Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL SEMIFINAL PREVIEW! Bayern München v Barcelona | Arsenal v OL Lyonnes

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UWCL SEMIFINAL PREVIEW! Bayern München v Barcelona | Arsenal v OL Lyonnes · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:06
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:10
supply. I'm your host Dino de Suspicious
0:12
and as always, I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
0:17
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:20
Is it a sleepy boys podcast? You're God damn right it is.
0:23
But I'm ready because the Champions League is back.
0:29
I mean that I went to the the Bayern website and they have,
0:31
they've got a really handy countdown clock timer and it was
0:34
like one day and 20 something hours.
0:36
I'm like, oh, buddy, let's go, let's go get warmed.
0:40
All right, man. Yeah, I think you already
0:41
alluded to it. We're just on the heels of a
0:44
Champions League weekend. So a lot to talk about.
0:46
Maybe not that much to talk about, maybe just two matches.
0:48
But with that, said Mr. Granting Wait, Wait, start.
0:52
Let's get started with a beverage to celebrate those two
0:54
matches, my good man. What's cheers to you?
1:01
Cheers to you, cheers to the football, cheers to the
1:04
Champions League. I'm not going to, I'm not going
1:07
to let the melancholic feelings take me over too much.
1:11
Five matches remaining in the the world's greatest tournament,
1:15
the celebration of life that is the UEFA Women's Champions
1:18
League. Let's just live in the moment
1:20
and celebrate the matches that are coming up this weekend.
1:23
Celebration of life, that was the nice group of life call back
1:27
that kind of gave me, give me some 2023-2024 vibes.
1:30
I appreciate that. Four teams left five matches,
1:35
but these are the five, right? I mean, we're going to, we're,
1:39
we're about to get busy. We've got 2 this weekend, 2 next
1:43
weekend. First leg though, I think you
1:45
mentioned it. Bayern versus Barcelona open the
1:48
proceedings Saturday, 9:15 AM. Where's the 1st place you're
1:52
thinking about with this matchup?
1:54
I think we're going to get a lot of cool matchups within the
1:58
matchup, if you will let me see here.
2:00
I mean, So what do you think about potentially Clara Bull,
2:05
Verzona Batia or Momoka Tanakawa versus Mappy Leon, Julia Given
2:10
versus Claudia Pina, Georgia Stanway versus Alexia Bouteus?
2:14
He got a lot of stars in these game, in this game, my good man.
2:17
Oh my God, it's going to be wild.
2:19
I think it's interesting because a lot of rumors this week too,
2:24
and this might be the only pathway for Byron to kind of
2:27
really get get be competitive at this point is if there's a
2:30
little bit of a Barcelona implosion, like some of the free
2:33
agent, you know, murmurs and and unsettled feelings start to
2:37
trickle over. But you got like Alexia rumors
2:39
that feel pretty real. Sure, you know, Mapi Leon rumors
2:42
that feel pretty real. Both of those players tied to
2:45
London City lionesses and then Ona bartier a a a player that
2:50
you've mentioned tied to arsenal as well.
2:52
And I think like it kind of feels real and, and, and the
2:56
reason I bring it up is the, the, the line up that was played
2:58
against Espanol, it was pretty much all the youngins, CGH and
3:04
Martha Torrejon. You know, you, if you have, if
3:06
you take out those two vets, even including at that goal, the
3:10
average age against Espanol is 19.7 years old.
3:13
So we might be for, you know, on the, on the heels of a of a of a
3:17
page turning here. But either way, Barcelona's got
3:20
a good A-Team and a really good B team.
3:22
Yeah, it turns out a lot of the young players they have are
3:24
pretty good too. I mean, they showed A versus
3:26
Espanol. I mean people could say what
3:27
they want to get about League F, Barcelona, the the footballing
3:32
culture. I know I talk about it a lot.
3:33
That's just the ethos that they have, everybody moving in in One
3:37
Direction. I mean, it is the Barcelona club
3:42
is Pat Riley's dream scenario where every the main thing is
3:48
indeed the main thing. Everybody is moving in the right
3:52
direction. There is a a symmetry and a
3:55
collective toughness that I I really admire about everything
4:00
Barcelona does. I think you're right.
4:02
If I may move us a little forward, I got some feelings
4:07
here like look, Bayern might be out for revenge.
4:09
Bayern has a lot of great players.
4:11
They just, you know, clinched, you know, they just clinched
4:14
their league as well from Bundesliga.
4:16
Sorry, but drew a blank there for a second.
4:19
I think this game, even in Germany, I think has the
4:22
potential to be a Barcelona ass kicking of Bayern Munich.
4:27
I don't know if I'm just getting that feeling and like I, you
4:30
know, the the result versus Espanol notwithstanding, I just
4:32
think Barcelona's the best club in the world right now.
