Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL FINAL IS SET 🏆 BARCELONA v ARSENAL 🏆 + Chelsea Lyon RECAPS | 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League Semifinal

Transcript

UWCL FINAL IS SET 🏆 BARCELONA v ARSENAL 🏆 + Chelsea Lyon RECAPS | 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League Semifinal · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:03
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast Premier about women's
• 0:09
  football. I'm your host, Dean of the
• 0:10
  Suspense and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
• 0:15
  Angle. What's up, man?
• 0:18
  After that day of football, there's no other answer than I'm
• 0:22
  feeling fantastic, but I can't even imagine how fantastic you
• 0:27
  and your fellow Arsenal fans are.
• 0:29
  But I just, we just got to start it with a congratulations, man,
• 0:32
  that was incredible. Thanks man, I appreciate that.
• 0:35
  How about we celebrate, perhaps with a beverage that's frosty or
• 0:41
  somewhere in that in that temperature range?
• 0:43
  What do you know, I have one here myself.
• 0:47
  Look at that synergy. Do you know the Arsenal?
• 0:54
  Cheers to the Arsenal, cheers to the Champions League, cheers to
• 0:57
  just two matches that for very different reasons, but just have
• 1:03
  endless fascinations, endless things to dissect.
• 1:08
  I I just, what a what a crazy day of football, man.
• 1:11
  We talked, we talked about it 2 days ago and you know, we even
• 1:16
  talked about the facts, like if it's football, anything can
• 1:18
  happen. You know, Arsenal still got a
• 1:19
  lot, you know, they got a lot of talented players, etcetera,
• 1:22
  etcetera. But then to see it actually
• 1:25
  happen, to see the score line at one point, read Leon 0, Arsenal
• 1:31
  four. I just, I still can't wrap my
• 1:34
  head around it. The fact that this team that we
• 1:38
  saw get bludgeoned to open the group stage by Bayern Munich 5
• 1:42
  to 2, the team that fell behind to Real Madrid fell behind to
• 1:46
  Leon in, in, in, in the first leg.
• 1:49
  For them to sort of come back so emphatically and just beat the
• 1:56
  life out of Lyon, like just completely steal their will.
• 2:00
  I mean, I, I don't, I'm not sure I, I feel like the, the
• 2:04
  footballing world is, is in a collective state of shock.
• 2:08
  Yeah, and, and rightfully so, even with, and I put it in my
• 2:11
  notes too. I think you're spot on here,
• 2:14
  even with us saying Arsenal has good players, but you're going
• 2:17
  back to France down to 1, you know, and Leon just ends up
• 2:24
  suffocating teams defensively. That defense was unrecognizable
• 2:30
  today. They didn't look anything like
• 2:32
  they had in the previous the entirety of the tournament, they
• 2:36
  looked they never looked anything like that.
• 2:38
  And Arsenal just made them look silly at times.
• 2:41
  And then obviously, you know, we'll get to it.
• 2:44
  But Leon, they played a part in making themselves look silly as
• 2:47
  well. 100% yeah, I think I want to start talking about the the
• 2:52
  defense. Obviously Renar back in the
• 2:54
  lineup this week. That was the first thing you
• 2:56
  noticed about the starting lineup was like, OK, that's all
• 2:59
  right. Then Arsenal's got that to
• 3:00
  contend with. And then one other change in the
• 3:03
  attack. Hey to Hegerberg starts at the
• 3:05
  9. Dumorne gets pushed down into
• 3:08
  the midfield and then no Van de dock.
• 3:11
  So at first glance, I was like, oh man, these are those are two
• 3:15
  scary changes. Obviously Hegerberg and Renarin.
• 3:19
  You know, Van de Donk had an OK game.
• 3:21
  I think last match she had she had that really good look at
• 3:24
  gold and kind of missed it. So I was like, all right, well,
• 3:26
  I think Hagar might be an upgrade.
• 3:28
  And then I I took another thought, took another look at it
• 3:32
  and I'm like, Montemiro just took off.
• 3:35
  He just sort of dismantled who I called the best front three in
• 3:39
  the world just a a a show or two ago.
• 3:42
  And now we don't have to contend with that front three.
• 3:45
  We kind of do it in a different shape, but just that one subtle
• 3:48
  change I kind of feel like threw a little bit of a monkey wrench
• 3:51
  into Leon. I think you're on it, man.
• 3:54
  I mean, I, I believe it was, it might have been either our pal
• 3:58
  Chris Sharples or Laura Bassett. I think it was Laura Bassett who
• 4:01
  had said something to the effect of Du Mornay wants to play a #10
• 4:05
  role more often. And you know, if the results
• 4:10
  this match is not on Melchi Du Mornay, but if the results are
• 4:13
  going to look like that, she can't play #10 in this lineup.
• 4:16
  Because I think you're right. It it looked totally different.
• 4:20
  Chewinga was invisible for long stretches in the first half
• 4:25
  especially. I think, I think they came out
• 4:27
  of halftime and she had four passes I think in the first
• 4:30
  half, like just you didn't even notice she was out there.
• 4:34
  So I really think you're on to something.
• 4:35
  They dismantled at worst, you know, the second or third best
• 4:40
  front three in the world, if not the best front three in the
• 4:42
  world. And I think he came back to
• 4:43
  haunt him. Yep, pretty insane.
• 4:46
  Yeah, Chewinga, 17 touches, 57 minutes.
• 4:50
  Hegelberg, not a not a lot better. 19 touches and 68
• 4:53
  minutes. So Arsenal was able to shut down
• 4:55
  those two players. I think Arsenal defensively, it
• 4:58
  just was great. I think, you know, it started
• 5:01
  for B started with Kate McCabe. Seems like she was everywhere.
• 5:04
  She was involved in almost all of the, the action in the first
• 5:07
  half was like it didn't matter where it was in the field, she
• 5:09
  was, she was in there mixing it up.
• 5:12
  I thought she was great. Catley was great.
• 5:13
  Von Domslar, you know, I, I thought you could see the
• 5:17
  difference between, you know, our starting keeper and
• 5:20
  Zinsburger for sure. And the activity level, the
• 5:26
  shape, the positioning, you know, you know, Arsenal was in
• 5:30
  passing lanes, they were in shooting lanes.
• 5:33
  And Laura Bassett, credit to her again, she called it out early
• 5:37
  in the second-half. Arsenal's just winning every
• 5:40
  one-on-one duel, which was not happening in the first leg.
• 5:43
  It was just like, OK, it didn't matter who it was, you know, Fox
• 5:46
  versus Chewinga or McCabe versus Carpenter.
• 5:49
  Like, I mean, it was just whatever one-on-one was
• 5:51
  happening. It, it felt like Arsenal's
• 5:53
  getting the better of it and it it's hard not to think about was
• 5:57
  it that first goal, that first sort of like corner in ends up
• 6:01
  being credited as an own goal to Endler to make it 1 nil to even
• 6:06
  the tie so early in the match And we talked about maybe
• 6:08
  Arsenal's only chance, they definitely have to score first.
