere.
34:48
Just like somebody's sliding over to the kind of like double
34:50
and just wreaking havoc. That's what she does on the
34:52
pitch, you know, from from her spot.
34:55
She's sliding into places, she's disruptive and then offensively
34:59
she's really smart and really good and and really accurate.
35:01
So she's a dangerous player and that Chelsea side just loaded.
35:06
It could just be that from an injury standpoint, maybe too
35:10
much to overcome for for City, but but I am kind of holding out
35:14
hope because this is much like Bayern versus Lyon.
35:18
This is a spot where I don't know if city can kind of like
35:22
make a stand here and be like, hey, you know, things haven't
35:25
gone to to plan a little bit. We're not just going to roll
35:27
over, lose at home and then just kind of show up at Stamford
35:31
Bridge and, you know, just for the formality of getting beat
35:35
and and exiting this tournament in in a little bit of disarray.
35:38
So I don't know, I think there's a chance they they that they
35:41
kind of make a stand here. I like it.
35:45
I like where your head's at. I'm trying to, I'm trying to go
35:47
back just to make sure that I fact checked myself correctly.
35:51
I mean, I'm almost certain. Yeah.
35:53
So when when City got the big, the massive win over Barcelona,
35:57
that was at home, that was at Joyce Stadium, you know, they
36:02
they've shown the ability. Carlo, our pal.
36:04
Carlo asks the the $1,000,000 question is what is Bunny Shaw's
36:09
status for the Chelsea match? And my expert analysis
36:14
journalism answer is, I don't know.
36:16
It's hard to find sometimes it's hard to find injury status for
36:21
women's teams. I haven't heard anything.
36:23
She wasn't even available in the bench for the League Cup.
36:26
I don't know if that was just purely, hey, keep resting and
36:30
then we'll we'll see if you can give it a go for the Champions
36:32
League. I am not aware to this point.
36:36
And she and she obviously looms large over this.
36:39
And in terms of giving yourself chances to score goals, unless
36:44
I'm totally spacing on this, I don't think, I don't even think
36:48
Ketaline made an appearance right like.
36:52
No, I don't think so. Yeah.
36:55
So, you know, it'll be interesting to see if you can
36:57
get her out there, you know, to to see what she can do.
37:02
But I think with Guedolina, she's kind of getting like up to
37:05
speed and and, you know, understanding how she fits in
37:10
the offense. Our pals over at Shades of blue
37:12
podcast and anybody who who appreciates Manchester City
37:14
Football club, you should immediately check out the shades
37:17
of blue podcast or if you check out if you like football in in
37:20
any way, men's or women's, they do they do great stuff over
37:22
there. Our pal Krunk Chocolate over
37:25
there mentioned that Gedoline has been a little wasteful with
37:30
some possessions in her time in the NWSL.
37:33
And that the way that kind of translates is like, pardon me,
37:37
in the WSL, would Gedoline play for North Carolina Courage?
37:42
And there's this, you know, they play this wide open in general.
37:46
Let me back up. Let me make sure I'm making some
37:48
sense here. In the NWSL, you typically have
37:51
more possessions to to try to play with.
37:54
So even though the Courage play a little bit more of a
37:56
possessive style, the game itself, the tenor of those
37:59
matches themselves are a little more up and down.
38:02
In the WSL it is typically a slower pace and you don't have
38:06
as many possessions. And So what he pointed out about
38:09
Ketaline is that in some of her possessions over here for City,
38:12
she has been a little wasteful at times.
38:15
And if you do that against Chelsea, you might just get
38:18
smacked. So I, I wonder, I got to think
38:22
she has to make an appearance 'cause she is a, a genius
38:24
footballer, She's a, she's a great player.
38:26
You got to get her in the game. But I wonder if that was part of
38:29
this, the decision to not play her in that League Cup final.
38:33
And there's only one way to find out what's happened, what's
38:35
going to happen, and that's to watch the match on Wednesday.
38:38
Yeah, 100% and I think Ketaline is a really interesting
38:43
potential difference maker because it's not a player that
38:45
Chelsea will have seen to date. And shout out to Carlo in the
38:51
chat. Chelsea's bench is the
38:53
difference. Totally agree.
