0:30

Want to be more active this winter? Sierra

0:32

helps you save on everything from skis to

0:34

snow boots, sleds to scarves. And if you

0:36

still don't want to go outside, you can

0:38

always move somewhere warmer. Sierra,

0:40

let's get moving. To your local

0:42

store, like now. Go! good

4:00

results and not particularly good games. This was

4:02

a good result obviously for Barcelona, but not

4:04

a result where I actually thought the number

4:07

of goals was commensurate with the number of

4:09

chances because certainly Robert Lewandowski had

4:12

his shooting boots on or even his shooting head on

4:14

instead of his nose, then he could

4:16

have had two or three. He had a couple

4:18

of very, very good chances. And it

4:21

was, I think it was really, really quite

4:23

enjoyable. As you say, it's probably a good

4:25

job because the rest of what had happened

4:27

on Sunday really hadn't been very good. No,

4:29

not entirely, but there's still other stuff for us

4:31

to talk about, but there's loads of talking points

4:33

from this game. Not least the fact that the

4:35

only goal of the game was scored by Jean

4:37

Felix, of course, is on loan from

4:40

Atletico Madrid. It was interesting in the build

4:42

up to this game because Antoine

4:45

Griezmann gave an interview to Movistar TV

4:47

here in which he was

4:49

asked about what went wrong for

4:51

Joao at Atletico Madrid. And

4:53

he said, well, you know, he worked

4:55

hard sometimes, but then

4:58

you need to be consistent with

5:00

this manager. And sometimes it felt like

5:02

he got a bit tired and he

5:04

thought maybe his future might be elsewhere

5:06

from a sort of external point

5:09

of view that actually doesn't seem like a

5:11

pretty unplausible situation as to what happened at

5:13

Atletico Madrid. But there are two sides to

5:15

every story and Joao came back and he

5:18

said, well, I don't agree with Antoine Griezmann

5:21

and I might have done some things better,

5:24

but it's not just my fault. Other people

5:26

are to blame as well. Anyway, that was

5:28

the preview to this game. And then Joao

5:30

Felix pops up and scores and does a

5:32

celebration where he jumps on the hoarding and

5:35

advertising hoarding boards and holds his arms out wide.

5:37

Didn't kiss the badge as he did against when

5:40

he scored against Porto. And there was some suggestion

5:42

of lots of discussion as to whether or not

5:44

he would kiss the badge. And he said this

5:46

was a celebration of spontaneous

5:49

when you're in the moment. And

5:51

it looks a little bit like that. The thing

5:53

is, lots and lots of talk

5:56

now about Joao Felix, understandably, but I feel

5:58

it feels like consistency is the key here,

6:00

he has to keep doing this. This

6:03

is not enough, you know, kissing the badgers, scoring this

6:05

goal, it's not going to be enough for him to

6:07

get a permanent deal at Barcelona, which is what he

6:09

wants. Well, that's exactly it. And

6:12

this is in a way what takes

6:14

us back to the pregame discussions and

6:16

also punches the obvious and I think,

6:20

false and rather facile conclusion from

6:22

this game, which is that Giav

6:24

Felix proves a point or Giav

6:26

Felix proves similarly wrong or Giav

6:28

Felix demonstrates what Atletico Madrid couldn't

6:30

see. Because of course, the

6:32

point of what both Griezmann and Simeone

6:34

said in the pregame and genuinely, by

6:37

the way, you don't

6:39

want to make it all about Giav Felix, but this whole

6:41

thing was about Giav Felix, the whole build up was focused

6:44

on him and we'll get onto him in a minute and

6:46

what he said postgame because it was very, very clear that

6:48

that was on his mind as well. So I think

6:51

that's important, but they're still with this one particular point

6:53

first, which is that, you

6:55

know, the the the thrust of what

6:57

Griezmann said was he was good sometimes if you need

6:59

to be consistent. Simeone said and

7:01

actually so did Enrique Sadeza, although Sadeza was

7:03

kind of more a bit more a bit

7:05

less pointed about it. He said, he said,

7:08

yeah, Giav may well have a great game.