• 6:12
  But I I had no clue that them scoring first would open the
• 6:16
  floodgates in that manner. Yeah, I, I think it's, it's fair
• 6:20
  to ask and, you know, it's, it's a tale as old as time when you
• 6:22
  have these two legs and, and important football matches and
• 6:26
  for important football ties. Can you get that first goal if
• 6:30
  you're down one or if you're down to you got to get to
• 6:32
  obviously you got to you got to start digging yourself out of
• 6:34
  the hole. I I want to go back real quick
• 6:37
  to the individual matchups because I think that that played
• 6:39
  a role, especially early. You know, Caitlin Ford was
• 6:45
  giving her Australian teammate, Ellie Carpenter a real rough go
• 6:51
  of it out there. And I think as the match went
• 6:54
  on, Carpenter looked more and more tired.
• 6:56
  There were like times where like she let a ball go out of bounds
• 6:59
  that like she normally would control and streak up the side.
• 7:03
  You know, those one on ones, they loomed really, really
• 7:07
  large. But like when you talk about
• 7:09
  getting that first goal, I here's this is directly from my
• 7:13
  notes 5 minutes in and I'm thinking about Dino's quote.
• 7:17
  It's a trap moment in the last match.
• 7:20
  And so I walked away from that thinking, especially after the
• 7:22
  first goal happens. Did you feel like it was a trap
• 7:26
  today or did it feel different when Arsenal was on the attack
• 7:31
  and Leon was off the ball early? I think it felt a little
• 7:36
  different because even before that goal, Kim Little had a look
• 7:39
  early, you know which which we're not, you know, you were
• 7:42
  used to seeing maybe her be more effective, I think a little
• 7:45
  deeper into the midfield. But she was like kind of out in
• 7:48
  the front foot. And, you know, Arsenal was just
• 7:51
  getting chances and I think they weren't, they weren't scared and
• 7:54
  they looked crisp and they looked decisive and they looked
• 7:58
  near the action. You know, I think that's kind of
• 8:00
  like one of those early bellwethers.
• 8:01
  I was like, are you sitting back and letting the other team kind
• 8:04
  of knock it around and, you know, work up the sweat slowly
• 8:07
  or are you engaged? And I think they were fully
• 8:09
  engaged early. So I thought, I don't want to
• 8:12
  say they earned that goal, but I think in over the course of the
• 8:15
  two legs of the totality, you have the 1st 90 plus, then you
• 8:18
  have the 1st 5 minutes in this one.
• 8:20
  And I, I think you So we start to feel like, OK, these teams
• 8:23
  aren't as far away from each other as maybe we thought they
• 8:26
  were coming into the match. And we're at the yeah, I, I
• 8:30
  think that's fair. At the very least, Arsenal is
• 8:34
  able to muck things up. They had figured out some ways
• 8:36
  to make Leon just look uncomfortable.
• 8:39
  And they looked wildly uncomfortable.
• 8:41
  I thought. Chris Sharples and Laura
• 8:43
  Bassett, once again, shout out to them.
• 8:45
  Great call by them throughout the match.
• 8:48
  They talked about that early too, that Leon was just out of
• 8:51
  their comfort zone very clearly pretty much from the opening
• 8:54
  whistle when you know, Arsenal wins a corner in the 1st 30
• 8:57
  seconds of the match. I mean, it looked like the, you
• 8:59
  know, play was extremely open. I, I would like to say that
• 9:04
  first goal going as an own goal against Endler feels a little
• 9:09
  unfair. I'd like to, I'd like to submit
• 9:11
  for your consideration. You know, Manem is like
• 9:14
  wrestling with Demaris Agarola on that one ends up getting the
• 9:18
  header on it. Demaris, you know, Demar's given
• 9:21
  up a lot of size to freedom on him.
• 9:23
  And that well, like, especially when you watch the replay, I
• 9:27
  would, I would submit for the ITC record book that, that that
• 9:30
  goal goes to Manem because it it, you know, it bounces off
• 9:33
  Endler's back after Manem gets her head on it.
• 9:35
  It's like, you know, maybe Endler could have, could have
• 9:39
  got a, a swipe on it or got a hand on it or a punch or
• 9:41
  something like that. But I know goal feels harsh
• 9:44
  there. Yeah, agreed.
• 9:47
  There we go. We've got the record book handy
• 9:49
  right here. Oh, it's got a close by.
• 9:51
  Yeah, I'll just a little jotty jot in the notebook.
• 9:53
  I I was kicking around the idea should should Manu get the
• 9:56
  assist on that one. She was obviously heavily
• 9:58
  involved and she's definitely in the mix.
• 10:00
  But yeah, we'll we'll go with the goal, just kind of ramp it
• 10:02
  up and yeah, we're good. Yeah, I think to to to your
• 10:07
  earlier question. I thought Arsenal looked like
• 10:10
  the better team. Actually I I had a couple of
• 10:13
  pieces of my notes here, Wasn't quite as early, but in my notes
• 10:16
  I wrote 22nd minute minute, early goal notwithstanding.
• 10:20
  Probably the best I've seen Arsenal play all year.
• 10:23
  So I thought they looked really good.
• 10:25
  Confident defending from McCabe Von Damsenar, Catley, Mariona
• 10:31
  and then I also wrote terrible Renard giveaway turns to a Russo
• 10:35
  chance. So I I and and I also wrote Leon
• 10:38
  continue to look shook. So I think kind of like early,
• 10:40
  this was in the 27th minute. So I think in the first half you
• 10:42
  can kind of see that they were definitely off kilter.
• 10:45
  I think one of the thing that one other thing that Arison was
• 10:47
  doing early was stretching them out super wide like it was they
• 10:52
  were not afraid to switch the field.
• 10:54
  It was just like, hey, let's let's kind of work it all the
• 10:56
  way back the other way from left to right to right to left.
• 10:58
  And like, let's not be afraid to do that.
• 11:01
  That, that that really stretched out.
• 11:03
  And I think, you know, you calling out Ellie Carpenter
• 11:05
  looking maybe a little leggy. I think also involved in that
• 11:08
  same sort of strategy to be like, let's, let's make them
• 11:10
  play us all the way across, especially some personnel
• 11:13
  shifting in the defensive midfield on that back line.
• 11:17
  And I think it paid off big time.
• 11:19
  Yeah, 100%. And it was almost like Leon was
• 11:22
  kind of doing a weird thing where they're getting stretched
• 11:24
  out wide and like just naturally going backwards as they're
• 11:28
  getting stretched out right. And like, like an Arsenal is
• 11:31
  just like really taking it to him on offense.
• 11:34
  I mean, there was one point in in like the 24th minute where
• 11:38
  Leon is able to get back on the ball and you could hear
• 11:42
  Montemurro screaming go, go, go higher, higher, higher.
• 11:46
  Like he's screaming higher at the top of his lungs.
• 11:49
  Like you have to get the ball out of our side of the field for
• 11:52
  a little bit. And you know, we talk about
• 11:54
  Leona's great at playing counter attack football, but that is
• 11:57
  weird to watch Leon get dealt with that way.
• 12:00
  That just doesn't happen that way.
• 12:03
  Yeah, it was a big time. I mean, the I, I thought it, it
• 12:07
  also started, I mean, it was one thing we talked about last week
• 12:10
  was team defending they were going to need to do.
• 12:13
  And I think that it it was defending all the way from the
• 12:15
  back through the press because I thought the front three, Chloe
• 12:18
  Kelly, Caitlin Ford and Russo also were putting a ton of
• 12:22
  pressure that like there was just no, no escape.
