Chapter 1: What unusual timing is set for the Champions League final?
Senior sports writer with the 42, Gavin Casey is with us. Hiya, Gavin. Hello, Jonathan. How are you doing? I'm very good. Why is the Champions League final on at five o'clock? It's a very unusual kick-off time.
is unusual I actually don't know the answer it's similar to the Champions Cup final last week with Leinster in Bilbao at that time it was to do with the Cannes Film Festival and French television rights so it is a strange one it's an earlier start than we would be accustomed to but I suppose for Arsenal fans in particular in Ireland it's a chance to celebrate long into the night if things go well for them
Now, I made a very facetious comment about Arsenal have another chance to bottle it this season. And I didn't mean that because, look, they were deserving winners of the Premier League despite their best efforts in the second half of it. But PSG, throughout the Champions League, have been absolutely unstoppable.
And I just cannot see Arteta's men being able to just do enough to stop them scoring goals.
I'm inclined to agree with you, but I would say, Jonathan, that the only team in the competition that could conceivably stop PSG is Arsenal, just due to the kind of ideological differences with which these teams play. Obviously, Arsenal are extremely compact. And like, if you looked at their semifinals, I mean, that...
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Chapter 2: How did Arsenal's performance lead to their current reputation?
PSG-Bayern two-legged tie was extraordinary particularly that first leg where there were about I don't know 178 goals shared between them it felt like at the time and Arsenal against Atletico was was such an antithesis to that in that it was such a low scoring affair and look the way Bayern played against PSG probably complemented all of that attacking flair that you mentioned that that PSG have in their ranks and some of the best attacking players in the world and Arsenal are just not going to be as open as that
I still agree with you. I just think this PSG team is adept enough and talented enough to find a way. And worth remembering as well, these teams met in the Champions League semi-finals themselves last season and PSG did outclass Arsenal over two legs. This is one leg though, you know. Yeah. The phrase typically is any given Sunday, it could be any given Saturday for Arsenal.
They have the monkey off their back, as you say, in the Premier League, first title in 22 years. And this is a chance for a first European Cup. And perhaps having already won that trophy and ended that particular drought in England, they may feel unencumbered by this task ahead of them.
Yeah, I mean, they're now called bottlers. Well, they were called bottlers. Previously, they were called boring, boring Arsenal. But if they're going to do it, it's by being boring, boring Arsenal, isn't it? By being absolutely methodical in defence, by just stop and play, making it a really uninteresting, boring game to watch and hope you sneak a goal or two.
Chapter 3: What strategies might Arsenal use against PSG in the final?
100%. I mean, that famous Arsenal chant, 1-0 to the Arsenal from the George Graham era, going back 30-odd years, it sort of applies now again. Time is a flat circle, Jonathan. That's kind of the team they've become again. And the Arsenal team under Arsene Wenger of the early 2000s was actually probably more akin to the PSG team now, in that it was such a silky French-influenced team.
This is a far more robust outfit. It's going to be set-piece oriented, as it typically is with Arsenal at the moment. Look, if you're a neutral... Depending on how you feel about PSG being, broadly speaking, an instrument of the Qatari state, you probably want the better footballing team to win here. And PSG are really extraordinary, exhilarating to watch.
But yeah, I do think Arsenal provide the only potential kryptonite to this PSG outfit under Luis Enrique. And that's what makes it an intriguing game. For a football purist, I think there's a lot to consume here in that it's two teams having to navigate each other in very different ways.
Well, it'll be one to watch anyway. Five o'clock tomorrow evening. You have been warned. It is on at an unusual time. Big weekend for the three provinces in rugby, Connacht, Munster and Leinster. A lot of chat about Leinster's selection and a few eyebrows raised.
Yeah, very intriguing that CiarƔn Frawley, who many would argue, including myself, is the form out half.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Leinster's team selection for the weekend's rugby?
Atlancer at the moment is not in their matchday 23. Frawley is obviously due to join Connacht at the end of the season. And to an extent, maybe you could understand Leo Cullen's reasoning in that. Look, things didn't go especially well for Harry Byrne in the Champions Cup final last weekend. It was the biggest game of his career.
He probably hasn't been exposed yet to a great deal of knockout rugby, so... He's on the bench this time around, and Cullen has given the reins back to Sam Prendergast, who equally needs that kind of big game experience.