7:10

He's a brilliant player. He could well play

7:12

well. And so what Simeone has said was

7:14

anyone can have a good game. The

7:17

question is, can you do it consistently? So after a game

7:19

like this, when Giav Felix is probably the

7:21

best player on the pitch, certainly obviously scores

7:23

the winning goal, plays very, very well. It's

7:26

hyperactive throughout the game. I think I think

7:28

very, very driven by everything that

7:30

happened. And when he scores like that,

7:32

the temptation say, you see, Giav Felix

7:34

was right and Simeone was wrong. But actually no,

7:36

because the whole point of Simeone's argument was this

7:38

can happen once in a while. The

7:41

question is, does it happen more than once in a

7:43

while? Does it happen consistently? Because bear in mind this

7:45

is Giav Felix, his first goal in nine games in

7:47

the league. That's a long wait. Yes, he'd scored against

7:49

Port-Hermid Week. And yes, we know he's talented, but we all

7:51

knew this anyway. And it doesn't

7:53

necessarily prove Giav's point either, which Giav

7:56

made this point in the build-up

7:58

of the game about. The

8:00

styles and wanting to play a certain way and being

8:02

close to golden by the way I think it's worth

8:04

noting actually that when I when I saw

8:06

that And I

8:08

must admit I saw it after I'd read it when I

8:11

saw the TV version of that answer I thought it

8:13

was nowhere near as pointed as it seems in black

8:15

and white imprint because he doesn't actually mention that let's

8:17

go He doesn't point that athletic. Oh, he talks about

8:19

styles. He talked about what suits my game And obviously

8:21

we know that that's about how to go but but

8:23

it didn't seem to me to be a person deliberately

8:26

trying to wind It up, which is the way had

8:28

come to feel And so

8:30

his point wasn't necessarily proven because in this

8:32

game Barcelona did play better But over the

8:34

course in this season you wouldn't necessarily say

8:36

they've been significantly better than athletic and Madrid

8:39

And yet we know that what he said about the

8:41

way he would like to play in a way Similarly

8:43

would like to play is true and

8:45

this game doesn't really change that it's it's

8:48

a huge thing in Itself,

8:50

but it doesn't actually answer the debate

8:52

if you sort of mean No,

8:55

it doesn't I mean it was a huge result for

8:57

Barcelona had they lost magic There were

8:59

suggestions, you know, there's a be out of the title race

9:01

already. This is a chance for a political

9:03

Madrid to really Throw

9:06

a marker down and I said it could

9:08

be just still never won away to Barcelona

9:10

in the light under Simi only It's an

9:12

incredible start and one which continued

9:15

yesterday We want to talk about lots of

9:17

other things So, you know, we're not going

9:19

to dwell on a jar feelings We could

9:21

do because there's still a lot more we

9:23

could talk about but there are other aspects

9:25

of this Performance in this game that we

9:27

do want to mention at not least the

9:29

Barcelona midfield It looks really good and Frankie

9:31

de Jong was did fish and and Pedri

9:33

was really good and and Gundelgan And they

9:35

were moving the ball quickly and there was

9:37

a speed to us To

9:39

their play which we haven't necessarily seen at

9:41

times at this season. That was really good

9:43

for Barcelona The bad thing I would say is

9:46

Lewandowski who I don't

9:48

know what's wrong with him said genuinely you were there

9:50

I mean, I've seen him in the flesh as well

9:53

fish. I just don't know what's what's wrong with him

9:55

Yeah in this game what I

9:57

would say in Lewandowski's defense is

10:00

that I thought his play was okay. I thought he

10:03

played reasonably well, and I think what we've seen in

10:05

a lot of recent games is that

10:07

he's been, he's kind of been absent. He's all

10:09

just been irrelevant, you know, he just hasn't been

10:11

a figure. On this occasion, I thought he did,

10:14

I thought he combined quite well with Jow at

10:16

times. I think there were moments when chances were,

10:19

well, there were lots of moments when chances were falling to him, and I

10:21

think his overall performance, so for example, that

10:24

chance that he puts wide in the second half, when

10:26

he's going in the inside right channel and he cuts

10:28

inside, I can't remember which defender it is, he beats,

10:30

and then he tries to take it on the inside

10:33

with the inside of his foot, sort

10:35

of far corner, and he puts a long way wide,

10:37

so really bad finish, but I actually thought the way

10:39

that he'd cut back in, show

10:42

kind of a calmness and an

10:44

awareness that was good,

10:46

that was encouraging, but his finishing was dreadful.

