Chapter 1: What did Lamine Yamal achieve in the match against Villarreal?
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Welcome into the latest edition of ESPN FC. I'm Dan Thomas, joined by Stevie Nicol. I'll tell you what, we'll kick things off in La Liga today. Barcelona take on Villarreal. It was a very impressive performance from Lamine Yamal. His first ever professional hat-trick. The second goal, by the way, is absolutely stunning from the 18-year-old.
And it's a win now that puts Barcelona, for the moment of course, with Real Madrid in action on Monday, four clear at the top of the table. Really interesting open-frank interview from Laminia Ma after the game. In particular, he said he had a thousand things on his mind in the last couple of months. Sid Lowe was with us. That very much stood out, Sid.
You were being mischievous today, weren't you? You seemed a bit naughty from the start. Yeah, well, I think I've rediscovered what I had as a kid, which was being happy playing football. These last few weeks, I haven't been myself. It was even hard to be happy doing what I love most. And little by little, that smile is returning. Why was it hard for you to be happy doing what you love the most?
Well, I think it's been a difficult season. The grind, among a thousand other things that were on my mind, made it tough. But anyway, I'm trying to get back to being myself and give the Barca fans what they deserve. Really interesting stuff there as we welcome Sid Lowe to the conversation. Sid, those million things on his mind?
Yeah, absolutely. That's the really striking part of it, isn't it? That Moy asks him there about the idea of him being kind of a naughty player, a daring player, a dynamic player. And he said, yeah. And I wanted to go back to being that kid that enjoyed playing football in the last few weeks. That hasn't been the case. It's been a difficult season with the groin issue.
But then, as you say, that next line and a thousand things more and those things that are to do with the pressure, those things that are to do with the demands of professional football, that all of the exposure that you have to go through and that You know, we should never forget. Obviously, we can forget maybe when he turns 19, but he's an 18-year-old.
This is a guy that was in the Spain squad that won the European Championships at 16. This is a guy that you said it then. This is, what did you say, 60 years since a player this young has scored a hat-trick. And yet it feels like it's been a long time coming because we've been watching him for so long because he's been exposed to this kind of pressure so young.
And I thought it was very, very telling that that comment post came about. A happiness or a comfort or a sense of being himself that just hasn't been there for a big chunk of this season. And in a way, I imagine it's quite difficult to say that for him.
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Chapter 2: How did Yamal's performance impact Barcelona's position in La Liga?
And I kind of applaud the fact that he brought it up. And I think maybe it just gives us a little bit of a reminder as well, doesn't it, about how we deal with him, how we analyse him, how we kind of judge him. And judging itself is a difficult word, isn't it? But how we judge his performances and him as a young man who's still only 18 years old.
So just give us an insight. Obviously, you live in Spain. We're on the outside looking in. We see glimpses of it.
Chapter 3: What insights did Yamal share in his post-match interview?
But the scrutiny he's under is quite literally 24-7, isn't it?
Yeah, and I think what happens as well, Dan, is that I think that scrutiny shifts and it changes in... How do I put this? It changes in focus. I think it changes in tone. And I think it changes in the sense of whether or not you're on his side. So to give you the best example of this, as I've just said, he goes to the European Championships as a 16-year-old.
And he is the kid that everybody loves. He turned 17 just before the final, and he is Spain's boy. He is the one that everybody wants to celebrate, everyone wants to support, everyone gets excited about, and everyone says, could well be that in the next three, four, five years, the best player in the world is Spanish. He's one of ours.
And I think that brings with it a huge amount of responsibility. It brings with it a huge amount of pressure. An example of this is I went to the first game that Spain played after the European Championships in Murcia. The Luminia Miles shirts outnumber the other shirts by absolutely miles. And this is still at the beginning of his career.
And so he's got this pressure of being the one that everybody loves, that everyone's looking up to, and everyone is putting pressure on to perform. But then something else happens. Of course, he goes back and starts playing club football. Now, what does that do? As you know, Dan, the way the divide is in Spain, it splits a little bit, that sense of everyone being on his side.
And now, of course, you've got a big chunk of the country kind of deciding they're going to dislike him, deciding there are certain things about what he does that irritate them, deciding that this is now back on the agenda. So that agenda, which initially is full of pressure, but is largely positive, then has that negative side to it as well.
Now, we saw this very clearly, didn't we, before the ClĆ”sico and during the ClĆ”sico and after the ClĆ”sico back in October, when LamĆn Yamal had made a couple of slightly ill-advised comments and he'd been trying to joke about the idea that Real Madrid are always cheating, they're always stealing off you, you know, we'd love to give some back to them.
And of course, that turned people against him. And so you're seeing, I think, the weight of pressure, the degree of exposure, as you say, that sense of it being 24-7, but also the shifting focus of that pressure. So you've got a pressure, which is for him to perform and to be the golden boy and to live up to everyone's expectations.