4:35
I think I think that's that's very obvious that that that's
4:38
where you've they've got to be ranked.
4:40
And I'll tell you why I think Bayern's in real trouble.
4:42
I went through the thought exercise watching, you know,
4:44
that Barcelona, I don't even want to call them the B team,
4:46
but the Barcelona young, the young, the young squad.
4:50
I'm watching that side and I'm like, I think I would take this
4:53
11 over Bayern in terms of like how good they looked and how
4:56
much how much talent is still on the pitch.
4:58
I mean, they're still loaded and they just played so well, you
5:02
know, and, and it was, I mean, he kind of reminds me of the US
5:06
women's national team conversation that we were
5:08
talking about with like identity or lack thereof.
5:10
Like Barcelona is the complete opposite.
5:12
Players swap in, swap out and you almost can't tell the
5:15
difference. I think you're 100% right.
5:17
I mean, Carla, Julia, have yourself a day versus Espanol.
5:21
How about two assists in a goal? She was absolutely phenomenal
5:26
the the, the shot to to open the scoring in the second minute
5:30
versus Espanol. Just sometimes a player hits the
5:33
ball and it's just a thump. Like when like you get like
5:38
think of the. Same word.
5:39
Like it's just like it was so heavy sounding when she struck
5:43
it. Yeah, it's almost like a like a
5:45
cricket like that, that hammer hammering that hardball. 100%.
5:50
Kind of felt like that. It's really, really impressive
5:53
from Barcelona. And then another youngster I
5:56
believe in Norwegian Martine Martina Fenger.
5:59
Two goals in this 119 years old, seven box touches, completes 11
6:03
/ 11 passes attempted, four shots, 3 on target, two goals
6:07
and daggers, you know, gets the third one, you know, gets her
6:11
first goal 56 minute in A-21 match, you know.
6:15
So I mean the dude was still pretty competitive before finger
6:19
steps in and and just bags two goals.
6:22
Norway on the rise, my good man is just keep that, keep that
6:27
energy. I mean, Speaking of Norwegians
6:29
CGH, she has a goal and an assist and the Sarah Jordy
6:33
passed the through ball to play CGH in.
6:38
I love that that's that was outstanding.
6:41
But after CGH scores just the ice cold silly where she just
6:46
stands like she just goes, she just veers off and then just
6:50
stands completely still. We talked about, I forget who we
6:54
were to Oh, we were talking about during the Jess Fishlock
6:56
retirement episode. We talked about her potentially
6:59
having a statue. I don't know what the CGH statue
7:02
is going to look like wherever it's placed, whether it's in
7:04
Norway or in Barcelona, but she stood like a statue for that
7:09
celebration. And I sat there, I was like,
7:11
that's ice cold. I I like to see that.
7:14
Yeah, that had some some Thanos vibes too.
7:17
She just, she just said I'm going to freeze.
7:21
Let let let you know. I mean, that was so awesome.
7:23
Great moment for ZGH. I want to talk a little bit
7:27
about Byron too. You mentioned Cloud Bull who
7:30
came back from injury and, you know, kind of got right into it.
7:35
I had to double check this last Wednesday on Byron's website,
7:38
they announced that Julia Gavin hadn't suffered A dislocated
7:44
shoulder. And then I'm like, wait, is that
7:48
possible? Because I I double checked it,
7:50
it read correct, you know, and that's one of those injuries
7:54
where once it gets kind of popped back into place and in
7:57
theory, you could kind of get back out there.
8:00
But still incredible if that that's the case.
8:03
But yeah, I mean, I double checked it about three times.
8:05
The article was posted last Wednesday.
8:07
So given back in action looking great.
8:10
But you mentioned frowned. Bundesliga and their fourth
8:13
straight title for Bayern. They've got one more match
8:16
against Wolfsburg, May 14th, the DFI Pocal final taking place in
8:21
Cologne. I zoomed out to this year.
8:24
They've played 36 matches. They've won 33 of those.
8:28
Well, two draws, one of them on September 20th, Nil Nil to Carl
8:34
Zeiss. Yina showed great vision in that
8:37
one. Right.
8:39
December 10th 22 in the Champions League at Atleti.
8:43
Those are their two draws for on on the year.
8:46
And then they've got the one loss to Byron 7/1 at home where
8:51
they get they get beat pretty handily.
8:54
You know, the they the defense looked completely, you know,
8:57
just Swiss cheese. I tonic plays in that one.
9:00
Julia Gavin does not play in that one.
9:02
So there was some stuff to it. It's at Barcelona, but it was
9:06
such a beat down that it it's tough to kind of overlook.
