Chelsea and City out of the Champions League and Senegal stripped of Afcon title – Football Weekly

Summary

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Football Weekly (Guardian): Chelsea and City Out of the Champions League & Senegal Stripped of Afcon Title

Episode Date: March 18, 2026
Panel: Robin (host), Lars Sivertsen, Nikki Bandini, Paul Watson

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles a dramatic week in football, dominated by heavy defeats for Chelsea and Manchester City in the Champions League, Arsenal's new-found ruthlessness, and the extraordinary – and controversial – decision to strip Senegal of their Afcon title after an appeal. The panel also delves into key results from Europe, squad depth debates, and high-profile governance controversies affecting both club and international football.

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Champions League: Arsenal Advance, Chelsea & Man City Out

Arsenal 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Agg. 3-1)

[03:38 – 11:17]

• Arsenal delivered a "regulation" win at the Emirates, dominating proceedings against a fading Leverkusen side.
• The discussion focused on the quality and timing of Arsenal’s goals, especially Eze’s stunning strike, which Nikki compared to a movie villain finally deciding to try:

  “At some point the Big Bad just says, ‘Alright, I'm going to try now’, and smashes your hero against the wall. Because that kick, the shot from Eze is just so violent... it was a magnificent goal, obviously.” (Nikki Bandini, 04:05)

• The panel praised Arsenal’s squad depth, particularly how “the 12th, 13th, 14th best player in the group” can step up in clutch moments:

  “Those are the things that make the difference between finishing second a bunch, as they have done, and winning things.” (Lars, 08:41)

• Declan Rice’s relentless work rate and mental exhaustion were noted:

  “He just said, ‘I’m shattered. You just keep finding something that keeps you going.’” (Nikki, 09:27)

• Arteta is credited for wanting to win everything, but there’s anxiety over whether focusing on all fronts may leave Arsenal empty-handed.

Manchester City 1-2 Real Madrid (Agg. 1-5)

[12:31 – 19:26]

• City were effectively finished by a Bernardo Silva red card amid a flurry of Real Madrid counter-attacks and some outstanding saves;

  “When you’re 3-0 down and you get a red card in the 20th minute, especially against a team that has the sort of counter-attacking prowess… you’re just kind of…” (Lars, 12:54)

• The mood among City players was summed up by Haaland’s non-celebration:

  “He looks almost like he's annoyed he scored. He looks almost like, ‘Oh for flips sake, why am I even here?’” (Nikki, 14:27)

• Panel compares this funk to past years, noting that issues of confidence and body language are acute at the elite level:

  “He’s an extremely unsubtle person in terms of body language. Pep wants to see him more up for it. You can 100% tell if he’s having a good day or not.” (Lars, 16:56)

• Pep Guardiola’s “geography teacher going through a difficult divorce” outfit (Sachin Khairani’s joke quoted by Robin, 17:32) is held up as a meme for City’s despondency.
• Real Madrid’s path forward is debated – Nikki thinks Bayern are probably stronger, but no one ever counts out Madrid in Europe.

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European Round-Up & A Tale of Two Approaches

Chelsea 0–3 PSG (Agg. 2–8)

[23:09 – 32:44]

• Comprehensive defeat for Chelsea, with PSG’s finishing power on full display (goals from Kvaratskhelia, Barcola, Mayulu).
• Focus on Chelsea’s “huddle” and notoriously late tactical note (passed in the 85th minute when 8-2 down)—mocked as mostly motivational fluff:

  “Honestly, at that point, the only instruction could be: ‘Try and trick them into picking an ineligible player.’” (Paul, 24:14)

• Rosinha’s late-game management is discussed, prompting empathy:

  “I think he’s a sympathetic character and I don't really like that I piled onto him as much as I did.” (Nikki, 30:25)

• Chelsea’s lack of experience and the pitfalls of “commodities trading” under the Todd Boehly model are highlighted:

  “There’s a heck of a lot of good players in this team… but over two legs here, there’s a lack of experience, lack of cleverness, lack of nous.” (Lars, 26:46)

• PSG praised as “brilliant finishers” but not flawless; their defensive vulnerabilities could be exposed deeper in the tournament.
• The panel is excited for a “mullet season” Champions League:

  “Business at the front, party at the back… It’s a mullet season.” (Robin/Lars, 32:26-32)

Sporting 5–0 Bodo/Glimt (AET, Agg. 5–3)

[32:44 – 39:22]

• Heartbreak for Bodo/Glimt after squandering a 3-0 first-leg lead.
• Panel lamented the “occasion” overwhelming the Norwegian underdogs:

  “We don’t play the game, we play the occasion. The occasion was way too big for us.” (G. Knudsen, via Lars, 36:05)

• Despite the collapse, the panel lauds Bodo’s entire campaign for “defying the logic that money always wins.”
• Sporting’s relentless optimism and crowd energy get praise:

  “They just looked like it was almost manic—‘We are not going out of this.’” (Nikki, 38:41)

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Big Issues: Rules, Governance & Aftermaths

Senegal Stripped of Afcon Title

[51:41 – 56:30]

• In a landmark post-tournament appeals process, Senegal are stripped of their Afcon title for leaving the pitch before a decisive Morocco penalty; CAF awards a defaulted victory to Morocco.
• The panel agrees it’s a regulatory “can of worms”—the letter of the law was ultimately enforced, but the ramifications for football’s legitimacy are severe:

  “Taking away someone’s trophy after 57 days is kind of stupid and makes everyone look bad… But you shouldn’t be able to just walk off for 15 minutes because you don’t like the referee.” (Lars, 53:40)

• Historical parallels drawn with Calciopoli:

  “If Calciopoli and the mess that caused in Italian football taught me anything, it's that these sorts of decisions… end up feeling like nobody won this year’s trophy.” (Nikki, 56:30)

• Reports of political intrigue and pressure add further complexity.

Chelsea Fine and Suspended Transfer Ban

[56:45 – 62:03]

• Chelsea fined £10.75m and handed a suspended transfer ban (may never be enforced) for dozens of financial rule breaches under Abramovich—less than the cost of sacking a manager.
• Panel sharply critical:

  “Chelsea are fined less than what it cost them to fire Graham Potter… That’s the sum total while trophies are still in the cabinet… Why would anyone follow the rules in this sport?” (Lars, 59:53)

• Suspicion that leniency for “self-reporting” new owners merely incentivizes regulatory risk-taking:

  “The fine is neither here nor there really… It’s nothing, and then you’re left with this suspended sentence which… is nothing, is it really?” (Paul, 58:57)

• The FA may yet impose further punishment, but a sense prevails that "there are no consequences for breaking [financial] rules" unless you’re a less powerful club.

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Other Notable Segments

Premier League & EFL Quick Hits

[48:13 – 51:41]

• Brentford 2–2 Wolves: Wolves’ tenacity lauded despite likely relegation, while Brentford’s impressive points haul is noted as rather under the radar.
• EFL: Wrexham’s defeat dents playoff hopes; the panel jokes about future, more detailed analysis.
• Fun discussed around youth recruitment for Brentford.

Champions League Quarterfinals on the Horizon

[39:22 – 47:09]

• Panel speculates on the fates of Newcastle (versus Barcelona), Liverpool (versus Galatasaray—praised for unpredictability), Spurs (against Atlético Madrid), and Bayern (the possibility of playing a 16-year-old goalkeeper, Leonard Prescott, with jokes about bedtime and labor laws).
• “It’s a mullet season—business at the front, party at the back!” (Robin, 32:26)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Lars on Pep's "overshirt" as omen:

  “Have anyone successfully overcome a 3-0 deficit against Real Madrid with a man down whilst being coached by a man in an overshirt? The stats are very clear on this.” (18:39)

• Nikki on modern media and management:

  “It just kind of highlights what you say and how you act because you become a meme nowadays.” (30:34)

• Paul on football’s governance mess:

  “We’ve never cracked this code… How can we possibly feel like football has a grip on this stuff at all when that’s just still out in the ether?” (59:52)

• Lars on squad-building consequences:

  “If you are their rivals, you look like an absolute idiot for even having considered following the rules.” (59:53)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Arsenal’s Champions League win: 03:38 – 11:17
• Man City’s Champions League exit: 12:31 – 19:26
• Chelsea v PSG and project discussion: 23:09 – 32:44
• Bodo/Glimt collapse and Sporting heroics: 32:44 – 39:22
• League/EFL roundup: 48:13 – 51:41
• Afcon title controversy: 51:41 – 56:45
• Chelsea’s fine and football’s regulatory chaos: 56:45 – 62:03

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

• Humorous, irreverent, thoughtful: The team combines sharp jokes (notably about Pep’s overshirt and late tactical notes), robust punditry, and moments of genuine sympathy/empathy for beleaguered players and coaches.
• Critical of football governance: Especially around financial rules, appeal processes, and the growing gap in accountability between football’s elite and everyone else.
• Excited for the unpredictability of this year’s European competitions: With the “expected fun” (XF) metric high, several teams looking potent in attack but vulnerable defensively.

