Does Declan Rice need help for England?

Listen to the audio version of the Totally Football Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or by following this link: https://theathletic.lnk.to/totallyYT

Jimbo is joined by Daniel Storey, Seb Stafford-Bloor and more in the midst of a historic international break.

Brazil break down England at Wembley with a first ever international goal for wonderkid, Endrick. Hear why the Three Lions need two defensive midfielders and why that’s not defensive.

Kristof Terreur gives us the lowdown on England’s next opponents Belgium. And Tom Williams feels that Wales are heading in the right direction ahead of their Euro 2024 play-off clash with Poland.

Plus, Germany raise many eyebrows by scoring against France after seven seconds, with Wirtz and Mittelstadt perhaps set to star this summer.

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:56 England v Brazil (Friendly)
00:04:13 What are England’s issues?
00:10:06 Positives takeaways for England
00:12:28 Kristof Terreur on Belgium
00:17:11 England v Belgium (Friendly)
00:21:22 Brazil’s performance against England
00:24:10 Copa America talk
00:24:30 Endrick’s transfer to Real Madrid
00:26:29 Euro 2024 play offs
00:26:57 Tom Williams on Wales
00:28:12 Wales v Finland (EURO Qualifiers)
00:30:33 Wales v Poland (EURO Qualifiers)
00:34:33 Ukraine Qualifying chances
00:37:04 Georgia v Greece (EURO Qualifiers)
00:39:03 Luxembourg in the play offs
00:40:50 Greece v Kazakhstan (EURO Qualifiers)
00:42:20 This weeks news
00:43:28 Chesterfield promoted to League 2
00:44:28 France v Germany (Friendly)
00:50:33 The two record breaking goals
00:53:09 Scotland v Netherlands (Friendly)
00:53:46 Stand out goals from the weekend
00:54:50 Portugal v Sweden (Friendly)
00:55:18 Final Comments

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#England #Brazil #Euro2024

Listener listener thank you so much for joining us today Sunday 24th of March as we record this slightly different show for you on account of a we’re not in the studio and B we’re just Daniel story and Seb staffa Blau hello to you both hi James hello

Jimbo hello I have to tell if I had to pick just two just two to carry us through an international break report stroke round up it would be Seb staffa blor and Daniel story that’s lucky but just to make sure we’re going to throw in a little bit of Tom Williams later on

And I think we might be getting a call from Kristoff Teru as well which is always fun meantime s let me ask you where have you been and what you’ve been up to since we last spoke I been mainly in Germany I’ve been watching most recently a little bit of International

Football I’ve been getting very invested in the in the coefficient Jimbo yeah generally I I didn’t see that in my future but actually I become kind of uh not sure there’s a sort of a noun for someone that’s interested in in coefficients well there but it might be

Quite un flattering there is there is one it’s a coeffic nice uh well yeah I mean I think it’s on everyone’s every right thinking person’s mind that’s not busily occupied with the little crosses on the backs of collars Daniel speaking of which you went to Wembley on

Saturday yeah two hours off flag chat it was nice to see some actual football uh not a brilliant game or brilliant result but there were things to think about you Paper Planes there were yeah there were certainly Paper Planes Mia’s Paper Planes yeah nice all right well we’ll talk

About that said we’re obviously going to get your thoughts on the extraordinary Germany France well France Germany uh result the other night as well and loads of other things as well including those Euro 2024 playoff finals which are coming up on Tuesday but let’s begin with events at Wembley 17-year-old substitute endri

Settling the game with 10 minutes to go because he is Real Madrid bound but in the meantime what a game for him what a game for who else Daniel story what kind of a game was it what a game for me yeah um it it was a it was an emphatic

International Friendly it it was slow paced to start with and it was broken up by mistakes and sort of flashes of Excellence I suppose um Brazil were really good in the counter and I think the kind of overarching theme of the game is that everybody got what they wanted they wanted Declan rice

As the only holding midfielder so two adventurous Central midfielders in in Jud Bellingham and Conor Gallagher the kind of Runner and this the baller uh and it turns out if you only play one defensive midfielder who also wants to Surge forward like he does for Arsenal

Then you leave a a slightly one paace Central defense open to counterattacks um I’ve long been a believer that playing two defense midfielders is not defensive if it allows everybody else to play without the fear and stay up front and kind of press high without worrying about not winning the ball and that

Basically seemed to be what happened um Bellingham and foden seemed to occupy probably the same position I think if anything it summed up just how important Harry Kane and Bayo Saka are both as a combination and and is very complimentary this is intended as but as Place fillers because Kane is

Is the man up front saaka is the man on the right England basically didn’t have a a right side attack as soon as Kyle Walker went off because they brought on a central Defender to fill in and foden and Bellingham didn’t really want to go there Gallagher tried we won quite a lot

Of free kicks there but nothing really happened from that side and it left Anthony Gordon to try and do all of that by himself which he wasn’t really able to do um I mean by the end England were pretty Ram shackle you know he had Joe

Gomez at left back EZ cono at right back he had minu making his debut it looked after about 75 minutes that England were quite happy for the game to ended at that point you mentioned having Dean rice as the sole defensive midfielder and what were the other questions or the

Other issues going into this game for England and to what extent have any of them been settled I don’t think any of them have been settled it was one of those kind of classic nights where the people who aren’t there um put forward their case more than the people who are I’m

Thinking of Luke Shaw over Ben CH at left back cuz he struggled uh I’m thinking of a another Central midfielder and it might work well be kobby minu if he starts against Belgium and does well Kane and sacka as I mentioned both both don’t need their reputations enhancing