And then the pressure that says, actually, I've now got people who are sort of looking for me to fail, are sort of looking to have a go at me, are sort of looking to not like me, even if not at a conscious level, at some subconscious level. And, you know, I can't stand here and tell you what that's like. I can't even really begin to imagine what it's like, but it must be pretty hard at times.
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Chapter 4: What was the outcome of the Der Klassiker match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund?
We talk about teams, we talk about tactics, we talk about organisation. Yeah. But that's why we watch the game. That second goal today just leaves you going, blimmin' heck, he's good.
Chapter 5: How did Bayern Munich secure their victory over Dortmund?
Yeah, as you say, you sit and watch that and you go, who else today can do that? And I can't come up with an answer to that. And for somebody like him as well, he's got the perfect team, and he's got the perfect manager, and he's playing with the perfect players that want to do the same things as him. They all, particularly the forward players... I mean, look at Rafinha.
All he wants to do is open his legs up and get striking that left peg. And Jamal, all he wants to do is take people on, knock them down, skip past them, and then whip balls into the back of the net. And so he's in the absolute perfect place with the perfect team and the perfect manager to continue doing what he's doing.
One aside away from Lamine Jamal, Sid, and an obvious one, if Barcelona are going to do well this season, obviously they're still competing in the Champions League, in La Liga, they desperately need Pedri to stay fit.
Yeah, they do. Yeah, absolutely. And I think everybody knows that. You talk about the quality of Lumi and Jamal. We talked a lot, obviously, when we analysed them tactically about the high line, but it's about Pedri who keeps the game flowing the way they want it to be.
There was a really interesting interview, actually, Dan, this Saturday in one of the Spanish papers with Comisanya, the Villarreal midfielder, and he talked about how the thing with Barcelona is that, yes, you know there's a high line, but it's all about whether you can escape the pressure to be able to play that pass and all about whether you can get onto the ball enough to be able to play that pass.
And that Pedri is a key reason why you can't. Now, we look at Pedri and we look at the gloriously smooth touch that he's got.
But I think we sometimes overlook the intelligence to close things down, the intelligence to speed up and slow down the game according to what Barcelona need, that prevents the other team from being able to put the pressure on, win the ball back, that prevents the other team from having the possession and being able to have the time to look at that pass and go, right, there's the space behind the high line.
We've analysed the high line endlessly. But it's also about the midfield and Pedri is a key part of that. And then, as you say, you look at that pass for Lamine today and you look at the quality that he has to pick that ball out that isn't really there.
Now, I know this is said before, but maybe it's worth just reminding ourselves of how a lot of us are looking at him and thinking, wow, he's got a bit of Xavi and a bit of Iniesta. How good a player are you if you've got a bit of the two best midfielders that Spain maybe has ever produced?
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Chapter 6: What were the highlights of Manchester City's match against Leeds?
I hate when people say, focus on this, focus on that. No. Newcastle should be focusing on as many... trophies as they can while they're in it. And I had the argument with a pal of mine at work today, and he said, should folk... No, Newcastle should try and get into the Europa League Conference or the Europa League ready for next season.
Because if they finish in sixth or seventh and finish in Europe, as in the Europa League, and they won that next season, that's a route then back into the Champions League. So just... Use the Premier League in the immediate short term to get your confidence back, momentum back, to then go into that Barca game with loads of confidence and then you can go and beat Barca.
If you do what Ange done and you lose all the Premier League games and you start drifting, drifting, drifting, you've got nothing to latch on to going into the Barca game. Then there's every chance over two legs they might get beat against them, so you're knackered. What did you type into Google when you were searching for that jumper, Don? Jay Lindbergh.
It's a nice make that I sort of like to wear. Oh, okay. Oh, lovely. Big influencer, Tom. Look at that. It's a golf brand. It's a golf brand. I thought it was a ski brand. No, it's a golf brand, but this is a ski jumper. Stevie, with Sydney grinding out wins like this, do you still believe Arsenal can handle the pressure, or are they about to crumble?
I'm still on the Arsenal bandwagon that they can see it through. But it's getting tight. Where is the game tomorrow? Oh, okay. Arsenal. It's at Fink. It's at Arsenal. Fink. Okay, that's all right. It's my producer. Maybe could have helped there, but no worries. Prediction for Rangers versus Celtic tomorrow, Don. Come on, Rangers. Hearts won today, so they're seven points clear. Come on, Rangers.
Big game. Big game. Prediction is 3-1 Rangers. Yes. As you know, they're on a great run. What about Livingston? Yeah, I mean... I'm going to go to Rangers, but again, there's no more channel. Okay, final question for the panel. Today is National Public Sleeping Day. Was there ever an occasion where you embarrassingly fell asleep in public like Shaka when you shouldn't have?
Shaka, of course, fell asleep at the World Cup final.
Yeah.
Stevie, I imagine as a man who loves his sleep, I imagine there's been a few occasions. I was actually going home To see my brother. Okay. And the Revs had a game. And so when the game finished, I actually got a policeman to take me to the airport. Okay. Because between the game finishing and the flight, it was tight. Oh, so you got an escort.
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