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Bottom Line:
This episode is a whirlwind through a pivotal Champions League week, layered with debate on deeper issues in football culture and governance, all threaded through the show’s trademark mix of sharp analysis and sly comedy. If you missed it, you’ll feel up to date and well-entertained – even if you’re still left shaking your head at football’s latest regulatory circus.

Transcript

[Paul Watson]

This is the Guardian.

[Hayden]

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[Stephen]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[Hayden]

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

[Stephen]

That's right.

[Lars Sibitson]

Hei hei.

[Stephen]

So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.

[Hayden]

And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.

[Stephen]

News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.

[Pablo Torre]

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[Hayden]

foreign.

[Robin]

Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. Are we the Farmers League, Chelsea and Man City are sent to the Great Champions League abattoir with big aggregate defeats. Arsenal, the only club helping to maintain the reputation of the best league in the world. TM what's Portuguese for Remontada? Bodo Glimpse run is over after giving up a 30 lead against Sporting, proving that we just can't have nice things, can we? To tonight's ties Newcastle aim to create history at Camp Nou. Liverpool needing to shrug off the stench of the performance against spurs at home to Galatasaray. Spurs Themselves, just hoping to avoid further embarrassment against Athletic, we ask, is 10 million pounds for eight trophies a fair trade? What is the statute of limitations on a tournament win? We round up the action from the efl, take your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today. Good morning, Lars Sibitson.

[Lars Sibitson]

No, it's not a good morning, Robin. I've lived in. I lived in the UK long enough to understand how big you guys are on politeness and manners and stuff. So, fine, I'll go with it. Hi, Robin.

[Robin]

We'll get to that. Yes, Lars is here, thankfully. But, yeah, he'll talk us through. The therapy session will begin soon. Nikki Bandini, this is a good morning. Surely.

[Nikki Bandini]

It's. It's a good morning. I feel bad because I think Lars is dressed in black, like, he's in mourning. And now you should. I also have worn black this morning. Like, I've. I've worn the wrong colors. Good morning, Robin.

[Robin]

It's true. We should all have the black armbands, really, shouldn't we? In honour of Lars, for our fallen soldier. Paul Watson, good morning to you. Just inside, maybe. Paul Watson, good morning to you.

[Paul Watson]

Good morning. Yeah, by comparison, I can't. I can't complain, really. Although, as an underdog lover, I'm in sort of minor mourning, which is why I'm in blue, so I'm sort of like semi mourning.

[Robin]

We'll accept it. We will accept it. Right, let's start at the Emirates. Arsenal 2 by Leverkusen nil. An aggregate win for Arsenal, 3 1. And, yeah, I mean, it was a fairly regulation one, wasn't it? Arsenal dominated. We had some cracking goals. And actually, Nikki, you were on the Pod last week saying, arsenal looks a little bit tight. And that was pre Max Dalman limbs, of course. How did you feel they were. Were they a bit more loose?

[Nikki Bandini]

I didn't know because the start of it, I don't know. To me, the whole thing almost felt a bit like that movie trope, where I suppose you've got this underdog, the heroic underdog, who's surviving all these blows from the Big Bad, which, unfortunately, in this case is Arsenal. Arsenal, the Big Bad here. And then at some point, the Big Bad just says, all right, I'm going to try now, and smashes your hero against the wall. Because that kick, the shot from E is just so violent. It's so out of. Out of thin air when he's on the turn that it's just. It felt like shocking everyone to their senses, like, okay, this is Only going to end one way. It doesn't matter how good your goalkeeper is, this is only going to end one. And it was a magnificent goal, obviously. And I'm painting Arsenal as the bad because I think in lots of people's eyes, they probably are. But I enjoyed it a great deal and I enjoy seeing Ebert Giese doing this thing that he does in the springtime where he, as everyone seems to have written in their columns this morning, he blossoms in the springtime and scores all his goals in March, April and May. It almost felt like the game and the tie ended even though it didn't because it was only a one goal difference for a long time. It felt like as soon as that goal went in, it was like the point had been made. And at that point, I don't know if loose is the right word, but it certainly didn't feel like Arsenal were ever in danger of letting it go. And then, of course, Declan Rice scored another very, very good goal to make it look a little bit safer at the end.

[Robin]

Yes. On Blue Sky, Philippe, our friend Philippe Auclair posted, holy mother of God. I mean, that could have been referring to a number of things, but we believe it was Ezra's strike. It's an interesting one, isn't it, for Arsenal because they have obviously this big Cup Final at the weekend. Lars, it's. It's almost. It's weird that kind of. The Champions League almost isn't a priority for Arsenal, but they've been excellent in it.

[Lars Sibitson]

I have a feeling it is a priority. Like, I don't think they went into this going, wow, this isn't very important, isn't it? I think. But it's also a little bit to do with, you know, Leverkusen are not the team that they were. So this is a tie that. I mean, they were a little bit kind of unlucky Arsenal for to not be ahead earlier in the game. I thought from. I was. I was trying to do my usual multi screening thing and everything I saw from the embers was like very, very one. It never really. You never. I get what Nick is saying about at some point they were like, now we're trying, but I don't think you ever got much of a sense that Lever Perkusen were gonna get anything out of this. And maybe they are the baddies, but it is quite trendy to root for the baddies. I think in a number of. You see a lot of franchises where like, if the baddie isn't killed off, eventually he gets reinvented as the goody like that seems to happen because the baddies, they look quite cool. So eventually this, I think will happen. And if anyone have had complaints about Arsenal not being a fun team, I mean, those goals were fun. He brings the fun. And it's nice to see Arteta seemingly start to trust him a little bit more, if that's what's happening.

[Robin]

Yeah. And actually I saw this was previously, there was a few people worried that Eza was being sort of broken, a bit like Jack Grealish by Pep Guardiola, that his sort of spirit and his energy and his instinct was almost kind of being coached out of him. But I think he put pay to that, Paul, with that. With that finish. And it's just wonderful to see, isn't it, that a player like that can kind of flourish in a very much a sort of system.

[Paul Watson]

Yeah. And actually, as you say, I'd worried about that with Ezra. Like, he hasn't looked particularly happy, he hasn't looked particularly productive recently. So that goal was this amazing release. There was just something so joyful about it generally. And I think there was a great, almost comic element that Arsenal had done everything but score already, especially Trossard. Trossard, like, basically had the ball in the net three or four times by that point. And you could see him sort of thinking, oh, how'd you do? And then Ezra just whacks. It absolutely breaks the goal. So there was a look on his face. It was almost like, that's how you do it. But it was a really lovely moment, actually. I've got to say, as a neutral, I have no Arsenal supporting bone in my body, but I just really enjoy seeing a player get that moment that they need. And it was clearly a moment he needed and it couldn't have been more emphatic. And you felt for Blazwic a bit in the Leverkusen goal because he had been basically stopping everything thrown at him. And you. There was if, okay, there never looked like this game would go any other way. But if there was one thing that, through the kind of narratives of football, gets in your head, it's like, will this be this game where Arsenal are denied by this incredible goalkeeper and then Leverkusen scramble one in? And this was a pretty definitive way to end any illusions about that.