But probably were by what they saw England have got a central Midfield issue um they’ve got a fullback problem which is mad because it’s only two years since we were all picking teams of 11 right backs that England could play and suddenly we’re a little bit unsure about

The balance there um and the questions about Central defense don’t really go away um this will sound absolutely mad as a as a setup but England played North Macedonia last year at home and they played a central Midfield of Trent Alexander Arnold Jordan Henderson and deham rice and before the game everyone

Went mad on Twitter as they’re prone to do because we’re playing three defensive midfielders against North Macedonia what we’re doing this is classic Southgate and what actually happened is the England won 7-0 because the fullbacks could get forward and stay high it was Walker and Shaw there who are our best

Was also North Macedonia it was but North Macedonia are are the point is that everyone says when England play weaker teams that’s when we should attack attack attack attack but you don’t in International Football you don’t just attack attack attack you have a game plan that protects the weakest

Part of your side which is Central defense with protection and you allow the strengths to be magnified by getting the fullbacks high allowing sacon foden to come in field get close to Kane let Bellingham have some space to roam and to do exactly what he does and to be

Fair did again on Saturday night he was England’s best player but it isn’t defensive if it allows everyone else to fly and we saw last night with just rice there he desperately wants to get on the ball and move forward when he gets it but when he does that he had periods of

Time when there was basically seven England players or six England players 40 yards from Brazil’s goal and then this massive Gap to Harry McGuire and Jon Stones who are you their Vibe is not defending with 40 yards of space in front of them Seb did you you see this

Game yeah I saw most of it Jimbo and I just want to pick up on something that Dan said actually because I think it’s a disease that is shared by International Teams across the world and that we get preoccupied with positions rather than roles with ins sides and so in England’s

Case we kind of look at the definition of those three players picked in Midfield and we don’t worry enough really about kind of what their function is within a team and to me that that eight role with England has been a problem for a really long time because

It’s kind of it’s between Dean rice and G Bellingham there exists this kind of Hinterland into which we just put a guy who is a sort of shuttler a jack full trades and it doesn’t ever feel like that role adds to the team composition um in a particularly compelling way I

Also at times I hate to say this I’m going to sound terribly negative it felt like I’d woken up 15 years ago just in terms of watching England struggle with bull reten mention and what they did with it it was like when you do you remember when when You’ watch England

Back in those you know back after the after the Millennium turn and you think they’re kind of they’re doing an impression of a side who’ve been told to keep the ball and who who understand that retention in International Football is really really important and when you

Compare it with a Brazil with a um a team who I don’t think Brazil the very best team in the world at the moment but there’s a kind of a a technical level which I think England don’t quite have in certain positions it’s quite unflattering and it alarmed me um and

Actually I think D hit the nail on the head it was a game in which you leared nothing in which you kind of felt better about nothing in which you kind of reaffirmed your understanding that Kane is the reference point for so much of that attack when nothing has really

Happened you need happening you need the momentum the little pulses of of influence that Bai Saka can provide and that defense is I I I don’t quite have the vocabulary for it because it it’s more it’s more a lack of trust you never really feel like you’re going to get

Through difficult times in a game where like you’re being examined defensively you never feel like that England defense is capable of surviving those periods without making mistake or without giving up a chance and that’s it’s quite concerning the positive spin on that and this is a a kind of if everybody’s fit

If everybody’s fit and Kobe Miner in presses against Belgium and he becomes the de facto Jordan Henderson replacement there is a situation where that Works in that stones and Walker really know each other Maguire and Shaw really know each other minu is also Manchester United and therefore takes the ball from

Them Dean rice has played a lot of caps now he knows that role I think there is a way that the two sides of that defense in possession are able to build you saw a little bit between stones and Walker last night that kind of pass pass pass

And suddenly it’s at De Rice’s feet in 20 yards of space it didn’t happen often enough but when players are absent and they’ve been very absent recently for England we we have as much as you can have an injury crisis in for an International Friendly England kind of

Had one in this break without sacker and Kane and with Shaw injured and with Walker going off there were there were just too many pieces missing after the first 20 minutes of the game for even at that point I kind of felt like this is

Going to be a long 70 minutes to try to work out what happens one positive that you mentioned in your piece for the eye Daniel is that much like classic England Brazil games of your you had technically gifted attacking midfielders being rough tows by the opposition only nowadays you know the

Roles are revers it’s the Brazilians doing it to us which is nice what what other uh glint of light could you see amongst of all this Anthony Gordon how did you feel about his performance yeah I think he played pretty well I I I don’t think he makes the starting team

In the Euros by any means because I think the way that foden and Bellingham tend to operate to in the same space um means that you probably have to have fod now on the left um as long as Shaw’s there to overlap he can then dip in

Field and then sacker on the right stretches the game wide what they were incapable of doing last night is stretching the game wide so they ended up trying to stretch it from Back to Front they tried to create the space in Midfield by having the separate parts of

The team a very long way away from each other when Zach is there and he stays wide England are really good at stretching the game wide and what you have then is Kane is that focal point like SE says in the middle and you have Bellingham P running in from deep and

Foden sort of operates in that slight position position position where he’s out on the left but he’s drifting in and and when it works and we play quickly it looks really really good and it’s looked really really good recently look we should say this is the first G England

Have lost since the World Cup in 2022 they’ve beaten Italy home away in that in that period of time they’ve looked really good for periods of time the problem is is that as we know with England when two steps forward is met by one step back the one step back tends to

Linger in the National Consciousness more than anything else does it really constitute a step back though if it’s just a friendly against Brazil uh I think it only I think it only does if if they lose to Belgium on Tuesday because I don’t I don’t think managers always

Talk about these periods of time as as like when you’re finding things out about players and that’s probably true in for example with Miner and Gordon but you also need to build up some momentum going into a national tournament England have been very very good under Southgate