10:49

I mean, and you know, this is a guy who is not

10:51

only a finisher, but as large as he defined

10:53

himself by finishing and always finishing, and finishing very

10:55

cleanly, and you see, for example, as

10:57

I've already briefly mentioned it, the header that hits him in

10:59

the nose, the volley in the first

11:01

half that he puts wide, now if that goes in and

11:03

it flies into net, you would say that's a brilliant finish,

11:05

because he is having to turn his body sideways on, he

11:08

is having to take it on the volley, he is having

11:10

to kind of swing across it, side footed, but

11:13

it's the kind of volley we've seen him score loads

11:15

of times, and he doesn't

11:17

connect at all well with it, and that

11:19

was really, really striking for me, that he would

11:22

strike a ball, I'm not gonna say an easy

11:24

ball, but a good ball, as badly

11:26

as that, where

11:28

he cuts inside, he's got a great chance, and he scuffs it

11:30

really badly, and I'd be worried about

11:32

that, and I don't think it's entirely chance that

11:36

Baseliner have taken the decision, and by the way, I

11:38

don't think it was too limited to this decision, I

11:40

think it's Deco, the sport director, but

11:42

in the winter window, because the absence of

11:45

Gavi means that they can make a signing, in terms

11:47

of the relaxation of the financial fair play constraints,

11:50

so Victor Hocki, who

11:52

they'd already signed, they've

11:55

accelerated his arrival at Baseliner,

11:58

that is not replacing Gavi. That's

12:00

a number nine. That's replacing Lewandowski. Now,

12:02

I'm not saying he's going to replace him. I'm

12:04

certainly not saying he's going to play ahead of

12:06

him every week. But I think it's an awareness

12:08

that actually we could do

12:10

with something else up there. And even if

12:13

Viktor Hockay's only real role is to remind

12:15

Lewandowski that he's not guaranteed a place and

12:18

to use the old cliche, put a rocket up his ass

12:20

and sort of get a reaction from him. But I don't

12:22

know if it's about that. I don't know if this is

12:25

permanent. I don't know if it's a one off. I think actually,

12:27

if you look at the back in the last season, he wasn't

12:29

that great either. I've got

12:31

quite significant doubts about

12:33

him on a more permanent level. Now,

12:36

that's not to say he's ever going to be terrible because he's never

12:38

going to be terrible. But

12:42

is he at the very, very top anymore?

12:46

Hmm. Viktor Hockay

12:48

rocket up his ass.

12:50

Yes, Viktor Hockayt up his ass.