9:09
But then you know, the flip side is that that's their one loss in
9:12
36 this year. So I mean, you've got to take
9:15
that into account as well. I think it's a great point by
9:18
you and you know, any of our German pals, please shout at me
9:23
in German in in the comments if I'm, if I'm like undervaluing
9:28
you guys, But I I think it's going to be a huge uphill battle
9:33
even at home. But they do have the quality.
9:35
I mean, you know, if they sneak one in in the first like 1520
9:39
minutes, like, you know, it could, it could get real
9:42
competitive. Like I'm trying to like
9:45
honestly, though, the the tricky thing about when you play
9:47
Barcelona, what do you have to do to to keep it close versus
9:53
Barcelona and give yourself a chance to either walk away with
9:55
a point or by some miracle get a victory?
9:58
I mean, you have to, you have to hope that, you know, the Alexia
10:03
CGH connection is not like working overtime.
10:07
You have to hope that Pina misses a chance or two.
10:09
You have to hope that Evapai or is not just carving up your
10:13
center backs and getting into spaces and and getting like one
10:16
V1 with the with the goalkeeper. And then you have to you know,
10:20
you have to you have to pack it in on defense and then try to
10:22
take advantage of your opportunities on the attack.
10:25
There's just there's just so little margin for error against
10:31
Barcelona. And and you absolutely, and
10:34
sorry if I'm jumping all over the place here, but you need
10:36
your crowd to be into it from the opening whistle, from before
10:40
the opening whistle. You got to try to find any way
10:42
to put pressure on Barsa. Just very few teams can do that.
10:46
Yeah, and, and that barren crowd, you know, I feel like
10:50
has, you know, when they're on, when they're on, they could be
10:53
way on, you know, that that becomes a cool environment.
10:56
But when they get a little nervy, you know, that place
11:00
feels very cavernous at that point, you know, and it's sort
11:03
of like, you know, that that edge kind of dissipates pretty
11:07
immediately. So I think in terms of like,
11:10
what is Byron going to have to do?
11:12
I agree with you. They're going to have to pack it
11:13
in, but they're going to have to do more than that because
11:16
Barcelona is so creative in the final third that just being
11:21
packed, just being there is not as is not enough.
11:23
They've got to really be locked in, you know, just full focus
11:28
the full 90 minutes, especially when the ball's kind of in that
11:30
danger area. If they do that, you know that
11:34
they might get a chance or two or three over the course of the
11:36
match. And we'll see what they were
11:37
there able to kind of make happen, you know, cloud bull
11:41
dangerous, pretty hard or dangerous or they've got,
11:44
they've got firepower, you know, it can turn around quickly, but
11:47
we have seen them struggle when they're in that defensive shell
11:51
to kind of turn it into offense. Man, I don't know that they
11:55
they've got a ton of reps doing that.
11:56
They're usually more of like a front running team, But I don't
12:00
the the environment could be exciting.
12:03
I went on the website, they had an announcement saying that they
12:06
had, they'd already sold 20,000 tickets to this match.
12:08
And then there was a Harry Kane pop up and I was like, wait, am
12:11
I in the wrong place? But, and then I, I dismissed
12:13
that Harry Kane pop up and I was like, no, yeah, it is.
12:15
Yeah, the, the women's match, they did sell 20K.
12:17
So shout out. To them.
12:19
So Harry, Harry Kane just appeared on the website just to
12:23
just show up to say hello. Yeah, just to get in my way and
12:26
annoy me a little bit. Sweet.
12:28
All right, great. Yeah.
12:33
Thanks, Harry. I appreciate you.
12:35
Yeah. I no, no, it's fine.
12:39
I was going to talk about, you know, him missing an important
12:42
shot in the 2022 World Cup, so that's fine.
12:44
I'm not bitter about. I'm not angry about it at all.
12:48
Missed a penalty. Just really hit it a mile over
12:50
the crossbar. Whatever.
12:50
Doesn't matter. It's not important.
12:53
We're definitely not mentioning that on.
12:55
The yeah, you know, to your point, though, like Bayern has
13:01
to find a way to turn defense into offense.
13:03
You talked about Bull coming back from that injury, Given
13:06
coming back off her shoulder injury.
13:09
The Bull to Given winner versus Union Berlin midweek.
13:13
That was a work of art, didn't Clara Bull certainly didn't look
13:17
like she'd been out for a month. Seemed like she was fine.
13:22
But I also, you know, we also saw in that Union Berlin match,
13:26
they were able to kind of unlock Bayern's defense twice now, one
13:30
was Sophie Weidauer. Weidauer, pardon me, just
13:34
completely dispossessed and outran Barbara Dunst.
13:37
I, I, I'm not sure Barbara Dunst is going to get minutes first
13:40
Barcelona. But like, it's pretty obvious
13:43
you cannot have that kind of mistake versus versus Barcelona.