At building that momentum in a group stage um certainly at the last World Cup certainly at World Cup 2018 less so in in Euro 2020 because they were sluggish in that group stage but then they kicked on in the in the Knockouts but look I I

Have no I don’t think last night has any bearing on the Euros in any way I think we are one of a number of teams that can win that tournament I think it will be incredibly fine margins there are doubts about England’s game management if they go ahead there are doubts about their

Ability to beat high class opponents but yeah Southgate for himself for his own mood I think could do with a a decent win on Tuesday night okay Belgium then Belgium on Tuesday night Belgium who haven’t been beaten in 11 matches and now under the tutelage of Dominico Tedesco of course are joining

Us to tell us a bit more than those bare facts kristofh Terr how are you I’m fing you yeah very well it’s been a stressful week we’ve been Fring over flags and being beaten by Brazil what what have you been worrying about in Belgium uh

Not a lot only uh it’s yeah it’s cycling week so in Bel so everybody’s worried about cycling not about those friendly games of football to be fair okay I was wondering about maybe the desecration of your National kit with that tin in homage where they got the color of the

Wrong yeah but it was weeks before so it was already leaked a few weeks ago so then the discussion was there a lot of people seem to seem to like it so I like it yeah although I do agree that they should have gone full kit and got the

Trousers in as well being tucked in above the socks and they should have should have hired Kevin De BR as the model for the kids so it would have been the complete the complete picture as he was compared to Tintin when he was younger when he still had another

Haircut not the one he has now so right Mario gz was always my kind of goto Tintin comparison but I take your point that works as well hey here’s something else you could be concerned about if it wasn’t for all the cycling the nil nil with the Republic of Ireland this

Weekend yes I I heard let’s sayto already make a mistake that a famous TV reporter made when he interviewed him a few weeks ago he called dominoes Roberto Tesco like you mix up the former manager with with the new manager so dominco said that he was waiting for the final whistle for 90

Minutes so that’s basically how everybody felt to watch that game it was just a very dull and slow game yeah with a with a team that has never play together so you with players that some of them don’t play a lot at their team so it was just a little experiment and

Uh I always see those stories five things you learned from from a game maybe they should have done five things you didn’t learn from this game because yeah there was not a a lot to learn about to be fair five things you could have been doing instead of watching this

Game it could have gone worse for Belgium though Republic of Alan with a penalty that was saved by not forest’s very own Matt cells but just going back to Belgium the wildly disappointing I think for many of the Belgian performance back at the the World Cup

And for those of us who haven’t really been keeping tabs on the side since then what kind of form is Belgium in with the euro in Prospect well we’ve been fine in the qualification but that that was something that was already happening under Roberto Martinez where we did were

The champions of of the qualification games we won all we always won every thing we draw we were always on beaten we’re still on beaten with Belgium I think in in the run of the Desco so uh yeah you don’t know where you are basically until you’ve met the big guns

At the tournament I think I think this team is is far younger now we’ve lost if I can count Toby Al the at the back we’ve lost tboa with a after a row with the with Tesco about the captain’s uh armband we lost Axel Vel we lost Eden h

So we lost a bit of yeah world class quality team we have some young guys but they’re not ready yet and it’s a bit of a chaotic team we can hurt a lot of teams because the attack is quite good if you have Jeremy Doo if you have R

Lucak in good form if you have Kevin Deana and that an unpredictable guy like bakayoko plays for PSV at the right or Leandro toar of Arsenal or L Bak of Seva you have lots of players that can create something but quite vulnerable at the

Back if y Bon at the age of 37 is still your best defender you might have a problem although Italians might say different because they became European Champions a few years ago with old players at the back so let’s see but yeah the level is a bit lower than it

Was before we are used to having like 18 players in the squad playing uh for yeah the top five in the Premier League uh five years ago six years ago at the World Cup now they most of them playing for relegation team so that’s the big difference I

Think all right some exciting names in there as you say what what do you think Tesco is looking looking to find out from this game against England well it might be the the first real test for for his side we played Germany uh a year ago um that was

Basically the best football we’ve seen from Belgium in a in a few years not anymore under Roberto Martinez since the World Cup it was fast it was yeah basically Furious game when in the first half hour we scored three times against Germany but then in the the games after

You find out that Germany wasn’t that good over the last year so yeah maybe it will be the first test for for this Belgian side see uh how stable our defens is against a yeah we we would sh call England a world class team they have far more Talent at the moment than

We have or uh so yeah there will be the test for the defense I think basically yeah we still have no Kevin De Brown in the sad he’s injured again so he hasn’t been there for a year now so yeah we don’t know where we are and Romo Lukaku

Our second big gun is not 100% fit I think he will play against England but yeah he’s struggling with a with a hip injury for weeks already so if you boat if you’re both top players I’m not there I’m not top fit yeah it’s just a friendly game

Where you can find out some things but we will only know how strong we are when uh when we play with Kevin debr I think okay the issues with Tia ctoa who who’s likely to be the goalkeeper for Belgium at the Euros then well it’s K castels of

Wolburg he he always used to be the yeah the better of Teo in the at at in the in the youth so uh he was a big Prospect when he was a kid but then he was always injured at a wrong time basically he got a finger injury then

Dean made his debut at the age of 16 he was uh when yeah one of the goalkeepers didn’t have his his license due to tr transfer issues uh in the preseason K Castel was injured DEA got his chance at the age of 18 and yeah since then he’s

Grown to to to be a top keeper and castels yes he’s hasn’t made the career everybody yeah expected of him he moved to hoffenheim in Germany did well over there and then moved to wolburg but wolburg is not the big big side anymore when yeah Kevin De BR was there when