• 12:25
  And I think what happens in those instances when a team is
• 12:28
  kind of getting worked right before halftime, Marioni get to
• 12:32
  look the ball finds her. You called it last week.
• 12:35
  OK, maybe maybe somebody owned a magic.
• 12:37
  You know, could be it could make for a second goal that actually
• 12:40
  happens. The strike was let me just go to
• 12:45
  my notes here and I quote and Oh my fucking God, Arsenal are
• 12:50
  going to the Champions League final.
• 12:51
  End Quote. And then I attack on Mariona is
• 12:54
  Toronto Raptors go I there it is.
• 12:57
  I mean, there's, there's nothing else to say at this point.
• 13:02
  Like she is just showing up as big as she can in the most
• 13:07
  massive moments. It's just, it's just who she is.
• 13:10
  And we, we've said it for weeks. You know, obviously, you know,
• 13:13
  long time fans have known like she is just consistently kicking
• 13:19
  it up a level like above what we saw, like she was good in the
• 13:22
  group stage. You get to the knockout stage,
• 13:24
  she's even better. Or even when you guys needed to
• 13:26
  have something in the group stage when you absolutely needed
• 13:29
  something, she was there to deliver that.
• 13:31
  I mean, and even when you guys got the first goal, she
• 13:35
  immediately huddles everybody up and the camera cuts to her
• 13:38
  huddling everybody be like, hey, that's one, don't, don't fuck
• 13:41
  around or whatever she was saying.
• 13:42
  Like, obviously I can't, I can't read lips.
• 13:44
  But I mean, she even then she was like, hey, there's still way
• 13:48
  more to do. You could tell that was the gist
• 13:49
  of what she was saying. And she she was like, yeah,
• 13:52
  talking like some, some kind of strategy or like, you know, so
• 13:55
  talking about marking or something.
• 13:57
  But like, she is just so locked in and so valuable in those
• 14:01
  points. You your team can't win the
• 14:04
  Champions League or make the Champions Champions League final
• 14:06
  without a player like her. Yeah, 100%.
• 14:09
  I mean, I mentioned last week, definite MVP of this season for
• 14:13
  sure. I did want to call out Chloe
• 14:16
  Kelly, though, more specifically because that signing, I think
• 14:20
  changed the trajectory of Arsenal season because you bring
• 14:25
  in Chloe Kelly, obviously, you know, her pedigree, a motivated
• 14:29
  Chloe Kelly for sure. But what that what that allows
• 14:33
  slagers to do is to not have to consider playing Caldente like
• 14:38
  in that left wing spot or a further up the field.
• 14:41
  Because I think we even talked about it's like, can we get, you
• 14:44
  know, when Arsenal's offense was stalling out?
• 14:45
  Can we get Caldente a little bit deeper?
• 14:47
  Can we get the ball to her a little earlier?
• 14:50
  Give her because, you know, she could put the ball anywhere and
• 14:52
  obviously creep up and, and obviously, you know, be able to
• 14:54
  finish spectacularly like she was able to do today.
• 14:58
  But I think that Chloe Kelly signing made it so that Mariona
• 15:01
  could just boss the midfield. We, we talked a little bit about
• 15:05
  the midfield last episode, but Kim little freedom on them, Cal
• 15:09
  Dente, they were deadly today versus, you know what, I think
• 15:12
  just completely owned the match. And then when you look at
• 15:15
  Kelly's got 9 appearances for Arsenal in her six starts,
• 15:19
  Arsenal's got six wins. In the three appearances where
• 15:22
  she doesn't start, it's one win, 2 losses.
• 15:25
  I'm not saying, you know, it's, it's still, it's still early,
• 15:28
  you know, But I think, I think we can at least support the
• 15:32
  claim that Chloe Kelly in the starting lineup.
• 15:34
  A good effect so far for the Gunners.
• 15:37
  Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's not lost on
• 15:39
  me that I very flippantly, as I'm one to do, said, made some
• 15:47
  kind of joke that, well, City didn't want to loan Chloe Kelly
• 15:52
  out to a contender, so that's fine that she goes to Arsenal.
• 15:55
  That's not working out great for me.
• 15:58
  But I'm still happy for you and obviously very happy for Chloe
• 16:01
  Kelly. We appreciate that second-half,
• 16:05
  Well actually some first half numbers.
• 16:07
  Obviously Arsenal's got the two goals, but more importantly
• 16:10
  Laura Bassett drops 2 into the channels in the first half.
• 16:13
  What a legend that you know, got her notched.
• 16:17
  I think just one goodness me from our guy.
• 16:18
  Sharp was in the first half, but stay tuned, there was more to
• 16:21
  come. Oh yeah.
• 16:23
  Right after halftime, though, Russo basically wins the ball
• 16:28
  back and then kind of like she's got Leon defenders comically
• 16:31
  sliding at her in every direction, is able to finish.
• 16:34
  And at that point, I'm just giddy.
• 16:38
  I like, I I'm just squealing. I cannot believe this is
• 16:41
  happening. Like what a way to come out of
• 16:43
  halftime because I'll, I'll give you a quick, like a little side
• 16:48
  note. I had to watch the first half
• 16:51
  early this morning. It was hours between watching
• 16:54
  the first half and the second-half and.
• 16:57
  I. At halftime, I'm just like, I'm
• 16:59
  like, all right, we're up one, we're good, we're good.
• 17:01
  And I'm like, I think we I think we actually got this based on
• 17:04
  what I'm seeing. And then in my head, I'm like,
• 17:05
  are you fucking stupid? Like Du Rene and Diani can score
• 17:09
  two goals in 2 minutes if they want to, and they might be able
• 17:12
  to score three goals in 3 minutes if, if the football got
• 17:15
  see fit. So I, I ran the entire gamut of
• 17:18
  emotions over that, you know, 3-4 hour period between watching
• 17:20
  the first half and the second-half.
• 17:22
  But to, to start the second-half like that, I mean, absolute
• 17:26
  elation. What did you think when when
• 17:28
  Russo puts that in and and it just breaks your, I don't know,
• 17:32
  how does it not break your brain?
• 17:34
  That's what happened is that and now that is the first bad Jill
• 17:38
  giveaway that kind of happens a little further up the field.
• 17:41
  So, you know, it's not what we're going to talk about later,
• 17:43
  but it starts with the Jill and maybe giveaway might be strong,
• 17:47
  but it's like she misplays it. Like, you know, she kind of lets
• 17:50
  the ball bounce. It's over her shoulder.
• 17:51
  There's a there's an attacker running onto her.
• 17:53
  And then you're right, Leon looks like the Keystone cops out
• 17:58
  there. They're like sliding into each
• 17:59
  other. This is they They scored
• 18:02
  nineteen goals in the group stage, outgoing six wins, 0
• 18:07
  draws, 0 losses. They scored nineteen goals.
• 18:09
  They allowed one goal in the group stage, and this back four
• 18:13
  are sliding into each other and smashing into each other while
• 18:16
  Russo has a free lane to score the third goal in the match like
• 18:20
  it's The defense is completely unrecognizable at this point.