13:48
So yeah, I mean, I'm excited to watch it and even, and I don't
13:54
know if it's just where I land on the sicko meter, but even
13:57
when Barsa just drubs teams, I'm still compelled and I still like
14:01
to watch because I just want to see like the different ways that
14:06
they're able to score. Then they start rotating in
14:08
young players. It's like, well, who's this
14:09
player and how good are they going to be over time?
14:12
So I'll be absolutely locked in. But of course I got like a work
14:16
thing on Saturday, so I'll have to watch it later, but we'll
14:18
figure it out. All right, no spoilers.
14:20
That's OK. Yeah, it's sort of like watching
14:23
a a fighter land like a 10 bunch combination.
14:27
Oh my God, What does that? I've never seen that before.
14:31
And then like I said, you swap, swap players, swap in or out.
14:34
Speaking of those young, those young players is going to trip
14:37
you out. I think I was on Twitter doing a
14:40
little research and I saw kind of like a grainy image of one of
14:46
the Barcelona, Barcelona, these young players, Rosalia
14:48
Dominguez. And the image looked a little
14:50
grainy and like a little low res.
14:53
And then it said 2008 Barcelona. And I was like, it took me a
14:57
minute to kind of figure out. I was like, was this is this a
15:00
photo from 2000? And then I realized that no, no,
15:03
Rosalie Dominguez was born in 2008, October 11th, 2008.
15:09
And I was like. Oh, so I'm no math major That
15:15
makes her 1718? 17, I believe yeah Yep got the
15:22
start against Espanol, so one of those, you know, just up and
15:27
comers who's playing for almost up 17 pretty good almost having
15:31
come Yep there we go and then another quick shout out to
15:34
Alexia, a player that for me Barcelona has to find a way to
15:39
keep this player in the building.
15:40
Absolute legend notches her 500th appearance and you know,
15:45
with Barcelona's league half title, that makes 36 trophies
15:50
with Barcelona surpassing. I think this is a player on the
15:55
men's side. Leo Messi, I don't know.
15:58
Heard of him I think. He's a guy.
16:00
Yeah. Good play on the website.
16:02
So he's got 35, Alexia 36, gives me a, gives me an opportunity to
16:08
do my limited fake Chris Sharples, the queen.
16:14
Always good. I love hearing that that Leo
16:17
Messi guy. I think you might be able to
16:19
catch him at Palacios de la Hugel in in Miami, I think.
16:23
Or wait, what's the is that? Is that the is that the place
16:26
I'm thinking of? Am I at least close?
16:28
That's definitely a place one of them.
16:30
There we go. La Carreta maybe.
16:32
Who knows? You could see Leo anywhere.
16:37
Yeah. I mean, I'm glad you bring up
16:38
Puteas because our pal, the ultimate ball knower, MLS
16:43
architect who's always helping us out when we're talking
16:45
Champions League, you're talking Barcelona has been fervent in
16:51
the comments talking about the Alexia coming back for that ball
16:55
on door. If you can go a long way, you
16:58
know, on the March to a Champions League trophy to
17:01
secure that, to secure that title for herself once again.
17:05
And I got to think, you know, the way she's been playing the,
17:09
the over the course of the year, she's got her sights set on it.
17:13
So good. I watch.
17:14
I think she got the first goal against Byron and absolute
17:17
banger. I mean still so the very, very,
17:20
very top of her game. Let's let's talk about the
17:23
second right. Well, you want to do some
17:24
predictions. Of course I do.
17:27
You want to go first or you want me to do the honors?
17:30
I'll go. First, I think you, I think
17:31
you've kind of gone on that limb a couple times, last few times.
17:37
I think this one is not as close as we're hoping.
17:41
I think it's pretty. I think it's a pretty wide
17:42
margin. Give me 4 to 1 Barcelona.
17:48
God damn it. All right.
17:49
I thought I was going to be doing a thing.
17:50
OK, That was my pick, man. Like, no joke.
17:53
Like, that was literally my pick.
17:55
And I was like waffling a little bit between 4:00 one and three
17:57
one. And I was like, trust yourself,
17:59
Grant. Go with the four one.
18:01
Don't do 310. OK, well, all right.
18:05
Hey, man. Great minds.
18:08
Yeah, next, next time, Arsenal, Leo, you'll get the first crack
18:10
at it. Apologize.
18:12
No apology, no apologies necessary, no Thunder stolen.
18:15
I, I like it. I like it as a cosign.
18:17
I just, I feel a little silly that I'm just like, yeah, I'd
18:21
say 412. That's fine.
18:23
That's why we do the show. I I'm with you, man.
18:26
I just think Byron's in huge trouble, even at home.
