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 Ali Moreno and Stevie Nicol. We'll be talking FA Cup a little bit later on, but we'll kick things off in La Liga. Athletic Club taking on Barcelona. Real Madrid, of course, beat Celta Vigo yesterday.
But Barca, with that 1-0 victory, thanks to a brilliant goal from Laminia Mar, means that Barca, four points clear at the top of the tape. For more on this, Luis Garcia joins us. Luis, it's what being a superstar is all about, isn't it?
Yeah, exactly. And at some point, we were wondering why Hansi Flick was keeping Lami Jamal there in the right side after a tough game during the week, knowing what is coming for the young talent. But it is what it is. It was rested Rafinha, it was rested Lewandowski, it was rested Pedri in the middle of the park, but Lami Jamal wasn't rested.
And today, he had a tough, tough game because he was well-marked, he was double-upped in a few occasions, but he just needs a good pass in the right position, to put it in the top corner and to make the lead for Barcelona. And in the end, the three points. It wasn't an easy game for Barcelona. Tough, difficult. Atleti Club de Bilbao had a few options, but I'll mention it.
They are in the right positions. They create a lot of opportunities, but they don't have the clinical, the accuracy in the last year. They have so many problems this season. Atleti Club de Bilbao, no Nico Williams today. That brings more threat on the wide areas. It was all about Iñaki Williams. Belenguer, that he was very tired also after the midweek game.
So in the end, a good three points for Barcelona. Very important ones to keep the momentum going. And of course, after the defeat of Newcastle, I'm sure that they are going to be happy to face them in this midweek game. Best player in the world?
Yeah, well, I've been saying that for a while, but yes. And it's getting to the point now to where he doesn't even have to play well to have an impact on the game. It wasn't a good game by Lamin Yaman. And we talked about it in halftime. He didn't have the impact that he would have wanted. He was very quiet.
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Chapter 2: What was Lamine Yamal's impact in Barcelona's recent match?
And so, it's that story of a player that maybe goes missing for long periods of time in the game, hasn't had the impact, it's been a tough match, Adama has done well defensively, and you lose 1-0 and the game winner was Lamin Yamal. That's a superstar. And that's when we cross the threshold of somebody who doesn't have to be at his best to still be better than you. Be better than Atleti Clu.
And he didn't need to be better than Atleti Clu over the course of 90 minutes. He needed to be better than Atleti Clu in one sequence. And he was better than Adama, scores the game winner, and Barcelona take the three points. You know, your superstars always forget what's just happened. And they're ready. to make something happen themselves.
You know, he's not running around thinking, oh, it's not my day today, things are not quite going for me. He's running around going, get me the ball, because I'm going to separate us from this team. And then he gets it, and he doesn't panic. Composure, accuracy, picks his spot, delivers it. I mean, that's what being a superstar is. And there's no question, this guy is a superstar.
Yeah, you can see he's already got his career-high season goals and we're, you know, three calls deserve the way through. From a defensive point of view, Stevie, just tell me what he does to put the defender down. What's going on there? Well, with somebody like him, and there have been similar types of players before him, where you know they want to go on the left-hand side, and so...
The obvious thing would be to show him down the other side. Yeah. The problem you have with him is that regardless of what side you show him, he's still going to be as good. And so you end up trying to cover both sides and he's too good. 1v1 is too good that you can't cover on both sides. And so that's why he's got the numbers he has because...
Unless you kick them early, unless you double-team them, triple-team them, all of these things, you're going to come off second best. And in that position, in the opposition's penalty box, you're a dead man walking. One of the big factors as it pertains to defending Lamin Yamal that is making a difference now more so than it did in years past is fear, right? There is fear now from defenders.
And you can see it and feel it from the left back of Atleti Club in the sequence, Adam Aboido, as he's coming across. He knows that Laminia Mall is open. He has been sucked in because of the run that is coming underneath. Now, once that ball is being played past him by Pedri, he knows he has to go and recover because, yes, that's Laminia Man.
I'm going to go and get tight because this guy is going to kill us. And in that effort of coming and getting tight, he comes off balance. And when he is off balance, then Laminia is just, uh-uh. Right. And that's it. Sit down. I'm going to take it to the inside. Here comes the goal. And as well as showing him a side, if you get too close, his first step is so good that you're dead again. Right.
So that's why you need help. Luis, they needed help today because they looked tired, didn't they? And obviously they've got Newcastle on Tuesday. They fly to England tomorrow. There's no rest.
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Chapter 3: Is Lamine Yamal currently the best player in the world?
What can be very frustrating for Newcastle in playing against Barcelona is that Barcelona will knock the ball around and they will not get in the back and forth with Newcastle because they know that if they control the pace of the game and have Newcastle chasing, then they can take advantage of the quality that they have in La Millamal, in Rafinha.
It's going to be critically important, though, that from here till the match comes around, that Hansi Flick and his team get this team ready to play, not by knocking the ball around, but to Stevie's point, a cold bath, an ice bath, massage, and mentally and physically rest after this game so that then you can create and manufacture some sort of performance away from home.
Luis, ice bath every day for you?
Almost every day, Dan. On these days when I sleep only a couple of hours every time that I travel, IceBuddy is the best cue, not only for me, but also for the players. He loves it.
All right, thank you very much, Luis. Much appreciated. Just remember every single game live from Spain on ESPN Plus throughout the season. We continue tomorrow. Four ties for you, including Valencia against Alaves, and then on Monday, Espanyol take on Real Oviedo. Luis sounded very serious there, didn't he? Well, yeah, you know, he does. I bet he does. It's true.