• 18:24
  It's hard to it's hard to look at it as anything other than a
• 18:27
  meltdown. I I totally agree, like totally
• 18:32
  uncharacteristic. I'm not sure, you know, there's
• 18:35
  no way to know this obviously, but like, you know, I'm like, in
• 18:37
  my head, I'm like, is it, is it the fact that they gave up the
• 18:40
  early goal? They they gave up the lead so
• 18:42
  quickly and now they just start to like unravel mentally or, you
• 18:48
  know, was it was it the notion of like not having played in
• 18:52
  these tough matches, like they haven't played in any tough,
• 18:55
  high stakes knockout matches the same way.
• 18:58
  And I think very fitting that Russo gets that third goal
• 19:01
  because I've talked all year about her work, her work rate,
• 19:04
  you know, just kind of how tough she is, like how impossible it
• 19:07
  is not to notice how hard she's working and chances she's
• 19:09
  creating. And then that pays off in this
• 19:12
  moment, right. And and and when the whole match
• 19:15
  is in scramble mode, she's able to walk away with a goal.
• 19:18
  On the flip side, Leon relatively untested all season.
• 19:23
  You know, you could we we could quibble about, you know, the pre
• 19:25
  FCPSG in the league, but I think it's so much of A foregone
• 19:28
  conclusion what's going to happen there.
• 19:32
  They didn't have another gear to go to.
• 19:34
  And I think when they start to stall out in the first half, you
• 19:37
  saw a string of some Abasha ball right where she puts in like 3-4
• 19:41
  straight crosses. She's just like right, offense
• 19:42
  is running through me and then you see a little bit of Du
• 19:45
  Mornay ball and it's like offense is running through me.
• 19:46
  And then heaps is trying to kind of get involved.
• 19:48
  They don't really have anything to go to as things start to come
• 19:53
  into question. And then the the trickier things
• 19:56
  got, the farther a result got away from the own.
• 20:00
  Yeah, I I think it's a good point.
• 20:02
  I mean, the only thing that I'm you, you bring up Perry FC and
• 20:05
  PSG, you're right. Like they, they can, they can
• 20:10
  present a challenge, pardon me, in league play or in, in their
• 20:13
  cups. But I mean, you know, Leon also
• 20:18
  just smashed Wolfsburg, like just kind of beat him pretty
• 20:21
  convincingly and then beat Bayern Munich convincingly in
• 20:24
  the previous knockout round. So it's like, I, I, I think
• 20:28
  you're right. It's weird to look at and be
• 20:30
  like, well, Leon didn't exactly get tested.
• 20:34
  You know, like I said, they had to play Wolfsburg twice, beat,
• 20:36
  beat them convincingly. Roma's not really on the level.
• 20:39
  They do the same thing. They beat they beat Bayern
• 20:42
  Munich convincingly in the in the last knockout round in the
• 20:45
  quarterfinals. But like, I can't decide, like
• 20:48
  was Leon truly never tested? Are we saying that Wolfsburg and
• 20:52
  Bayern Munich aren't tests for them?
• 20:53
  Or were they just so much better than them that it looked like
• 20:56
  they weren't tested? And then when they get hit in
• 20:59
  the mouth in this one early now, like, how are they going to deal
• 21:03
  with it? But they were also kind of
• 21:04
  tested a little bit in the in the first leg.
• 21:07
  So I don't know, man. I'm just rambling at this point
• 21:10
  because I cannot believe that Leon lost that match 4:00 to
• 21:14
  1:00 and just looked like a disaster out there.
• 21:18
  Yeah, unbelievable. Yeah.
• 21:20
  I think, like I said, there's no way to know.
• 21:24
  There's really no way to know what to attribute to all we know
• 21:27
  is an absolute shock result. A fourth goal comes from Caitlin
• 21:31
  Ford, when a fourth goal and a second.
• 21:34
  Goodness, me, guys. Sharples, what'd you see on that
• 21:38
  play? I mean, I, I thought Laura
• 21:42
  Bassett nailed it where it was very clear that Jill let the
• 21:46
  ball go across her body thinking like, oh, OK, I'm going to have
• 21:48
  a passing lane here. And then either her team mate
• 21:51
  was not looking or the passing lane didn't materialize the way
• 21:54
  she wanted. She trips over her own feet,
• 21:57
  which makes it makes any howler like that look 10 times worse
• 22:01
  when you when you fall, when you go to the ground and nobody made
• 22:04
  contact with you. But I mean, at that point I was
• 22:09
  just I I couldn't help but think, you know, as a team that
• 22:14
  that dominated in the group stage, that made it handily to
• 22:18
  the semi finals, a team that was expecting to win.
• 22:20
  We talked about the revenge tour.
• 22:23
  I know, like I try not to be short sighted or like I I try to
• 22:26
  say like, hey, you know, making it to a semi final is great, but
• 22:29
  to go out like this for Leon is and I don't think, you know,
• 22:33
  Montemira's job should be safe and all that stuff.
• 22:35
  But it doesn't change the fact that this result is nothing.
• 22:39
  This now this Champions League looks to me nothing short of
• 22:43
  disastrous for Leon. Like you just have to be wildly
• 22:47
  disappointed in this in this result even making it to the
• 22:49
  semi final. Yeah, I totally agree with that.
• 22:53
  I think, you know, you can look at the stats and kind of tease
• 22:57
  something out of there where today Leon outshoots Arsenal 18
• 23:00
  to 9, but the shots on target, a six to five advantage to
• 23:04
  Arsenal. So the one's like getting rips
• 23:07
  on it and Carpenter shooting from deep.
• 23:09
  They're the the the the looks are not that great.
• 23:12
  And then obviously goals 4 to 1 to the Arsenal.
• 23:16
  Then you look at the age profile too, like I think Damaris is 25
• 23:23
  and then Chewinka is 28, turning 29 really soon, and there's
• 23:28
  nobody in between 25 and 29. Everybody's either 29 plus on
• 23:32
  the chewing side or Damaris or younger Damaris, Bosha,
• 23:37
  Carpenter, you know, are all kind of like in that under 25
• 23:40
  band. Wow.
• 23:42
  You also saw a little bit with Renar out of the line up, just
• 23:46
  just how delicate one big change like that.
• 23:49
  You have to start to move some pieces.
• 23:51
  No matter, John, you know, now like the the, the flow, the
• 23:55
  chemistry is just thrown that far out of whack.
• 23:58
  And then Renar gets reintroduced and now it was enough to kind of
• 24:02
  like just literally derail what was a legit title chance of, you
• 24:06
  know, it's really still like I said, like one of the one of the
• 24:09
  shock results, especially when you consider last year,
• 24:12
  considering last year's Champions League knockout stage
• 24:14
  through today, there hadn't really been a knockout stage
• 24:18
  upset, you know, over the last two seasons.
• 24:21
  So that compounds it even further.
• 24:25
  Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that.
• 24:27
  So I'm going to I'm going to look.
• 24:28
  I was taking a look at this because once So once the the
• 24:31
  Russo goal goes in, my curiosities start to kind of get
• 24:35
  the better of me and I'm like, OK, well, I don't see any way
• 24:39
  that Arsenal is going to lose this.
• 24:41
  But then obviously you get the fourth goal, the absolute nail
• 24:45
  drilled into the coffin. So in the 202122 UEFA Champions
• 24:50
  League, PSG in the group stage had six wins, 0 draws, 0 losses
• 24:57
  and they had a goal differential of plus 25.