18:28
I just the way Barcelona is playing right now against good
18:33
competition, against the, the, you know, the the competition in
18:37
league, if it don't matter who you set out there, I think
18:39
Barcelona is a buzz saw right now.
18:41
Absolutely. Yeah.
18:42
A couple of the quick stats from that.
18:43
From that 71 win, Barcelona outshoots Byron 21 to 8.
18:48
Byron allows 13 shots on target from 9 different players, 9
18:53
different. Imagine 9 different Barcelona
18:55
players getting a shot on target and then you allow them 91% pass
18:59
completion and then you allow them to connect 612 passes on
19:04
the day. Imagine chasing Barcelona for
19:06
612 passes, 90 minutes and that's just torturous straight
19:10
torture. But let's go to head Arsenal
19:13
Leone keeping it chronological this Sunday, 7:30 AM Pacific.
19:19
Your boy will be up for that one and I'll be ready.
19:22
I might get a little stretching before that so I don't want to
19:25
be nice and limber. Little loosey goosey for the
19:28
semi final action, but where do you want to get started with?
19:31
This one, I think you're going to need it.
19:33
I think it's going to be highly competitive.
19:35
I mean, you know, I won't spoil my prediction right away, but I
19:41
think this one's going to be significantly closer than the
19:43
Bayern Marcelona match. I think this one's going to be
19:47
in doubt probably late in the match as well.
19:51
So you know, Leon plays midweek, they get a four nil victory over
19:56
Dijon foot and I think in the on the French broadcast I was
20:02
listening to, I think they kept calling them Dijonne, you know,
20:05
but I don't I don't see any like ES at the end.
20:08
But you know, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go out on
20:10
a limb and trust the French broadcasters there probably not
20:14
a not a ton to take from a midweek match versus Dijonne for
20:20
Lyonne. But one thing I did see, you
20:24
know, when Sophie Sfava came onto the field and we've talked
20:27
about this many times, I'm going to hit you with a real ground
20:29
breaking observation and she's good.
20:33
You can play, she can play. I believe the leads, Leon and
20:38
assists. If I'm not mistaken, she's got
20:39
eight on the season, so cooking from that standpoint.
20:42
So getting it done from from there.
20:46
I'm going, I'm going to tip my hand a little bit on my pick
20:50
because I'm putting Leon. I dug into a little bit, man,
20:54
and I'm putting, I'm putting, I'm putting Leon on fraud alert.
20:57
Wow. I'm putting Leon on straight
21:00
fraud alert and and it's not that they don't have good
21:04
players or a good coach, they've got both of those things they
21:07
do. But to me, they have yet to kind
21:10
of like really put together like how this team is supposed to
21:13
win. And I think when you look at the
21:15
line UPS, like I'll give you the forward room and just the
21:20
problems that are presented there.
21:22
So all of these players are options for hit, Aldis, Diani,
21:26
Katoto, Chewinga, Otto, Hegerberg, you LeBron, Vicki
21:29
Betcho. That's six for three spots,
21:32
right? Because you know, Du Mornay is
21:34
going to we'll put two money in the midfield as it started.
21:37
And then when you look a little deeper, you're like, wait, who
21:40
do I trust there? Because you know, Katoto
21:43
struggled a little bit, DN ES struck a little bit out of
21:46
Hegerberg. It's got three goals on the year
21:49
in the league and she's got five point three XG.
21:52
So she's underperformed there. And and Hegerberg specifically,
21:56
four point six shots per ninety, two point three shots on target
21:59
per ninety. Those are good numbers.
22:01
But then zero point three, six goals per ninety, like really a
22:05
real fall off there, you know, true, real trouble turning shots
22:08
on target into goals. And then Vicki Betcho, a player
22:13
we probably don't expect to start, is second on this team
22:15
with Eagles, I think behind ketoto.
22:19
So there's just a lot of question marks in terms of like
22:21
how you piece it together, what you do, you know, even on the
22:24
backline, there's question marks.
22:25
You know, there's been some some rotating, you know, and it's
22:27
like who do you trust really? You know, because there just
22:32
hasn't been a lot of proof points in big games with with a
22:37
core that you feel really positive about.
22:39
There's been I don't think they've been moving in and out
22:42
and I'm I'm really interested to see who they play and then how
22:46
those players look. Because to your point, you know,
22:49
like Asfava, Vicky Besho, you know, Lily Johannes, is she
22:54
going to play or is it going to be more of like a, you know,
22:57
dumb heaps do more either. Like there's, there's just real,
22:59
real questions and there's a lot of ways to kind of get it wrong,
23:03
especially against a team like Arsenal.
23:07
I like it. I like, I like where your head's
23:09
at here. Yeah.
23:10
So Leon's top scorers, Tabitha Chewinga first with eleven
23:15
goals, but that you were right. Vicki Betcho second with eight.