[Lars Sibitson]

I do think there's also something about both Eze and Victor Yokerez about how all in, maybe they haven't been the sort of absolute slam dunk superstar signings a lot of fans will have been hoping for when the transfers went through. But if you look at their contributions overall, Jor has scored some really important goals and Eze like five goals in two derbies against spurs and a great goal to sort of settle, effectively settle a Champions League time. Like, if Arsenal go on to win several things this season, which I suspect they might do, those are the things that makes the difference between finishing second a bunch, as they have done. Like having a squad where it's not just the 11. You have people who maybe are the 12th, 13th, 14th best player in the group who comes in and make telling, crucial contributions at important times.

[Nikki Bandini]

It's not new, is it? We've been talking about the squad depth at Arsenal being this thing for so long, but this is the point where we're seeing it. Everyone is exhausted. Declan Rice talked about it in one of the post game interviews he gave. He was asked about how he's always covering so much ground and everything. He just said, I'm shattered. Yeah, he wasn't trying to hide it. He's completely exhausted all the time. And he just said, you just keep finding something that keeps you going. And I think for lots of these players, it is ultimately that if you're playing football at this level, you're an incredibly motivated and competitive individual and you'll keep going until your body breaks. But Arsenal have got more options than almost anyone, perhaps, perhaps than anyone when it comes to just having someone else, like as a who hasn't had a great season all around, but can do something out of nothing, like he did in this game. And I don't know if it's just perception, I don't know if it's just these last couple of rounds have been a bit wacky. I feel like this season, almost more than any other season, feels like these games are being defined, I talked about it, I think, last week, by individuals doing individually brilliant things. And I think that having lots of individuals in your squad who can do individually brilliant things certainly is not a bad thing to have when everyone's completely knackered.

[Robin]

But I guess in contrast to that, Declan Rice is remarkable, isn't he? It is ridiculous. The ground he covers. He kind of looks like a sort of centaur, doesn't he? The way he's really upright as well. He really reminds me of that. And so Arsenal go to Victor Okures old side, Sporting in the quarterfinals, third quarterfinal in a row. I mean, Champions League, it's not necessarily the best team in Europe, is it, that goes on to win it? Not necessarily, at least. But Nikki, do you feel like when I say it wasn't a priority. I just feel like as an Arsenal fan, if you were given the choice, if you had to choose between Champions League and Premier League, would you say the majority would say Premier League?

[Nikki Bandini]

I think most fans want the Premier League more than anything. I think definitely. I think Arsenal fans have been. Have been itching for that for so long. But I think there's no question that Arteta wants to win everything. Arteta wants to win all four trophies. He's set up his squad to try to win all four trophies. He believes he's taking the right steps to do it. The fan in me having just as a journalist observed Inter last season, who were the best team in Italy, try to win everything and win nothing. The fan in me has been dreading this outcome all along of like, maybe you should have just picked one thing. This year they are closer and closer to doing it. And I suppose if they could beat City this weekend, that would at least mean that they've won something, whereas Inter won absolutely nothing. But they might not. They might lose the City. And then suddenly you get a different conversation. Comes off the.

[Lars Sibitson]

They are like pretty much home and hosed in the League. I would say maybe they're home.

[Nikki Bandini]

How can you say that with the points.

[Lars Sibitson]

Can we say they literally drop points,

[Nikki Bandini]

that he's in last place.

[Lars Sibitson]

You say that they're home but not hosed. This is the thing. They are home. The hose is out.

[Paul Watson]

I don't think the hose is out. Even Lars. I think the hose is being prepped.

[Robin]

It's still in the shed. Do you have to get out of the shed?

[Lars Sibitson]

Yeah. You think so? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[Robin]

Okay.

[Lars Sibitson]

So the home but not yet hosed and the hose is kind of. The readiness of the hose is a subject of debate.

[Robin]

Man. City won't be winning the Champions League. They've been knocked out pretty comprehensively in the end. So an aggregate defeat of 5, 1 against Real Madrid. They lost 21 on the night last night at the Etihad. And it was pretty much put paid to buy a Bernardo Silva red card in a sort of mad 20 seconds. And that was kind of all she wrote. Although actually last. They had quite a lot of chances, didn't they?

[Lars Sibitson]

So it was a game of great saves, really, down both ends. Courtois on one end and Bernardo Silva down the other. One of which was probably a better thing overall for his team. But no, listen, what can you say when you're 30 down and you get a red card in the 20th minute? You're just kind of, you know, especially against the Team that has the sort of counter attacking prowess because you don't want to have to go forward against Real Madrid anyway because you're going to get Vinicius Jr. Running at you and that never ends well. So I watched a fair bit of this and they weren't terrible city, but they're not solid teams can get at them and Real Madrid can get at most people anyway. And then when you get a man down like, I don't know, should we even be spending a ton of time on this? This is a game that happened. Guardiola wore an overshirt, Bernardo was sent off.

[Robin]

A lot of discourse on that.

[Nikki Bandini]

I feel like I want to push back on that a little bit. Just in as much as overwhelmingly everyone will have looked at that. When Ministry scores and goes, the tie is over. And maybe it was, but Real Madrid did give them chances after that and indeed they did score back in equalize before halftime. And there were times in the second half where they could have gone ahead at least on the night. And I don't know, I feel like this is much more a conversation for the Sporting Buddha game. But I do think there is this thing that happens in football stadiums when people start believing and not. And it was just very body language wise. I couldn't help it but observe the way Erling Harlan reacts when he scores his goal. He looks almost like he's annoyed he scored. He looks almost like off of flipsake. Why am I even here? Why have I bothered scoring this goal?

[Robin]

What's the point?

[Nikki Bandini]

Yeah, and, and I, I'm not saying they could have turned it over because they probably couldn't. It's incredibly hard to turn over a three goal deficit against team as good as Real Madrid on 11 players, let alone on 10. But I, I wonder if, if nothing else come out of this night with an incredibly good feeling about themselves. If they'd thrown everything at it and, and, and won on the night, even if not in the tie and, and scared Real Madrid. Then again, I mean the counterpoint, maybe they would have been more tired to play Arsenal at the weekend. So I don't know. But I just, I think that the body language of the whole night going from game to game was very interesting to me and I felt like that Harland moment when he does score and how unimpressed he looks that he's just scored and not running to get the kind of spoke very differently to, for instance, Sporting, who are still two goals away from what they need after an hour and going at it like it's everything that they can possibly do.

[Robin]

That's a really interesting point, isn't it? I mean, I think, yeah, a couple of seasons ago, you would still back Pep's team even with. With a man down as well. It's like they. Yeah, they kind of lack that belief almost, don't they?

[Lars Sibitson]

You're a man down in playing Real Madrid, though, I think that is slightly different from playing a Norwegian team. With all due respect to Border games and with regards to Erling Haaland, without wanting to try to mind read him too much, my feeling, having watched a lot of him play football, I think it was a tap in and he's very angry with himself for not scoring goals recently. I think he's like, you can't really celebrate that. It's the Balotelli mailman delivering mail type of thing. I think the reaction would have been different if he'd have smacked one into the top corner. From the edge of the box, you get the sense of what Erlingen. He is very frustrated right now. I think there was a chance not long after the goal when he gets across into the box and he just kind of scuffs it a little bit, and it's just if he's on it, he scores that. And I feel like I've been saying that a lot about him recently. He's obviously scored a pile of goals this season, and overall, you can't say it's a terrible season for him, but he is in this funk now that he gets into sometimes when his timing is just a little bit off, when he scuff shots, he should be hitting cleanly and just the kind of guy he is, he's not going to wildly celebrate a tap in when he is just overall kind of frustrated with how things are going. Like, he's not Pip boy Inzaghi. Like, he's a slightly different human being.

[Paul Watson]

He scuffed the goal as well.

[Lars Sibitson]

Right.

[Paul Watson]

It was a really unclean finish in itself. So I wonder if there's a bit of him that's like, oh, great, you know, scored a goal, really bad goal, and then, as you say, had that other chance where he just kind of didn't make contact with it. And it was very unlike him. So, yeah, maybe he's just in his own head a bit.

[Lars Sibitson]

He's an extremely unsubtle person in terms of body language. And I think Pep has actually called him out on this at some point. Like, Pep wants to see, like, because he is. You can 100% tell if he's, like, having a good day or Not. And if he's on it or not. And it's maybe like, I do think it was last year or the year before Pep said something about that and maybe that is something for him to work on. It is odd with Erling Haaland, as unbelievably good as he is, he does have these little periods occasionally where things just don't go for him. And I'm sure him and his team and his various coaches and helpers are looking very carefully at what causes those periods. But, yeah, we are currently in one.