38:54
From a depth standpoint, you know, when you can start Myra,
38:58
you know, LJ, Macario and JRK and then you've still got
39:03
Righton, Aggie, Beaver, Jones, you know, you've got tons of
39:07
people to go. I think there was talk to that
39:08
like, I mean, I wish I could Fact Check this and apologies
39:13
again, we're we're in live mode here, but I think there there
39:16
was talk about the official. Officials on the bench.
39:19
OK, so official. Yeah.
39:20
So this isn't, you know, yeah, the rich get richer for sure.
39:25
So I think, you know, like from from a option standpoint, from a
39:29
depth standpoint, they really, really make it tough.
39:32
Much like my Orlando Pride, where you could bring players in
39:35
the last 20 minutes and you've sort of given your best to just
39:38
kind of hold and now they're bringing players that can come
39:41
over the top, can really, really make it tough.
39:43
And I think the Bunny shot point, watching her kind of
39:48
against Chelsea and how organized they were, Millie
39:51
Bright made it difficult. You know, I think Bjorn's been
39:54
really good in that spot, you know, kind of like, you know,
39:57
maybe maybe holding that spot for Germa.
40:00
We'll see. And then I think Hannah Hampton
40:02
as well. You know, I think those, those
40:04
three in the center there. If if those if that's who
40:06
starts, I think they show really, really good.
40:13
What's the word I'm looking for really good?
40:16
Discipline defensively, you know, so they're not going to
40:18
give you something. They're not going to give you a
40:20
cheap beat, you know, which is maybe why a Carol League could
40:22
kind of come in and like, you know, dazzle a little bit, you
40:24
know, some smoke and mirrors. And now maybe they they can they
40:26
can snatch an early lead. Yeah, and live Fact Check here.
40:31
So Fishel was on the bench for the League Cup final but when
40:34
naming the Champions League squads, Bolt Pastor included Sam
40:39
Kerr but had to leave Fishel out.
40:42
This is according to the BBC and bone pastor said it was quote, a
40:47
difficult decision. I believe that to an extent.
40:52
I'm not so sure how difficult a decision it ever is to leave Sam
40:56
Kerr if you have the option to put her on your squad.
41:00
Some I don't know, but I, I trust Sonja bone pastor
41:03
obviously. But like if somebody, if a
41:06
doctor looks at me and says I think Sam Kerr can go, I I
41:09
wouldn't be that difficult of a decision for me to put her, put
41:12
her in the squad. So and, and Carlo points out in
41:16
the chat girl, right, and will be missed.
41:18
She came back from international duty with a, with a, with a back
41:21
injury. I mean, they, you know, we
41:25
haven't even really seen anything from Germa.
41:28
Kira Walsh picked up a knock. She missed a couple games.
41:34
It's just like they have this weird revolving door.
41:37
But back to Carlo, back to Carlo's point, the revolving
41:41
door, even though you have great players walking out, you have
41:44
these other great players walking in.
41:46
It's a hell of a revolving door to be involved in your club.
41:49
Unbelievable. Yeah, I'm, I'm looking at the
41:50
chat here. Toros points out Neem Charles
41:53
used to come back at left back, push Baltimore up the field.
41:56
Now, now you have another attacking player potentially in
41:58
Baltimore, Neem Charles. Oh, I always appreciate how
42:01
Charles plays. I think she's really good.
42:03
And then also reminds us that Michael Amano plays for this
42:07
team. Of course.
42:08
Just another, you know, wizard that you can bring in that could
42:12
change the game now. I mean, Are you ready to make a
42:16
prediction? I think I'm ready.
42:17
I've I've got I've got where I want to go with my prediction
42:20
and I'm happy to go first or second.
42:22
I'll leave it up to you all. Right.
42:24
Go ahead, go first. OK, I think I'm going to
42:28
despite, I mean, Chelsea's going to have the second one at home.
42:32
So and they're that you know, that I, I I don't feel like
42:34
mentally they're any kind of intimidated by the city, the
42:38
City side. Now city on the other hand, this
42:42
is sort of like kind of last stand territory when you were on
42:45
the shades of blue podcast. Everybody should go check out
42:47
that episode for sure aired last week.
42:51
Very insightful stuff there. I think city on the brink or
42:57
maybe at risk of losing out on a champsic spot.
43:00
I think maybe changes a little bit of the geometry.
43:02
And now I think they might be looking at this one like we need
43:06
to do something. We we need to stop the bleeding.
43:09
We need to kind of, you know, reestab.