They were still challenging for for trophies so he’s a good goalkeeper but he’s been injured for the last week so he has a shoulder injury so not sure it’s not sure if he plays against England otherwise if he won’t be playing against England it will be Nottingham’s

M Sals again so good at penalties we’ve seen so but kast stes will be normally number one we had a huge uh yeah discussion in Belgium few weeks ago and it’s see when milis filler of is Roma he he born in Belgium he has a double nationality Serbia he rejected a call up

For for Serbia and everybody thought oh M might join the Bel team we have a our successor for KRA but then it was not possible to change nationalities again for him uh at the age because he played an international game for for Serbia after the age of 22 and the rules have

Changed a few years ago so that’s a shame but yeah that says everything about the goalkeeper discussion everybody’s a bit doubting the goalkeepers at the moment is castes good enough to replace CA no maybe he will prove everybody wrong at at the Euros but we’ll have to see okay we will

Meanwhile Matt SS do you think on Tuesday Kristof thank you so much for that hope you enjoyed the Tuesday evening and I look forward to catching up with you ahead of the Euros this summer yes with Kevin the bradan hopefully otherwise we’ll go out in the first round or something Kristoff terer

On England’s next opponent let I say I I didn’t think England were that bad in the first half against Brazil and and it was Brazil and all that Daniel you were speaking to Natalie jedra postgame at Wembley what what did she think well yeah we we spoke more at half

Time when she would she was pretty worried about um I think three of Brazil’s back four had not played for their country before and so she was worried about England threatening that back four and was pleasantly surprised that that hadn’t really happened we should say if england have got an indu

Crisis and so do Brazil they’re basically missing their spine in terms of Neymar and C and Thiago Silva none of those three were there um and they they played pretty well I mean I think if Harry Kane had been playing England probably would have taken the lead

Before Brazil did um but endrick became the story which was really nice you know he he he is so small when he came on the pitch I know minu is small and that was vaguely amusing as well but he he’s the best way I can describe it is that

Hendrick’s shorts and the Brazil shorts are big and very very bright white his shorts look big biger than his shirt which is just a mad thing to see but yeah he took his goal really well uh the Brazil fans at that end of Wembley where he scored were really good all night

They went mad all night and yeah they kind of had their moment it was it was it was brilliant for him he’s obviously a superstar Talent he’s already got the move so we don’t even need to kind of talk about him and kind of remember the name I think everyone’s been doing that

Since he was about 12 um but yeah he he he took the goal really well and and his in his arrival into the game seemed to spark Brazil in a way that hadn’t really happened before they weren’t really in the game venius is kind of going through

This thing with Brazil where he’s kind of desperate to impress and it’s just he says it’s just not working I’m not I’ve played really badly for the national team I need to do better and he was almost trying to take that on himself last night I thought him and Lucas

Paketa were the the standout players paketa in the first half largely because he was seem to be trying to break DW Bellingham shins but also because he played a couple of beautiful passes he kind of does thing where he just turns and then passes straight away and

Surprises a defense he did that for for one chance that that set Brazil thrw on goal um yeah they were better than I thought they would be Brazil last night because it was it was such a changed team it was such a a young team in terms of international experience but you look

At that and Seb was talking earlier about like bra England lacking that eight like Brazil had Bruno and petto who are basically both exactly what England need in that role either of them be fine please because yeah they they have this way of dominating the ball and buying time for their teammates and

Picking the right decision every time that Connor Gallagher is game without the ball but doesn’t really do in the same way with it well Brazil of course have their own big summer tournament coming out it is the coper America which saw this weekend the last couple of Nations qualifying Canada managed to get

Past Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for their first ever copper America Costa Rica took the last place with a 3-1 win of a Honduras lovely stuff Tim vicory was tweeting that indri came out came off the field and uh cited Bobby Charlton in his reaction to scoring at

Wembley which is quite a thought given that he’s what 17 yeah he also um there’s quotes from him about Chelsea as well kind of very much talking up like English Premier League Heritage and big London clubs and I sort of thought I talk about a guy that’s running quick

Before he walks because he’s not even joined Real Madrid yet that’s the that’s the good stuff talking about a move before you’ve even gone to Real Madrid we’re supposedly he he could have gone to Chelsea not long ago um the buy Administration in its wisdom felt that was no way I think if

You are a young Brazilian player then Real Madrid just becomes your destination now because it’s socially it’s easier to make the adjustment and you have so many players who’ve kind of trod in that path before and overcome the expectation of moving to a club like that straight out of Brazil Venus is a

Great example like we we knew about venicius when I think when he was 15 years old and everybody heard about this guy guy who could never possibly be worth the money and it was one of those you know every now and again football has one of those moral panics over

Transfer fees for young players every now and again every every other week and Venus was a classic example so obviously their their scouting Network through Yang khalifat is is well known but you have a kind of community that you can step right into as a Brazilian player

And so you know to go there makes sense I mean I applaud him for looking that far down the line to kind of plotting where he goes next and you know maybe preemptive celebration of future teams you know not celebrating too much against Chelsea in the Champions League

Possibly but yeah it’s a it’s a kind of it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling situation though which um yeah it’s pretty handy when you’re dealing with that kind of talent indeed so very good uh look forward to seeing more from him England against uh England against Belgium on Tuesday also that night

There’s going to be the Euro 2024 playoff finals so let’s get on to them next Tuesday brings the three finals with three places up for grabs at this Summer’s Euro championships at 5:00 UK time there Georgia against Greece then you got Ukraine against Iceland and in Cardiff Wales against Poland joining us