12:53

Why are you pronouncing it like that? Because I was

12:56

listening to a Brazilian on the radio and

12:58

it just struck me and it made me

13:01

giggle how I see. Hockayt. And

13:03

I just thought I was trying to Brazilianise, but yeah, I think it's

13:06

just going to be rocket. Yeah. I

13:08

think that's probably best for everyone. But I think it is. But

13:13

the midfield was good. Yeah, brilliant. Really

13:15

good. And actually, it was one of the

13:17

things that JL Félix did say off the game about

13:19

midfield. He said that the perfect midfield,

13:22

they make life much, much

13:24

easier for you. They find you being

13:26

him, obviously, between the lines, which enables

13:28

him to be kind of a hybrid,

13:30

not really an attacker, more an extra

13:32

midfielder. The use of the

13:34

ball was good. It was crisp. It was clean. And

13:36

you mentioned Frankie the Yong. And I suppose this is

13:38

one of the reasons why from

13:40

a Barcelona perspective, you can be optimistic that

13:43

the recovery in the second half against

13:45

Porto and the performance

13:48

here for about, I would

13:50

say they were really good for what? Sixty five

13:52

minutes, maybe around about the same, actually, as they were

13:54

in the classic go against Real Madrid. Although I think

13:56

actually they were probably better in this game than against

13:58

Real Madrid and created more chances. is. And

14:02

that's what allows you to be optimistic that this is

14:04

a genuine change because you can see that piece that

14:06

was missing in this long round of not playing very

14:08

well and that was Frank of the Yong. Now I

14:10

still have one or two doubts about Frank of the

14:13

Yong as the sole pivot in this field. But of

14:15

course part of the secret to this is he's not

14:17

really playing in the sole pivot now because Gundegang is

14:19

so close to him. And they're not

14:21

exactly playing in parallel but they're close to playing

14:24

in parallel. And so you've got

14:26

this degree of freedom with them for Pedri in front

14:28

of them but those two being a little bit

14:30

closer. So it means that if the Yong

14:32

does go, Gundegang will wait. If Gundegang sort

14:34

of drifts into a slightly more attacking

14:36

position to Yong will wait. I

14:38

think the fact that they are playing three

14:41

central defenders amongst their four at the back

14:43

changes that as well. And it's very interesting

14:45

by the way, Chavie pre-game was claiming that

14:48

neither Arro or Noll or Gunde are actually playing a

14:50

full back with him. So they're playing in the centre

14:52

but they go out to the wing. Which I think

14:55

is a bit of a slight of hand to be

14:57

honest. But there's an element of truth to that. There

14:59

is an element of truth to that and I think

15:01

that reinforces maybe the fact that you haven't got a

15:03

natural pivot if Ari or Rameo is not playing. And

15:06

I think that three as a midfield is

15:08

potentially very good. But I do still wonder

15:10

about the lack of that actual position, that

15:12

actual player there in that role. Before

15:15

we move on, 34,568

15:17

fans at Montjuik last night. The lowest

15:20

attendance of the season for one of

15:22

the biggest games of the season, El

15:24

Super Rello. What was it like inside

15:26

the stadium? Am I allowed

15:29

to be rude? Yes. It

15:32

was rubbish. Yeah. Genuinely,

15:36

I mean that sounds unfair. The problem is that sometimes

15:38

when you say things like that, it sounds like you're

15:40

being unfair on the people who are there. But actually

15:42

it's not about the people who have gone, it's about

15:45

the people who haven't gone. The

15:47

34,000 fans there last

15:49

night as well, I would say is very high proportion

15:51

of tourists and there's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing

15:53

wrong with that. And obviously, you know, a lot of

15:55

our listeners will be people who go to games occasionally.

15:57

I go to a lot of games occasionally, even when

16:00

I'm not just working. that that's not a problem, but

16:02

it does change the nature of the

16:04

way that group of fans responds and the

16:06

atmosphere that's created and so on. And

16:09

it was really, really disappointing. There's loads of reasons. We could

16:11

genuinely be here all night and so I don't really want

16:13

to get into them, but price, weather,

16:16

time. I think the fact that they gave the fans

16:18

the chance to opt out for a year was a

16:20

mistake, although admittedly it was a mistake that they couldn't

16:22

avoid because there were too many season ticket holders to

16:24

get them into the game. But I think having a

16:27

season ticket has to have a coercive element to it.

16:29

And by allowing fans to effectively opt out for a

16:31

year, I think they lost that. I don't think

16:34

that's problematic. There are lots, in Montjuic

16:36

isn't a particularly great place for watching football. In fact,

16:38

it's a pretty bad place for watching football, but

16:41

I still think it's poor. I think it's

16:43

very poor and I think it's worrying because I think

16:45

it also says something about disengagement with the club, disengagement

16:47

with the team. I don't

16:49

want to overplay that because I think there

16:51

are other non-footballing factors, but it's

16:54

a problem. That's a very, very low attendance.

16:57

It was cold last night in Barcelona

16:59

and to our British ears, that does

17:01

sound absolutely ludicrous, but it was cold.

17:03

It was nine o'clock on a Sunday

17:05

and the cheapest tickets were €90

17:08

for some pretty terrible seats at Montjuic. For one it's

17:10

worth, I think it might be worth pointing that out.