23:19
Schrader and Katoto tied with six.
23:21
Wouldn't have had that ahead of the season.
23:24
I would, you know, I would think Katoto would beat the second
23:27
goal scorer or, or the first. Her and Chewing obviously are
23:31
going to fight it, always fight it out for that, at least in my
23:33
thought. But not this season in the
23:36
Premier League. Obviously fraud alert feels
23:40
strong, but that's why you're the greatest.
23:42
That's I like, that's why you're fucking good at this.
23:45
That's why I like doing the show with you.
23:48
But I I see I see your point, though, and like you can be a
23:53
little fraudulent when you go up against another world class
23:58
team. Like obviously Leona's expected
24:01
to be, you know, in that top four that we always, you know,
24:06
that we always talk about Barcelona, Leon, Chelsea.
24:11
You know, you can put Arsenal in there.
24:12
You can put Manchester City football club in there if you
24:14
want. You know, you so sometimes you
24:17
put Orlando pride in there. Sometimes you put Kansas City
24:19
current in there. You never know.
24:22
But you know, when when I'm going to see just I'm going to
24:26
just start just firing cliches out here.
24:28
But like when the rubber meets the road in these like big
24:32
matches of elite team versus elite team, you know, you need
24:36
to be able to have an identity of we're going to go to this and
24:41
we think this is and this is going to work.
24:43
And if it doesn't work, then we have a change up that we can
24:46
then go to. And you know, with Hegeberg kind
24:49
of like drifting into the background, you got to think
24:53
it's like, OK, well can do more. Can Dumornet be the world beater
24:57
that we need her to be? And we think I think she can.
25:00
I think you agree with me there. We've talked about it for a long
25:02
time. But if that doesn't work and
25:05
then you got to go to something else, you know, is it Diani?
25:08
Is it is it Chewinga? Or is there confusion or is
25:14
there some hesitation on who's who's going to take the mantle
25:17
after that? And if you do that against
25:19
Arsenal's defense, you are in for a bad.
25:22
Time. Yeah, I think I kind of feel
25:25
like Leon's midfield might be the key here.
25:29
You know, you mentioned Du Monet and we're not sure if it's going
25:31
to be Heaps or Schrader, Johannes or Duhamel.
25:34
Like, we'll see what that looks like, but that might be an area
25:40
where they might be able to out muscle Arsenal.
25:43
But I just kind of feel like, you know, good play, good
25:47
players, but I'm not sure how much I trust them up top.
25:50
And I and I went back and and rewatched match day one Leo and
25:55
Arsenal and I remember kind of like, I don't want to say
25:59
overreacted. But you reacted.
26:02
You about Arsenal. What?
26:04
Way out of character, you know, way out of character from time
26:07
to time, you know, boy, a backslide.
26:10
But I went back and watched it. I'm like, oh, I mean, you know,
26:13
first of all, the centre back pairing Steph Gatley takes a a
26:17
really bad kick right in the ankle like five minutes in and I
26:20
think at the end he gets a yellow card probably if I mix
26:22
even football players up. But somebody on on on Leon gets
26:26
the yellow card for a for a really nasty foul early.
26:29
And then Steph Catley was paired with Katie Reid.
26:31
Nineteen year old Katie Reid, who a little bit out over her
26:36
skis in that matchup. Haven't haven't, you know,
26:39
hasn't logged a ton of minutes since then.
26:40
Need to put in a tough spot, but Katie Reed was involved in in
26:45
some of those giveaways. I think that if you know very a
26:49
big hand in that first one to do Marnay and it's a two one loss,
26:52
you know, and then off two bad giveaways chances both ways.
26:56
I mean Leon was the better team on that day, but rewatching it,
27:00
it wasn't. It wasn't as bad a loss for us
27:04
and as as I remembered. I think that's fair.
27:08
Arsenal had some additional chances.
27:10
I mean, you know, Mead gets the OR.
27:11
Pardon me, Mead absolutely fries Leon's defense and then gets the
27:18
ball off to to. Peeps and Tarziano, yeah.
27:21
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah.
27:23
I mean, it was a Keystone cop situation between those two.
27:26
And then, you know, you lay it off to Russo and she puts it,
27:29
tucks it far corner. I mean, Du Mornay was a
27:34
supernova in that match. She was a nightmare to deal
27:37
with. And obviously you mentioned
27:41
Daphne van Damselaar. She she had the bad giveaway for
27:44
the first goal to Du Mornay even, but still managed to save
27:48
one Du Mornay shot before Melchi put in the second one.
27:52
But you know, also right before halftime, it could have been
27:55
worse than two. One DVD had to come up with
27:58
another like two saves right in a row versus chewing and Du
28:02
Mornay before going back into the dressing room for the half.
