OK, welcome to into channel podcast primer about women's football.

I'm your host Dino de Suspicious and as always, I'm joined by my Co host Mr.

Grant Engel.

What is up man?

I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.

Match day five of the UEFA Women's Champions League in the books.

One match day remaining in this league phase, in this new frontier that is a league phase and not a group phase.

Ready to talk about all the machinations.

You're the king of knowing how the hell the draw works and all this, all these other things that are going to happen.

I I look forward to you explaining it to us.

Yep, the old league phase of life here we are so like you, like you mentioned match day five in the books, some good football, you know, it didn't, it didn't start out super good.

I'll say, you know, the the the first few game, I think there was the first four matches, five of the teams were shut out in four matches, which is just a funny quirk.

Football got cooking.

I think a little bit on Wednesday.

I'm I'm very excited to get into it.

A little bit bummed that we've only got one more match day.

It's coming up fast and furious here next week.

But match day 5, a lot of football to cover and a lot of you know, results on top of the results.

We'll say a lot of moving and shaking, some machinations, some stakes will cover all of it in short order here.

But Mr.

Grant, angle where you want to get started.

Let's get started with a beverage.

I mean, if you're if, if you're going to mix in a little bit of melancholy that the league phase is almost over.

Let's soothe our souls.

Cheers.

Cheers to you.

Cheers to the football.

Oh, that.

Seems sweet, soothing.

There you go.

It always helps, I believe.

I believe it was Homer Simpson who said alcohol the cause of and solution to all my problems.

What a legend.

That's a great homerism.

Appreciate you sharing that machinations.

I want to talk about them.

Nobody's clinched top 4 yet, which is super fun.

Ten teams of clinched top 12.

Also kind of fun.

Barcelona, Chelsea, Madrid, those are our current top 4.

Juventus, Bayern, Willsburg, Arsenal, that's our five through 8.

Manchester United and Paris FC, 9 and 10.

All of those ten teams are in the 12.

There are three teams fighting for the 11 and 12 spots.

Atleti, OH, Louvin, Bolarenga.

Bolarenga's got a lot of work to do.

So for the, I mean, for all intensive purposes, they're probably be on the outside looking in.

And then we said goodbye to five teams this week, sadly.

FC Twente, Benfica, PSG Associates, Sune Sportiva de Roma and St.

Bolton Avios Arrivedeci see you next season hopefully.

I love all those teams, so hopefully they'll be back next year.

Yeah, I look, it's, it's, it's a hard league phase to get through.

It would used to be a hard group phase to get to.

And even though there are teams that we like and we like some of the players and obviously we've made Internet pals with them, you know, there, there has to be some teams that get eliminated before you get to the knockout phase.

This is the group this year.

Some gave it a better, have comported themselves better than others.

But you know that that's sports.

That's the way life goes.

No doubt What?

Let's talk.

Let's talk about some of the football though There was some really good football.

A lot to chew on.

Which Which of the match day five matches do you want to get started with?

You know, I love a chronological order, but you know, I, I like an order of some kind, something that we can look at and be like, OK, this makes this makes logical sense.

What's step one?

What is Step 2?

Let's, let's go through this, you know, as a good plan.

So let's just jump to the top of the table.

I, I do like that you say nobody's really clinched top 4 mathematically, you being the math guy on the podcast.

That is correct, but let's be honest with ourselves.

I believe the top three teams have pretty much sealed the deal to to clinch top four, at least the first the top two teams.

So let's start with the team at the top of the table, little club known as Barcelona.

They played Benfiga or Benfica pardon me on on match day five and they got that dub as they usually do.

They definitely got that dub.

Didn't look like the Barcelona dubs that we're used to, but I think that's OK.

There's obviously some time to kind of like get things going, you know, sort of like get the get the new person personnel situated.

But I thought that Barcelona kind of, you know, obviously struggled tip of this.

Like it's weird because some of the stuff worked way worse, but then other stuff like Carolina Graham Hanson, who we haven't really seen, you know, kind of like hit that level.

I thought had a really good game in this one, Super active, super creative, super positive, creating a lot for others.

I think she logged an assistant in this one.

Without her, I think it would have been tough sledding because wasn't a ton of places to go for Barcelona.

But you know, like you said, when you're that good, you got that much talent.

Three one at home, you get it done against the team that I think was was playing back against the wall.

They needed they needed a win.

I'm not sure mentally Benfica was probably in the mindset where they're like, hey, we're going to go into Barcelona, get a get a win on this day.

But I don't know what.

What was your take on on Barcelona?

You know, there's been a lot of talk about so much shuffling and you know, like the the players that are out there, you see the flashes, but you also see the difference between kind of like the Barcelona that we've seen at the absolute apex and the team that that we saw this week.

Yeah, I mean, look, they lost a three time Bolendor winner in Aitanabon Mati.

They've they've lost Potri, who's a metronome in the midfield.

They're not going to be as good that I think that's totally reasonable.

You are right.

And it it shows again that we've watched and talked about football so much together over the past few years.

I was having the same thoughts about Caroline Graham Hanson in this match too, where I was like, it feels like she's been a little quiet, like especially in this tournament, especially coming off the year that she had previously where she was an A Bolland or candidate with a bullet in the last two years really.

And I thought she played really well.

I don't think she logged an official assist.

I do think she had an ITC record book assist.

She was like, I think she was instrumental in in one of those goals.

But also, I mean, look, Pajor gets her goal.

It's a goal, scorer's goal.

She's out on the wing.

She drills it into the side netting.

Claudia Pina could have had five goals in this match, It felt like.

I mean, she was all over the place.

Like she hits the cross bar twice.

She had chances.

They just didn't go in.

So like, how long is that going to continue?

I'm going to guess probably not that long.

I mean, I agree with you, but you know it.

It still has to be said that this team has to figure out how they're going to you know, this is Benfica at home.

You know, like, let's let's keep it here, right, You know, so and and and you know, we joked match day four about that Lubin matchup that Barcelona only won three nil.

Also, I'm sorry, that was match day three, because by match day 4 was was 11 Chelsea.

So it's been a while since we've seen like really like top top level Barcelona.

Doesn't necessarily mean that they won't, they won't reach it, but it will look different.

So if Barcelona does lift a trophy, we're going to see a new version of Barcelona, which is kind of exciting because I think, I mean, they're probably still the betting favorite, but as mentioned, haven't clinched top 4.

But for all intents and purposes, I think Barcelona would have to lose and UVA would have to win.

Real Madrid would have to win, Chelsea would have to win, Leon would have to win, I believe, and UVA would have to make up a nine goal goal differential.

So Barcelona would have to get smacked.

UVA would have to hang another 5 or 6 nil on Perry Manchester United.

Very possible.

Yeah.

Barcelona.

Barcelona's playing Perry FC.

Pardon me.

Yeah.

So mathematically possible, but Barcelona probably into your top four.

Let's scoot ahead.

Who do we have next, Leon and Manchester United?

OK, so I hope everybody likes ASMR because you're going to hear a lot of mouse movement, you're gonna hear a lot of you're gonna hear a lot of scrolling in this episode, Clickety.

Clacks.

Yeah, perhaps some control F get into the notes.

You know, that's just, that's just the way this one's gonna have to go.

But look.

Apologies.

I apologize if I hung you out to dry, Leah.

Let's see where we're at.

Buddy, no, you're the Super producer.

Don't worry about this.

That's just me doing a little bit of filibustering.

When we went into this Lyon, Manchester United match, one of the things that your boy pointed out not to injure my shoulder, patting myself on the back, was get Lyon's score early.

And will Manchester United be able to live with that?

Lyon put the pressure on them very early.

They they the attack was difficult for United to deal with.

And Chewinga gets on the board in the in the in the 12th minute, she hits that diving, glancing header, which was also the the entire action was started by Tabitha Chewinga.

She, you know, drives the ball up field.