17:12

And I know that nine o'clock on a Sunday is

17:14

now a traditional kickoff time in Spain and no one

17:16

really looks at it and says that's terrible. But nine

17:18

o'clock on Sunday is a bad time. Yeah, yeah,

17:21

yeah, objectively speaking. It's not bad. It is, bottom

17:23

line, it is a bad time. This

17:27

episode is brought to you by Max. The

17:30

Emmy-winning HBO original docuseries Hard Knox

17:32

returns for an all-new in-season with

17:35

the Miami Dolphins. Get

17:37

an exclusive look into what it takes

17:39

to become the league's most explosive team

17:41

with coach Mike McDaniel, quarterback Tuatunga Valoa

17:44

and football's fastest man Tyreek Hill on

17:46

pace to break the receiving yards record.

17:48

Follow the fins as far as they

17:51

go. Hard Knox is now streaming with

17:53

new episodes Tuesdays on Max. You

17:58

were also at the Burnabout on Saturday. to

18:01

see Real Madrid beat Granada 2-0. I was putting

18:03

him in the production notes. Not much to say

18:05

here, but Turdi Cross has still got it. Yeah,

18:08

Turdi Cross was brilliant and that is about it to be honest.

18:10

I mean this is the sound dismissive of Real Madrid and I

18:12

don't intend it to because actually in a way the reason there

18:15

was nothing to say was because Madrid were actually very good. But

18:17

they were very good I felt, I felt

18:19

at least in third gear. I didn't think they needed

18:21

more and I don't think, I mean you know you're

18:23

talking about a new approach from Granada, that

18:25

new approach didn't transmit to use

18:27

the Spanishism very much to me to be

18:29

honest with you. No, announcing today

18:31

Real Madrid that Danny Carvajal has picked up

18:34

an injury which feels like a really

18:36

really important absentee that

18:38

they're going to have. Not at least

18:40

because he's actually been one of the players of the

18:42

season so far for Real Madrid and he's a player

18:44

who's had injury problems in the past and we thought

18:47

are he staying fit now for a consistent amount

18:49

of time and now he's going to be out

18:51

for a while. Yeah and you're right

18:53

as well and it's not just that we thought oh

18:55

he's fit now. There was a lot of discourse around

18:57

the changes that he's made in terms

18:59

of his diet. There's been this big obsession with his

19:01

broccoli over the last few

19:03

weeks and there was this kind of idea this is

19:06

the magical cure he'll never get injured again. Yeah. And

19:08

he is. Now obviously let's see what the length of

19:10

the injury is, the seriousness of it, whether it occurs

19:12

and so on but he's had a lot of injury

19:14

problems over his career. I hope this one isn't a

19:16

bad one because as you say he has been playing

19:19

really really well. I also think he's a hidden

19:23

but key piece in the Real Madrid team.

19:26

Yes. Rodrigo Goes or

19:29

as you would like me to call him Hodrigo

19:31

Goes, scoring in the

19:35

fifth consecutive game and he really

19:37

is in the form

19:39

that Real Madrid need him to be in.