Now from the principality Tom Williams hello James Williams the Thomas Williams the Thomas coming to you live from Sunny r on Sea on the uh the Glorious North Wales Coast oh magnificent all right Tom you also join us from a very happy place one game from another major Continental

Tournament yes indeed um yeah victory over Poland on Tuesday and Wales will be will be back at another major tournament and I think a feature of the last few years with the Welsh national team has has just been thinking that you know this is this is fun while it lasts it

Won’t last forever and I think if you go back to the world cup you know Wales obviously qualified first time since 1958 and all that but was so bad and I don’t think anyone um really enjoyed wales’s performances in Qatar I don’t think any Wales fans did and there was a real

Feeling of an end of an era you know Gareth Bale announces his retirement shortly afterwards Aaron Ramsey had quite a poor tournament Rob paig is kind of limping on in the in the Dugout and it it did feel like you know things had had reached um had reached a kind of end

Point and yet you know here we are 18 months on or or whatever it is and there’s there’s a freshness there’s a vibrancy and there’s there’s a you know a new group of players who are who are leading this team forward indeed well let’s talk about the game the other

Night still a little bit horse from the Finland encounter uh Wales powering pass thanks to Brennan Johnson and David Brooks niik Williams Daniel James and REE Ians of course as well yes yeah as someone on Twitter pointed out Wales are in very real danger of running out of Welsh actors to

Deliver rousing pre-match speeches I think one suggestion was that might have to start running through the cast of F and Sam uh but yes ree svens was uh was was on hands to to do the honors prior to the Finland game I must admit I was relatively optimistic prior to the

Finland game because I mean you know Finland hadn’t looked particularly brilliant in in qualifying I suppose you could probably say the same thing about Wales uh but you know Home Advantage once again uh fantastic atmosphere at Cardiff City Stadium dream start to the game David Brooks voling Wales ahead in

The third minute after Harry Wilson’s shot had been saved um and I think Wales generally controlled most of the game from that point on um you know got a second goal Nico Williams lovely free kick into the top right corner from Harry Wilson’s layoff uh and then Finland scored right on halftime you

Know worst possible time tea puki sneaks in and and Slots one past Danny Ward so there was a you know a degree of degree of nervousness during the halftime interval um but then you know Wales get a third goal through Brennan Johnson right at the start of the second half

And then you know from that point on it was very comfortable Dan James comes on runs through uh rounds the keeper to to score the fourth um and yeah pretty straightforward evening really and and you know obviously now uh the the terrain will become a little bit steeper

With with Poland uh coming to town but I think you know given given the the way that that Wales played Home Advantage again the fact that these players You know despite it being a very young Squad have got so much experience of these kinds of games you know I think there

There is a real there there’s there’s a real optimism uh you know going into this game again yeah well two years ago we were having this conversation prior to Ukraine know and that all went okay and through you went to the World Cup where in a group of England and Iran and

USA you took one point this time getting past Poland would earn you a place alongside Austria the Netherlands and France quite the prospect you do have to get past Poland who dating back to 2001 you’ve played them six times and you’ve lost all of them that’s probably why I don’t

Remember them I’ve I’ve probably made a you know a conscious or perhaps uh unconscious decision to to block out those memories why do you think this might be different because um just looking at the dates of those games and most of them were in the the

Dark days of the you know the pre the preg Gary speed uh Chris Coleman eras um did lose to them twice in the Nations League I know yeah no recollection those games whatsoever um I I think because you know there is there’s a new Dynamic

To this to this Wales team and and I you know there’s there’s a real sort of um you know consistency in continuity in terms of selection you know you look at the team that started against Finland on Thursday and on paper it was a very young team but you know Ethan amped was

Winning his 50th cap at the age of only 23 and that’s because you know these young players were blooded a long time ago and and you can go all the way back to the John toshak era um when you know players like Gareth Bale and and Aaron Ramsey were getting their first

Opportunities in in the first team Wales have given opportunities to young players as quickly as possible um you know cynic might suggest that it’s also to make make sure they don’t end up playing for England or someone else who they might be eligible for at International level but it means that

You know you you get these players many of whom are you know only playing championship football uh and many of whom are very young but have a huge weight of international experience behind them um and I think what has what has particularly changed for Wales in

The last few months you go back to last year some really disappointing results in qualifying you know losing at home to Armenia um and then this miraculous win over Croatia in October that just you know completely transform the qualifying campaign um but what has changed even

Since then is that almost all of wales’s most important players are now playing regular football a lot of them have had to drop down to the championship um you know in in search of football you look at the leads contingent you know Joe rhon Ethan ampadu Connor Roberts Daniel

James they’re all getting regular football David Brooks is getting regular football with Southampton Keith from Moore is getting regular football and banging the goals in with IP switch and um you know Aaron Ramsey didn’t feature against Finland he was on the bench he’s you know he’s he’s working his way back

After a knee injury but you don’t feel like Wales are a dependent on him in a way that they once were um you know obviously not dependent on Gareth Bale anymore either but there’s this this you know this this new this new group of players who who’ve come through and you

Know that they’re all playing regular football they’re pretty much all in decent form and and it gives you know Rob page a bit of a bit of a selection headache um uh you know when it comes to to sending his team out so yeah I I I

Feel like that there is even compared to you know the the positive results Wales had towards the back end of last year there’s there’s there’s even greater competition for places now um and the fact that no one’s really talking about whether or not Ramsey’s going to start against Poland shows the position of

Strength that Wales are in you know we played with a Midfield pairing of 23y old Ethan ampadu and 19yearold Jordan James against Finland and they were both absolutely brilliant um you know you’ve you’ve got Wilson you’ve got Johnson you’ve got um you know David books and