[Robin]

Do we delve deep into Pep's clobber and think that, you know, you're not projecting someone who thinks they're going to win this tie with that. With that outfit, are we, Paul? I mean, there was. There was quite a lot of stuff on this. You know, I really enjoyed Sachin Khairani from the Guardian posting. He was dressed like a geography teacher going through a difficult divorce. I mean, that was possibly my pick of the bunch. It just didn't look like he was convinced either.

[Paul Watson]

No. Yeah, geography, that's quite a good analogy. He looked like someone who'd accidentally found himself on a hike or something. Yeah.

[Robin]

I thought it was just a leisurely stroll. Why are we doing these hills?

[Paul Watson]

Yeah. Suddenly he's realized there's going to be chafage. It's not going to be a pleasant hour and a half, two hours. Yeah. He didn't look his smooth self. And it did all feed into this really slightly odd atmosphere, as you say, with the body language of the players, the atmosphere in the stadium. It all felt like a, like, actually, it did feel a bit like a geography field trip that nobody wanted to be on. Everybody just felt like, do we have to. Do we have to be here? And it's not. Yeah. I think we can't entirely blame the overshot, but I think it's a factor. We have to discuss it.

[Lars Sibitson]

I mean, have anyone successfully overcome a three nil deficit against Real Madrid with a man down whilst being coached by a man in an overshirt?

[Paul Watson]

No.

[Lars Sibitson]

So the stats are very clear on this.

[Robin]

That's a stat. Yeah. No, they should.

[Lars Sibitson]

Yeah. The expected overshirt was way too high. The xo.

[Robin]

Is it?

[Lars Sibitson]

It's not. You don't want that. No.

[Robin]

From a Real Madrid perspective, are we convinced? I mean, it's like, it's Real Madrid and it's the Champions League and they can just win on vibes, can't they? But again, as we all said, like, they gave up quite a lot of chances. Maybe they felt like they could because, you know, they were convinced against 10 men and they've got this quite nice cushion that they possibly were a bit complacent. They could afford to be. But are we convinced? They're possibly. I mean, they're most probably going to play Bayern next. Next.

[Nikki Bandini]

I think Bayern will beat them. Honestly, between the two teams and how they're playing and, and, and what I see of them so far this season, but I don't think it's. I say that as a. Like everything when we make predictions, we're, we're weighing up what we see with a bit of balance and probabilities, aren't we? I mean certainly Real Madrid with Vinnie Jr being what he is and scoring goals for fun when he wants to, with just the absurd talent all the way through the, the, the side and then the option to a fit Mbappe coming back into the team. We saw him in the second half here and I don't know if he should have had a penalty. He definitely should have had something. When he gets his absolutely mauled going through on goal. There's the potential to beat anyone and, and I think that's always going to be true with Madrid. I do think across the two legs of this tie, oddly, despite scoring only one goal, City did reveal. Or maybe they were. Reveal is the wrong word because I think a lot of people already knew these weaknesses but highlighted weaknesses in the way they defend. Highlighted. Especially Docu, who I thought played well across both legs. Highlighted that you can get after them down that, that left hand side. And Alexander Arnold. I wouldn't, I certainly wouldn't bet my house against them, against anyone because they're Real Madrid. But I think Bayern are a better team personally.

[Robin]

Well, they have to see their way through to that quarterfinal with their 61 lead against Atalanta tonight. I'm on that one, actually. So for the world feed, so any suggestions of what I could chat about? Don't have a co commentator either. So it's gonna be me chatting to myself, hoping to. I mean any topics. I'm willing to, to take anything. Yeah. Because it's. I think it's gonna be a difficult sell in terms of Jeopardy.

[Paul Watson]

At least it's gonna go full test match special, isn't it? It's gonna be talking about everything, but every time we go away. So it is now 4 nil. Actually. I don't know if I mentioned that.

[Robin]

If you do hear me eating a Victoria sponge, then that's a gone contest. Match special. Yeah, that'll do. Part one in Part two. We'll do the rest of last night's action and look ahead to tonight's games.

[Pablo Torre]

Hi, this is Pablo Torre from Pablo Torre finds Out and today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile because we spend a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places, and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost Mobile says switching to their $25 Unlimited Forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit boostmobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers pay 25 per month as long as they remain active on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Plan savings claim based on a January 2026 Boost Mobile survey of 1,000Americans with single line unlimited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com Howdy,

[Hayden]

howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[Stephen]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[Hayden]

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

[Stephen]

That's right. Hey, hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single channel.

[Hayden]

And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.

[Stephen]

News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellas wherever you get your podcasts.

[Robin]

Welcome back to the Guardian Football Weekly. So Chelsea are out. They lost 3 nil at Stamford Bridge to PSG8.2 on the SO Kvatskhelia goal Barcola Mayulu. I mean, some fantastic finishes. Do they have the best finishes? Surely PSG in the tournament. Dellon Bluesky saying, did Chelsea respect the ball too much or not enough prior to kickoff? And Paul, you were on Huddle Watch for us last night.

[Paul Watson]

Yeah, I was on Huddle Watch. I believe there was a huddle, but it was, I think, just in the. In their half. I think they might have accidentally done it in PSG's half, but, yeah, I was much more so. Again, you know, we always have to have it off the field thing that we're grilling Rocinha on. The thing that got me that's been going around on social media is this thing where he passes this note to Garnacho. I don't know if you've seen this. He sends him on with a note that kind of, you know, has to be circulated around all the players. But at this point, they're eight, two down.

[Robin]

And so it's the 85th minute.

[Nikki Bandini]

It was the 85th minute.

[Lars Sibitson]

This is the one. This instruction will turn it around, I have to say.

[Paul Watson]

I don't know if it's the whole LinkedIn ness of Rosinha, but I imagine it did say something like, you know, it's always darkest before dawn walking around or you are loved or something. And these players are like. I mean, honestly, at that point, the only instruction they could possibly have is try and trick them into picking an ineligible player. Like you are. You are six goals down at this

[Robin]

point yourself, just to make this worse.

[Paul Watson]

Have some dignity. Yeah, it was. It was not a good watch, to be fair. I think I volunteered to. To watch it. And you kind of thought, if Chelsea can score, maybe we've got a game, so you probably don't want to gift them a goal after five minutes. I think that pretty much was that. Really, wasn't it?

[Nikki Bandini]

I don't know what there is to say about this one. Kvaratskadia, as you were alluding to Robin, the first goal, I thought more Kvaratskalia brilliance. Even if SAR is very, very inattentive. I enjoy about Faratskadia and I feel like I always say about him is he's so technically good, but he's also strong. Like the way he takes SAR off the ball there, that's physical strength. And I think he blends those things too well. And it makes wonder he wasn't ever in the starting 11 for that first leg as well. But he's such a game changer. And then you look across that team and think, okay, but so can be Barcode, so can be Dembele. They have such attacking talent. And that is the reason why, despite, I think often in this tournament not having looked the most impressive. And let's say again, by the way, that first leg, it felt for a good chunk of it, like they were going to lose to Chelsea actually until the end. But when they turn it on going Forward, a bit like Real Madrid. They just. Just completely irresistible and terrifying. And, yeah, obviously I was on a different game for my main screen, but I. I did think when you looked up and see they've gone, got their third goal and it's 82 on aggregate, and you see fans leaving the stadium is now gone, you think, actually, I'm impressed they lasted that long, to be honest with you, because. Because that was the goal that as. As Paul was just saying, made it 8:2. But I suppose some of them wanted to stay for that Liam Rosinha moment at the end. They thought, if I just stay long enough. It's that Simpsons thing, you know. What is? Watch closely, everyone. He's about to do something stupid.

[Robin]

Oh, dear. Poor Liam.

[Nikki Bandini]

Poor Rosinha. I feel. I actually feel bad for him. I'm joining in this pylon, but I feel bad for him. He's someone in a. What was no doubt a horrible position last night trying to do something. But it does look. It's very easy to poke fun at a manager giving a. A tactical instruction to someone in the 85th minute of a tie. You're losing a two.