19:41

Brian Lee getting the other goal. Jude Bellingham

19:44

in not scoring, shocker but

19:46

but there we go. We mentioned Girona

19:48

coming back to win against Valencia. Do

19:50

you know how many times they've come

19:52

back this season to win a match,

19:54

Sid? I believe it's six but the

19:56

number of points is 17 isn't it? 17 points

19:59

recovered from losing positions. Yes and it is yes it's

20:01

six times I mean that's it. It is six is it

20:03

right. That's a ridiculous amount. Absolutely ridiculous. Well do you know

20:05

what one of the things about it is as well and

20:07

I think this game was another example now admittedly the goals

20:10

came very late and admittedly they only got two of them

20:12

because you look at some of those other comebacks yes they

20:14

go behind but then they score four. Yes this time they

20:16

went behind and they only scored two and it looks a

20:18

bit epic not least because it's still Annie and he comes

20:21

on he scores in the 82nd minute and he scores again

20:23

in the 88th minute although he doesn't officially score well he

20:25

does officially score but he doesn't actually score because the referee

20:27

gives him the goal when it's not actually his touch and

20:29

he's the one that says I don't think I touched

20:31

this but anyway so that makes gives it a feel

20:34

of epic but actually didn't feel like epic and this

20:36

is a bit like some of those other comebacks it's

20:38

not epic it's logic they are

20:40

irresistible when they start gathering momentum the amount

20:42

of people they get in the area the

20:44

amount of chances they create you see the

20:48

first goal is different actually to be fair but you see

20:50

the second one is a very very classically

20:52

girona goal from what we've seen this year in that it's

20:54

a really good cross into the box but it's not the

20:56

cross and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago

20:59

but it's a ball swung in and let's see if someone

21:01

can get ahead on it it's a

21:03

it's a pass that's come from the side and

21:05

it's hit hard and it's hit low and it's

21:07

hit to a man now admittedly that

21:09

argument falls apart of it because it's not actually Storane Guedes to

21:11

it but it's aiming at Storane and he's right next to it

21:14

and so it's when they when they put lots

21:16

of balls into the area girona it

21:19

is not done as

21:21

it's not done for example of Sevilla this

21:23

weekend and Sevilla broke a record this weekend

21:25

for the number of crosses but that's largely

21:27

aimless lumps into the penalty area girona are

21:29

not aimless lump. Girona

21:32

are not aimless lumps if they absolutely are

21:34

not and uh we're 15 games into the

21:36

season now they've got exactly the same record

21:38

as uh Real Madrid played 15, 1-12, drawn

21:40

2 and

21:42

lost just one they've scored more goals

21:45

than Real Madrid and indeed anybody else

21:47

and they're um they're 10 points clear

21:50

of fifth so they're really putting themselves in

21:52

a very very strong position to

21:54

claim Champions League football although there is still

21:57

a long way to go let's talk about

21:59

a Sevilla mentioned them there

22:01

they drew 1-1 with Villarreal

22:03

I mean they're in all sorts

22:06

of trouble Sevilla it could have been

22:09

a lot worse for them because Ben

22:11

Brereton Diaz scored

22:14

in injury time which we

22:16

thought was going to be his first

22:18

goal for Villarreal he's had a tough

22:20

time it was a really really well

22:22

taken goal he celebrated wildly and then

22:24

VAR disallowed it for a seemingly quite

22:26

dubious foul from from him during the

22:28

move and scoring the

22:30

goal and Sevilla was saved a little

22:32

bit but it's still it's a very

22:34

very difficult situation for the

22:36

Andalusians and I just wonder how long

22:39

are they going to stick with Diego

22:41

Alonso because he has still not won

22:43

a game in the league it's

22:46

extraordinary really because you

22:49

know you don't want to put too much of the responsibility

22:51

on a manager who hasn't been there for very long but

22:53

actually it's not not very long now it's what is it

22:56

in league it must be seven games in the league maybe

22:58

eight yeah with him I'm not

23:00

sure but it's

23:02

an extraordinarily bad set of results

23:04

for a team with the

23:06

players that Sevilla have again

23:09

I'm not sure it's directly about pointing the finger at

23:11

him but if he's not the problem he isn't showing

23:13

signs of being the solution yet because

23:15

it's not like do you know the other thing

23:18

is it's not even as if you look at this and

23:20

you think I can see something I

23:22

can see a change I can see a shift because actually

23:25

if anything it's shifting back more

23:28

towards Mende-Lebar but the number of

23:30

crosses this weekend was it was they've done quite a

23:32

lot crosses all the way through with Diego Alonso but

23:34