And and all the rest of them so yeah I mean it’s all very positive excellent Tom you’re going along to the game Tuesday yes I will be there uh on Tuesday in the Nan stand uh in what is what has become my habitual habitual spot very nice well best of luot I hope

It goes well for you and we’ll catch up with you soon yes well I think I’ll catch up with you on Thursday James so we’ll we’ll be able to post we’ll be able to post morm things in uh in in great detail very good news Tom uh enjoy Tuesday thanks

For being with us today all right also on Tuesday as mentioned you got Georgia against Greece and Ukraine versus Iceland which is taking place in RAV Poland what a turnaround for Ukraine in their semi-final against Bosnia heroina yeah late late late late late late goals and yeah I mean we had this

With with the World Cup playoffs when Wales played Ukraine there is obviously for very obvious non-sporting reasons there’s this sort of rush of Goodwill that Wales managed to trample all over and and kind of fair play to them but I think now Iceland kind of had their

Moment in 2016 I think pretty much everyone’s behind Ukraine getting to this Euros it would be a brilliant statement um and they look good at the moment they look kind of they the team that got dismantled by by England at Euro 20 20 is um seems to have had this

Sort of overhaul and yeah I don’t know if it’s if it’s driven by patriotic Pride I’m sure it is but there’s also a heck a lot of talent in that Ukraine team I really hope they make it because they will be when you see them attack

Then that there really is a lot of talent like I I know that we know Madrick obviously because of um the big transfers to Chelsea and do because of his season at Jona but Georgie sudakov behind them um like he’s uh you see the fees connected with him and I I I Sur

Play a couple of times in the Champions League um kak to play that played their games in in Hamburg this season for obvious reasons and if you can get that faring I mean it’s not a huge surprise I I right before you started recording they only lost Italy and England in

2023 and if you think back to that second leg playoff game against Italy in lusen really they should have had a penalty at the end of it and they were probably the better team throughout um they drew against Germany they beat North Macedonia in North Macedonia which

Is um which is no mean feet um they’re talented so there there there’s obviously a you know a story that everybody can get behind but you really wouldn’t want to face them at this stage of a qualification campaign Iceland have Albert Goodmanson meanwhile he might be command big

Transfer fees of his own this summer uh been a bit of a breakout start this season for genua and he continued that in their 4-1 win in their semi-final against Israel played in Budapest again for obvious reasons not hatrick anyway there you go that’s the game at 9 sorry 7:45 on Tuesday couple

Of hours before that Georgia face Greece a game which you’re quite invested in Daniel yeah I I spent some time with with a guy called David Webb who’s one of the assistant coaches for for Willie sagnol um the Georgia manager now and I mean the country in general is is really

Investing in football it’s use the Nations League um to not miraculous effect but certainly to fairly seismic effect they are now in league b which is England’s League they got promoted out of D and got promoted out of SE in both campaigns they won five and Drew one um

That League that they got just got promoted out they they dismantled Bulgaria for example who were not what they were but this idea that Europe’s minnows is beyond maybe two or three very obvious Nations now is is absolutely right Georgia are there to to make up the gap

I really hope they beat Greece because I’m in the nicest possible way I’m sick of watching Greece draw nil-nil major tournament matches live um and yeah I just think that there’s this yeah there’s this huge movement behind Georgian football at the moment not not obviously not least because of kavar

Donna but also because the squad is now filled with players who are at decent clubs at decent level and getting minutes at those clubs as well they they joint hosted the EUR European under 21 championships last summer they’ve you know they invested in stadiums for that

Um David web says that it’s not quite Premier League facilities but it’s it’s not far off it’s it the structure is there for Georgia to bridge the gap and something like the Nations League makes a huge difference because it will be years maybe even decades before they

Have a chance serious chance in regular qualifying but they’ve you know they’ve lost one Euro playoff final they’re desperate not to lose another they will be second favorites against Greece but they’re also at home which will make a fairly big difference in tobli at 60,000 th people it’s a mad atmosphere so yeah

I’d like them and Ukraine to win please I I felt terribly sorry for Luxembourg in that playoff Georgia played very well and they probably deserved it but Luxembourg a kind of I would even say sort of a mirror image of the journey that that Georgia had been on they were

They were ranked 195th so that’s kind of between countries like monserat and American Samoa American Samoa of 31 nil Fame and really um Georgia play well and they did deserve to win but really should have been down to 10 men in the first half in my opinion I thought that

Was pretty poorly afficiated uh they too have invested in young players they they’ve got a sort of a a campaign to gather all the best six seven year old players in the country in a kind of a central Academy system so they’re really trying to kind of move up the ladder and

They’re a great success story as well for them to to get so close to a to a a major competition and then to kind of be let down by officials is it’s got to be a pretty bitter pill to swallow um the gree thing I I was I was reading up on

This apparently Gus puet who first of all didn’t really know that Gus puet was coaching Greece uh his contract runs out in five days time did we know that good Lord I was not aware of that so this is kind of pretty pivotal for him and and

They haven’t they haven’t been I think they’ve been to one European Championship since they won it and that was back in they got to the quarterfinals in 2012 they’ve been to one World Cup the last World Cup they were at was 2014 so this would be a pretty big moment for

Them too and obviously uh it’s kind of further employment or bust for pu by all accounts so strange situation if you’ve got sort of four days left on the job before you uh you know either go to a European Championship or you find yourself somewhere else to to work well

I guess the timing makes sense from the point of view they might be out of contention for the Euros post Tuesday and therefore TR to tr to make that change by the way for all that nil nil Fame that Daniel was referencing 5 n their win against Kazakhstan last

Thursday they were 4-0 up at half time so maybe it’s Gus po it’s Kevin Keegan entertainers and I’ve got them all wrong all all the goals they scored barring the penalty were kind of the same they all came from the right side against Kazakhstan they all came from

