Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome in to the latest edition of ESPN FC. I'm Dan Thomas, joined by Craig Burley and Stevie Nicholl. We'll kick things off in Spain in the Champions League quarter-final between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Barcelona would start the better of the two sides. Big chances for Marcus Rashford, who is unable to convert. Laminia Moult dancing past the Atleti players early on.
But a big moment in the game would come four minutes before the end of the first half. Simeone, brought down by Kupasi, the referee would initially give a yellow. However, he was sent to the monitor and it was declared it was the Donar of a goalscoring opportunity and he'd be given a straight red. And from the resulting free kick, Julian Alvarez would make it 1-0.
Barcelona rallied in the second half. More chances that they failed to convert. A big talking point actually would come in the 54th minute. Mousso and... Poubile handling the ball when it looked like the goal kick had already been taken. The referee didn't go to the monitor, nothing was given.
Flick was furious after that and it didn't help his mood when Serloff made it 2-0 to give Atleti a nice advantage going into the second leg in Madrid.
It happened because Barcelona didn't take their chances when they had them early on. Rashford, as you saw, just had those chances. And they didn't play quite as well as they normally do in an attacking sense in that first half. And Atleti, I thought, did OK. They tried to press the ball a little bit higher up the field. They just didn't drop in. They made it quite difficult for Barcelona.
Barcelona were the better team for the first 20 minutes. But the game changed, obviously, completely in terms of the scoreline with the free kick and the sending off. But in the second half, Barcelona still dominated the play. They still created one or two good chances without them being clear-cut chances.
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Chapter 2: What happened in the Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona Champions League match?
But they were always vulnerable on the counter-attack. And Sola, as he's done so often against Barcelona, comes on as a sub, gets in the right place at the right time, as Craig just said, gets in between the centre-halves, gets in front of Martin and finishes it brilliantly. And for all their huffing and puffing, for all their decent play, Barcelona... just couldn't find the breakthrough.
They probably missed five or six chances without them being absolutely sitters. Sorry, Rob, I thought you'd finished. Yeah, go on, Craig.
No, I'm going to say they love to give themselves a mountain to climb in first place.
Well, we saw it, of course, in the Copa del Rey, 4-0 down in the first leg there.
That was 4-0, but then they were taking them back to the Camp Nou. Obviously, 2-0 is obviously much less damaging scoreline, but you're now having to go to Madrid. They missed Rafinha today, didn't they? Yeah, and look, some of those chances for Rashford were difficult. The first one wasn't. The first one, he rushed and he scuffed.
The one at the back post in the first half, the angle was against him. That one there, the touch was a bit heavy, but I thought, you know, once the balls played from Laminia Mall, the goalkeepers came out quite early. So he has to go around them. Then the angle is against them. But yeah, you're going to miss Rafinha.
Again, I'll say the same thing as I said in the Copa del Rey, where they almost came back. I still fancy them. I do. But Hansi Flick said it in an interview we listened to just before we came on air. He said, they are dangerous up front. And they can't punish you.
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Chapter 3: Should Pau Cubarsi have received a red card?
And that's what happened in the first leg of the Copa del Rey. And today they were punished by a great free kick from Julian Alvarez. I think when Antoine Griezmann's standing back and letting somebody else take a free kick, then you know that they've got good quality. But yeah, I still fancy them to come back, but giving themselves a bit of a mountain to climb.
Where do you stand on the red card, Stevie? It's a red card. As a defender, when you get caught on the wrong side, it then becomes your responsibility not to make contact with your attacker. And we can talk about whether the ball was behind him, did he have control of it, but at the end of the day, regardless of where it is, he's not going to be able to control it if the defender bumps him.
He basically runs into his back leg. And so, as I said, defensively you get caught on the wrong side. Your responsibility when you're behind is to not make contact in any shape, way or form.
Chapter 4: How did Barcelona's performance change after the red card incident?
And he doesn't do that. He completely and utterly makes contact and down he goes and I think the red card is the right call.
And see, that ball is only a yard. It's not spinning 10, 15 yards away from him. It's always going to be within a yard or two and KoundƩ's never getting round. So I think that was maybe in the referee's mind. when he gave the initial yellow.
But then I think when he looked at it in the monitor and he saw that, you know, the player was going to regain control of the ball within a reasonable area and Jules KoundƩ was never going to get around and cover, then I thought it was a red as well, yeah. Mr Leboeuf?
Yes, I will disagree with my colleagues in a way that I agree with the free kick and I agree that would be a yellow card. But that's the big point of the analysis of Stevie and the first sentences where they say, yeah, he's not in control. The ball is behind him. He's not in control. I think you needed a clear opportunity and a real chance to score a goal to give a red card. And he's not.
Again, he's not in control of the ball. The ball is behind him. He missed the control. So even if he gets the ball, even if Kubasi doesn't make any foul, he doesn't have a chance to score. So therefore, for me, yellow card would have been enough. And I think it would have been a different story tonight, 11 against 11. Robbo?
Well, when I first saw it, I thought it's got to be a red card. He's given a foul. He's running on a goal. The defender's behind him. But when I saw the replay and the back leg goes up from Simeone, I'm thinking, does he initiate the contact? So I'd have probably gone to the VAR and gone the other way. I'd have just sent him off the first view.
And then seeing the VAR, I would have probably given a yellow card and changed it round. Because I think that the initial contact was made almost by Simeone putting his leg back in.
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Chapter 5: What were the major talking points from the PSG vs Liverpool match?
It's quite a hard thing to do.
When you're running that way.
You're running that way and somehow you launch your leg that way.
That's going against physics, I believe, isn't it?
But, you know, in the end, Stevie's absolutely right in terms of if you get on the wrong side, if you don't see the run, there's the big fault. And you're always going to have problems if you're chasing back and it only needs a little bit of contact or something like that to happen and you're in trouble.
How would you rate Laminia Marle tonight? Obviously, we talked a lot about Alisa yesterday and we talk about Laminia Marle in the same conversation. He did a lot of things right, but there just didn't seem to be that final ball, Robbo.
Well, he started off, he went past Marco Ruggeri a couple of times, and then he played the worst pass you'd ever see, even if he didn't see the Atleti player. And that started him off. But when they went a goal down and when they were playing with 10 men, he was the player you wanted the ball to go to. Every time he got the ball, you thought, well, he might go past him.
He's gone past the first one. He's gone past the second one. Can he get his shot away? But when you're outnumbered, they always got blocks in. They just stopped that final cross, that final shot. So he did everything he possibly could to get Barcelona back in the game, but it wasn't quite his night. He didn't quite have the end product.
Some of his general play, as you saw in those highlight package, was absolutely magnificent.
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Chapter 6: What are the chances of Barcelona overturning their deficit in the second leg?
Oh, just fantastic. Crisps. Not a care in the world. Yeah. Not a care in the world. Do what you want. Yeah. Nobody would know anyway. Definitely. Thank you very much, guys.
It's not changed for you, Stevie. That's not changed, is it?
That is it. Thank you very much, guys. I'm on holiday now for a couple of weeks. Kay and Alexis will be here. Don't be a fever, will you? What's that? Don't come back.
What a treat for me, everybody.
Exactly. See you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
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