Mark Critchley

speaker

1,840 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 8 Jul

Mark Critchley’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 7.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Athletic FC Podcast · Spain stunned + inside England's preparations · 16 Jun 2026 podcast

viewers that's on record since 1966 such a discipline such an organised performance and it needed to be and it was a bit different from Curacao in that respect he really took the game to Germany and got opened up and had that one moment with the goal but Cape Verde have got a point and it's huge isn't it and it also changes the complexion of the tournament going forward because now you're looking at Spain and their path through the tournament you're like maybe it's not going to be as easy for them as we thought it would be so great result. voice-verified

Okay, I'll take that in two parts. voice-verified

And so I think the first one on Spain, I think most of them, most of us had them as favourites going into this tournament. voice-verified

I watched that performance yesterday and thought, this is a Spain team that's quite different from other Spain teams that we're used to in the past. voice-verified

You know, they've got that element of directness to their play. voice-verified

They're good in transition through players like Jamal and Nico Williams. voice-verified

have they perhaps lost a little bit of their ability to pick apart low blocks, to have a lot of the ball and find space and overloads and that kind of combination. voice-verified

I still think they can do both. voice-verified

And I think we saw that at the Euros. voice-verified

And I think that's why a lot of people rank them as favourites coming into this tournament. voice-verified

But it seemed to elude them yesterday. voice-verified

And, you know, but again, like we used to though, we used to big nations sometimes starting slowly. voice-verified

And if you're comparing it to the World Cup shocks of the past, I mean, voice-verified

Saudi Arabia Argentina in the very last World Cup France Senegal France went out in the group stage that year didn't they so it's not always that necessarily a team will lose and then go on to become champions or get off to a slow start I don't think it affects Spain's chances too much I would be concerned about the low block issue because I think teams have seen how to play against them and you had the I enjoyed the customary Rodri post-match crash out that he has after voice-verified

Anytime they play a team as a low block, it's like they didn't create anything. voice-verified

It's like you're playing a team that's got the population of Sheffield. voice-verified

Of course they didn't create anything. voice-verified

But on that point, they did, didn't they? voice-verified

No, sorry. voice-verified

They didn't create anything. voice-verified

Showing 1381–1400 of 1,840 · page 70 of 92