• 25:01
  In the semi final. They lost 5 three on aggregate
• 25:06
  in the in the semi final to Leon, who went five wins, 0
• 25:12
  draws, one loss in the group stage, if that sounds familiar.
• 25:16
  And they had a 7A plus seventeen goal differential in that
• 25:21
  season's group stage. Leon this year, you know, as
• 25:25
  pointed out, they were six O&O in the group stage, 18 + 18 goal
• 25:29
  differential. They lose 5 three on aggregate
• 25:32
  to your Arsenal, who went five wins, 0 draws, one loss in the
• 25:37
  group stage and had a goal differential of only plus 8.
• 25:39
  So it's a, it's a big upset. It's a big swing.
• 25:43
  Even as talented as Arsenal is, you know, this was supposed to
• 25:46
  be chalk man. We were supposed to get yet
• 25:48
  another rematch of Barcelona. Leon Arsenal wasn't interested
• 25:51
  in that. Yep, and now they've got a date
• 25:55
  with the Champs. Barcelona.
• 25:59
  Let's go to that one at Stamford Bridge.
• 26:02
  Chelsea 1, Barcelona 4. No, this isn't a repeat.
• 26:06
  That was the score line again. How about the semifinals?
• 26:09
  341 score lines. Pretty massive.
• 26:12
  And then you think about Barcelona.
• 26:14
  While we're on the topic of score lines, how about knockout
• 26:17
  stage? Score lines of 41614141 against
• 26:23
  Wolfsburg twice and then Chelsea twice?
• 26:26
  18 Look, check this out. Eighteen goals for four against
• 26:30
  in the knockout stage, and all four were late in the
• 26:33
  second-half. The only somewhat dangerous goal
• 26:37
  was Sandy Baltimore's the 74th minute to cut it to two to one.
• 26:42
  Other than that, it was all garbage time goals.
• 26:45
  This Barcelona team absolutely dominant.
• 26:47
  What? What did we learn today, if
• 26:49
  anything? I mean, they're terrifying.
• 26:52
  Like we, we talked about, we've talked about in some instances
• 26:54
  like, oh, is this their death lineup?
• 26:57
  And like, we had some of our pals chime in and be like, well,
• 26:59
  maybe, you know, the death lineup might include Peanut
• 27:04
  instead of Betty Whelow. And I don't know, I feel pretty
• 27:07
  convinced that they were probably right about that.
• 27:10
  I mean, I don't know how many death line UPS Barcelona has.
• 27:14
  Which one is the deathiest death lineup?
• 27:16
  It's impossible to say what I I just thought there was there's a
• 27:21
  moment that really got a the like encapsulated it for me
• 27:27
  that, you know, obviously Bomati when she scores in the 26th, she
• 27:30
  turns on The Jets. She, you know, to use an
• 27:33
  American football term, she basically rushes for 50 yards
• 27:36
  and then then scores the touchdown.
• 27:37
  Essentially, Bomati takes the ball all the way down the field.
• 27:40
  It buries the shot. But it was it was later on for
• 27:45
  the second goal, the the payor Tappan, where Neve Charles makes
• 27:50
  a nice play to kind of like stop CGH and then like just a few.
• 27:55
  I it might have been the next possession or the possession
• 27:57
  after next, where then you you can't stop CGH because you're
• 28:01
  not going to stop her that many times in a row.
• 28:03
  And then she gets the pass off to Pyor for the tap in game over
• 28:06
  night, night we are. It was already over.
• 28:08
  Now it's even more over. And I just thought like you can
• 28:12
  only, you can only hope to contain so many of these
• 28:16
  Barcelona players that there's just, you know, you, you're just
• 28:20
  drawing so slim against them in in any situation.
• 28:25
  It's almost like they play with like the bumpers in bowling
• 28:30
  where it's like the it's never going to go into the gutter.
• 28:33
  It's going to go roughly down the middle.
• 28:35
  It's like it might just be a little smidge to the right or
• 28:37
  the left, but it's going to be pretty much on point.
• 28:40
  That Itana run was just unreal. I mean she she goes past Nu
• 28:46
  skin. She goes past Millie bright to
• 28:49
  somebody. Oh, Neve Charles was the third
• 28:51
  one and one-on-one. She it's it's almost like one of
• 28:56
  those action movies where she's the hero and the the the
• 29:00
  henchman, evil henchman are are going at her one, one at a time.
• 29:03
  She's just dispatching with them.
• 29:05
  You probably needed all three of those defenders at the same time
• 29:08
  to be able to like slow down Aitana.
• 29:09
  But one on her one-on-one versus O3 in succession that you just
• 29:14
  kind of got, you have to favor Bulma T in that spot.
• 29:17
  Tremendous finish too. I mean, just what a blast.
• 29:20
  I mean, that was that was awesome to see.
• 29:23
  The the dribbling, the speed I I know we've talked about it with
• 29:27
  Bowman T lately where it really feels like they she just has
• 29:30
  these runs lately, both in the league and in the Champions
• 29:33
  League where she is like showing off how fast she is also.
• 29:37
  And every time you have a player with superlative skill level and
• 29:41
  vision like her and shooting ability, and it's like, oh, by
• 29:45
  the way, she's just as conditioned as anybody else out
• 29:48
  there on the pitch. And we've talked about it too.
• 29:51
  Plays bigger than she is. She has a decent amount strength
• 29:54
  to her game. I mean two time Balandor winner
• 29:57
  for a reason. Sitting there playing next to
• 29:59
  another two time Balandor winner.
• 30:01
  There's no relief for any opponent at any space in the
• 30:05
  field. Hence the old is this a death
• 30:07
  line up? And I guess if they just if
• 30:09
  you're if you're just following whatever kind of logic tree with
• 30:12
  Barcelona, is this a death line up?
• 30:15
  Is it Barcelona? Yes, probably is a death line
• 30:18
  up. Yeah, no, I think that second
• 30:21
  goal that you mentioned, you just look at the four players
• 30:23
  that link up there, Pina, Itana, CGH and Payor, it's just like,
• 30:27
  what are you going to do? And I think as they made changes
• 30:30
  to the back line as well, you're just like, OK, well, this is a
• 30:34
  not quite, not quite a downgrade.
• 30:35
  You're still waiting for that downgrade.
• 30:37
  You know, whether it's who, who doesn't matter, like Vicki
• 30:38
  Lopez, whoever they bring in is, is somebody that's going to be
• 30:41
  at the level jotting down in my notes.
• 30:46
  I was taking notes on that second goal, the pyro goal, and
• 30:50
  then obviously the peanut goal comes seconds after that.
• 30:52
  Peanut, another sneaky fast player that likes to kind of
• 30:55
  show off the those wheels. But as I'm jotting down in my
• 31:00
  notes, I'm like, all right, what happened on that pyro goal,
• 31:02
  etcetera. Peanut scores and I just
• 31:05
  furiously write my note. An absolute throw the damn towel
• 31:09
  moment. Yeah, man, it's just not fair.
• 31:12
  She murders that ball after what had been like a pretty quiet
• 31:16
  first half from Pina. And the sound that it makes when
• 31:19
  it hits the post is kind of like that.
• 31:23
  You remember like on Friday night fights on ESPN, where they
• 31:25
  would they would they would re show the knock down the knockout
• 31:28
  punch like from every angle and they would they would make sure
• 31:30
  to crank up the sound so you'd really hear it.