[Lars Sibitson]

I might be wrong. He seems to me like an empathetic and intelligent guy, and I really, really am very reluctant to make fun of him, but he does make it very difficult sometimes. And, yeah, that's what. And I just think, broadly speaking, more about Chelsea, I think this tie, both legs, all in all, is an example of maybe the sort of fly in the Todd Bowley ointment and this sort of. This idea of signing players as almost of commodities trading and like, only bringing in guys who are between 18 and 22 years old. You do end up that there's a heck of a lot of good players in this team. There's a fairly good chance to make the Champions League again. And I'm not like. There's every chance they will grow into a squad that could be strong enough to win the Premier League, win the Champions League, win things in a few years. I'm not trashing the whole project entirely, but I do think over the course of two legs here, there's a little bit of lack of experience, there's a lack of cleverness, there's a lack of nows. The game was kind of. The tie, I think, was more or less decided in the. In the first leg, where, again, they played well for a lot of us, and then they just kind of lost their composure and let PSG counter on them towards the end, which they really didn't need to do. Like the tie was in a decent spot for them. They just needed to bunker down and take it back to Stamford Bridge and then you can TC2 late goals instead. And I just wonder if they had a few more experienced guys in there. Some of this stuff maybe wouldn't be going down in quite the same way. Way.

[Robin]

I think that's a really good point to make. I think very, very young defense, wasn't it? And they looked sort of quite exposed. And I guess that comes with, as you say, this sort of player trading thing. And I also wonder because they were, you know, when Maresca left, there was all this stuff about he didn't really have any control and that he was kind of told by the medical staff who could play. So you just wonder how much authority Liam Rossini actually has in this team. So it's just a very difficult job,

[Lars Sibitson]

isn't it, in terms of maturity and experience? You really are asking Marcucurea to be the adult in the room in that back four, and I'm just not sure that's the way you want to go with that. But again, what is the LinkedIn thing of saying here? They've learned from this and developed and things. Maybe that's the great thing.

[Robin]

Get up earlier, etc. From a PSG perspective, Paul, they're looking excellent. They kind of weren't looking fantastic at the start, but they're sort of coming into their own now.

[Paul Watson]

Yeah, again, though, a little bit like with Real Madrid, there were enough moments where you thought this isn't the perfect performance. Like PSG don't look infallible by any means. I think there's a couple of times Safonov made some great saves, actually. Cole Palmer, Liam Delap. I'm not 100% convinced by PSG. I think this was going forward. Obviously, they are fantastic. But I think as. As Niki and I think Lars spoke about here, this tie just could have been such a different tie with a few tweaks and with, you know, a few things being done differently, it could have actually been a lot closer. So I don't think we should be lured into thinking while this PSG side is infallible, they're going to storm to the tournament here. I don't know. I don't know what we can gain from it, but they are brilliant finishers. They are full of brilliant players, but they are definitely not invincible.

[Nikki Bandini]

I think it's also a thing in Chelsea defense. I mean, this is the team that won the Champions League final last year, five nil. I mean, they do this to teams, right? They do this. And I know everyone took that result and I think a lot of people went, oh, well. It's obviously Inter just weren't good enough. Inter knocked out Bayern Munich and Barcelona. So they are capable when they are on their day of demolishing anyone. It doesn't mean they will always be on that day. But I do think, and I'm definitely feeling that me now and the Liam Rossini thing, because I'm the same as Lars. I think he's a sympathetic character and I don't really like that I piled onto him as much as I did.

[Robin]

But.

[Nikki Bandini]

But I think it's. I think it's worth saying that. I think that actually lots of managers could have got smashed by this team, because I've seen other good managers get smashed by this team.

[Robin]

Only in Rossinia. It's an interesting thing now that what you say and how you act is just as important now, isn't it? Especially when you're managing in the Premier League. You know, I. This is slightly different, but do you remember Nathan Jones's, you know, awful stint at Southampton? And it wasn't good, but Southampton were a basket case anyway. But what he said in press conferences, it's made him a figure of fun. He's actually a very good coach and he's doing very well with Charlton at the moment. It just kind of highlights what you say and how you act because you become a meme nowadays.

[Paul Watson]

Yeah. I think it also speaks to the over analysis of everything. Right. Like when Amarim was hunkered down in the dugout, that abiding image of him hunkered down at Grimsby. He wasn't really doing anything stupid, particularly he was showing some tactics to his play. But it was the image of him embattled in Grimsby that he just never really shook that. And similarly, Rosinha, there's nothing, nothing actually wrong. He's still coaching his team. He's, you know, he's supposed to just go home after, you know, beat the traffic. You know, it would be a lot worse if he just gave up on his team. But it's just that everything has become so overanalyzed. And I do get that. And I actually really like him as a boss. I'm one of the more pro Rosenior voices. So, yeah, I also feel really mean, but you can't not mention it, really, can you?

[Lars Sibitson]

I do think away from senior, I feel like we're set up for a really fun Champions League this season. Because actually, if you look at the great. The great teams and PSG are one of the like top teams that you're excited about watching them. Bayern Munich, Barcelona, maybe even Real Madrid. I have sort of in my head as potentially and mostly devastating going forward but I don't quite trust them at the back. It feels like almost all the best teams are in that bracket currently and that seems like a fun place to be. I'm very like half class full trying to be. I think this could be good. The XF the expected fun quite high.

[Robin]

Oh I love that business at the front party at the back. I'm all for that.

[Lars Sibitson]

Oh yeah. It's a mullet season. It's a mullet season.

[Nikki Bandini]

We've had four games so far in this round with the round not done yet with five goals scored by one team or more. So it's has got to be unusual. I don't know. I haven't got any historical data to compare that with.

[Robin]

That's a lot, isn't it? And so yes, PSG will face Barcelona or Newcastle in the quarterfinals. And yes, it has been a roller coaster week for Chelsea. Defeat to Newcastle and then this and the news on their premier league charges. And we'll have more on that in part three Sporting five Boda glimpsed nil after extra time. So a five three aggregate defeat for Bodo who went into this tie three goals up. Jim on blue sky saying have sporting killed football? And I'll ask you the next question after this. But Lars, the Nordic dream is over. We were all on board. But take it away.

[Lars Sibitson]

Well, do I have to? No, but I mean it's. Listen, it's. No, it's. It's upsetting. And I think the thing that's upsetting, more so than the fact that they lost and lost badly, is that they were not very good like they were. They were pretty terrible. The whole thing that's been impressive with them from my point of view is that mentally they've coped really well with these occasions in the past. Like what can happen when you're a team from a smaller league and I've seen this a lot watching Scandinavian teams and you're Europe is that you come up against these players who, okay, maybe they're a bit famous, that's one thing. But also they're faster than you're used to, they move the ball quicker than you used to, they're sharper than you used to. Defenders are a bit stronger than you used to. And aside from that being a sporting challenge, it becomes mentally overwhelming. Now, the impressive thing about Border glimpst is that in Games previously, they haven't looked overwhelmed. They have been able to take on these giant teams and these big moments and just not let the occasion dominate them rather than the other way around. And all of that kind of went out the window here. And I believe that's something actually the coach here at Knudsen said after the game is that we played the occasion rather than the game and that Sporting did everything that we wanted to do, which is go out and just not be phased and just play football. So they went out. Obviously losing a 3 nil lead is sad, but if you play well and you just get done, that can happen. But the sad thing is they were nowhere near the level that they've shown before and that we know that they can play. So that was upset setting.

[Robin]

And Paul, you were saying about the approach was looked slightly different from usual usually, you know, not the sort of the swashbuckling Bodo glimpse we've seen this season. For the most part, yeah, they looked

[Paul Watson]

weirdly cowed or almost like they just. They were trying to just run this game down, which is just not the way they've approached other games throughout this competition. And also last year in the Europa League, you know, in that run there were games where you thought, look, you're just going to try and grind this one out, but that they don't really do that. And this, this appeared to be what they were trying to do. And it. As Lars said, it's sad because so much of what's been great about their run is that they're not. They're not. They're not skanking results, you know, against these big teams. They are beating them fair and square and they just. They just didn't really look at the races with. With the exception that again and again, you know, we've talked about games being turned on just the smallest of moments. They did hit the bar twice just before half time. And I have this feeling thing in fact, twice in one hit, right? It bounced. It bounced twice on the bar, which is in itself worthy of a goal. I think we'll send that to. We'll send it to the court of arbitration for Sport if they're not too busy already. But yeah, I do feel like if that goes in, you know, does that change things that give them that boost, that rush and also deflate Sporting who has suddenly got this huge task to do. But yeah, I was sad, but that doesn't take away what an amazing, amazing run it's been really.