it's kind of a bit closer to Mende-Lebar you look

23:36

for example at difference between them and Villareal who they

23:38

play this weekend you look at Villareal to be honest

23:40

and you still see flaws but

23:42

you can see the beginning of an idea coming through you

23:44

can see you can and you can see that immediately you

23:46

can see a reaction of sorts and Sevilla's

23:49

situation is I mean it's quite difficult

23:51

to fully understand because for

23:53

all the problems they have they shouldn't be quite this

23:56

bad I think there is an

23:58

emotional element to do with the ownership of the client and

24:00

the tension and the kind of divide. I think that

24:02

does filter through a little bit. I think it does

24:04

reach players. I think it does make a difference to

24:06

the atmosphere. I think it does change things. I think

24:09

there are times when you can say, okay, a little

24:11

bit unlucky this time. But all in all,

24:13

you look at them and you just think, they

24:16

are a really shockingly bad team

24:19

for the collection of players they've got. And

24:22

I'm not saying their players are brilliant because they're not,

24:24

but you go through that first division in

24:26

Spain. And you say, would

24:29

you want Jesus Navas? I think

24:31

the immense majority of teams would want Jesus Navas. Would you

24:34

want Ivan Rakitic? Even though he's a bit slow these

24:36

days, you probably would. Would you want Nesiri? Yes. Would you

24:38

want a campus? Yes. Would you want,

24:42

eh? Acuña, I'd have him.

24:44

Acuña, you'd want him. He's a World Cup

24:46

winner. I mean, I'm

24:49

not saying these guys are all brilliant, but

24:51

there's five or six players there that sure

24:54

as anything shouldn't be down where they are. They should be

24:56

performing this badly. They

24:59

did have several people missing for this

25:01

game. Jesus Navas said, Jorav was both

25:03

suspended. Sumare, Bade, La Bella, Sousa,

25:05

Nyla, they were all out injured. So the team

25:07

that they put out was not quite as strong

25:09

as it could have been. But still, it is

25:12

not a good time for

25:15

Sevilla, who are 15th seed.

25:17

And if Selves have been tonight, they're going to

25:19

be just two points off

25:21

the Relegations. And so it is not a

25:24

good time at all for Sevilla. It is

25:27

a good time for Athletic, who

25:30

thrashed the mighty Raya of

25:32

Viacano 4-0. Tremendous result for

25:35

them and both Williams brothers

25:38

scoring in this game in the week there.

25:40

I love that. Nico Williams also extended his

25:42

contract. So he's going to be there. We

25:44

had one or two doubts whether or not

25:47

that was going to happen, but eventually

25:49

put pen to paper and we're going

25:51

to have Enyaki and Nico Williams for

25:53

a while longer, Sid. Yeah,

25:56

well, I mean, the thing is we have one or two doubts about it. And to

25:58

be honest, we sort of still do about it. whether this

26:00

is a renovation, a contract extension,

26:03

that was very Spanish. A contract

26:05

extension that enables a departure. No.

26:08

And I think at some point, I think at some point, Will, but I

26:10

don't think it will happen now. I think

26:12

that's really important. I mean, look,

26:14

regular listeners will know I've

26:16

got a very big soft spot for the Williams brothers

26:18

for kind of everything that they, everything that they are,

26:21

everything the way they behave, the way they act, the

26:23

way they play, and they are both playing brilliantly. And

26:25

as far as statistics, the other day, I love this,

26:28

you probably saw it, I think it was either who

26:30

scored or so for score. It was one of the statistical

26:32

websites. So the best winger

26:34

in Spain is Williams. And the

26:36

second best winger in Spain is Williams. And

26:39

they are one and two in terms of

26:41

statistical average ratings, I think it was. And

26:43

they are playing brilliantly. And in Yaki in particular,

26:45

and I think Ernesto Balverde has found

26:48

a solution because in Yaki's actually scoring more goals from a

26:50

wider position than he was through the middle. Guldo

26:52

Theta is giving them the capacity to

26:54

play that game. And more in Yaki even than

26:56

Nico actually, but it's Guldo Theta is

26:58

a set of forward who will come away from

27:01

the middle and allow space for Yaki to go

27:03

into with the goal in front

27:05

of him and kind of coming in with everything opening in front

27:07

of him. He seems to finish better than he did before. They

27:10

are playing really, really well. And I

27:12

suppose they must be looking at Girono and thinking, what a pity.

27:15

The year that we start getting it right and you think, oh, good,

27:17

Sevilla is out of it this time round. Villarreal is

27:19

not really in it this time round. That full spot

27:21

could be ours because even very often they are just

27:23

playing very well. Their

27:25

numbers are not quite as good as they've been in previous years.