She takes a tumble after her pass, kind of takes a minute to get up and then finally gets up and then start.

It's like it's one of those things that every team should put on social media of just tracking that exact player to show like the the whole 36 seconds building up to the goal.

And I'll, I'll give credit to United here.

Leon scores that goal.

And the one thing that we talked about in the preview was sometimes Leon gets that goal, Sometimes it's in the 1st 5 minutes, sometimes it's the in the 1st 10 or the 1st 15.

And then they just start to pour them in.

Even though even with the score line of three nil, that did not happen in this match.

I mean, United held on for quite a while after that.

They did hold on.

I mean, defensively, I thought they were pretty stout.

Their problem was offensively, you know, there was like pretty much no bite.

You know, Millar had that first half opportunity.

That was a real, I mean, you know that I love when they say that the goal was gaping because that goal was absolutely gaping.

And Millar just kind of skied it, unfortunately.

And when you have, you know, obviously an inexperienced team playing against the Lyon, you know, obviously, like history books, just go the the the pages just go and go with a team like Lyon, you know that's going to happen.

You know, the the announcers were talking about, you know, the age disparity too.

I think United trotted out a younger team.

Credit to them.

They kept it close.

But you know, just three shots in the day for United, 0 on target.

This is a team that really missed Elizabeth trolling today.

Obviously Rachel Williams gets a start.

Almost no impact there.

I mean, they kept it close, but also they were pretty far away from actually being, you know, I don't want to say competitive, but at the level I'll say.

They never looked like winning it.

I think that's fair.

I I'm giving them a little bit of credit for for that.

You know, that switch that you're talking about, you know, no Turland you have, you have Williams getting the start, 37 year old England international, Rachel Williams.

Actually, maybe I shouldn't say England international.

I'm not sure if she ever got caps for the Lionesses.

Somebody in the comments will Fact Check me, I'm sure, and I appreciate it.

But yeah, I mean, look, they didn't get, they didn't get absolutely destroyed.

But there's only so much you can do in a Melchi du Mornay game because she, the announcer, had it exactly right.

She looked like the best player on the field.

She was the best player on the field.

And there's just, there's just very few things when she gets cooking like that.

Yeah, she didn't score until the last 10 minutes where she was able to put in those two, but.

Put in those two.

I'm not sure we could just gloss over those two and just say she put in those two.

And she rifled in those two.

I mean, she nearly put a dent in.

The ball 2 times put two different dents in the ball.

She did.

She did a lot on those two.

100% just smashed both of them.

But I am.

I'm glad you mentioned the molar, miss.

I think that was at the end of the first half.

Yeah, because it was their only real chance of the first half.

Mueller has to just put, she has to at least put that on target, at least force a save there.

It's their it's their best opportunity.

You know, for our European pals who watch this, you probably heard me say it before I cover Seattle Rain FC.

They're managed.

They are managed by Laura Harvey, former Arsenal manager.

And she always says goals change games.

And if United gets the equalizer there before the half, then then you were probably looking at a different football game.

But we didn't, and they weren't able to really put anything, put anything together there.

They're like, if you score that goal before the half, maybe there's a level of belief that gets built up.

But Leon just wasn't going to allow that to happen, Especially after, you know, they go into the half up one nil pretty much knowing like, OK, we've controlled this thing.

We're going to keep on doing so.

Yeah, I think to shift gears to to Leon, obviously, you mentioned Du Mornay, who was unbelievable today, Lindsay Heaps.

I want to give Lindsay Heaps a little bit of love because I thought I thought she was very effective today, taking the space that was available to her, getting the ball up field, quick decisions.

Leon was just really good today.

And I think that was also with a somewhat rotated lineup, you know, no DNE in the starting lineup, no ketoto.

I meant I'm forgetting a few others that I had in my Wendy Renar, obviously, but a lot of, you know, a lot of firepower not out there for Leon.

So if you're united probably not feeling great with this performance, probably want to go back to the drawing board a little bit and there's some stakes.

Let's see United, who do they have match day 6 because they're definitely not done.

They go at Juventus.

So they're a 9th.

Not a huge deal.

Even if they stayed there, they'd take on 7 or 8.

The way the seedings work, a quick, you know, machinations break out.

I didn't really know this.

I kept saying, all right, 538 are seeded.

You know, 9 through 12 are unseeded.

So I actually went and looked exactly how this works.

And apologies if you already knew this, but I want to kind of share if anybody doesn't know.

No, please.

So five and six basically go into a draw with 11:00 and

12:00.

So if you're 5, you can only play 11 or 12 and then 7-8 go into a draw with 9 or 10.

So that's essentially how the seating works.

You have two, two potential opponents and we'll know who those two are after match day 6 to play a little game called go ahead.

Well, it sounds like you and I were on the same UEFA Women's Champions League rules booklet web page today, looking that up.

And that's kind of working at the draws.

And that's good.

It's useful because how, why the hell should anybody know this?

This is why we're nerds and we like to look this stuff up.

Also, I had a little fun with it because, you know, I played a little game with myself that I like to call if the playoffs started today or in this case, if the knockout stage started today.

And that would leave us with Juventus or Bayern Munich versus either Atletico Madrid or, OH, Luvin.

So we would get either Bayern, Atleti, the rematch, which is a fucking banger.

We'll get to that very soon here.

Juventus, Atleti, Louvin, Bayern, a lot of good options there.

In the 78910 you have Wolfsburg or Arsenal versus United or Pfc Pre FC.

So you could have Arsenal pre FC rematch 2 years ago Pre FC knocked out Arsenal, Arsenal, United, that one's tasty.

Wolfsburg, United, you know, we can run that one back, you know, see if United could, you know, put together a better showing.

I mean all, all the combinations are great, which is so good, makes it so so exciting.

I love it.

I mean, yeah, let's talk about at Letty later down the road.

I I mean, you just kind of spelling this out out to me has you.

Let's get to it now.

Let's get to it now let's get to it now.

I'm I'm, I'm too hyped up because I think this was the match of the match day all.

Right, let's do it.

Let's see here.

All right, filibustering scrolls.

Scrolls.

There we go.

Look, Atlantico Madrid was in attack mode earlier and I loved it.

Gabby Garcia forces a great save from Makmoudovich 5 minutes into the match.

And to quote my notes, LFGGGGGGGGGGGG, because I love the way Atletico Madrid came out and and took the fight to by and early.

Now, did they end up retreating into a little bit more of that underdog football that you and I expected?

Yes.

But the fact that they knew like, look, we're going to take some of our chances there.

There have to be multiple minute stretches where we're using our passing ability and, and finding channels and, and getting, you know, up field.

But then we'll, we'll retreat back into a defensive shell.

I thought they did that masterfully throughout the match.

No doubt and and this was I would say the most even match up of the 9.

The stats buried out the game bored out.

I think couple couple different lead changes ends in a draw.

Both both teams probably kind of excited, kind of disappointed, which is always kind of what you want to see in a match like this.

A great Fiamma goal.

I mean, just super cool moments.

And I'm really glad you brought up Chewinga and Leon, because that's such a key point to to say it's not just about the the moment and look at the moment, right.

You got to like zoom out and be like, all right, what what what got us here.

And the reason I brought it up is because pernil harder in this match.

I totally agree with you that athletis started very fast.

Bayern then very clearly back half of the first half wanted to wrestle back control of the match and really say no, no, we're the big dogs in this match.

Like we're in control.

We're going to take all the shots.

We're going to, you know, control the tempo.

And I thought pernil harder was was a key part of that.

And when you have a veteran player that does that thing where you know, like when a center back kicks it back to the goalkeeper, you've got no chance, but you know, you chase it down anyway.

You know, just to say, oh, please put a little pressure in the second-half.

Pernil Harder was doing that three or four times.

And I'm like, this is a 32, A 3233 year old player that doesn't need to do this.

You know, that is not that knows it's not going to bear any fruit, but is literally running herself into the match.