28:06
So I do think, I mean, if you look at the teams in the last
28:11
four teams left, I would say Barsa and Arsenal are the two
28:16
teams that you also don't want to piss off and have to get like
28:20
have them gunning for revenge against you.
28:23
And Arsenal is right there in that situation with Leon where
28:27
they're probably looking back at that match and being like, that
28:30
wasn't that was not even close to our best.
28:33
You're going to get it now in the semi final.
28:36
That that that's interesting. And I think Arsenal's obviously
28:41
playing from a position of, you know, defending champion in the
28:43
tournament and having played from behind a little bit last
28:46
year. And they I think they know also
28:48
that they're going to need to have a big performance in this
28:52
first matchup. And I think on the flip side, I
28:56
think I think they want to see what Leon mentally is going to
28:59
be able to do if Arsenal jump out to a lead, because I got to
29:03
imagine Leon, their mindset might be, hey, second ones at
29:08
home, we'll be all right. No matter what happens here,
29:11
we'll be all right. We don't want to, you know, ours
29:13
is not going to, you know, handle us.
29:16
But I, I can't, I kind of feel like I can see them in a mindset
29:20
where they're not at the same level of engagement as an
29:25
Arsenal. And if they give up one early
29:28
and Arsenal kind of jumps out to a lead I'm going to be
29:30
interested in, I'm really just to see how they responded at
29:33
that point. I think it's a great shout by
29:36
you. I do not think and obviously no
29:39
team goes in thinking like that. We could concede the first one
29:42
then make it back. But like I do not think that
29:46
would be a recipe for good things for Leon if they concede
29:49
the first one here. Because, you know, as we've seen
29:52
and as I've been talking about ever since, the better than a
29:55
buy when they got to play, when Arsenal got to play, OH, Louvin
29:58
and we've seen them kind of, you know, ramp up.
30:01
Now they do have the two straight losses.
30:02
What now? The one was a relatively
30:05
meaningless loss to Chelsea in the quarterfinals at the bridge.
30:11
They lose that match one nil, but then they get knocked out of
30:13
the FA Cup semi final versus Brighton, a kind of a pardon me,
30:17
the FA Cup quarterfinal two nil loss at home to Brighton.
30:25
But it still feels like arrow trending up for your Gunners.
30:31
And I think in this one, if you're Lyon, I feel like I I'll
30:38
be real interested to hear what how herald does talks about the
30:41
match pre match and then post match in terms of his
30:45
preparation. I think Lyon should go into this
30:48
and be like we got to get a point, at least a point out of
30:52
this out of this first one to kind of make sure that we're in
30:57
in the right shape. Like I don't know how you
31:00
convince yourself of that, though, when you are the
31:04
absolute powerhouse that Leone is in their league.
31:08
They are fourteen points clear of Perry FC.
31:12
They have a plus sixty three goal differential in Premier
31:17
League or Kema seventy two goals for nine against Oh.
31:23
My gosh, that's a eight to one ratio from doing that, right?
31:29
That's incredible. I mean, I just questioned what
31:34
how much that's prepared them for this one, though, you know,
31:38
and I think when I look at that line up and I feel like I'm not
31:41
sure, you know, what the best setup is and not that I should
31:45
know, but I feel like I should have some semblance just from,
31:49
you know, where we're at this season.
31:54
And I'm going to be interested in their mentality.
31:56
Like I said, you know, we'll see if if they're able to come from
32:00
behind, if the situation calls for it.
32:04
I think the game broke really nicely for them.
32:06
I'll say that match day one. And I'm pretty confident Renee
32:11
Slayer's, that Arsenal team, that DNA.
32:15
They there won't be those same giveaways, you know, could be
32:18
the same result, but it'll certainly look different.
32:22
Super excited for this match up. Right, let's get to some
32:25
predictions. What do you think it for this
32:26
one? I am going to go with, I think.
32:35
I think I'm going to go with Leon getting the point in a
32:40
super scrappy match. And and you know, maybe Lyon
32:43
comes into this and sorry, I didn't hit this point earlier,
32:45
but maybe Lyon comes into this thinking like, no, no, no, this
32:48
is we yeah, we beat them in match day one of this of this
32:53
tournament, but it's our revenge time after that just hideous
32:58
semi final performance that they put up across two legs,
33:02
particularly in the second leg, last in last year's UA for
33:06
Women's Champions League. I'm going to, I'm going to go
33:09
and say one, one, Leon gets the point and then Arsenal as
33:15
champions have to go into France, into France and get it
33:20
done in in like two. One, one.
33:22
Damn you. That's not what I'm going to
33:26
say. OK, You know, it's let me just
33:30
make sure that we're still Yep, we are still on fraud alert.
