DISCUSSION: Champions League Return-Leg Semi-Finals Review

Declan Link & Paul Schmidt-Troschke discuss Arsenal and PSG making it through to the Champions League final. 

To follow our Patreon page for exclusive series on international topics, copy and paste the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/FriendsofWorldSportsetcPatreon

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Hello and welcome to welcome etc. with a Champions League semi-final debrief. Unfortunately, we lost John Bonfilio, our beloved co-host, in a Mexican rain and windstorm, and he does not have any single right now, signal right now. So he uh yeah, we're missing him in this recording. Um, so of course, there were the two games between Atletico Madrid and Arsenal on the one hand, and uh Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich on the other hand. Um, I would say that especially the Bayern PSG game was quite the opposite. Um, because the results in that game were one nil in favor of PSG, and the other game was one nil in favor of Arsenal. Um, Declan, is your perception the same regarding the Bayern Munich game?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yes, but I think you got the scores wrong. Uh it was one one. The uh Harry Kane's gonna be a little bit of a few of course, of course, yes, sorry. You're robbing Bayern Munich in total. You're robbing Bayern Munich of a goal on aggregate. Uh there was one goal. Yeah, of course. 6-5.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Yes, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

And then Arsenal did what Arsenal needed to do yesterday. Um, and then you know, quite a controlled performance, uh nullifying Athletico. And uh, you know, however this was all going to play out, I mean, if it was going to be Athletico against Bayern or Arsenal against PSG, I think everyone's gonna be licking their their lips, uh, waiting, waiting for the uh for the final in in Budapest in uh in three weeks' time.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I mean uh yeah, uh also regarding the favorites, uh it was clear that who uh whoever wins uh the the Bayern PSG game will be the favorite in the final, of course. Um yeah, and for you as a secret uh secret Arsenal lover, Declan, um how happy are you that uh Arsenal made it to a Champions League final for the first time in 20 years?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Uh I'm a secret Guner, that's what I am. And that's because I despise Tottenham Hotspur, so by default, I like Arsenal. I am happy, but I am I'm actually quite happy, and I don't know if if this is what you're like when the German teams are playing in the European competitions, you know, back in the UK and with my group of friends here, sometimes their their love, their blindness to their team means that whoever the the the other English teams are that are doing well in Europe, uh they don't want them to do well, which I don't understand, even if Tottenham were in the final. When Tottenham played a few years ago, I wanted them to win, uh despite my lack of love for them. So I'm very happy for Arsenal. It's an English team in the final. Um my brother and my niece, one one of my um my godchildren, Bella, were at the game, and obviously the atmosphere on TV yesterday was sensational, considering they used to call the Emirates a library. Uh, it was probably the best atmosphere before, during, and after the game I've ever seen at the Emirates. And Arsenal over the two legs were, I would say, um, you know, fairly, fairly decent, uh, worthy winners.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Oh, I would uh definitely say the same. Um, in the in the first game uh between Arsenal and Atletico. I definitely perceived Atletico to be much more dominant. And uh interestingly, we have not seen um yeah, not a lot at all from uh Julian Alvarez today, who was very present and a key player in the last game. Um and of course there were some uh some uh yeah complications because he got injured in that game and it was not clear for the first uh few days um after the first match if he actually will be able to play um in the second leg. Um so yeah, he did not make the difference. Um and uh first uh regarding that game, how did you um perceive the uh the referee performance?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Uh the referee in fact the referee was uh okay yesterday's performance. They actually said on the commentary for today's game for the Bayernich PFSG, at one point they actually the the the commentator said the referee has lost the game. So um I don't remember there being unless I'm losing it with my old age dementia, I don't remember the referee necessarily being the talking point yesterday, like like was controversial in the first game with the penalties, etc. etc. Um, I thought yesterday's game between Arsenal and uh Atletico, I thought the game was going to be a lot more sort of emotional. Remember, we talked about Diego Simeone's dark arts, etc. etc. And there were reports before the game that Simeone wanted Arsenal to uh, and I quote to use one of your quotes, Paul, um, to lose their heads. But actually I thought Arsenal stayed fairly disciplined throughout most most of the game yesterday, and defensively, you know, a lot of experts do feel that their defence is arguably the best with Ryer Ryer, David Ryer in goal as well. Uh, their their defence, particularly the central defence of Saliba and Gabriel, are the the strongest points of the team, and um, you know, Athletico did counter-attack a lot during the game, but it they they came up against a wall, and then Declan Rice uh had one tackle in particular where he blocked a ball, which was fantastic. And I think they got a real big lift as well um from Sucker being a st on the starting team. It seems like Arsenal, when when when he's starting and he's in a good rich man of form, they win. And if he's not playing, or he's obviously had a poor period, which he's had this year, um, having a nice decent break not only bodes well for Arsenal for their upcoming Premier League games and the Champions League final, but hopefully it bodes well for England in the World Cup.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Yeah, um, absolutely. Um, I think that uh it couldn't have gone better for Arsenal today, um, with Saka scoring the winning goal. Um, and also, yeah, um, regarding the referee, of course, there was this uh this one instance. Um, the foul uh from Pubel at Jokeres in the 18th minute, where Jokeres clearly was the last man, and uh Puebel um yeah just grabbed his shirt and and brought him down. Um so that was uh a little bit controversial in in my opinion, that decision. But overall the referee's performance was uh in that game uh quite well. Yeah, sorry, I got that mixed up. Of course, I was uh alluding to the Bayern Munich PSG game. Um so yeah, let's go over to that game. Uh quite the contrast, I would say, to uh to last week, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, I mean everyone was hoping, anticipating, had their fingers crossed, particularly the neutrals, that uh today's game was going to be extension of the game last week. Uh it didn't turn out that way, but after whatever whatever it was, two and a half, three minutes when PSG scored their belly scored, I think everyone was rubbing their hands gleefully saying, Here we go, here we go, here we go. But I think uh PSG and uh Enrique as a coach, you know, they played very, very well indeed. And I think that the the fact they scored the the goal so early on meant that Bay didn't necessarily take the game to PSG in the way that they probably intended to. And what I mean by that is they they knew that if they if they they they weren't full guns blazing early on and they let themselves open at the back, and I'm not sure that Bayern defence are the best defence in the world anyway, uh they they would have then been three goals down and it would have been tie over. So I don't think I think that the the actual excitement and and um what happened in the game, although it was still fascinating. Uh I do think that that early goal sort of determined how the game played out. And if you think about it, Bayern Munich didn't really create that many chances for the uh for Harry Kane. Now, Harry Kane, you know, when he's fit and healthy, he always scores, and it was a classic Harry Kane goal. I don't think Michael Elisi was quite as um uh impactful as he was uh last last week, and Luis Diaz definitely didn't seem to be anywhere near as good as he was last week. So uh all in all, I think I'm I think you're probably very surprised as well because we all said on after last week's uh uh podcast on the game on the first round games, the first leg games, that we all thought Bayern were gonna win because of the home advantage, it just didn't play out that way.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Yeah, um, I mean, of course, for my side, unfortunately, uh, although I must admit that uh my uh support for Bayern Munich only rests on Bayern Munich being a German club and uh playing in the Champions League. Um, because uh if you're not a Bayern Munich fan, you definitely hate Bayern Munich, uh no matter uh what uh what club you support in Germany. Um but on an international stage uh it's definitely different. Yeah, uh I mean uh it seems that both clubs draw the exact same conclusion, uh conclusions from last week's game. And uh you could very very much see that with uh much more emphasis on the on the defense. And uh, I mean Dembele's goal was of course, uh I would say a um, I mean Dembele, of course, is a genius player, but still a classic um yeah, defense failure um because he was completely overlooked, he had way too much space, um, so close to the goal, only a couple of meters, of course. And um, yeah, Bayern created uh not so many chances, and as you said, especially not for Harry Kane. And uh once Kane got a chance, uh only uh yeah, basically a couple of uh um minutes, if not more, too late. Uh he took the chance and um scored a good goal with what one minute and 15 seconds to go.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