And what happens within 5/10/15?

Now it's two goals and you know, I I still have that pretty harder PTSD where I'm just like pretty harder on a hat trick in A22 match in the Champions League, highest stakes.

I would not want to be an athletic fan right now looking at that player, just at that level of engagement.

Yeah, yeah, I think you're 100% right.

And the Clara Bool to perneal harder connection is absolutely lethal.

Lethal in a in a lot of these settings, especially lethal too.

I I mean, yeah, sure.

Clara Bool is just rocketing up my ranks as one of the best left wings in in the world game.

Is she absolute monster?

And yeah, you know, they they were able to, they come back, they get the lead it it's off of those two harder goals.

I think both were assisted by Poole.

But like in the middle there you have a Fiamma free kick out just just outside of the of the 18 that had a lot of steam on it.

But Makhmoudovich had to had to make a had to make a good save.

Do you know who the Golden Boot leader in this wonderful tournament is?

Is it Fiamma?

It's got to be your.

God damn, your God damn right.

Four goals, 3 assists for Fiamma and you know, she came into this, she came into this tournament on a little bit of a heater and she's she's kept it going.

I love her physical play.

She's obviously super clever.

She can score from anywhere.

Just, I mean, anybody, oh you, anybody who saw that, that Fiamma equalizer, you're looking to buy some Fiamma stock.

It's too late.

I bought it up weeks ago.

You haven't been watching the show.

So look, this is just the way Atletico's going to go.

There is a path for them to make it into the top 8.

All they need is a win over Lyon and then they need Arsenal, Manchester United and Perry FC to either draw or lose and then they're right in their top 8.

So let's go.

Those are all possibilities.

All those doors remain open.

Group of you know, those are possibilities of life.

You know, I, I, I, I love the, the, the enthusiasm.

Definitely enjoyed watching them today.

I'm reminded, I'm reminding myself now of the moment.

To me it was the moment of this match.

Did Juliet Vin miss on the penalty kick?

Weird.

I was so startled.

So I was holding my 3 month old in my arms and I made, God bless her, I made her cry because I was just like I, I did a very intense inhaled gasp.

You know, I didn't quite clutch my pearls because I'm holding my daughter, but suffice it to say she was made upset by my very reaction to Julie Gavin's Miss PK.

But as I tried to explain to her, listen, Julie Gavin's not a player that misses PK's.

Did she understand anything I was saying?

No, she's three months old.

But here we are.

Maybe spiritually she's already a Bayern Munich supporter and maybe she's a fan of Julie Gavin.

You never know.

Maybe she maybe she will grow up to be one of the best write backs in the world.

You never know.

Absolutely.

Bizarre.

Maybe Gabby Garcia or namesake, maybe she was looking at the other side and, you know, who knows?

I mean this it could be anything at this point.

Tears of joy.

Yeah, she's not a big doesn't talk too much right just yet.

So hard to hard to know what she's thinking.

It's a real stoic.

Of course.

So, yeah, I mean, look, I I I thought it was a great, you know, it's a great comeback.

You know, we've talked about her a bunch.

Obviously the Fiamma equalizer, it's a laser.

It's all it grazes the crossbar, gets over the line.

One of my favorite type of goals.

Pretty good pass by Lewani to get the ball to Fiamma in that shooting position.

And then I just want to point out this one like little micro moment of the match, like very into stoppage time.

I think there's like a little less than a minute left and at Lenny finds a way defensively to just force Bayern out of the attacking half.

They're they're able to get a clearance and then force them to play the ball all the way back to Makboudovich the keeper.

And it's just like these are the little things to where they knew they could waste that extra 10/15/20 seconds.

That's just, that's just good football that are just things.

It's like, OK, can I in the margins, can we kind of Peck away at these little things?

And I just love that they're good at all that stuff.

That's so true.

And I mean like it.

It's so disorienting because it's only but this is our third year covering the Champions League and this just was not the feeling, right, Like a year 1 of covering the league Like it.

It just felt like so many of the matches were big, big score lines, big disparities are OK.

You know, we're getting like, I don't know, Chelsea against a salt Slavia or something.

And it's like, all right, we got it one more time.

It felt like 75% of the of the the group stage were were matches like that, you know, like real mismatches.

And this league phase feels like 2-3, four matches out of the out of the bunch are just real toss ups.

And I think as it as we get further and further down the line, just be rattling off, you know that, you know, kind of tongue in cheek.

But if the play offs started today, all those matchups are awesome.

And I'm not, I'm really not sure who I would pick in the grand majority of those five through 12, which is super duper exciting.

So sorry, sorry for that, that, that little diatribe there.

But I know we went a little out of order and we're not chronological.

So right now we're just floating in space and time aimlessly.

You know, where, where do we want to go from here?

Do we do we do, do we do UVA?

Let's do Real Madrid Wolfsburg because they, you know, if we're going to stick to the the big board that is, I think technically the next one on the list.

Real Madrid 2 Wolfsburg nil In what was either our first or second most anticipated match up of match Day 5I.

Gotta tell ya, Real Madrid was able to avoid some danger in multiple different spots in this match to get the win.

I mean, my L lacrosse, like early, early made just a wild decision to play the ball back to Mesa.

There was no time, there was no space.

You could see Mesa's reaction.

Like what did you do that for?

I'm just like completely confused at why Lecrae did that.

And it, you know, Pettimore's skies it over the crossbar.

I think there are multiple moments in this match where where Pettimore's, the Dutch international should have probably should have scored and didn't.

And Real Madrid was able to find a way to, you know, take advantage of of some other Wolfsburg, like a a Wolfsburg defensive mistake on the set piece and just claw over the line.

And I got to say for your Blancas, that's got to feel pretty good because now it's like another thing of like, oh, we could win matches this way too.

It's so funny these two teams have so many similarities, both of them kind of like silver medalists in their league, kind of looking up to like a real big dog domestically.

Real aspirations for this tournament just because after having watching after after having watched Arsenal kind of like lift the trophy last year.

But I think you're you're you're right on point Willsburg more shots, more shots on target, more XG in this one.

Two more players than Real Madrid when it was all said and done by by the final whistle on the pitch.

But set piece defense, terrible if you're Wolfsburg, just kind of like, you know, and not even Swiss cheese, but just like look like, I don't know, feta cheese.

Just a crumble of nothingness on the pitch.

Madrid able to kind of take advantage of it a few different times, not able to really rack up, you know, those goals.

And then Madrid has a player named Linda Kaisedo, who, you know, the announcer, you know, I, I can't really, you know, get on him 'cause he was like, well, you know, Kaisto, you know, you know, took the ball half the pitch or I'm sorry.

He said he, he, he mentioned that her run was, was half the pitch.

When in reality, you watch the replay, it's more like 7578 yards, which he first like drops her head and is just like, OK, I'm gone.

Credit to Caroline Weir, delightful ball up the, up the pitch.

And then how many times do you see a player like Kaisto, Not even a player, like I said, how many times do you see a player try to like deke the keeper, kind of like get a little too cute with it, go off to the right, go off to the left, that other defender kind of slides in and had a chance and didn't didn't have it.

Kaisedo, you know, that is not a it just feels like she could, she could keep having defenders sliding in and out.

She could just keep the ball for another 10 or 15 seconds and still score.

She's just so hard to get the ball from and can just kind of do whatever, whatever she wants.

And it just continues to break my brain thinking, A, how how young she is, and B, how a player like that can come up with a moment, you know, of that, of that level of quality to slam the door on a team like Wolfsburg and really catapult this Madrid team that in this tournament has had its struggles both mentally and just from an execution standpoint on the pitch.

We so we oftentimes, maybe not even sometimes, maybe oftentimes reference the and one mixtape tour in in amateur basketball, maybe like semi pro basketball, I guess in the United States of America years and years ago, that well, that's what I was going to say.

She takes the ball down the pitch and like you're talking about how many times do you see?