[Lars Sibitson]

So I have the quote now. It's worth reading. GED Nilsson was talking to Norwegian TV too. He said, we don't play the game, we play the occasion. And the occasion was way too big for us. It's a sporting team that go out there and they don't care about anything and we think about consequences from the first kick of the ball. We end up being passive and we don't express ourselves well. We were four sizes too small and that is my responsibility. It is brutal. So that's a slightly dejected head coach after the game, which is fair enough. And it's again, you come up against these teams with huge budgets and incredibly talented individual players and you know, there is a risk that you get done in some kind of way, but it is especially upsetting when you're that far away from the level and you fail in the exact way you've managed to not fail in the past. I think that's something that's going to take a little while for them to process.

[Nikki Bandini]

I think that point needs to be acknowledged loudly, that the outlier here is Bordeaux being 3 nil up from the first leg, Bordeaux having knocked out these teams, the fact that they are able to stand toe to toe teams which have just vastly bigger budgets than them, is still exceptional. And the fact that they go out now is not something. Even if the last defeat feels like such a blowout, it's not suddenly making this a shameful moment. I think, if anything, he's being too harsh on himself and his team there. I think there needs to be acknowledgement that what they've done here defies all of the normal logic that we accept about football, which is that money wins, Right? Money always wins in football in the end. And that's a reality that we want to cover our eyes and ears from and that we want to deny, but in the end is almost always true. And so what they have done is extraordinary. And I think on the other side, while, yes, we need to say Sporting are supposed to win this tie, they are much richer than Buddha, I think it's still worth saying that they approach this second leg in a way that I feel like contrasts so sharply with the deeply underwhelming way that Inter approached their second leg. Averti when they were losing. It is Sporting came out three nil down and they just looked like it was almost manic. It was like, we are not going to go out of this. We are going to find a way back into this. And when they score and they're still two goals away from it, this is what I'm talking about with the body language. After Celebration. The whole place is going crazy. The goal scorer is celebrating like he's just scored the winner in a World cup final. Two players have gone and got the ball out the net. And it just keeps that energy in the stadium for the whole game. And again, they were still two down after an hour. Yes, they were playing much better than Budda. Yes, they'd had all the ball. They'd had the chance. But I think it would be easy for a place in that moment to start falling into fatalism like, like we were talking about with, with Blazowicz and, and, and being having a goalie against Arsenal who was making some good saves. You could start telling yourself a different narrative. We're not going to do this. And I think sporting, of course you can. You can say, well, they shouldn't have let themselves get 3 nil down in the first place. Maybe they shouldn't. The mindset of the performance and the, the. The way that they, I think fed the crowd and had the crowd feed them in that second leg was. Was really impressive. And I think that coming back from 30 against anyone in a Champions League knockout game is. Is still worth acknowledging and praising. Even if, yes, they're the richer club and they're supposed to win.

[Robin]

Absolutely. No, we should give them a lot of credit for that because it still feels like a big mountain to climb, doesn't it? Three nil. And don't worry everyone, Max did pop in on the group chat to voices disdain about the handball decision to make it three all. So yeah, don't worry, he still stuck his head in there to tonight'. Barcelona against Newcastle United. One all at the moment. And Paul, Well, Newcastle, slightly unfortunate not to go into this with a lead and it's away from home. But a good victory over Chelsea at the weekend and you know, how hopeful should they be? And Barcelona still play with this. This massive high line as well. This ludicrous high line which could be exploited.

[Paul Watson]

The line that every. It seems like that's what everyone is always talking about the line, isn't it? With Barcelona. It's an amazing sort of. It's almost a weird kind of gimmick that like everyone always talks about the line the whole time but you can't. Not again. A bit like with Rosina, you can't not talk about the line because it's just such a. You can't watch them and not notice it. I would, I would say Newcastle got reason to be hopeful. I'm not sure exactly how hopeful because Newcastle seem to blow hot and cold. A lot of the time I feel like they're coming into it at the right time for them and I would. I certainly wouldn't rule them out. In a weird way I feel like this Barcelona team is the kind of team that Newcastle will play well against. And I think they're. I feel like this is an opportunity for them. Although I'm aware I might also look incredibly stupid that basically hours after this goes out they might get hammered but I don't think they will.

[Robin]

Well, that one is finely balanced as is Liverpool and Galatasaray. Galatasaray leading by goal to nil and they go to Anfield tonight. But Lars Nil not good vibes at the moment for Liverpool.

[Lars Sibitson]

No. And I. Such a weird game between Liverpool and Spurs at the weekend. Everyone were kind of bad there but like the lack of urgency, the lack of tempo. It makes me think of the thing that he said earlier about Declan Rice and everyone being tired. Maybe there's a bit of that. There's certainly a lack of what we in Norwegian would call which technically means like surplus energy. Like that seems to be in short supply at the moment. They're kind of one pair paced. The game in Istanbul was really odd. We talked about this last week. It was one of those games where I think both teams felt they could have scored more goals based on the chances they had and the positions they got into. And Galatasaray for me are such a wild card. They really are the sort of Forrest Gumpian boxer chocolates. There's really no idea what happens when because they have had deeply unserious performances in this tournament but they've also had games where they've actually been kind of structured and done ok. So I really like, no offense to Liverpool fans. I really hope Galtas right go through because again the expected fun really high with them but I'm not sure this is a team I would ever trust to go away from home and keep it tight and behave sensibly as Nikki can attest after the return leg against Juventus.

[Nikki Bandini]

Well they blew a three goal advantage against Juventus and dragged it back at the end in extra time. So they absolutely are not a team that I think knows how to sit on a lead. I don't think they will sit on a lead. But the scary part from Liverpool's point of view is okay, but they can absolutely hurt you with Yilmaz, with Osimhen, with Noah Lang, with Sarah, who's been really, really impressive whenever I've been watching him in this Champions League really really has stood out to me, Sarah, in the, in the knockout rounds and and then, hey, maybe Mario Icardi can come off the bench as well. It's not at the level of the Real Madrid or PSG attacking options, but I don't think there are many teams in Europe who can look at Galatasarai's attacking options and go we've got better than that. I think it is a genuinely one of the better attacks in terms of its depth and threat in Europe and I think that's a dangerous place for Liverpool to be. Even if I would be astonished if Galataster I keep a clean sheet, I would be astonished. So I think Liverpool will score, but can they keep it tied to the other end is my question.

[Robin]

This could be the really fun game to watch. Contrast Spurs 2 Athletico 5 are going into the second leg to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I mean, depending on your persuasion, this could be entertaining as well. Spurs have Christian Romero back and Udogie and Bergwa fitting off for the bench. Spurs have won all four Champions League home games without conceding this season. It's in the bag, Lars, surely.

[Lars Sibitson]

Yes, yes, it is in the bag. No, I didn't listen, at least there was something at Anfield in terms of like fight. And when a team underperforms and underperforms badly, the tendency for us in the media as well as fans is to immediately accuse them of not caring and not trying because that's kind of our go to sort of source of annoyance. I don't think the spurs team are not trying. I've never looked at spurs this season and said this looks like a team that's not trying. I think it's a look that's a team that's disorganized, has had most of their good players injured and are very low on confidence. I think that's what's been going on at Anfield. At least they looked slightly better organized and maybe that point won them some confidence. I don't see them overturning this at all. All but I think again, in the sense that you went to Anfield not expecting points but you want some sort of vaguely positive experience, it would be good if you can come out of this game at least feeling slightly better about yourself than you go into it, even if you're not expecting to overturn that deficit. And maybe you can build on the sort of positivity from the weekend. And then for spurs it's all about this run of games. And I've been saying this for a couple of weeks, but it's still True. The run of games coming up. When they play Forest, Sundal and Brighton and Will like that's that. That's right there. That's where you need to find a win from somewhere. And that's what they're all building towards, I think. So kind of interesting to see how it goes tonight from that perspective.