So they left themselves no time. They left themselves no time at the end. So and fair play, fair play to uh Luis Enrique. I've got ultimate respect for him. He's he's definitely um uh turned out to be a very, very, very good coach. And it was really good on the CBS coverage here in America, where they have Thierry Henri, Meeks, Jay uh Jamie Um Carraga, and um the lady whose name I forget who runs in the stadium in the in the studio. They actually had the owner of PSG on on the satellite feed and and also Luis Enrique pretty much soon after the game. So it was really impressive that CBS show was um that they could get not only you know the main people from PSG on within 35 minutes, but it was a really fun back and forth. I don't know what feed you get in Mexico, but uh it was really good, very, very enjoyable indeed.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Yeah, absolutely. Uh unfortunately I don't have we don't have a CBS here, uh at least not uh yeah, Micah, Thierry Henry and uh and Calegar. Um but no matter if I've seen the game in full or not, I always watch the the CBS highlights after the game because uh it's just very, very good entertainment. And of course, you have uh football legends uh sitting there um with uh with very good very good humor. Um one last thing I really want to uh want to emphasize is um yeah, as I already asked you, the referee performance in that game, because there were two instances where uh two clear handballs, um one outside of the box and the other one uh inside, and uh very very clear uh the the VAR did not step in for uh whatever reason, um, then another handball out uh yeah, outside, I think somewhere around the um 30-something minute. Um and uh yeah, it was actually uh the referee decided in favor for uh Paris Saint-Germain. Um and uh of course, then the VAR cannot interject to correct it. But uh that's football. And uh if it's only that rare that uh that we see such um yeah, I would say um uh failure in judgment uh on the on the on the ref side, um then I can live with that.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So uh that was I think that was that was the point where the commentator here said the referee had lost the game. So you know, because there were there was definitely a lot of pressure on him, the Bayern fans were were really into it. Um but uh but ultimately, you know, anytime nowadays VAR is involved, most of the time it seems like it's just controversial. Sometimes it shows its value, but um, you know, at the end of the day, I think PSG over the course of the two legs were worthy winners, and it's gonna be a great final. I I just want to say a couple of quick things. One, John needs to toughen up, and and uh as I said earlier on to you and him, I've lived through about 12 hurricanes here in Florida, so a little electrical storm with a little bit of light rain. John should be able to deal with that. And I know because I know John's sense of humor, he would have he would have been like a kid trying to ask me within the first minute the uh pronunciation of the Georgian forward. You just know he would have done that. So I I I I want to give it my best shot here. Kavitcha Kavacha Cheli. So there you go. Because I know that's exactly what John would have done.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, in in 10 episodes, uh we're gonna get there for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Great. All right, Paul. That was excellent. Talk to you soon. Have a great evening.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Thank you so much, Declan. Bye-bye. So that's it from us for today.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

And if you just can't get enough of us, you can support us and get access to our premium content on Patreon, consisting of special interviews, deep dives, and QA's. You will find a link to our Friends of the World Sports, etc., Patreon page in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

And of course, don't forget to follow us and rate the show on all platforms. Your support is much appreciated.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Also check out our World Sports, etc. podcast for more sports news and stories. And with that, thank you so much for listening and goodbye.