27:27

And bloody Girono has turned up. But

27:31

they've been very, very impressive, athletic

27:34

in the last five, six weeks. There was a little lull,

27:36

wasn't there, after about four or five weeks of the season,

27:38

but they've turned that round now. They

27:41

have and they're seemingly very much in the battle

27:43

for the top four. And in

27:46

terms of scoring goals, they are the joint

27:49

third best team in terms of

27:51

scoring goals. So that has

27:53

long been a problem for them. And seemingly they've found

27:55

a way to get the best out of their front

27:58

three. Before we go, we just I just

28:00

want to mention a couple of things that have

28:02

happened in Spain. We'll get to the Segunda results

28:05

in just a second. But

28:09

Spain's women's team were in action,

28:11

Sid. On

28:13

Friday night they lost 3-2 in Ponte

28:15

Vedra, but the result wasn't the biggest

28:17

talking point, Sid? No. I

28:19

mean, it's just bizarre. They started

28:22

the second half with 10 players and

28:24

it was sort of 9.5 because there was a player

28:26

still doing the boots up at this point. There was

28:29

some confusion at half time. And

28:31

the reason I say some confusion

28:33

is because actually the explanations given

28:35

don't entirely tally. So I

28:37

think it was Athineo was talking to the mix-on

28:43

post game and

28:45

gave a different explanation to the

28:47

one that Moncet-Tomé, the coach gave.

28:49

Aitana Bonmati basically at half time

28:52

said she didn't feel well enough to carry on.

28:54

There had been a discussion with the manager and

28:56

she didn't come out the second half, but it

28:58

seems that it happened too quickly for them to

29:00

replace her, basically. Or for them to have completed

29:02

the replacement. And the players warming up didn't come

29:04

on. And you start the second

29:07

half with 10 players and

29:09

you concede. And it just looks

29:11

horrendously amateurish. And

29:15

doesn't look good at all. I mean, we've talked about

29:17

this a little bit before and we

29:19

don't follow the women's

29:21

game well enough to have a really,

29:23

really good clear take on this. But

29:26

it does feel like it's difficult to

29:28

imagine Moncet-Tomé lasting very much longer, particularly

29:30

now that Fubí San Reter has taken

29:32

over as sporting director. I suspect that

29:36

that will bring with it a changing coach

29:38

in the, maybe not immediately, but in the

29:40

not too distant future. Okay.

29:43

We had to mention that. Before we go

29:45

in the Segunda, we also had to mention

29:47

that there was a big 2-0 win for

29:49

Oviedo over Español. Congratulations. Played really

29:51

well as well. And in the game of

29:53

the weekend, rah! Feroal

30:00

be Alba Fete 5-4. So Léganessa first

30:02

on 36 points then it's Sporting

30:07

and Valladolid on 32 and Español

30:09

and Rashing Feroal are on 31 points.

30:12

Oviedo are 11. This

30:15

week we've got the Copa del Rey second round including

30:18

here's some of the

30:20

choice ties Arosa against

30:22

Valencia andrax from

30:24

the island of Mallorca against Darel

30:27

Sociedad, Villanovense against Betis, Atletico

30:29

Astorga against Sevilla, Cayón against Athletic

30:31

Club and the one that you

30:34

will be going to tomorrow Castellón

30:36

against Rael Oviedo. I saw all

30:38

the Oviedo players actually. They walked

30:40

past me in the airport. I

30:42

was sitting there riding

30:45

this morning and a guy went past me

30:47

in the full Oviedo tracksuit and I thought

30:49

that's commitment for you and then about four

30:51

or five others did. Oh actually it's a

30:53

team. There were a lot of very very young

30:55

looking players amongst that squad so I suspect there's

30:57

gonna be quite a big rotation. I

31:02

would have thought so but there we go Copa

31:04

del Rey second round coming up this week. If

31:07

you want to join us over at patreon.com/TSFE for

31:09

the rest of the week we will be providing

31:11

you with top quality Spanish football content for a

31:13

very very small fee so come and join us

31:15

and if you don't want to do that's alright

31:18

we'll be here as ever every single Monday for

31:20

free wherever you get your podcast so you can

31:22

join us then. Oh yes. you