Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome into the latest edition of ESPN FC. I'm Dan Thomas joined by Craig Burley. Later on in the show, Colin Udo will be joining us as we reflect on an extraordinary ending in the African Cup of Nations final. But we kick things off in San Sebastian in La Liga. Barcelona had won 11 straight games going into this tie. However, they would leave with nothing.
Real Sociedad winning by two goals to one. A brilliant, thoroughly entertaining tie. So who would have thought, after everything, after all the criticism we've thrown at Real Madrid, there's only one point between the top two now in La Liga as we welcome in Luis Garcia. What a great title race. Xabi Alonso, you must be thinking. Luis, Xabi Alonso must be thinking. I could have won this league.
I feel like we've seen a lot of dull games across the Premier League that hasn't quite had the spark in entertainment. And I tell you what, it hasn't had the quality. But this game was so much fun right from the start.
Chapter 2: What happened in the Barcelona vs. Real Sociedad match?
I often say this about Spanish football, and Luis knows a lot more about it than me. I do feel, and Real Sociedad are one of the bigger teams, but they're having a poor season. I do feel, outside of Barcelona and Real Madrid, the other teams who have nowhere near...
and I'm not necessarily talking about, you know, Athletic Club and Real Sociedad, but they have less money than similar sized clubs in England. For all the money the Premier League has, the clubs further down the pyramid, further down the league, we get more bang for our buck in terms of quality. The technical ability of some of these players, it's not always a great game.
But when you watch some of these Premier League games from mid-table to below, some of these teams, it's just about sitting in. It's about survival. And what we see from a lot of the Spanish games, have you watched Real Madrid playing Elche and Vallecano and Celta Vigo going to the Bernabeu?
I know they're having a better season this year, but it's not too long ago, I'll go back to the Rafa Benitez, when they were sitting just out at the bottom three and playing terrible football. And what we got today is... was a team who's not playing well in Real Sociedad, in San Sebastian, but they are a big club, and they have changed their manager, giving bang for their buck.
The technical... And yeah, they were under pressure, and Barcelona didn't play badly. That's the strange thing. They did not play badly. This game was just bonkers.
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Chapter 3: How has the La Liga title race changed after Barcelona's loss?
And yeah, Real Sociedad were defending for their lives at the end, but for the bulk of the game, and certainly before... long past before they went down to 10 men, they were trying to take the game to Barcelona. And that made it so entertaining. And I don't think Hansi Flick can sit in that dressing room and go, right, that's unacceptable. Because they did 95% of the things correctly.
Yes, they've given up two goals. And when you score a goal, as they did to get back in the game, you've got to be more switched on than they were. They were not, and they got punished. But Barcelona did a lot of really good things and just never got their just rewards for bad finishing or great goalkeeping or offsides or whatever it was. That's just not their day.
And Real Sociedad can be really proud of what they gave.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of Real Madrid's position in the title race?
And from a La Liga perspective, that was a quality football match.
Yeah, if you wanted to sell someone just on football in general, this would be a great 90 minutes to show them, Luis.
Yeah, definitely. And we were talking about Pellegrino Matarazzo arriving to Real Sociedad. Real Sociedad was kind of going with the flow, living, drifting there in the river, not playing well, not giving results. A team that normally is built to try to fight for European competitions with a lot of quality, but no idea, no philosophy, not football, something that we all love. And definitely,
We saw a big change. And I totally agree with Craig 100% with Barcelona today. They did so many good things. The intensity, the mobility, the dynamism of the players, the changing the players, the creativity that we saw. It was a fantastic game. But in the end, what mattered the most is when you have to be clinical, you have to finish your chances. And Barcelona today, they got in front.
A keeper that he was on fire today. It was fantastic. He made four fantastic saves that he could have big goals.
So if you go, if you have to play, you go to the dressing room, you cannot go and make any complaint about your players because definitely if you're going to lose a game, it has to be like this against a team that never lost the face of the game, that he had that personality, that they scored. When they concede the goal, they also did that.
you could see the Barcelona start dominating more the game, but they never went down. They didn't go on a solid block back to try to defend. No, no, their reaction was straight away to go forward, to bring the ball as close to the box as possible, and they found that goal from Guedes.
So in the end, it was a fantastic game to watch, and two teams that they went for it, and in the end, it was Real Sociedad who was a little bit more lucky in the last there, into the box, but Barcelona did such a great job. So what a race we got now with Real Madrid just one point behind Barcelona.
It's funny, though, I can see Real Madrid fans sitting at home going, oh, if they'd lost 2-1 against Real Sociedad, you'd be killing them.
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Chapter 5: How do the performances of Barcelona and Real Sociedad impact their future games?
He knew he was taking the penalty for 12 minutes before they came back on the field. He then comes on. We watched it. He then comes on. They then come on the field. They are flapping about for another four or five. Benjamin Mendy's off his line. The ball gets spotted. He's about to take it. Mendy's back off his line.
So he's now got, I'm guessing, somewhere in the region since the penalty was given, between 15 and 20 minutes until it was taken. Think about how your mind works.
When you have too much time to think, and normally a player has a minute or two to think about a penalty, when you have the best part of 15 minutes minimum, or at least, maybe 20, closer to 20, in one of the biggest games in your career, one of the biggest games for your country, in a huge tournament in AFCON, for that part of the globe,
He's been sat there, he's putting it in the left corner high, he's putting it low, he's putting it in the right corner, he's going hard down the middle, he's going low, he's in every scenario. He's going everywhere but loose. And that tells you how the mind sometimes just gets so muddled that he's come out,
And I'm pretty sure if he'd have taken that penalty straight away and we didn't have all the flapping around going off the field, he probably wouldn't have done that. But he's overthought it and overthought it and overthought it. And in the end... In his mind, the best reasoning he had to taking the best penalty was to try a panenka down the middle.