[Robin]

And Bayern have a 61 lead as mentioned, ahead of Atalanta. Paul. The interesting thing about this, they might. Bayern might have to play a 16 year old in goal, a guy called Leonard Prescott, a fine German name. It's youth international. So they've had three keepers go down with injury. I really enjoyed this quote from Vincent Co. Saying he's very calm overall. We as staff are also calm. If he plays tomorrow, we'll have a full backing. I just think if you have to say we're calm that many times, doesn't sound very calm. But this could be interesting.

[Paul Watson]

Stress how calm we are. Yeah, we're so absolutely calm about this. I imagine he. I imagine Prescott himself is probably a lot less nervy than everyone around him. I mean, it's a crazy situation that's happened, isn't it? He even has to get clearance because of German labor laws. He's too young, young to work in the evening. So, you know, maybe you'll have to come off at a certain point and go to bed, I don't know. Or like make him do his homework or. It is amazing. The interesting. So they've lost what, the three keepers? They've also lost another keeper who's in the youth or the reserve.

[Robin]

So the 19 year old academy keeper is also injured. So.

[Paul Watson]

But they've not gone for the reserve team keeper. Right. They do have like Bayern Munich too have a goalkeeper who they've opted not to go for. So I feel like he's the one, Yanis Bartle. He's probably the one who's sitting there thinking, well, come on, like surely this is. I'm the next in line here. But no, I mean I will be very fascinated to see what happens. I think they're gonna be the winning game.

[Robin]

Is he that guy?

[Lars Sibitson]

No, he feels like the last sausage on the buffet that nobody wants to imagine.

[Paul Watson]

The ball stood around going, we have no goalkeepers. And he's just going, but guys, put his hand up, please, please shush. We've got no goalkeepers.

[Robin]

Oh yeah, I think we've all been there, haven't we? Well, wrap that up there. That's it for part two and part three. We'll do Brentford Wolves some EFL and Talk about the Chelsea fine unsuspended transfer ban and the delayed overturning of the Afcon final result.

[Paul Watson]

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[Robin]

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[Paul Watson]

Oh, actually they will have to get

[Lars Sibitson]

up and open the door.

[Nikki Bandini]

Oh, right.

[Pablo Torre]

Delivery available for select devices [e-mail] terms apply.

[Hayden]

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[Stephen]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[Hayden]

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

[Stephen]

That's right. Hei hei. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.

[Hayden]

And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.

[Stephen]

News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellas wherever you get your podcasts.

[Robin]

Welcome to part three of the Guy Guardian Football Weekly. So I'll whiz through this. Brentford 2 Wolves 2 Brentford 2 Nil up. A bit of a missed opportunity to make it 3. Igor Thiago with another goal and he's been called up to the Brazil squad for the first time, which is great news for him. And I guess the main takeaway still from this is that Wolves showing a lot of fight. You know, that they're down but not out. This bodes well, I feel, for next season.

[Nikki Bandini]

And Nikki, next season feels like a long way off. I don't know, it's, it's got to be. Feels a bit clutching at straws, doesn't it? Don't worry, next season things be better. But I, I, I just feel like

[Robin]

a lot of these teams sink without a trace and they just lose and lose and lose and lose and they're not doing that.

[Nikki Bandini]

Yeah, I don't know, I don't know where, where Wolves heads would be at right now because you're right, they absolutely aren't giving up and they absolutely are getting some, some surprising results. And, and I mean, I was looking at it just the other day and thinking, well, I mean, could they still, could they still? With how the teams that are just above the rele are wobbling but the camp is just. It's just so little wiggle room to drop any points to close that. Now, of course, you'd rather end on a higher note. I suppose it's just like an extension of the conversations we were having before about showing some fighting games. And certainly for individual players, it feels encouraging to see that, but also a little bit too little, too late. I don't know.

[Lars Sibitson]

Also, taking it back to Lewton, from the point of view of Rob Edwards, when you come in as part of a sinking ship and you're definitely gonna go down, you do wonder, like, how that's gonna set you up for the next season. But I actually do think with the amount of fight they've shown, you probably do go into next season with him thinking he's laid some groundwork there. He's learned some things about the guys in the squad. He's probably by now figured out who's interested in staying and who's not because there's a way of going down and a way of not going down, I guess. Brentford, though, seventh, like I was gonna make. I saw the advert for this game and there was like, the voiceover said something about who will show their true colors. And I was like, yeah, it's tough advertising Brentford Wolves, isn't it? Like trying to find the strap line that. That people will go for. But then I check the table Brentford is having. Brentford are three points behind Chelsea. This has snuck up on me a little bit. I don't think I knew they were doing well, but that. That's actually. Are they 100% out of the fight for a fifth place there Brentford? I mean, dropping a point here would actually. A little bit bad.

[Robin]

It is, although it seems like everyone else is as well, I think. Yeah, but we'll see. No, Brentford's had a super impressive season. They seem to just pick up these number nines, like, really just incredibly well. The recruitment's incredible. Quick EFL update. Wrexham lost 3:1 at Vickeries Road to Watford. So a real dent in Wrexham's playoff hopes. Southampton, Derby and Watford themselves are now breathing down Wrexham's necks for that sixth spot in League one. The top two both dropped points. Wickham beating Cardiff two nil. Cardiff had a player sent off and leaders Lincoln drawing at Huddersfield. We did divvy up the games to watch last night. Max said he had Cambridge Wilsall covered and he'll be back on tomorrow to break down that goalie draw in full. Right, so the big news that broke pretty late last night, this overturning of the AFCOM result. Cassie on Blue sky saying, should England fans be worried about Germany appealing the 1966 World cup result? And Scott on Blue sky saying, is this just another example of VAR ruining football? Can't even celebrate a tournament win, never mind a goal. Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. And Paul, do you want to give the kind of historical context to this? Because this all goes back to the final the, doesn't it?

[Paul Watson]

Yeah. So this goes back to that moment where Senegal walked off the pitch before the last minute penalty for Morocco and then obviously came back onto the pitch. Brahim Diaz took that appalling penalty that will haunt him for the rest of his life or not, according to this new ruling. And yeah, it's basically an appeal that has overturned the decision to allow that game to have continued from that point. The decision that's been made, which actually would have been the correct decision at the time by the letter of the law, is that Senegal have defaulted the game by leaving the field in that way. Now, had that been made by the referee at the time, that would have been a very hard and difficult decision to make. I don't think anyone wanted that decision to be made at the time, but it would have been technically the correct decision. Now, is it the correct decision? That's very hard to say because actually it seems like this has now opened a whole world of appeals and there's going to be a court of Arbitration for Sports appeal. It's basically opened a can of worms as never, I don't believe previously been opened. And it's a crazy situation we're in now.

[Robin]

CAF released a statement last night saying the CAF Appeal Board decided today that in application of Article 84 of the Regulations of the CAF Africa cup of nations, the Senegal national team is declared to have forfeited the final with the result of the match being recorded as 3 nil in favour of Morocco. The Senegalese Footballer Federation said it would appeal against CAF's decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, calling it an unfair, unprecedented and unacceptable decision which brings discredit to African football. The Moroccan Football Federation said the federation wishes to recall that its approach has never been intended to challenge the sporting performance of the teams participating in this competition, but solely to request the application of the competition's regulations. The federation reaffirms its commitment to respecting the rules, ensuring clarity in the competitive framework and maintaining stability with African competitions. Article 84, Lars. I mean, perhaps they should have known this at the time. Time.