So you have to you have to lose the defender and then deke the keeper and get past the keeper.

She was, she was the professor, she was hot sauce.

She was skipped to my loo.

Just the, the, all the moves that she needed to make.

And then I just the, the, the best part of it, in my view is she then knows that Dykstra is going to hit the slide to try to make herself as big as possible for the block.

So she just goes, OK, I'll just go far corner because your momentum and the angle you're at is taking you to the near post and she calculates it in a split second and executes it perfectly.

It's just phenomenal stuff.

The the crazy.

Imagine being Dykstra at that point where you're sliding it off.

You're sliding one way and you see the ball sliding the other way.

And then if you remember what happens, Dykstra slams into the post like in a not a fun way at all like.

It was I was just like injury to insult.

That was one of those where it's like I watched the replay once and they're like oh, look at this replay.

I was like, Oh no, I don't want to.

I don't want to see any of that again.

I don't want to see that at all.

I don't I never want to see that again.

You know, I want to see the Qasido goal and I just want to look away or just pull up my phone, do something else.

Wolfsburg, though, I mean some bright spots, you know, like I thought Camila Coover, a young player at centre back looked good, had moments, good shot distribution, although, you know, would like we would just want to see more, you know, Berenstein not really able to get into the game in a big way, but Alexandra Pop, you need to make a Ella Pedemars all with three shots.

Substitute came in later.

Korsakai also three shots.

I think Sakai probably could have brought that player a little bit earlier.

She's been so good this season and looked really good immediately upon coming to the match.

Just a weird, a weird performance from Wolfsburg.

And when you look at their their run of form in the Champions League, it's win, win, loss, win, loss.

And I just really cannot, I can't make heads or tails as a team.

Like I could see this team in semifinals.

I could see this team getting smacked by Louvin in the in the quarter of the first phase of the knockout stage.

I mean, I like really like this is one of the teams with the most, you know, just the most possibility of of the most, you know, possible outcomes.

I totally agree.

I mean, you mentioned they, they won like in all the stats.

I don't think they necessarily played terribly.

I mean, they had opportunities.

They just didn't cash in like, you know, in, in the first half, they had three shots on target.

I I think we should, we should probably reference again.

I, I read, I, I mentioned Misa Rodriguez's good save early.

This felt a little bit like a Misa Rodriguez game too.

She was awesome.

I thought she made some.

She has a great ability to make some acrobatics safe.

She has a good diving radius, if you will, and strong hands to always.

She seems like she's real good at pushing the ball over the bar.

So, yeah, like I'm 100% with you.

It's hard to predict what Wolfsburg is going to do it like their form seems to kind of dip up and down in this competition, even even some in in front Bundesliga from what we've seen.

So, yeah, like, and that's the beauty of this competition is you have the this very good team that can have a little bit of a a floor that you might not expect, but also a ceiling that they can hit that you're like, Oh well, they'll be, they'll be tough for anybody to be.

Yeah, I'm excited.

I'm just I just want to see where their journey ends because I feel like they've got one more at least one more really good performance in them.

And I think they've got at least one more really shitty performance in them.

And I think we'll we'll see what happens when, but my, my, my antennas are up checking out this Wolfsburg side.

Let's shift gears though, to A to a team that I'll say I've got a little bit more confidence in.

Juventus 5 SCP nil, Juvie goes on the road, Rd.

gets a big win.

Fun quirk here, the XG in this.

14.9 for UA, 0.2 test for SDP.

So 5 nil for real.

4.9 to 0.2.

From an XG standpoint, UVA dominates across all the key categories.

What'd you see in this one?

I mean, Amelie Vongsgard gets the goal in the 1st 5 minutes and you knew this one had the potential to get real ugly real fast.

Vongsgard looks like she was a Division One player playing against high school JV players out there.

I mean, she had a, you know, Ollie Vansgaard stands at six feet tall, so she's already a a, A player with good size, but she was getting into dangerous areas.

She could have had another goal in the first half that was off the crossbar.

She was just continuously getting into dangerous areas.

Juventus did whatever they wanted on the attack.

St.

Poulton was was overmatched, which is a bummer.

But look who who they puts themselves in the in the top 4 here.

I was not a super believer at a time and they've they've largely made a believer out of me.

I still I still reserve the right to be somewhat skeptical when they when they play the better.

Teams but.

They're they're getting back, you know, I mean, they look, they've they've they've dominated the Italian league for for a while.

They had a good stretch and they're getting back to that.

You know, I mean, we'll we'll see when they when they line up against against the very best teams.

Well, I mean they were ahead of Leon three nil.

Don't don't ask anybody how that match ended, but they got ahead of Leon three nil.

Yeah, it still took a point off Leo.

I mean, the only team to do so in the in the field.

I don't know.

We can't balk at that.

Go on the road.

They beat your Atletico Madrid 2 to one.

They beat Benfica close, you know, and and they've got to draw to Lyon and a two one loss at Bayern.

Like these are the very respectable outcomes.

This one was pretty fun.

I I really enjoyed watching Christina Giudelli versus Karina Schluter.

I think 3 or 4 times like that matchup was was was very entertaining.

Crumb Bagel from Bagel Bagel.

I think it's Bagel for Juventus was incredible in the first half, just an absolute freight train.

I loved that that she netted a goal before before she got out of there because I mean, that was super well deserved.

Kiara Bakari, young player, like kind of stepping into, I don't know, I don't know if she's stepping exactly into that Sofia Kentori role, but filling those shoes a little bit in term from production standpoint.

And I'm just really glad you mentioned Bangsgard because this is a player, obviously we, we kind of first get introduced to Vangsuard during our time at PSG play for, for the Danish national team.

And you know, like you can see the tools there, right?

And it's like when it when are we going to see that run of Vangsuard, kind of like not only fighting your form, but being productive and fitting in amongst a group.

And I think, you know, I think this is her second season of Uve now.

She really looks like she's fit in there.

And you could see on her face after scoring that goal, like the elation, the relief, just like the like the yes, like I'm where I'm supposed to be right now as a footballer.

That moment I I definitely took note of because I really like that player and just a really cool moment and kind of set them, set them on course for a really big win that they needed.

Yeah, man, I think they should be going into, you know, match day six feeling pretty confident that, you know, we've we like St.

Polton.

They live in this weird, interesting space where they dominate the Austrian League and then they and then they have to switch everything to play underdog football in the Champions League.

But getting A5 nil victory over them, it's not necessary.

It's not nothing to sneeze at, right?

So Juventus was able to to capitalize on their chances.

They looked dominant.

And I think they they should look at themselves and say we are top four in the Champions League right now.

We have to go out and take care of business again.

And you know, we have a whole match versus Manchester United.

So we don't have, we absolutely don't have to feel like underdogs to get that done and seal this top four finish.

Wow, I mean, you know, I you should take a little credit.

You know, you, you had them outside your top 12 getting eliminated.

I'm sure they saw that.

Put it on the bulletin board.

I mean, I know it's a video.

You can't put a video on the bulletin board.

But I don't know, maybe it's a transcript, maybe somebody printed out translated.

That's possible.

Either way, I fully credit you for you know, just kind of lighten that fire under you van and get them to where they need to be, which is way way, way up in the mix.

It's extremely far away from the you know, the elimination zone where you had them, but I mean I can't really talk too much.

I had AI had a lethy outside my top 12 and who else did I have pre FC outside my top 12.

It looks like those two teams are going to get in, but 10 out of 12 ain't bad.

I think you also had you also had 10 out of 12 or maybe 11.

We should go back and check We'll go back and check either way.

Moving on.

I want to talk a little Arsenal and when I say a little Arsenal, I mean a little Arsenal because I mean the don't like that.

I didn't like I enjoy watching that.

And no, I didn't like it.

I didn't like it.

I I no, it all it all it all.

Obviously, I liked one part and I liked one part, which was kind of like the the second-half, you know, and it's I I joke that this year has been the year of two nil.