43:11
This is a team that beat Barcelona in the group stage not
43:15
that long ago. You know, I mean, a couple
43:16
injuries ago and you know it, it feels like a long time ago, but
43:19
it wasn't that long ago. This is a team that at their
43:21
best can play with any team, you know, even a little bit short
43:27
handed because you know, they they've got a great 11, they've
43:29
got a great 12/13 that can really play.
43:32
So I think that they make a stand here.
43:34
I'm going to say one one at City and this one goes back to the
43:39
Bridge with Chelsea still needing some work to do.
43:43
OK, I love it. For anybody who watched our, you
43:49
know, our knockout stage preview, I did full of bluster
43:55
and confidence pick city to go through.
43:59
So in the interest of I I think in the journalism industry or at
44:02
least the sports talking headed industry, I think it's referred
44:06
to as take integrity. In the interest of that I am
44:11
going to take 'cause that that fluky goal off of off of
44:15
Hasegawa, I'm gonna take Manchester City Football club 2,
44:21
Chelsea one and it's going. Do I feel great about it?
44:26
No, but I picked them to to get through in the in the preview
44:31
episode. So Carlo, don't yell at me, but
44:35
and I'll, I'll say City wins 21 at home and it's a mediuma game.
44:39
I mediuma comes out and is an absolute force because to be
44:43
just totally honest with you that I think that's what it'll
44:45
take for them to beat him. I think it'll have to be
44:47
supernova. Medium me to my time.
44:50
Yeah, that they need it and she could do it.
44:52
I think in spots she's looked really, really good.
44:55
The the exact right kind of player that you need to dominate
45:00
stretches of this match to kind of stay in it or to your point
45:03
even get a big win here. Yeah, I love it.
45:07
I mean, it's going to be interesting to see, I got to
45:09
tell you. Like I mean live producing on
45:12
the show or just our our friendship in general.
45:14
I have so many meetings and important things to do at work
45:18
tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm watching all of these
45:21
matches after work. So no, no spoilers in full
45:25
effect please. OK, spoiler free zone.
45:27
Gotcha. All right, quick look, Ed match
45:30
week two in the NWSL coming up after all of this tasty, tasty
45:34
Champions League action that we're going to get midweek this
45:36
week, some big ones. North Carolina Courage host your
45:40
Seattle rain. Washington Spirit host Casey
45:42
Current Shout out to Casey Flippenfolk.
45:44
You already know Gotham FC host my double winning champion
45:49
Orlando Pride. That's going to be exciting.
45:52
And then, yeah, I think we'll be back after the first leg of this
45:55
quarterfinal Champions League. We'll we'll have some takes.
45:57
We'll have some thoughts that we'll share.
45:59
Not sure if we're going to go live, Maybe we will, maybe we
46:01
won't. Stay tuned for that.
46:02
But yeah, with that said, anything else you want to hit
46:05
before? We get out of here.
46:06
Did you say who the Washington Spirit are playing?
46:09
Did we? Did I miss that my Casey
46:11
current? Yep, shout shout out our friend
46:14
of the show, new friend of the show Flip and fellow you already
46:17
know. Of course, and Gulshan obviously
46:20
from Washington, DC. So you know, now we have, you
46:25
know, 2 ships on a, on a collision course here.
46:27
So I'm I'm looking forward to it.
46:31
Love it all right, this is another episode of into the
46:34
channel live episode of the channel.
46:36
Thank you for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or love
46:37
1 soap as much as your boys do, make sure you're kicking with us
46:40
each and every single week. Like if you liked, subscribe,
46:43
follow YouTube, Spotify, have a podcast wherever you like to
46:45
watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
46:47
favorite podcast app. We want to hear from you.
46:49
We'd love to hear from you. Links to all of our socials
46:51
except one and the show notes of this episode.
46:54
And a big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant Angle for
46:56
never being afraid to do it live, my guy.
46:59
I appreciate you bro. Likewise, buddy, thank you
47:01
everybody for hanging out with us.
47:03
We got you know what is it let's do let's do the math hundred 180
47:07
* 2 Oh boy me trying to do live math on the show what what are
47:13
four matches of 360 minutes of football coming up in the next
47:18
in the next two two days very much looking forward to it
47:21
looking. It really wasn't that hard of
47:23
math to do now that I look back at it, it's OK.
47:26
This is why we record the show usually because so Dino can make
47:28
me look like not such an idiot but we appreciate appreciate you
47:31
guys for rocking with us and we will talk to you all next time.