Manchester City through to the next round of the FA Cup, defeating Newcastle 3-1. Newcastle would start the game the better of the two sides, but in the end, City dominated and thoroughly deserving of their victory. Manchester City did well. This is Manchester City reserves pretty much, did very well.
But I just feel a little bit the story's Newcastle, because I don't understand what happened after being so good for the opening 15-20 minutes. Well, the biggest problem Newcastle generally have, particularly at home, is they play on emotion. And when you're playing on emotion, it means you're giving every single thing every single minute.
And so when you've just come off what they've come off, the last couple of games, and you don't have that energy... then they basically blew a gasket. You know, they had such a good start, clearly before the game they were revved up, you know, let's not forget about what happened the last couple of games, let's make sure we're at it, and they were, but unfortunately they couldn't sustain it.
And Newcastle cannot sustain that type of energy, playing with that sort of emotion in front of that crowd. And that allowed City, when they dropped, to get in the game. And after that, then City just took them by the throat. You know, it's funny that sometimes we talk about when you make so many changes, you're playing basically reserve players or players that are not playing.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Arsenal's FA Cup victory?
Anywhere exciting?
No, I'm going back to London on the longest train ever. I mean, I thought Newcastle and London were two big cities that the train would go quick from one to another. We stopped in places I didn't even know existed in the UK. Some places I've never heard of. So it's the same return journey tomorrow. And by the way, you can't talk about rugby, Dan, because seeing how England are doing right now.
I don't understand what you're saying, Jules. He was asking on my behalf, Jules. I was very much asking on his behalf. This TV for you is fine. Sunday roast at Marcotti's tomorrow then. Enjoy that, Jules. Thank you very much. Enjoy your journey back and all those stops. Thank you. Just a reminder then, the FA Cup continues tomorrow.
Fulham against Southampton, Port Vale against Sunderland, Leeds against Norwich City, and then on Monday... I'd say there's a winner in there amongst that lot. against Redford. All those games live on ESPN+. Back to our top for the game. There, that makes sense. Back to our main game. Athletic Club taking on Barcelona. Barcelona winning 1-0 thanks to Weldy from La Minha Mall. Here's Hansi Flick.
Important is the victory tonight. Very important. It was a tough game today. At the end, for us, important to win this match. Because anyway, the team has been suffering a lot during the 90 minutes. Of course, but also I think we have some good chances, also Bilbao. But at the end, we have a clean sheet today, which was also so important for us.
And we know that that tier in Bilbao is not easy to win. How important has been Pedri in the second half, the smart, the pass, everything? Yes, of course. Pedri is a game-changer and he changes the game. He gives us more control and is also really good for us.
Do you think that Dani Olmo plays better when Pedri is on the pitch? Did he change when he was playing better, the performance of Dani Olmo, maybe?
Yeah, both of them are good with the ball and I think also for Dani and Petri, they know each other very well, also in the national team. They know how to play with each other, so this is a good thing. And I think also in the second half, Dani played much better.
The last one, because Petri has said we are all very tired.
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Chapter 5: Why do analysts believe Arsenal won't win the quadruple this season?
You know what you could have done, Stevie? You could have done some of your breathing exercises to just kind of calm down. Yeah, Stevie's doing that meditation today in ice baths. Some things, of course, he used to utilise well back in his playing days. Stevie, Leicester won the Premier League ten years ago. Today they sit 23rd in the Championship. What team from your era had a fall-off like this?
Leeds United. Yeah. It's a team that are battling in the Champions League, of course. Leeds United got to the semi-finals of the Champions League and then absolutely disappeared. You talk about complete and utter mismanagement of a football club, giving way too much money for players, giving way too much money In salary, spending money.
Spending money before it came in, expecting it to come in, and then it didn't come in. So yeah, absolutely. Some great stories of players' negotiations from back in those days. Oh my goodness. Ali, despite them losing today, did Wrexham prove that they can manage playing Premier League football?
They prove they can compete and they prove that on a given day, they can give themselves a chance to win this sort of matches. But what they also show themselves is that there is a difference that some people may seem as gigantic. The difference is this, but this is a lot.
between what Chelsea is capable of doing with the mistakes that Wrexham provided or made and the opportunities that they provided Chelsea with those mistakes as compared to what Wrexham can do with the mistakes that Chelsea provided and made. And so I think it's a message for the club of If that's where we need to be and that's where we want to be, how can we get there?
Well, first, we got to make it there. We got to get out of the championship. But secondly, if we want to stay up there, then they have to do what they have done already with this club, which is player turnover. You move from the players that got you from the National League onto the next, onto the next, onto the next.
and you continue to build the team as such, they've done a very good job of it so far. I have no doubt that once they make it into Premier League, they'll make the correct decisions too. We saw Laminia Myles score a worldie, of course, today to give the victory for Barca over Athletic Club. How many goals will he score against Newcastle over the two legs? Oh dear.
Do you want to hear something stupid that I said? Yeah. When the draw was made, I said that Newcastle had a chance. Not a surprise. That I said something stupid? Yeah. Since then, they've gone awful. Yeah, they've... They seem to... How many goals will it mean, Jamal? We don't need a Newcastle analysis. Sorry. I feel like you forgot the question. Sorry.
I feel like you're going down the road.
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