Crosses not being cut out or not or space not being taken away so it wasn’t I think Kazakhstan would probably claim to be better than they showed uh but grips are pretty good they um they I just it if you schedule someone’s contract to uh to coincide with non- qualification

For a tournament isn’t that quite negative like well we won’t need to employ you beyond that CU you know there’s there’s no need it’s it doesn’t I don’t know does that fire you up well we’ll see if it works perhaps it does everything on the line I’ll remind you

Of of this gree loving horrible agenda yeah when when the group stage comes around and you’re all being sick cuz they’ve drawn nil nil with ch if they get through potentially in a group with turkey as well which would be pry Port turkey geopolitically as you say the

Most sensitive one there yeah remarkable stuff though from Georgia 10 years ago they were ranked 154th in the world directly behind Vietnam and Guyana and they’re now 9 minutes or perhaps a few more from reaching the European championships excellent full-time Europe the Athletics women’s football podcast

Will be out on Tuesday it was a big weekend in the WSL as you probably know derbies in Liverpool and Manchester where Man City women made it 11 WSL wins in a row with a 3-1 win over their United counterparts loads on that b in full-time Europe what else happened this

Weekend o Leicester city now officially charged by the Premier League with breaking spending rules during the last three seasons in the Top Flight foxes could now face a points deduction next season and they’re also subject of a separate Financial probe from the efl presumably what relating to their current activities in the championship

Is that right yeah and they they haven’t submitted their accounts I mean this is a very very simplified version of it but does sort of sound to the lay person like they’re saying to the Premier League well we’re in the FL and they’re saying to the FL well all those

Punishments were when from when we’re in the Premier League so ha Checkmate Checkmate indeed meanwhile on a happier note congratulations to Chesterfield who confirmed promotion from the national league back to the efl on Saturday by beating bornwood 3-0 that’s my little homage to Chesterfield manager Paul Cook he of the

Extraordinary uh octaval range in postgame interviews is this something you’d previously taken note of Seb Daniel the the kind of the the Jeff Buckley of non- leag football with his leap uh yeah well I I I I I I’m interested to hear an explanation for it more than anything

Else um Daniel I have no explanation other than it is magnificent I’m hoping I’m actually hoping to go and see chesfield this week all big so I mean that’s question number one if so well you you’ll have watched the postgame interview this Saturday and just to underline remarkable they they got

Promotion back to the efl on the 23rd of March that’s how much they’ve dominated the National League leag now other friendlies France faced Germany Saturday evening and Seb just when everyone else thought it was safe to go to a Euros in Germany the man shaft is back be very

Careful hey Jimbo the thing about this though is that and this really describes how fragile Germany is feeling about its football on Saturday evening everyone was very very happy best German forance they’ve seen in ages well done hul nasman let’s applaud the the the meritocracy involving all these stut

Guard players Tony Cru is back fantastic by Sunday morning the lead headline on builds was were we that good question mark or were France bad and so it had some of the optimism had been had been wound back just a little bit but hey they were excellent they really were

There were there were some flaws uh there were a few moments when kilan mbappe andman and B were a little bit menacing around the flanks against yosu kimick and Maxi mad but the roots of nal’s football were there the ball movement was very very good the front three in particular so

Nsman started with Kai HZ playing Asad of a I suppose You’ probably call it a false nine because he did a lot of drifting with floran vers and Jamal msala playing behind as a kind of a jeweling number 10 system worked fantastically well hav played beautifully dropping off the play

Passing the ball really nicely um vers to me is he’s at that stage of his career where people still don’t quite appreciate how good he is uh he’s been wrapped up in the lausin story he’s a kind of a a character within that tail rather than um you know a player in his

Own right he was fabulous against France scored an excellent goal um played with this kind of you know when players are able just to to speed up a game slurt down play their own speed make it look quite easy play on the transition do all

The things that you’d want to see in a nlman system and yeah they were excellent they they also um one of the the better stories from it was the the fullback Maxi mlad who is a beneficiary of what Stu God had been able to do this season under spaan Honus um he’ve been

Excellent but his journey over the past year has been amazing so go back to 2023 and he was part of a he B inside who were circling the drain and heading down the Bundesliga plug hole and no one saw him as anything other than a future Vier Bundesliga fullback summer so that when

He left herter in the summer it was for half a million euros came to stard with nobody really paying any attention and it’s been reinvented as this um he not a dynamic player he’s not a sort of a left-sided car Walker type he doesn’t have pace and to be fair that was

Something that demele exploited a little bit in the friendly uh in leyon but um can play internally can pass the ball can be part of the sort of the buildup phases that Germany have lacked in their their chance creation over the last few years because the big issu is affecting

German the German national team um under the umbrella of uh the German people being massively disinterested in it as it becomes less and less successful is Chance creation can’t score goals no number nine can’t defend uh also permanent crisis about whether Manel no or Mark Andre shagan should be should be

Playing goal right and for the first time really on Saturday night that story move forward you could envisage a situation where Germany don’t maybe win the European Championship but there are prob they’re not going to be a source of embarrassment in the kind of the in the sense that the Deutsche band doesn’t

Work and here’s another thing we’ve got to worry about cuz we might humiliate ourselves on on the world stage they were very very good and um they deserve all their praise uh all the praise they’re receiving and no France weren’t terrific France were you know what they

Are uh outside of tournaments but it was really really encouraging okay and it started early didn’t it 7 seconds into the game fla and B scoring and it this wasn’t an accident SE no accident jbo Jamal msala was talking to the media afterwards and he said that um one of