[Lars Sibitson]

Yeah, listen, I'm kind of slightly torn by this because let's get it out of the way first. Taking away someone's trophy after 57 days is kind of stupid and makes everyone look bad and it's not a good outcome. I don't think that's a controversial take, but I just remember thinking you shouldn't be allowed to just walk off for 15 minutes because you don't like the referee. Like, that's. You can't set a precedent where that's fine. And if you do set a president where, like, if you're sufficiently grumpy with the ref, you can just take the team off for a while and then come back when you feel like, like it, that's not good. That will be very chaotic. And especially the fact that you make an opponent wait for that long before taking an absolutely crucial penalty. Also not cool. So I do, I do kind of think without. I mean, this is my sort of Nordic rule based sort of thing coming to the fore here. Kind of think the referee should have called it in favor of Morocco at the moment. Like when the team goes off and stays off for quite well while at the time when they were convinced to come back out and fulfill the fixture. It made me think a lot about, okay, maybe this is the kind of compromise that is healthy and good for everyone, but in hindsight you can't condone that sort of behavior. Understand that there was a lot of provocation. I had to really think you look back at how you had ball boys trying to steal the goalkeeper's towel and all this ridiculous behavior from the Moroccan sort of side on the hosting side of things. But I still don't think you can have a team walk off for 10 minutes and then just come back when they feel like it and for that not to have consequences. So it's a weird one for me where I kind of agree and disagree with everyone all at the same time.

[Nikki Bandini]

I mean, Lars is saying you can't take a title off to someone after 50 days. Let me raise you one. Calciopoli scandal. Doing it a full year after. I mean, listen, if Calciopoli and the mess that caused in Italian football taught me anything, is that these sorts of decisions is, is ultimately going to be completely not respected by both sides and you're going to have split versions of history at this point. If it doesn't get appealed where, where one team will forever insist it one and so might the other. It's a horrible, horrible mess. There's all sorts of politicking that that's gone into it as well. This is just reporting what someone said. But the the South African sports minister basically implied that the. He thought that Morocco were. Were using the. The women's African combinations which has now been post as a way to apply pressure on this decision and by not hosting that when they said they were going to go on then we're going to bully you into giving us this trophy. So there's all sorts that's gone into this that's really unpleasant and not good for the game. It's a mess. I understand perfectly what Paul and Larsa said that the decision should have been made differently at the time but I don't think that this sort of legal battle to award a trophy ever ends well for anyone at this point. I think at this point it's going to end up feeling like nobody won this year. So trophy.

[Lars Sibitson]

Can I self edit a little bit and say that I do think you can take trophies off of people for sustained and well documented instances of cheating? Yes, let's just have that not at all related to anything else we might be talking about in this episode.

[Robin]

Oh that's. That's a beautiful segue Lars. Yes. Let's move on to. Yeah, as you. I was going to say like we're not throwing stones here. We. We don't really have our own house in order to. In. In the Premier League. So. Yes. Chelsea. Chelsea have been fined 10.75 million pounds and a suspended transfer ban that may never be imposed. This comes from the Premier League judgment against Chelsea for breaking football's rules. An eight year trophy spree under Abramovic concluded the club engaged in deception and concealment. More than 30 breaches including at least 47 million pounds in off book payments linked to landmark deals for star players including Edin Hazard, Willian David Luiz and Amanja Matic paid through Abramovich's offshore accounts as uncovered by the Guardian. The Premier League board initially concluded Chelsea should be fined 20 million pounds with a transfer ban for two complete and consecutive windows but decided to soften the blow due to Chelsea's cooperation. Bluco, which brought Chelsea out of Abramovich's ownership, self reported the breaches once it had looked through the club's books. The Premier League said that Bluco made voluntary disclosures and showed exceptional cooperation which saw the fine half to £10 million and the two window transfer ban suspended. Now that's all very well you know to self report, you know we can pat them on the back for that but there's been a lot of chat on this. Paul especially, you know they've won trophies again this sort of calls into question all of those accolades they won.

[Paul Watson]

A big thing that seems to have happened here is this thing about self reporting. So it's effectively the new regime coming in and going, God, the old, the old, old lot, look at what they did. We didn't do this, but we want to get this all out in the open. And I think that's why they've been given such leniency is this, they've kept saying, you know, it's because they self reported. It's a lot easier to do that if you're a new, you know, they're not tiring themselves personally, they're saying, look, these, these people did this. But the, the response, again, it's very difficult when you get into financial and how that should be applied on the field, it's, it's a minefield. But the fine is neither here nor there really. Like it looks a lot, it'd be a lot of if I had to pay that, I'd suffer. But, you know, it's nothing. And then you're left with this suspended sentence which, you know, it's nothing, is it really?

[Robin]

So, so it was all worth it. This is the thing. It was Won't clubs feel like this is, well, fine, we can do this, we can get away with it.

[Paul Watson]

Yeah, I do think so. And there's a slight mafia thing of like if you report yourself, but if you're like basically saying, look, we did this but also go take a look at someone else, then you get off lightly. But maybe the other people get hit harder. I don't know. I, I, the whole thing is a complete mess. But we've never found a way to balance this, the, the modern business, football. We've never mounted away that that has been, has been kind of like neatly punishments can neatly be given that apply on the pitch as well, have we, We've never really cracked this code and with Man City, City, this all just hanging out there, like, how can we possibly feel like football has a grip on this stuff at all when that's just still out in the ether?

[Robin]

Lars.

[Lars Sibitson]

So the thing about Chelsea, Kieran Maguire, he said that under Abramovich, Chelsea lost over £900,000 a week, every week for 19 years. So for 19 years they were funded to the tune of almost a million week by a man who was later put on the sanctions list for having a close relationship with Vladimir Putin and that he obtained financial benefit and preferential treatment from that relationship. I think those are all facts that are not in dispute at this point when that kind of Caught up with them and the assets were frozen. What were the consequences for Chelsea from having benefited from this relationship? None really. Like, I mean, they were even allowed to play out the season even though they became a frozen asset, the club, the government decided no, it would be very sad for Chelsea if they had to forfeit their games and stuff. So they were kind of protected against any potential consequences from, from this very, very beneficial business relationship they had missed with, with Abramovich. And I just think if you're any club that lost a final, lost a semi final, finished just behind them in the league in this period, got relegated on the back of points you dropped against this team. How do you feel about the fact that the end of this sign saga is that Chelsea are fined less than what it cost them to fire Grand Potter? Like, that's the sum total of all the consequences this has for them while the trophies are still in the cabinet. You can say that this was the former owners, yes, but the current owners are still benefiting from their elevated status in the game, from their place in the league system. They didn't start at the bottom of the pyramid when they changed hands, ownership wise. Maybe they should have. I don't buy this thing of, oh, the new owner self reported, so everything is fine now. They're still benefiting from the results achieved under this race regime. And if you are their rivals, you look like an absolute idiot for even having considered following the rules. Like, why would anyone follow the rules in this sport? There are no consequences for breaking them, except, I guess, if you're Nottingham Forest or Everton. So it's a really unsatisfying outcome, I think, for everyone.

[Nikki Bandini]

There's also a second component to this, which is the FA may also impose its own separate punishment and that was acknowledged in the FA decision, which does feel like a slightly odd process. Not knowing when that verdict could drop as well leaves a certain ambiguity of hanging over it all.

[Robin]

I really didn't want to end on that. Really feel a bit, bit down now. Let's just hope Liam Rossinia does something funny over the weekend, shall we? We can all get back on board with that, but yes, a lot of ground covered. Again, thank you so much for your, for your time, Lars. Have a great day.

[Lars Sibitson]

Thank you.

[Robin]

Thank you, Nikki.

[Nikki Bandini]

Thanks, Robin, Paul, thank you.

[Robin]

As ever.

[Paul Watson]

Thank you.

[Robin]

Football Weekly is produced by Tayo Papula and Jesse Howard and our executive producer is Daniel Stevens. Max will be back tomorrow.

[Paul Watson]

This is the Guardian.

[Pablo Torre]

Hi, this is Pablo Torre from. Pablo Torre finds out and today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile because we spend a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places, and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just unrelated roster sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost Mobile says switching to their $25 Unlimited Forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit boostmobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the Boost Mobile and Low Unlimited Plan savings claim, based on a January 2026 Boost Mobile survey of a thousand Americans with single line unlimited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan. For full offer details, visit boost mobile.com

[Hayden]

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[Stephen]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[Hayden]

And we are currently taking deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

[Stephen]

That's right. Hey, hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.

[Hayden]

And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.

[Stephen]

News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellows wherever you get your podcasts.