And I think that is a classic case of a player, and Frank may agree or disagree, when you have that amount of time, when you have that amount to take a penalty in a game that doesn't mean a lot, it's neither here nor there. But when it's in a game that has so much on it, your mind is just so muddled about what you're gonna do to win this for your country, that it just clouds the proper judgment.
So I don't blame him for that in a sense, even though it was a dreadful penalty. I can only imagine him just sat in the dressing room, mulling over what he was gonna do, how he was gonna win it for his country, and in the end, He's been the one, if you're being critical, that lost it for Morocco.
Frank, you obviously remain penalty taker back in your career. That's why I wanted you on, just to get your views on this.
Well, I feel for Brahim Jazz because for the rest of his life, that will represent something big and kind of a nightmare. And everybody will remind him that. Do you remember when you missed that penalty and on top of it, you tried to do a panenka? Remember that panenka? That was Neymar Panenka after a player who did it in 76 in a final of the European Championship.
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Chapter 6: What does the future hold for Real Madrid under their current circumstances?
It's really tight. You go from Liverpool down to Everton, Luke, who sit 10th, just four points separate those sides. That is it. That brings us to the end of today's show. Frank Le Boeuf, though, will return, whether we like it or not, to answer your questions on Extra Time. Craig here as well. Oh, we've got a question about Manchester United coaches. Craig, get ready. Oh, thank you.
Welcome in to the latest edition of Extra Time. Thank you, as always, for your questions. Frank Leboeuf is with us, as is Craig Burley. I enjoyed today's show. I don't know if anybody else did, but it was good to talk about what was going on on the pitch, wasn't it? Like the African Cup of Nations, lots to talk about. Barcelona, lots to talk about. We're not speculating about managers or futures.
It was cool. I liked it. Well done, me.
I've enjoyed today's show, it's all about me.
But do you know what I mean?
Wasn't it nice today to talk about... The Barcelona game was just an amazing game that obviously lost to Real Sociedad. But, you know, it was... I mean, there were so many decisions in that game. There was offside goals, offside penalties, crossbars being hit. It was NTN. And then it was the sort of controversy of the AFCON. Yes. And all that went on. And the penalty. The story around it.
I mean, because let's be honest, if we didn't have that, we had Wolves nil, Newcastle nil, and Aston Villa nil, Everton one.
We were absolutely screwed. We'd have had to show Frank's highlights from Dancing with the Stars, which of course was short enough anyway. Anyway, right, Frank, how are you?
I don't even, have you seen it? I don't even answer anymore because I gave up. I gave up with that guy. He even talks when I'm not there, saying that people are going to be happy or not to see me, whatever.
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Chapter 7: What were the key moments in the Africa Cup of Nations final?
He's got injuries and suspensions, and they were a bit wafer thin in terms of the squad. But their first 11 was really good. They just did not play well today. And I think there was a chance, don't forget, after City losing, and Arsenal, they're not in the conversation, but with City losing, they could have went second today. Yeah.
which I don't think was going to put them in a title race, if I'm being honest with you. But it certainly would have been a much better look than losing to Everton at home. And I think he's getting, I don't think he's getting, I think his comments, and I may be wrong, from the little snippets I've seen, are more at the club's ability to spend, rather than the club's willingness to spend.
I don't think it's a pop at the club, I think it's a pop at the system. With all the profit and sustainability and the ability of other clubs to go out and spend a fortune in villas seemingly
lack of ability to go and do that I don't think that Villa wouldn't back him I don't think that's the issue at all I think it's the issue is and we saw it from sort of Newcastle and one or two others in the summer they didn't want to sell Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and we know he's now probably going to be a regular he's probably going to be a starter for England in the midfield that's how good he's been they didn't want to sell him but I think again they were forced because he was homegrown talent to take that pure profit because of these rules so it seems to be affecting
Other clubs more than, how should I say it, some of the big boys.
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Chapter 8: Why was Senegal's victory in the Africa Cup of Nations controversial?
Frank, would Lyon's winning at Ligue 1 be equivalent to Leicester winning the Premier League?
No, no, because Lance won already in 98 and with the players that they have, they have a very good team and they're not the best teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Lyon, Monaco, but they're just behind. And we know with the spirit that they have, you know, the northern spirit that they have, it's like a little bit Newcastle, let's say.
Paris Saint-Germain went out of the cup to Paris last week, didn't they? Sorry, Paris are second right now, so is that your question? I didn't hear what you said.
Forget it. No, come on. PSG went out of the Coupe de whatever it was to Paris last week, right?
Yes, I don't know. I don't follow the Ligue 1, so I don't know what you're talking about.
Hold on, I'm asking him. He's told me he doesn't know. Well, he clearly doesn't know.
I don't know. PSG got knocked out of the cup last week. Oh, yes, they got knocked out of the cup. Sorry. So, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, my God. Sorry. Yeah, but your Scottish accent is very hard to understand you. You know what I mean? Yes.
I completely understand you, Frank. Just got out. Yes. Yeah. I don't remember. Frank is speaking his second language, so don't be rude to him, Craig. What?
Don't be rude to Frank.
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