• 31:33
  That ball hitting the post had that same echoing, just
• 31:37
  murderous sound to it where you're just like, oh, this is I
• 31:40
  don't even want to watch this anymore.
• 31:42
  It's it's the Jared Leto moment in Fight Club.
• 31:45
  There you go. Yeah.
• 31:46
  I mean, it was, you know, they're they're killers out
• 31:49
  there, man. They they just, they don't let
• 31:51
  you get up and you know that. I mean, the peanut wonder
• 31:54
  strike. I Chelsea had to throw the
• 31:59
  kitchen sink at Barcelona to even have a, a, a whiff of a
• 32:04
  prayer. And even then you can Barcelona,
• 32:08
  you might throw the kitchen sink at Barcelona, they might catch
• 32:10
  it and hit you back with it like there's just nothing you could
• 32:14
  do against them. And then to see Chelsea to see
• 32:18
  what Barcelona did to Chelsea, that last goal with the Neve
• 32:21
  Charles and Hannah Hampton miscommunication that just leads
• 32:25
  to the better oil tap. And essentially it's that's just
• 32:28
  bizarre to watch too. Like we talked about it with
• 32:32
  Lyon and then you see it with Chelsea.
• 32:34
  Like Chelsea got worked over pretty good in in the first leg.
• 32:37
  So like, it's not like we're coming to this thinking that
• 32:39
  they were on going to be on level footing with Barcelona,
• 32:42
  even though maybe we wouldn't have been totally shocked if
• 32:45
  they were. But these are just two of the
• 32:47
  four best teams that we talk about all the time in the world.
• 32:51
  And they just looked average today.
• 32:55
  And you never say, you never say that about Leon and Chelsea.
• 32:59
  Maybe you could say it occasionally about Chelsea.
• 33:01
  Sometimes in the league they've had some weird results.
• 33:03
  You never say it about Leon and you rarely say it about Chelsea.
• 33:07
  Yeah, but you know, Chelsea has weird results when it's sort of
• 33:10
  like a look ahead game and it's like, OK, yeah, like a midweeker
• 33:13
  against West Ham or something. And it's just that it's true.
• 33:15
  It was weird, you know, so, but this is a game that they should
• 33:17
  be up for and and I I probably would push back on that.
• 33:21
  We saw this Chelsea side or a different version of the Chelsea
• 33:24
  side push Barcelona last year at this same stage of the
• 33:28
  tournament. To see this happen is a shock.
• 33:32
  Like this was a through and through beat down.
• 33:36
  Like he like there just was not one match up.
• 33:40
  Like even watching Myra Ramirez and watching Perettas bully Myra
• 33:45
  Ramirez, I'm like, what the fuck is like what is like this is
• 33:48
  like a like an alternate reality that we're I'm just not used to
• 33:51
  seeing this. You know, we talked about what
• 33:53
  Perez was doing to like JRK last week and just an absolute menace
• 33:57
  out there from from a defensive standpoint, Barcelona made it
• 34:01
  super duper tough. Obviously they they can they
• 34:05
  control the 61% of the possession in this one had a
• 34:09
  shot on target advantage, even though Chelsea outshot them in
• 34:12
  this one. Sort of the same situation as
• 34:14
  the young Arsenal and Maya Ramirez, who I mentioned, just
• 34:17
  12 touches in 45 minutes. Like you talk about having to
• 34:21
  play a perfect game, that's the complete opposite I would say.
• 34:26
  Yeah, you cannot have it. And you know, whether it's her
• 34:29
  fault or, you know, players getting her the ball, you just
• 34:32
  can't have a disappearing act from my Ramirez.
• 34:34
  You you're drawing debt at that point.
• 34:36
  You have absolutely no shot. And you know, we had talked
• 34:39
  about anyway, like even going back to the bridge, you're down
• 34:42
  three goals to Barcelona would have taken an absolute miracle.
• 34:46
  Obviously, no Lauren James in either of these fixtures.
• 34:50
  That looms large. I don't know.
• 34:52
  I mean, you know, we've been LJ supporters from Jump Street.
• 34:56
  I don't know how much she would have helped, man.
• 34:58
  I mean, she would have helped, of course, but to the tune of
• 35:01
  six goals in the differential. Love you, LJI.
• 35:05
  Don't think you'd help in quite that much.
• 35:08
  Yeah, I totally agree with that. I would have loved to see LJ in
• 35:11
  this match up against this competition, but 0% chance
• 35:15
  there's a different result even if she plays every available
• 35:18
  minute. Yeah, Chelsea just got kind of
• 35:22
  outclassed today big time and Bon Pasteur didn't have any
• 35:24
  ideas. Anything else to go to.
• 35:29
  Made some changes. I I think, you know, kind of
• 35:31
  like a better showing, but in some ways, yes, in some ways no.
• 35:35
  I think like Lucy Bronze, you know, had a lot of moments that
• 35:40
  she'd probably want to have back a little bit little bit messy.
• 35:43
  Charles, you mentioned Kuffer, like there was a lot of
• 35:45
  disjointedness today and it could just be a function of, you
• 35:49
  know, some some line up machinations.
• 35:53
  And I think that's the thing about, you know, Barcelona, when
• 35:56
  they make a change, there's no real change to the approach or
• 36:01
  the game plan. Like just schematically,
• 36:02
  everybody can all right, now we're running this or now we're
• 36:05
  running that. OK, Now everybody's sort of like
• 36:07
  in rhythm. I think we saw a bit of that
• 36:08
  from Arsenal as well. Like they they played with
• 36:11
  really great rhythm, primarily defensively.
• 36:14
  But Chelsea totally lost today, an absolute mess in the final
• 36:19
  third, Like any chance that they got.
• 36:22
  I mean, they just were kicking into the 6th row.
• 36:24
  Yeah, they were just, they were dying to do that.
• 36:26
  Yeah, and just a bizarre showing frankly.
• 36:30
  And I guess you got to ask the question.
• 36:32
  It's like, you know, I've, we've talked about it through the
• 36:35
  scope of like wouldn't do the scope of a season where like a
• 36:39
  team could have a result and then you're like, oh, OK, I
• 36:42
  guess that's kind of like who they are now.
• 36:43
  Then maybe they've had like 2 out of 3 results and you're and
• 36:46
  you have a good idea and then they just have a really weird
• 36:48
  one over the course of these two Champions Leagues.
• 36:53
  I'm glad you point out how well Chelsea played against Barcelona
• 36:56
  last year. If you're a Chelsea supporter,
• 37:00
  if you're in the boardroom, if you're in the managerial suite
• 37:03
  or in the managerial office, you know, thinking about doing a
• 37:06
  post mortem on this Champions League.
• 37:08
  Is there any other conclusion other than maybe we took a step
• 37:13
  backwards? Like there's something not quite
• 37:15
  as good? I mean, they had a great group
• 37:18
  stage. They you know, they they looked
• 37:20
  great against city in the an injured city and in the
• 37:23
  quarterfinals. But like to just get just
• 37:27
  roasted like this by Barcelona I are they looking, do you think
• 37:31
  they're looking at themselves saying, yeah, we took a step
• 37:33
  back? I mean, they should be.