Get the the one goal early and then, you know, hammer until the the door kind of like just tips over and you get that second goal and then it's over.

I was really impressed with how Arsenal pursued that second goal.

And was able to kind of keep Twente at Bay in the second-half.

I think it was 8 to one shot disadvantage.

And I'll say I had a much nervier first half than they did the second-half because I think Arsenal, they figured out what they needed to be doing, which is let's defend in such a way that Twente has no chance, which is what they did.

And let's do that and also take our chances, you know, work the ball afield to do things responsibly, see what we can do.

And I really enjoyed that.

I thought Russo had a chance in the second-half.

I thought the offense looked connected.

They didn't cash in.

But again, this is not a spot where you have to cash in.

You're sitting one nil.

You want three points, you're going to get it.

Tuente not a threat.

So perfect spot to try to see what you could do, work stuff out.

I thought Beth Meade had an unbelievable game.

Great to see, you know, player that unfortunately it kind of has been like yanked around a little bit from a line of perspective and a minutes perspective.

Just come in and be the consummate professional.

She had a chance before she got the goal.

You know, monster RIP at that one didn't didn't work out and then the goal comes a couple minutes later.

So Mead was huge and I I did if I if I could put hang my head on one thing that I liked.

I liked the way that Arsenal kind of controlled the terms of the second-half of this one.

Totally agree, I was impressed by the defense as well.

I mean so crushed Roffensburg and Elbarink.

Jill Rort didn't really do hardly anything.

It felt like Jill Rort who who we have talked about obviously since her time at at Manchester, Manchester City Football Club, she'll she'll get some shots off.

Now whether or not they're going to stay inside the stadium or be directly on target and almost break the back of the net, that's a different story.

That's a different conversation, right?

We'll talk.

We can talk about that whenever.

Jill O'Rourke didn't register a shot in this match.

Rothensberg and Jamie Rothensberg and 24 year old Dutch international had one shot and she had 27 total touches, the fewest of any outfield player to play 90 minutes.

That status courtesy of our pals is fat mob, of course.

So I, I I really liked the Arsenal defensive performance and another little kind of maybe a periphery type of of nugget here is I like that Olivia Smith after Elbarink from Twente fouled the shit out of your keeper Borbe that Olivia Smith just had a couple moments there where she was like, all right, I'm just going to foul whoever has the ball next.

And she got herself a yellow card.

But she it was, I don't know if I don't know if it was totally on purpose or if it was, you know, the subconscious or whatever, but she very clearly had made a decision.

All right, you it's, it's physical play time now.

Yeah, I'll show you what's up.

Yeah, you need you need, you obviously need that.

And you couple that response from Smith with her placement on the pitch, which was kind of like up top on the left.

And I don't know, I don't want to say that, you know, like we figured out where she should be, but she looked really good up there.

You know, I think it in that in that spot, you know, just kind of in space able to run, able to create, able to cut inside.

So all of a sudden, if you if you combine, maybe carving out, you know, a little bit of like, you know, one's identity within this team, within this attack with hey, I'm going to be a little bit of like the enforcer leader, physical, kind of like, you know, put the goon and gooner kind of player.

Like, I mean, I don't we we might have, we might have you might have turned me around.

Probably in terms of like where my expectations are for this sort of I might be, I don't know, I might be feel a little gully.

Oh, there he is.

All right, Why not?

I think.

Look, I mean, you're holding the trophy, so you know why?

Why shouldn't you be confident here?

I mean, come on, let everybody know.

Yeah, I mean, it's just that Louvin match match they 6 that's looming that I don't like don't like it, don't like it.

OK, so Arsenal gets past Twente Twente see you later one nil see you next year.

I love I I love Twente.

I'm really bummed that they they they didn't make the cut this year, but kind of not their year that you really have to.

I mean it, it's just so tough.

Like do you remember year one where it kind of felt like the second team in those group stages, whether it was like the I axis, I mean Braun was the second team there, Hakkin was the second team.

I mean, when you think about who was in our final eight two years ago, like this is a different world right now.

Like I loved those teams obviously, but you can't really compare where we're at now like this.

These are, I don't know, the game has evolved quite a bit.

It's a bit, it's really exciting.

I don't know what do you, are you also seeing that or am I just kind of like losing my mind a little bit?

No, there's, there's definitely some of that.

I think it's it's obvious to see what we've seen seen you gallop set become you know Eustine Jeland makes the move over to to Wolfsburg.

Merritt Bromberg Lund makes the move over to Benfica Like it's it's clear to see like obviously with the.

Kentucky, Yeah.

There's been a bunch of like, but no, I mean like, you know, But now I'm remembering.

I think I can remember all four.

I think it's Benfica, Hakken, Braun and then who I miss, you see or?

Did.

Oh, IXIX.

Oh yeah.

Wait, did IX make it?

Yeah, IX make it because they lost Chelsea.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.

Yeah.

And then PSG and Byron didn't make it.

So you look at those two, those four, IX, Braun, Hakken, Benfica, those were four of our final 8.

Outside of Braun, I don't think any of those other three are, are sniffing.

Maybe our top 12 this year.

I don't know, man.

I, I, I can't really wrap my head around what what, what exactly has happened but doesn't seem like the same brand of football.

Yeah, that was a that was a good IX team with Chastity Grant, Romaine Luchter played on that team.

I think obviously Lily Johannes played on that team.

I, I, I absolutely.

The quality of the football though, overall, IIA 100% get where you're where you're coming from on this.

If I may, if I may try to steer the show in this direction.

I mean, we've gone this long, we have not talked about Perry's Angerman versus your OH Leuven just yet.

I feel like we should probably get to them.

Let's do it.

OH, Leuven.

Well, I kind of want to start with Perius Angerman because I thought they put together a a pretty, you know, spirited performance.

But again, like they have a lot of good players.

So it's like, I'm not sure if it's, I don't know, like, I mean, incredibly disappointing, but I don't know, do do you did did PSG just kind of like shit the bed this tournament or is this Luvin's kind of like Cinderella run?

Both I think I, I think you know, if you look at PSG, they they don't get a point until they play Louvin at home.

So what?

So what do we got here?

They get Perry of sorry, Perry's Angerman.

PSG they get smashed by Wolfsburg 4 nil.

They lose a relatively close one to Real Madrid 21.

They lose a relatively close one to United 21.

Never really looks like winning that one.

They lose to Bayern 31 and now they squeak out this draw.

It's a disappointing it's a disappointing tournament.

It can't be anything other than that.

But I also think if you look at its squad, that on its roster, we're talking about, you know, our our maiden voyage in the UEFA Women's Champions League.

We're talking about a team in that tournament that had Mary Antoinette Katoto, Tabitha Chewinga and Sandy Baltimore.

And now all those players play for bigger squads because they they decided, OK, yeah, we'll let these bigger squads buy their contracts because we don't want to operate like a big, like a big name club.

And that and that's where they are.

And now I like some of the players that they brought on in this Louvin match.

I thought they had, you know, some interesting players, you know, take the field obviously at your Guinea.

The 24 year old Nigerian striker, I think she has a lot of skill.

Kanjinga, you know, 22 year old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, she looked good.

So, you know, I think maybe they got to build it back up.

But you are PSG, like, what are are you?

You can't be a feeder club to Lyon and Manchester United and Wolfsburg.

Like, what are we talking about?

Like, have some pride in your probe here.

Like actually develop the good players and keep them.

Not only that, I mean, they're at real risk of being, you know, the second best in the city of Paris.

You know, I think with the whipper EFC is is playing a more kind of professional brand of football.

PSG obviously has a great players.

I mean, I don't know, it's tough to say because they're almost like the Knicks, like they just signed a bunch of players that are famous with no real plan of like how they might play together.

You know, No, think about it.