And this is a winnable quarterfinal at home to the Lions, who are a decent outfit, but obviously Leinster feel comfortable and confident that they can win the game without Frawley. But I'd imagine, you know, for a lot of Leinster fans, it's a curious decision.
It's one where, if the game was to go wrong, I mean, it really does invite a lot more pressure on Leo Cullen, who over the last 24 hours has insisted he is the right man to take the province forward, and he He mentioned yesterday that for him to step away would not be the way forward for Leinster. Look, people will question that if this Lions game doesn't go right.
And yeah, Leinster have made significant changes. I think, in fairness, as well as the physical toll of a game in Bilbao, I was there myself. It was absolutely roasting hot, like up towards 28, 29 degrees, high humidity temperatures. You know, there's an emotional toll to that as well in that, like, these Leinster players have got it, you know, and the EuroCity is an important competition.
The status of it is improving year on year. They obviously want to retain their title, but like to call a spade a spade, it is just a consolation prize to Leinster. So you can imagine that a few guys probably needed to sit back and let some of the guys off the leash that didn't get to feature last weekend.
There's another reason why they mightn't want to actually proceed all the way to the final because they mightn't have anywhere to host it.
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Chapter 5: How will Dublin's management situation affect their game against Louth?
The Aviva will be out of action because I think Metallica will have been there. Croke Park have events factored in for Saturday the June 20th. So that means that they might not be in a position to dig out Leinster. And the RDS, of course, isn't available. So, I mean, it really could be a disaster if they get in there because they'd have to cede home advantage.
Yeah, it's a curious one. But then at the same time, if Glasgow beat Connacht tonight and if Glasgow go the whole way to the final, then Glasgow are going to be hosting the final in any case. Now, they have their own issues in terms of finding a venue. There's been some talk that Glasgow would have to host the final in Belfast due to similar issues, I believe, with Hampden Park.
Or perhaps Murrayfield as well. I'm not sure of the exact concert lineup in Scotland at the moment.
It might be Metallica as well. Metallica are touring. They're just ruining everybody's weekend.
They're in the area, yeah, yeah. But I mean, wouldn't it be fascinating if it was the case that a URC final had to take place in Belfast between Leinster and Glasgow, in which case neither team would be at home and it's almost a halfway house between the Eastern province and that Scottish city. So yeah, it's a live possibility. But yeah. Glasgow face a tough task in their own right.
They top the table in the regular season but they face the Connacht team tonight who are the form team in the competition.
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Chapter 6: What challenges does Connacht face in their upcoming match?
They've won eight of their last nine games. They only sneaked into the playoffs in the end but that was because of a slow start to the season. Their turnaround under Stuart Lancaster has been extraordinary over the last few months and they'll go there with beliefs. So, let's see.
Let's turn our attention to GAA football back in focus this weekend. Dublin will need to re-establish themselves after their mauling at the hands of Westmeath.
Yeah, and it's an intriguing game in that they face a loud team that they already beat in that Leinster Championship at the semi-final stage. And equally because Dublin manager Gerard Brennan managed loud last season to a Leinster title in his own right. Now, obviously, Brennan is suspended at the moment due to an altercation with one of the Galway backroom team in a league game back in March.
It's a 12-week suspension and...
Chapter 7: What are the key insights from Gavin Casey about the weekend's sports events?
Just to put it into context for people, it's not just a suspension from the touchline on match day. A managerial suspension in the GAA kind of means you're not really meant to be involved with the team at all, or at least you're not even meant to be at training, etc.
Now he'll still obviously have some input from off the field in terms of analytical things, and he'll have so much intellectual property on those loud players as well. Big boost for Dublin is that Conor Callaghan is back in. He hasn't featured since the Leinster quarterfinal against Wicklow. He's obviously still very much the talisman in what has been a
struggling team so you'd expect Dublin to get this job done and yet for all I've said about Dublin knowing plenty about Louth I mean Louth have had that sample of facing Dublin in recent weeks as well so they'll have plenty to put right They know there's blood in the water they're not going to let this one slide easily Gavin Casey sports writer with the 42.ie thanks for talking us through the weekend plenty there to keep us occupied
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