• 37:37
  I mean, they, they, they definitely should be looking at
• 37:39
  themselves that way because they aren't, they weren't
• 37:42
  particularly close. And you know, they've got the
• 37:45
  league pretty, they got the league pretty well in hand this
• 37:49
  season. You know, yeah, we counting out
• 37:52
  your arsenal? It seems like counting out
• 37:54
  Arsenal might be a bad idea at this point.
• 37:56
  Yeah, you know, maybe a little reverse Jinxy action.
• 37:58
  We'll see. But I don't know, like, I think
• 38:02
  it, you know, like it was tough because I think even today you
• 38:07
  see a player like Ashley Lawrence check into the match
• 38:11
  and immediately look like ready for the match, right.
• 38:14
  You know, and it's like you, you, and it's not like I'm going
• 38:17
  to pick on any other player that was in there that didn't look
• 38:20
  ready. But collectively they didn't
• 38:22
  look ready like they didn't look like they had any idea what they
• 38:25
  were up against. Head was spinning, you know, in
• 38:28
  multiple different directions. I made a a, a note in my in my
• 38:32
  dock here early in the match where there was a couple times
• 38:35
  where Chelsea defenders just way out overran Barcelona attackers
• 38:39
  early. They just were or just too much
• 38:41
  adrenaline. But either way, it's just kind
• 38:42
  of like, you know, it definitely signaled, you know, not
• 38:47
  necessarily being on the right wavelength.
• 38:49
  And I think there there definitely has to be.
• 38:51
  I think I think the Dazone crew, including Leanne talked about
• 38:54
  maybe the need for a little bit of overhauling.
• 38:56
  I think both Leon and Chelsea, we're going to see a quite,
• 38:59
  quite, quite a different set of rosters going into next season
• 39:02
  for both of those clubs. It's.
• 39:04
  I mean, it's just crazy to even think that like Leon added Tarsi
• 39:08
  on A and Chelsea added and chewing Gurma and yeah, and and
• 39:14
  chewing. Yeah.
• 39:14
  I mean, I'm just talking about just like in these in this last
• 39:16
  window. But yeah, I mean, no, it's a
• 39:19
  great point about about chewinga.
• 39:20
  I mean, I I just you know, we should probably talk about
• 39:25
  Gurma. Go ahead.
• 39:27
  Yeah, real, real quick. No for Chelsea.
• 39:28
  Walsh you know, I I mean, I love Carol Walsh, but there were
• 39:33
  there's been points over these two matches and I'm like, we
• 39:35
  dodged a fucking bullet like at Arsenal, not not bringing in
• 39:38
  that player because she just maybe it needs a little bit more
• 39:41
  rest or I don't know what it is, but she looks completely
• 39:44
  ineffective and Germa not quite ready for this level of
• 39:52
  competition. I don't think that's unfair to
• 39:54
  say. You know, the first start in
• 39:56
  Europe is in the semi final and you're down three goals versus
• 39:59
  Barcelona to, you know, a real tricky spot.
• 40:02
  Credit to Bon Pastor, we tried to get Gurma involved, get her
• 40:05
  touches early. I think she she became a little
• 40:07
  bit of the the offensive hub in the first half, but defensively
• 40:12
  spin. Cycle a couple times kind.
• 40:14
  Of head look in the other, you know, like she she was caught in
• 40:17
  some tough spots and clearly not ready.
• 40:19
  And I think the a couple of the goals I think you know, kind of
• 40:21
  whizzed by her her her zones. But yeah, I think it's going to
• 40:27
  take a minute, I think, to get to get those players on the same
• 40:29
  page and figure out what's this philosophy supposed to be.
• 40:33
  I'm glad you. Said it like that.
• 40:34
  Because it's A and she you know, she comes over, she gets the
• 40:37
  injury immediately. She's she's in her offseason.
• 40:41
  Everybody else in the league in Europe is it is mid season form
• 40:45
  like real tough spot for her. I don't think Bon Pastor did her
• 40:49
  any favors like you said, like would this is you're starting
• 40:53
  her for this match like that seems pretty tough.
• 40:56
  I'd know she's great. Obviously we're extremely pro
• 40:59
  grandma on this podcast. You can't not be with her
• 41:02
  talent, but that was not an ideal opportunity for it.
• 41:07
  It doesn't feel like, but if if that's who Bon Bastor felt like,
• 41:11
  she had to to play in that moment, obviously.
• 41:15
  You're not going to be like, oh. No, I don't think Naomi grandma
• 41:17
  should should be on the football pitch.
• 41:19
  But like that was there was a lot for her to compute and
• 41:23
  digest at her first time in like a really high level European
• 41:27
  competition. Yeah.
• 41:29
  And and how about Sandy? Baltimore now having to play and
• 41:32
  on the left wing after months transitioning to this league,
• 41:37
  taking that left back spot and now it's like, OK, Barcelona, we
• 41:40
  need we need everything and we're going to switch switch
• 41:43
  your position and I'll stick you up there with Myra and IE Bieber
• 41:47
  Jones and the other rest of the attacking players and hope that
• 41:50
  she figures it out. Baltimore, I thought had a
• 41:51
  pretty decent game today could see all things considered.
• 41:56
  But yeah, I think I think we're definitely getting ready to see
• 41:58
  some wholesale changes at both Chelsea and Leo.
• 42:01
  And as mentioned, I went to a quick early thoughts on the
• 42:05
  final and I want to go to you first.
• 42:10
  I'm. Going to.
• 42:10
  I'm going to. I don't want.
• 42:11
  To take the jury pool, Arsenal, Chelsea, I'm sorry, Arsenal,
• 42:15
  Barcelona in a few weeks, May 25th on the zone.
• 42:18
  You already know your boys will be getting extremely busy here
• 42:22
  with various previews and guests, and we're going to do
• 42:25
  everything we can to get you ready for this massive final.
• 42:29
  But when you think about these two teams locking up in a few
• 42:33
  weeks, what are the first few things that you're thinking
• 42:35
  about? Great run by your.
• 42:38
  Gunners Fantastic. Should be proud of it.
• 42:42
  You should celebrate it. You should celebrate the
• 42:45
  players. Renee Slager's what a managerial
• 42:48
  move. Absolutely fantastic.
• 42:51
  Yeah, of course. Cheers.
• 42:52
  Cheers to everybody. You know, raise whatever frosty
• 42:55
  beverage you might be might be drinking at the time.
• 43:01
  Barcelona's going to put up a crooked.
• 43:02
  Number and I and I don't know how competitive it's.
• 43:05
  I don't know how competitive it's going to be, but you should
• 43:09
  absolutely celebrate this moment because it's it's a, it's a,
• 43:12
  it's great for your football club, yeah.
• 43:16
  I think I think I. I think I agree with you there.
• 43:20
  I'm going to. Hold on to you know, finals tend
• 43:23
  to be low scoring. Maybe we we have an opportunity
• 43:26
  to kind of like defend a little bit, lock things down.
• 43:29
  Bless you. You know, make sure that we've
• 43:31
  we've got we've we've got those lanes kind of shut, shut off.
• 43:36
  And even if that kind of constricts what we're able to do
• 43:38
  offensively, I think Arsenal would take that for sure and see
• 43:42
  how in into how deep waters we can take this match.
• 43:47
  But yeah. Barcelona looked like an.