33:35
Yes, we are. Give me three to one to the
33:39
Gunners. You know, it was a two to one
33:42
loss match day one. I feel like the the you know, my
33:45
Gunners see your two, one Leon and raise you to three one.
33:50
We, you know, we've we've got friends Leon.
33:52
So you just do nothing personal, but, well, that's, that's that's
33:58
that's what my both my head and my heart are telling me.
34:02
Yeah, You know, we just call it like we see it.
34:04
That's all we do. And you know, sometimes we get
34:06
it right. A lot of times we get it right,
34:08
to be fair, and then sometimes we get it wrong.
34:11
So yeah, I like it. I mean, it's it's, I certainly
34:14
believe it's on the board bad, I bad.
34:19
This one's going to be a banger. I'm obviously, like I said
34:22
earlier, like I like to watch Barcelona play in any conditions
34:25
against any team. I don't care if Barcelona's
34:27
playing, I'm watching. I am so psyched for these two
34:31
teams to match up Arsenal and Leon in London.
34:36
I just think, I mean this is this is the the jewel of the
34:39
weekend in my view. Oh my God, we're here to every
34:43
league weekend. So pumped.
34:45
Rest of the football calendar. Like I mentioned, leg ones this
34:48
weekend, leg two next weekend, flip the order.
34:51
Leon, Arsenal Saturday, May second persona, Byron Sunday May
34:54
third, and the BSL also returns this weekend.
34:57
A lot of good matchups. Make sure you're subscribed,
35:03
Follow your boys on all the socials.
35:05
All right, man, I think we've gone and done it.
35:07
Is there anything else you want to hit before we get out of
35:09
here? I think that's about it.
35:11
I mean, I'll just throw out a plug here.
35:13
I've the, the, the flights booked, the, the hotels are
35:17
booked. I'm going to be in Oslo, Norway
35:21
for the UEFA Women's Champions League final.
35:24
I try to do some reporting, trying to do a little
35:26
journalism, but while I'm not doing journalism, if you guys
35:30
are are out there hanging out, I don't know, I'll have a beer or
35:33
whatever. I'm not, I'm not like the most
35:34
social guy, but I do a podcast talking about football.
35:38
And so if, if people want to hang out and talk about
35:40
football, just hit us up. I don't know, it's just I'll see
35:43
what's going on. I, I, I might go see.
35:46
I saw a cool museum with like one of the like world's oldest
35:49
ships, like a Norwegian ship that went up north.
35:52
I was a a sailor once in my life and so I'm kind of interested in
35:56
that shit. But other than that, I'll just
35:58
be walking. I'll just be wandering around
36:00
Oslo before, before and after the final if I'm not, you know,
36:04
doing the the media stuff. So yeah, I'll be out there and I
36:08
don't want to think too much about the final yet.
36:09
We got the these amazing semi finals.
36:12
So. So that's where I'm at right
36:13
now. Very cool.
36:15
Man, that guy punched his ticket to the final, how about that?
36:18
That's right. Very, I think call for
36:22
celebration for sure. And yeah, I mean, if if you need
36:25
somebody to crack a beer with you virtually, you already know
36:27
what time it is. Oh, that's the cameras and then
36:29
mics and make it happen. But I'm very, very excited for
36:33
the final. Very excited.
36:34
I mean, more excited for the football this this weekend.
36:36
So cannot wait to get to it. This, though, has been another
36:41
episode of Into the Channel. Thank you.
36:42
Thank you for watching, listening, hanging out.
36:44
If you enjoyed the show, leave us a review YouTube, Spotify up
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36:49
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36:53
Be sure in the comment session. This channel great way to
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support the show into the channel merch not wearing it
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right now, but you already know what time it is Another great
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way to support the show. It's still a great way to
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support the show whether I'm not wear the weather I'm wearing it
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right now or I'm not wearing it right now.
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Links all the above much much more in the description of this
37:08
episode and a big thank you to my clothes as well.
37:10
Mister Grant Engel for being I think I could say this, the only
37:14
twenty twenty six UEFA Women's Champions League finalists that
37:17
we know for sure in Sharpie written in I appreciate you bro.
37:21
Likewise, buddy, I appreciate that.
37:23
And and yeah, like, you know, we're not, we might not be
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wearing the end of the channel merch right now.
37:28
You guys can wear it. You don't, you know, we don't
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need to coordinate outfits. That's totally fine.
37:32
Let us know what are your predictions for this first leg
37:37
of the semi final. I mean, you guys have just been
37:39
absolute ball knowers for for months, some of you years at
37:44
this point. We just appreciate, you know,
37:47
all the knowledge that you guys are dropping.
37:48
We always appreciate it. Thank you for watching and we
37:51
will see you all next time.