When you think about UBRI and Carmona, Oh, Carmona, obviously World Cup hero, one of the 30 or 40 best players in the world, let's say, and doesn't look like she's connected to any other other players on PSG.

You know, we'll take a crack if she's got it, but no real chemistry with with anything else, with any other players that are that are going on.

And then you're just like, is this just an All Star team of just, you know, a couple young players that are exciting, a couple of vets that be that we know Karshawi de Almeida, you know, but I think I keep thinking about your point of PSG, one of the biggest brands in global football.

You're just going to get punked by all these other teams.

You're just going to watch.

You know, you mentioned Katoto Chewinga and Baltimore.

How about Emily Vangsgaard, also a player that you're building that is, is is is playing for another team, scoring goals and will be in the knockout round of this tournament.

Just a tough, tough spot.

And you have to imagine they've got the money, but then, you know, they they brought in players, Mary Earp's another player that probably cost some money.

So it's not like they're not spending.

And maybe it's just that they're just doing it poorly and doing it more poorly than any other big name club that we have in the women's game.

That's possible.

I think definitely is.

I I mean, I mentioned Rome Luchter and her time at Ajax.

I hope I didn't butcher that.

No, no.

Yeah, yeah, she was at IX and.

That yeah, she was there, 20.

324 Champions League.

But also again, I'll say I think Rome Luchter is a an excellent player, but if you're gonna go from Mary Antoinette Katoto to Rome Luchter, there is there is a drop off there.

There's just no way.

And it's not a it's not disrespectful to Rome Luchter.

If anything, it's a compliment to Marie Antoinette Katoto.

So, yeah, I just think, you know, we're talking about a club who won the UMCL, the UEFA Men's Champions League this last year.

And we're we're talking about a big name club here.

I just, I just hope they do better.

And I do want to point out you you talk about Karshawi, you talk about them bringing in Olga Carmona.

There was a moment watching this Louvin match where I just wrote in my notes, I like to imagine that Karshawi and Carmona are good pals.

They're, they're like, I just love the way that both of them play.

I, I think of them both as kind of patron Saints of the Into the Channel podcast.

So it's just like players who we like and respect and just love the way they play.

So in my head, I just like to imagine like they go to a Cafe, they get coffee, maybe they go see a movie.

They just, you know, they're just like friends.

They, you know, they play skee ball on on the pier or whatever.

You know, they're doing whatever.

Antiquing.

They're getting into all kinds of fun.

They can do all that stuff, but unfortunately they're not winning any Champions League matches together.

No, no, not this year.

I love.

I made a note, last quick note on PSGI don't know.

I, I don't think we ever talked about this because first of all, why would we have talked about this?

But I, when I played high school football, I converted from my junior year to my senior year from offensive line to tight end.

So my offensive line season, my number was 77.

I've never really had a good 77 to go to when I when I played tight end as a senior, I I switched to 84.

So I was like, all right, all right, Shannon and Sharp, my guy.

Well, we'll talk about that later.

Didn't age that well, but yeah, he was the guy back back then.

I was playing football, but 77, never really had a good 77 until.

Well, I'm going to put you on the spot.

Can you name a famous 77 doing it right now?

I'm sure you can.

Well, I mean Luca, didn't Luca Doncic wear 77?

Yeah, so Luca, but he's got he's he's in the Lakers now.

So I can't really, I can't really do the the Lakers 77.

I think he was no go.

So I think the Olga, the Olga 77 with the Olga on the back, those black PSG kits, the Olga 70.

That might be that might be what your boy asked, you know, Santa Claus for this this year.

I just had 77 that I could really, really, truly embrace and rock with.

And I think, I think I finally got one.

There you go.

World Cup hero.

You could I I mean, yeah, I I love it as a pig.

I mean, you know, she's one of my favorite players.

We've been we've been singing her praises for years at at this point.

And the Perry's Azaman jersey is is excellent.

It's a good looking kit, no doubt.

We haven't really talked about Louvin that much.

Should we should we do that?

I mean, this is your squad.

I I got to give you your props.

I mean you after their first match, there are a lot of parallels with me and you watching SK Braun in in 2023 and being like, wait a minute, hold on.

This team is good actually.

And you know, the Debbie Thompson team with like the low what what what was it called?

It was like the lowest.

It was some like match.

Coefficient.

Coefficient, the lowest coefficient in the tournament where you're like don't give a shit about any of that.

This team can actually play football.

I feel like Louvin spiritually has a lot of those same, you know, attributes.

Hell yeah.

No, I love it.

Only only one team has beaten them in 55 champion matches and and that team Barcelona, the only team that beat.

Louis.

I had five Unbelievable.

You know, I, you know, I don't mind pulling the shoulder muscle, patting myself on the back, but you, you point me to another show that had Louvin in their top 12.

You, I mean, I'll wait.

I'll wait.

I've got the free time.

I don't actually have the free time, but I'll wait nonetheless.

No, you don't because I know that no other show Louvin in their top 12 outside of the country of Belgium.

So shout out to me.

I did it.

I did some of it.

100% shout out to you.

I think I, I, I haven't gone back and seen how, how good we did, but I think we, I think amongst the both of us, we could, we had, we must had all 12 teams one more match.

Just just for posterity's sake, I want to hit it for you out of here.

Pari FC, Valarenga now Valarenga's still alive.

Pari FC still very much alive, actually clinched so that we're we're going to be seeing them in the knockout stage.

What do you remember from this one?

Apologies, I remember very little, very little from this one other than and I'm going to look this up while while you you let me know what you remember from this one, because I got to give a shout out to to one of the great friends of the show.

Well, yeah, and let me while you do this, let me give another shout out to a great friend of the show, a boy named Blue who just dawned on me looking at one of his comments.

Blue, can you let us know?

Are you, are you named a boy named Blue on YouTube because you're a Chelsea supporter?

And so I wanna I like that I just connected those dots in my head.

And maybe that is the case.

But also let me tell you when you say we have one more match left, Balleringa and Parry FC, we have not talked about Chelsea Roma yet.

And this is the second time through the course, a lot of this season where we have forgotten to talk about.

Chelsea Football Club.

Oh my God.

Hey, real quick, Apologies.

Who do we got?

Carlo Abdul All our We got a lot of Chelsea guys.

Dan.

Dan's a Chelsea.

Dan's a Claw's a Chelsea guy.

We got a lot.

We got a lot of Chelsea Chelsea people.

I'm missing one.

I'm not.

I'm not sure if Dave's a Chelsea guy.

I'm definitely missing 1.

Apologies for whatever reason.

Chelsea people.

Like this show?

It's not MOS and.

It's not it.

It was not a purpose.

This is a oh, this is so bad.

OK, anyway, continue.

As he wears the Arsenal beanie.

It's fine.

No, nobody worry about that.

We're totally good.

It's cold in here.

We'll talk.

We'll talk about Volaringa Perry FC first.

You know, look, Volaringa is alive.

All they need to do is beat Bayern Munich in Germany and then they need an OH, Louvin to, they need an OH Louvin loss or draw at home versus Arsenal, which, yeah, I think that that part is live.

It's that definitely live.

It's that very, it's that very tricky part of being beating Bayern Munich.

Away yeah the and that there's something about that Bayern stadium and I don't know if it's the camera angle or the lighting.

It just doesn't look like a place I want to play I never want to play there.

I don't want to go there.

I just don't want to be a part of it.

It just looks so intimidating and like cold and I don't know, like like you'd fall on the turf and you'd really hurt.

Like, I don't know, I, I, I, I, I don't envy Valerina in the slightest.

I don't think that they're going to get it done, but shout out to you.

I I think you nailed the key point, which is.

OH, Luvin, you know, all jokes aside, are going to have a tough time even though they're hosting Arsenal, you know, getting a result there and they need a win because Volrenka needs a win regardless if a draw and they're done.

So Volrenka, let's assume they get the win.

If they get the win and Luvin draws Arsenal, Volrenka goes through because right now they're sitting on the they, they have the same goal differential of -2.