• 43:48
  Absolute buzz saw. And if we can, if we can hold
• 43:52
  them to two, I think I'd be ecstatic because you know, who
• 43:56
  knows what could happen? The other, you know, and credit
• 43:58
  to you. I kind of didn't really believe.
• 43:59
  I think I probably even said I was like, all right, well, we're
• 44:01
  not going to win this game by three.
• 44:03
  We're not going to put up 3/4 on Leon.
• 44:06
  So credits are so they were able to make it happen.
• 44:08
  I don't know that you can expect that level of special, but I
• 44:14
  mean, if it's two, I think Arsenal on their best day could
• 44:17
  could create something like that.
• 44:19
  And who knows? I mean, I think this team, the
• 44:20
  one thing I think will I think I will hang my hat on.
• 44:23
  As mentioned earlier, they came back against Madrid, they came
• 44:26
  back against Leon, they came back to avenge that beat down
• 44:31
  against Bayern in the group stage.
• 44:33
  So even if Arsenal give up an opening goal to Barcelona, let's
• 44:38
  say it's the same thing that it was last year, Itana early, you
• 44:40
  know, late in the first half, etcetera.
• 44:43
  I still think Arsenal stays locked in and even if they could
• 44:46
  take it to like 1/2 time 1 nil, I think mentally, because of
• 44:50
  what they've been through, I think they'll have the ability
• 44:53
  to kind of like stay mentally in the match.
• 44:56
  Does it mean physically they'll be able to kind of keep up?
• 44:59
  But that's something that I'm at least hopeful for.
• 45:03
  And and as a, you know, a fan supporter, I can kind of hang my
• 45:06
  hat on for sure. Yeah, 100% if you guys go.
• 45:09
  Into halftime, down one nil. Katie McCabe, who during this
• 45:13
  match, which I can't believe I haven't been calling her this
• 45:15
  earlier, Katie McCabe, AKA Irish Draymond Green is, is going to
• 45:21
  make sure that your squad is fouling and scratching and
• 45:25
  kicking and doing everything, pulling jerseys, everything that
• 45:29
  they can do to frustrate and anger Barcelona and try to force
• 45:33
  them into weird mistakes. I mean, you know, I, I, yeah, I
• 45:36
  think Barcelona is a buzz saw. But I'm done thinking that
• 45:41
  Arsenal can't mentally handle any challenge at this point.
• 45:44
  That just seems like a fool's errand.
• 45:46
  I'll leave you. I want to give you this one
• 45:48
  thing because if college football has taught me anything
• 45:51
  in this country, I seem to remember Barcelona losing 3 to 1
• 45:56
  to Real Madrid just weeks ago. And if we are doing, you know,
• 46:02
  these, these corresponding victories.
• 46:08
  Exactly. I mean, what are we?
• 46:09
  Talking about here, so you know, I wouldn't you as a fan, you
• 46:14
  know, you should be as psyched as you could possibly be, But I
• 46:17
  I do also know you're a realistic man.
• 46:20
  You're a man who who likes to set his expectations at a
• 46:22
  reasonable level. But it's a great run, man.
• 46:26
  It's a run that that should live with the club forever because
• 46:30
  getting past that Lyon side in that fashion, that's magic, man.
• 46:35
  I I mean, I remember sweating. You know, getting through
• 46:39
  qualifying with this Arsenal society, it's amazing.
• 46:42
  I don't know. I'm a little worried about
• 46:43
  group. Stages a little worried about
• 46:45
  that as well. So yeah, I'm definitely very
• 46:49
  excited. About this a dream season for
• 46:52
  sure, but yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll see what
• 46:56
  the. Final holds and, and I'm
• 46:58
  definitely, definitely, definitely excited to get into
• 47:00
  all these previews. Let's get to episode calendar
• 47:04
  real quick because now we're talking previews.
• 47:05
  Let's let's do a little quick look ahead.
• 47:07
  Later this week, we're going to talk NWSL storylines 6 weeks
• 47:12
  into the 2025 season. A lot happening there.
• 47:16
  We'll get into kind of like the things that, you know, have
• 47:18
  piqued our interest through six weeks to the highest degrees.
• 47:22
  As mentioned prior, a lot more Chamberlain coverage.
• 47:24
  So make sure you're rocking with us between now and the final and
• 47:27
  also after the final because we're going to have some good
• 47:29
  shit after that as well. So definitely stick around.
• 47:32
  Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
• 47:35
  No, man, I. Think that was it.
• 47:37
  I hope this episode wasn't too rambly because I mean just my
• 47:41
  head is spinning from those results.
• 47:43
  I mean that's that's why we watch the sport man.
• 47:46
  It was it was it lived up to everything.
• 47:49
  The juggernaut acted like it 1 juggernaut acted like a
• 47:52
  juggernaut. Another one completely faltered
• 47:56
  and and now we we have this unlikely final and you know,
• 48:01
  This is why we watch. Yeah, absolutely. 1 juggernaut.
• 48:04
  Acts like a juggernaut and Barcelona also won.
• 48:06
  So that was cool discipline of the episode of into the channel.
• 48:10
  Thank you, thank you, thank you for hanging out.
• 48:11
  If you enjoyed the show or love one so far as much as your boys
• 48:13
  do, make sure you're kicking with us each and every single
• 48:16
  week, especially this time of year where the stakes get
• 48:19
  ratcheted up to pretty much the Max degree.
• 48:22
  Like if you like to subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, have a
• 48:24
  podcast wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 48:26
  Leave us a review over your favorite podcast that we want to
• 48:28
  hear from you. We love hearing from you thanks
• 48:30
  to all of our socials except one shown so this episode and I
• 48:33
  think and a big thing about close as well.
• 48:35
  Mr. Granny, go for I tried to get you.
• 48:38
  Ready last week, man. I told you we were headed to the
• 48:40
  final, we're going to lift that cup and here we are very roughly
• 48:45
  48 hours later and we've made it happen.
• 48:47
  We've reached the apex a few weeks now.
• 48:50
  We hit our stretch run as a show.
• 48:52
  I appreciate you bro. Nobody I'd rather do it with.
• 48:55
  Likewise my good. Man, of course we made it to the
• 48:58
  final. I never there.
• 48:59
  There's never any doubt. I you know what I realized I
• 49:02
  closed the last show by talking about how Braun was five wins, 0
• 49:07
  draws, 0 losses and top Syrian Speaking of great Champions
• 49:10
  League teams. And then Braun had a match the
• 49:13
  next day. So after he recorded, I was
• 49:14
  like, oh man, I hope that works out.
• 49:16
  Of course it did. Braun now sitting at top, top
• 49:19
  Syrian, six wins, 0 draws, 0 losses.
• 49:22
  The goal differentials up to 21 + 21 now.
• 49:26
  So obviously all of our pals in Norway, thank you for continuing
• 49:30
  to rock, was a rock with us. There's been like an influx of
• 49:33
  our Norwegian plant pals, the Brown Battalion coming on the
• 49:36
  blue sky. So that's been nice, but let's
• 49:39
  not get, let's not get too far ahead on next year's Champions
• 49:42
  League. We still got the final coming
• 49:44
  like Dino said. Thank you guys for rocking with
• 49:46
  us without plenty of stuff on it and we will see you all next
• 49:49
  time.