Their coaches who’s a a specialist in creating automatisms within within open Play had kind of put it to the players on Friday this is what we’re going to do from kickoff we’re going to get it to Tony Cru which pretty good starting point isn’t it one of the best passes in

World football uh he’s going to find Flo inverts and then it’s going to be kind of right Flo do your worst and that’s that’s how msala put it and it worked because it was it was the plan was pass to floring Woodson see if he can score a

Goal see if you can score a goal that that seem to be so you you could probably find more complex strategies but you can’t really argue with it that’s what specialists in creating autonism automatisms it’s like John McKenzie was here that’s what he would call it so I’m

Doing my best impression of him what does it mean it means you kind of within open Play you have set passages so you might have a situation where I don’t know for instance you’re trying to push a Winger into space or fall back into space so a ball might be planned to go

In into Midfield and then be swept out to the flank by uh like a an Andrea purlo type so they are little moments in the game which are kind of um like strategies that repeat and repeat so think of Antonio con’s football that’s a really good example sort of loads of

Circuits loads of the same thing happening again and again and again um and this was just one of those this was a kind of um we’re going to put vs into space we’re going to put him 25 30 yards away from go and we’re going to ask him

To do his worst and he did and um have to say like I I I I thought of Dan because Bryce sber played in goal for France and he was absolutely excellent he made three or four of the best saves I saw all weekend and um should have paid him

Done yeah the one that got I mean the good thing is is that Forest is very much doing this sort of panini sticker album with European goalkeepers now so we’ve already had him we we’re working through Belgium now with Matt sell and Greece as well back at C himos and yeah

Never mind The One That Got Away I I was about to say on on that early goal this is a bit of a hot takee but 152 years of international football for both the the fastest and the second fastest goals of all time in International Football to be

On the same day that’s like the most incredible Quirk of fate in football history surely it’s is is there something behind it or do you think it really is just an enormous coincidence the other goal that you referenced took place a couple of hours before the the

Vers goal and it was Kristoff bangard now for Austria scoring off to 6 seconds against Slovakia yeah I mean I suppose if you overanalyze it you’d say well if you’re a manager International manager you might say it’s a friendly they might switch off during the first six seconds

Not expecting something mad to happen um but and and I think you’d also say if you were being a a cynic and a Critic you’d say why are you using that up in a International Friendly save for the first group stage of the Euros um but I just yeah that’s the most astonishing

Fact I could think of I’m going to um I’m going to make a very tenuous leap which doesn’t bear any scru at all but um both teams one coached by hul nman the other coached by Ral ranik both High Priests of vertical transition football I don’t think that stands up to any sort

Of analysis but it kind of it it adds into the kind of coincidence right I can’t imagine two more managers in the world who would be more pleased with that coming off than the to rik’s effect on Austra is is amazing I um I did a bit of work a couple of

Months ago and obviously like obviously sort of he’s a beneficiary of having a lot of players whove either played within the Red Bull system or have been exposed to tenants of Red Bull football but like socially if you look at kind of the attendance of national team games

It’s gone through the roof um wasn’t so long ago that that big sinkhole uh appeared within the the Austrian National Stadium um during the international break which is kind of a handy metaphor for where they are under Franco fodo so you you’ve changed from being this a team which had attacking

Players but preferred to play a counterattacking carrying very very conservative style of play to something much more modern and recognizable and something which also I suppose if you were Austrian would inspire a little bit more of an emotional response from you if you’re watching it good for Jim

Radcliffe to watch the euros and pick between Southgate and rangnick as his next Manchester United manager went it it’s a good idea Daniel Germany meanwhile are going to be hosting the Netherlands on Tuesday which is another big fixture see what the headlines are like after that one Seb the Dutch who of

Course saw of Scotland Friday night 4 nil although that score line the Scotland were better a little bit and this was a if you were to imagine a Ronald kumman coach team with a lot of talent playing beneath themselves this is what that game looks like cuz they they really weren’t that

Good they awful lot of very very talented players in that group but um I I’ve never been particularly raptured by what they’ve done under kumin um but I thought Scotland deserved a little bit better than a 4-nil thumping um they played better than that well it was a

Wonderful goal from Rangers though sure was sure was yeah in terms of wonderful goals you’ll also no doubt have seen uh Daniel Munos for Columbia against Spain in a game that weirdly took place at the London Stadium in in East London and did you catch the Daman goal for malova

Against North Macedonia no sir or do North Macedonia one mova one and vital Daman with the standout goal I would say of the of the weekend can you describe it can you no you know what as I was saying I I can’t actually remember what this looks like just that it was amazing

So good I think it’s really really really curling but there were a lot of goals by players that wasn’t 100% familiar with in games which I’m not sure that I’ve fully filed properly in my head it’s one of those I’m going to check it out goal was lovely behind you

Saw kind of Colombians fans so the goal itself was was fantastic of course but the kind of the response to it was not very friendly like which is exactly what you want to see right and it was um yeah it was impassioned was excellent one other thing we should mention Portugal

If they’re on your radar as potential threats this summer in Germany they took on swed this weekend they beat them 52 they won all of their last 11 matches under Roberto martiners so yeah keep an eye on them magnificent that’s the international break so far obvious Tuesday’s going to see some mighty games

And we will be catching up on the results of those in Thursday’s show so do hope you’ll be returning for that listener many thanks in the meantime to Daniel and Seb Kristoff and Tom and producer Charlie for making today possible hope you have a splendid rest of your weekend stroke start of your

Week and we’ll catch up with you Thursday the to football show podcast is available three times a week bringing you all the football news you could reasonably be expected to care about we’ve got views we’ve got stats we’ve got analysis we’ve got some of the best football writers around and the whole

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