So Louvin, if they drew, they'd be, they would still be at -2 Volarenga with the win, obviously would be better than -2.

So assuming that Arsenal is able to get it done and not lose to Louvin, Volarenga will be playing for a spot in the top 12, which is super cool, despite the fact that obviously it's a tall task having to go into Munich and and beat that Byron side.

Super tall task and and Bayern has stakes too.

I mean, they're sitting on 10 points now.

You know, they're way behind all the other competitors in terms of goal differential.

But if you're if you're Bayern, you have to go into this match and say, you know, let's win by two goals and just see where the chips fall and see if if there's a strange result in the Juventus, Manchester United match.

That's live, right?

Like United could United could draw Juventus, United could beat you Juventus, right.

Like, so you know, Twente could give Real Madrid a match.

I've been waiting all show to say this.

Real Madrid is going to play in the Netherlands against Twente.

And if you're Bayern Munich, you're going to look at previous results from last year's UEFA Women's Champions League tournament and you're going to go listen, Twente only lost three to two to Real Madrid in that group state in their second group stage match.

So Twente is live to maybe get a scratch out or draw versus Madrid.

And I, and to also point out in their first match in the group stage, Real Madrid beat Twente 7 nil.

But I promise you, buddy, if you remember it was a close seven nil, I will.

I'll take that to my grave.

Twente played really well in that first half and then things got a little squarely after that.

But I think if you're Bayern Munich, you have to go in there.

And so if you're buying Munich, you have to go in and play Valarenga really tough and make sure you you scratch out the win.

So to say it's a tall task for Valarenga.

I think, you know, you nailed it.

But you know, it'll be interesting to see both teams mindset kind of going into that one.

You mentioned at the top three teams kind of separated themselves.

I think that's mostly true.

Barcelona, Leone on 13 points, Chelsea who's in 3rd.

Shout out to them and shout out to our guys.

Abdul Blue.

We're just we're just making Blue a Chelsea fan at this point.

Carlos, you already know what time it is.

There's seven teams between 9 points and 11 points.

Bayern smack in the middle of that.

One of the worst goal differentials of the 7 -, 2 on the count of that Barcelona result.

But I think any of those seven teams, Chelsea, Madrid, Juventus, Bayern, Wolfsburg, Arsenal, United have real reason to try to get 3 points and just see what happens above them and see if you can sneak into the top 4.

Because outside of Barcelona, Leone, like who?

Neither of them have clinched either.

Like Leon doesn't have an overwhelming goal differential.

They're at +9.

So they could get caught by Real, Real Madrid who's at +6 or Juventus is at +6.

Chelsea, the best goal differential of the tournament plus 16, shout out to them.

The best goals allowed of the tournament, only two shout out to them.

Sitting in 3rd as mentioned, all these superlatives for Chelsea.

Why does it still feel like this team has a little bit of like, you know, trick or treat to it?

Because a wise man once described to me the old goal differential Piggy Bank.

And what Chelsea, what Chelsea figured out was, hey, how about we beat Perry FCA, team that we have clearly outmatched in talent.

Let's beat them four nil.

And then in our next match when we take on the Champions of Austria, let's beat them.

Let's beat St.

Poulton STP, if you will, 6 nil.

And that's what Chelsea figured out is, you know, we're not just going to beat those teams.

And you know, obviously they we'll talk about it next.

But then they ratcheted it up again against the team that they clearly had outgunned in a S Roma.

And so they stacked they, as you said, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink.

They sprinkled all their loose change into that goal differential Piggy Bank and it helps them stay live to to live in that top four.

They just got to take care of business versus Wolfsburg.

Yeah, no doubt.

So if they beat Wolfsburg at Wolfsburg, tough, you know, tough, tough match.

And again, if you're Byron you you're looking at Chelsea at Wolfsburg and be like that, that could that could go awry.

Let's make sure we hit this win versus Boleranga.

But yeah, Chelsea versus Roma, this one was tough to watch.

I'm going to you know, I'm going to be honest.

I mean, I think, you know, I hate to see Roma kind of like in this state, especially coming off that one one draw versus Juventus and you know, kind of like they're they seem to be pushing their chips into the the the the Syria, you know, stack.

But again, still tough to see.

Nonetheless, to see them kind of like get worked by the by the Chelsea side that didn't, you know, really play all that well.

You know, you mentioned, you know, some players that they could have could have gotten some more goals.

6th know, I thought was generous.

I thought there was some real chances that Chelsea left on the table.

Sam Kerr had maybe one or two.

I'm sure there's a bunch that I'm missing.

Could have could, could have gotten really bad.

But I don't know is is Chelsea like it's tough because you know, like you look at Chelsea, they're they're coming off Sonia Bompa stores first loss in the WSL last weekend as well.

So not really sure what to make of it.

Maybe maybe we don't really have to make any of anything of it at all and just say, hey, this is match day 5.

There's still so much football left to be played.

Chelsea is maybe where they want to be, where they, you know, top 4.

There's no real benefit to being one or two other than, you know, if you're 2, you get to avoid one until the final or and you know, etcetera.

But I don't know, maybe they're feeling, maybe they're feeling pretty good about where they're at.

I yeah, maybe, I mean, if if they are internally talking about, hey, look, we're working in Sam Kerr, who is at absolute worst when she's in her, like when she is at her peak physical condition, at worst, she is one of the three best number nines in the world and arguably the best #9 in the world when she is at, you know, peak condition.

Now, obviously you think about, you know, her age and coming off the injury, she's 32 years old.

But like, you know what it is with her.

She's one of the greatest players who ever lived.

I thought.

I feel pretty comfortable saying that.

There was a pass.

I think it was around like the half hour mark where Kat Macario plays the ball in.

They were already up to nil and Kerr hits the header and I think it goes over the crossbar and you could see the look on Sam Kerr's face.

You could hear it in the announcer's voice.

Gary Tap House on the call, By the way, Gary Tap House quickly ascending in my commentator rankings, largely one, because he's a great announcer.

I, I loved, I loved the call he had at the game.

But also when I looked at his name, I was like, does that say trap house?

And I was so excited to be like, this is the greatest announcer, whoever lived.

Trap House not I mean, it's no, you know, it's no consolation price.

That's solid too.

But trap house?

Oh my God, that would have been unbelievable.

I dude, I mean, Gary, come on the show.

If, if this comes across your radar, please, we need, we need you to come on the show as an Englishman, or my apologies, you sound like an Englishman.

We got to get you on the show.

We got to ask you if you know what a trap house is.

Different discussion for a different time.

But what I what I'm getting at here after that digression is that if the Cat Macario to Sam Kerr connection really starts working, everybody could be in huge trouble.

So we'll see.

Like, I don't think Chelsea should feel too badly about themselves.

We're what I love about what you just said is obviously Sam Kerr has been, you know, in the vicinity for a for a little bit here.

So in a few weeks, maybe a little bit longer that, you know, she's been making appearances and in this match she got like real chances, you know, which we kind of haven't, you know, like, you know, I'm not saying she's been out of position, but you know, when you're not really in rhythm, like it's tough to, you know, kind of like, you know, be fully connected and and and get all of those same opportunities that you're used to per minute, right, because we're used to seeing her be super productive, But now she's starting to get they're starting to get the ball to her.

You know that I think that one, I think if we're thinking about the same one, that one to Macario Sam Kerr got up off the ground in a way that looked pretty good.

Like I was just like, OK, verticals working its way back, you know, good, good contact on the header, Just a little bit off point.

But I agree with you, man.

I mean, if if Kerr is able to round into shape here.

And I mean, we're still 5 plus months from the final.

She could be a player, she could be the player of the last two matches of the tournament, of the semi final plus the final.

She has that in her bag.

Absolutely.

And for whatever reason at Chelsea, you know, ABJ, you know, kind of hasn't fully, fully, fully hit the stride, stride at Chelsea this year.

Maya Ramirez, the injury, Kat Macario, we've seen what she's done on US women's international team in this one was playing a little bit deeper, more of a midfield vibe.

So I don't know, maybe the the the stars are aligning a little bit for Sam Kerr, you know, come back and for a team like Chelsea that's been knocking on the door, that's been dying, you know, for to, to be able to lift this Champions League trophy.

I don't know there, there could be some synchronicity to like kind of what we're seeing here.

And that would just be incredible.

You know, like you think about Sam Kerr being disappointed at the World Cup in Australia, just kind of fighting back from just barely, barely having gotten back from injury and not really being able to do everything she wanted to do this turn would be a really cool platform to see Sam Kerr kind of like really ascend back up to the to the absolute apex.

I mean, if she, if she's able to ascend to the absolute apex, then it's an all time story.

Could you could you imagine the year after Arsenal wins the Champions League if she if she rounds into peak form and then Chelsea finally gets their mitts on that trophy that they have been so desperately wanting that they feel like they have deserved?

It would be it would be a 2016 LeBron James type moment of like the the the club did it, the player did it.

It's for the, you know, it's for that part of the city.

I suppose you would say like it.

It would be an all timer on several different levels.

Now, can they do it?

I mean, definitely remains to be seen, but like, like we said though, like she's one of the, she's absolutely one of the best players in the world when she is in peak form.

Can she get to that level at 32 years old post injury?

It's going to be hard to say.

I I love that you mentioned that you like the club did it.

The player did it because like this one would be very special because it would be like the club did it and probably and couldn't have done it without the player getting back to where we expect the player to be, which was just makes it a special kind of like, you know, just kind of storybook ending potentially, but we're not there.

Tons of football to be played.

Let's talk a little bit about match, say six couple matches that we don't have to watch.

We watch a ton of football.

So we're going to give ourselves a little break.

We'll we'll watch this one on a little bit of tape delay.

PSG at Benfica.

I'm sure you guys are going to give it your all.

We'll check it out on the replay STP at AS Roma.

We'll do the same.

So that leaves seven matchups that we need to check in with next week.

Barcelona at Pre FC Lyon hosting Atletico Madrid, Chelsea at Wolfsburg, Real Madrid at FC Twente, Juventus hosting Manchester United, Bayern Munich hosting Valeranga and Arsenal heading to Belgium to take on OH Lubin.

That is a slate.

All all at the same time.

All at noon on Wednesday, December 17th in the Pacific Standard Time Zone.

Yeah, I'll have to be.

I'll have to watch.

I'll be in no spoilers mode.

I got a big work thing I got to do on Wednesday.

Poor, poor planning by me.

But yeah, man, I mean, look, there's going to be some jockeying at the table.

You get to see the live table movement.

That's one of the the most fun parts about final day of, you know, before the knockout phase.

And, you know, I mean the the live table.

It is a crime that more American sports have not adopted the live table like the NFL.

It like there are many reasons why I think the people who manage the NFL are are stupid and terrible.

But the fact that they do not have live standings is just mystifying to me because people would eat that up.

Yeah, it's gotta grab the paper, open it up tomorrow.

You'll get caught up.

You'll get you gotta get up to speed.

All right, Match day six, that's happening Wednesday, December 17th, little episode calendar.

Obviously we hit our match day 5 recap.

Check.

We'll have a match day six recap next weekend, next week after the action.

So as mentioned, so here all, everything's happening on Wednesday, right?

Right, so here's the question.

All right, all the matches, every single nine matches happening at noon on Wednesday, December 17th.

You are a father of two children.

You have a job.

I have AI have a full time job that that also requires a lot of attention.

We need to figure out when we can recap this.

I think we I mean, we obviously need to recap it.

Could our could our Internet pals do us a favor if we recap this thing on Friday night?

Would you just give it a watch or listen over the weekend and be like, OK, yeah, we digested the match.

We have our thoughts.

Let's see what these two Bros in America think about it.

I mean, I, I, I hope you guys would give us that grace.

Yeah, love that.

All right, so for the two people still listening at the hour 15 mark, let us know in the comments section if you'd be down, you know, for for what my guy Grant proposed Either way, Thursday, Friday doesn't matter.

We'll be back with a with a recap for match day 6:00 just because we need to, we need to talk about it.

We need to, you know, break it down.

I I need a place to vent.

You know, I mean that there's a lot of things that I just need to kind of get off my chest.

Football related and non football related.

That Rosalie album as an example.

Just whoa, my God, what a banger.

Kids, stop listening to it.

Either way, episode calendar to round it out before the before we get out of here 2025, I propose we do a best 11 globally.

You know, everybody's got their, you know, league domestic.

I I think we're in a unique situation to be able to say these are the best 11 players in the world at position.

Maybe we can talk it out.

Maybe we can do a draft.

Maybe we can do a little Twitter poll.

Maybe we can we'll have some fun with it.

We got time to sort it out.

And then I mentioned this to you earlier in the day.

I went to a little best of.

I think this has been a banner year for your boys 2025 crazy guests, crazy coverage.

Just you think about what we did for the EUR.

I mean, the marathon that that that was July 2025.

I want to recap, you know, some of our best moments as a show of of 2025.

Give our friends, I don't know, some a little something to chew on over the holidays.

So let's let's put something like that together as well.

And then I think that will be just enough to call it a year.

I think that makes sense.

You know what, we've had other times on their show where we've said things that we're going to do and I'd be like, OK, well, we said it on the show, so we got to do it.

And then we just end up not doing it because life happens.

And you know, this is our side gig and and we have other jobs, but I'd like the idea of a best of and just another little Easter egg.

I just want to you, you mention how deep we are into the show, an hour 17 into the show, Just an Easter egg for anybody who's still this thing.

If anybody still cares.

I'm not sure why you would Your boy got his tickets to Oslo, Norway.

I will be in attendance whether whether I get the the the media credential or I have to buy a ticket.

I am showing up to the UEFA Women's Champions League final in Norway.

It's good.

It's going to be either May 22nd or May 23rd.

I, I got to guess it's a little likely be on May 23rd, which is a Saturday.

So I'll be there if anybody wants to have a beer in beautiful Norway, which I've only been to the big airport there.

I've never actually been in the country.

I, I, I stopped in the airport on my way to to Sweden when I worked for a company based out of there.

But I'm looking forward to it.

If you want to, if, if you want to get a beer there, just show me around, help me out.

More than happy with that, you know.

So, so let's enjoy the football together.

We're making our way toward the final together.

Let's go fucking love that.

We're not we're we're not sure who's going to be playing in the final, but all I can say is the intent Channel podcast has reached the UA for Women's champs league final for the first time as a show.

Shout out to you.

Incredible commitment to the to to the brand, to the enterprise.

I appreciate you, But well, I appreciate.

I'll appreciate you a little bit later too, after we get to the outro.

This has been another episode of into the channel.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging out.

If you enjoyed the show.

We do this every single week, sometimes twice a week.

YouTube, Spotify, I have a podcast wherever you like to watch or listen.

Make sure you like, subscribe, follow, comment, leave us a review.

patreon.com/into the channel, great way to support the show.

Into the channel merch like your boys wearing at the moment.

Even greater way of support.

The show links all the above and much, much more in the description of this episode.

And a big thing in my coasts as well, Mr.

Grant and before I've said it once and now I've said it twice.

I appreciate you bro.

Likewise, buddy, you know I appreciate you.

Nobody.

I'd rather do it with and.

Look.

The we've said it many times, the UEFA Women's Champions League is a celebration of life.

Do we live in a dark timeline?

Of course we do.

Everything seems terrible around the world, but we're trying to find joy wherever we can.

And you guys help bring that joy with the knowledge, with the context, talking to us about the football, trying to find some kind of level of happiness.

In this silly game that we call football and we very much appreciate all of you.

So thank you for watching and we will see you all next time.