Football Daily - Euro Leagues: Italy World Cup fallout & Bosnia delight

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Alistair Bruce-Ball is joined by Guillem Balague, Rafa Honigstein and Mina Rzouki who discuss the fallout after Italy fail to qualify for a third World Cup in a row. Mina gives an insight into why it's not happening for Italy and an issue with developing players in Italy and the type of players they want.  Asmir Begovic, who played for Bosnia in their last and only World Cup in 2014 joins the pod and explains why a smaller nation was able to play with less pressure and how that worked in Bosnia's favour. Commentator for TVP sport Maciej Iwanski talks Poland as they fail to qualify for a major tournament for the first time since 2016 and have we seen the last of Robert Lewandowski in a Poland shirt? TIME CODES: 01:22 - Will the World Cup miss Italy?  06:00 - Italian fallout 15:15 - Transition & development issue? 19:15 - Fabio Capello the problem?  23:54 - Bosnia & Asmir Begovic 31:09 - The lack of pressure helped Bosnia? 34:23 - Commentator for TVP sport Maciej Iwanski on Poland5 Live Commentaries this week: Saturday 4th April – 5:15pm – Men’s FA Cup Quarter Finals – Chelsea v Port Vale Saturday 4th April – 8pm – Men’s FA Cup Quarter Finals – Southampton v Arsenal Sunday 5th April – 1pm – Women’s FA Cup Quarter Finals – Arsenal v Brighton Sunday 5th April – 4:30pm - Men’s FA Cup Quarter Finals – West Ham v Leeds

On the Football Daily podcast, the Euroleagues, with Alastair Bruce Ball. Welcome to EuroLeaks. With me this evening, I have Guillem Ballagay, Raffa Honigstein, and the one panelist probably not massively looking forward to the next hour, Mina Rizuki, and that is because, I mean, I don't even need to say it to our, you know, our EuroLeaks audience, very, very sadly. Italy, third World Cup finals in a row, they are not going to. going to be there. How have you coped?

You know, when we signed on to Zoom, Raff just kept doing one, two, three with his hands. Oh, Rath. And I didn't understand it for a while until I got it. So needless to say, it seems to be a lot of fun for everybody else. But can I say that I'm not that surprised? Not surprised. No, okay. It's not fun.

It's sad. Yeah. I was very sad. It was not the same. I woke up with Ority. I mean, I don't know. Now we're getting used to it. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, seriously, Gia, a lot of people would say that, but do you feel the occasion really misses something without the four times champions? Absolutely. Capable of winning

when you don't expect it with big personalities, a lot of passion, and a country that leaves and dies for football. Now there is a generation of kids and teenagers that have never seen Italy in the World Cup. Sorry, I'm not laughing.

I'm not really laughing because it's sad. It really is just terrible. And I miss our mental blockage historically was with Italy. We broke it, but still see this as our real Derby. Not France, not England, even though these are the teams that we meet in lately. But Italy, that's the big game for us. Raffa, this has never happened to Germany. it, never failed to qualify.

I know they've not been at a couple of tournaments, but have never failed to qualify for a world cut. I know, sorry. I know, I know. I prepared a song for Mina. If Raff's allowed the opportunity to bully me, I am telling you he will take and grab that opportunity

and just run with it for the next hour. Deary me, Raff. Mina said she wasn't surprised, Raff. We'll go into it in detail in a second. you surprised? A little bit. I mean, I saw Bosnia in their group doing really well. Austria needed a really late goal to equalize.

Bosnia nearly qualified as the winners in that group. And especially at home, they're incredibly difficult to play against. And it wasn't a surprise in this much that Bosnia were the better side. You know, this was not a fluke result where you have one big team battering the other team and suddenly there's this weird football moments where they can see the goal. And Bosnia had 30 shots on goal, 30, 3-0. Yes, of course, Italy had one man down, but still, that was a really strong performance. And Italy, I mean, where do you start?

They should never be in that position to begin with. They shouldn't be in playoffs. They shouldn't be in a situation where they haven't even gone beyond a group stage since 2006. I mean, Giam says it's not the same, but even when they're in the World Cup, they're not really in the World Cup. Well, they got knocked out in the group stage the last two times. Last team they beat, Raffa, I think,

was England in 2014 in a group game but didn't make the knockout stages. Last knockout game they won was the World Cup final in 2006. So, and I say that as a, despite all the bent and all that, I said it as an Italophile. I mean, I love Italy as a country. Of course, I love Italian football.

As most Europeans do, But at the same time, it's not really a tragedy because they've worked so hard to be in that position. Or maybe I should say they've worked so little to be in that position. It's been coming. And it's been a problem for many, many years. And every time, I think, I remember this conversation. I'm not sure if it was Nino, James Horncastle, four years ago, I said, you know, when will they change? Will, is this now a time to wake up?

And there's always, no, this was just, you know, this was just an unhappy set of circumstances. we just got a little bit unlucky and we had a few injuries and we didn't quite perform. And it doesn't seem to be that kind of awakening and real reckoning going on. And I hope that it will because it just cannot go on for another or 12 years. We will do the other big stories from the World Cup playoffs. We've got the full line up of countries now. So just before we dig deep into Italy here, the six teams who've booked their spots in the 48 team tournament this week. Bosnia and Herzegovina beating Italy on penalties.

Czechia did the same against Denmark, beat them on penalties. Turkey ending Kosovo's dream of a first World Cup. And Turkey are back for the first time at a World Cup since reaching the semi-finals in 2002. We'll chat a little bit about Graham Potter Sweden, who beat Poland 3-2. So Sweden qualified, despite not winning a single game in their qualifying group,

they got the playoff place thanks to their performance in the most recent edition of the Nations League. and then there were the intercontinental playoffs as well. So DR Congo qualified for the first time as DR Congo. They played at the 1974 World Cup as Zaire. They beat Jamaica in Guadalajara this week. And Iraq are also through their first World Cup since 1986. They beat Bolivia to qualify.

So as we've just been discussing 20 years ago, Italy were winning their fourth World Cup title. But after that defeat on penalties to Bosnia on Tuesday night, and we'll hear from Asmere Begovic shortly. Italy, Mina, sadly, will be watching from home for the third World Cup in a row. In terms of the fallout then, Mina, let's deal with some of today's news, in fact. The president of the Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, has resigned. He'd been in that role since 2018, and Jan Luigi Buffon has also resigned from his role

as head of delegation for the Italian national team. So was that inevitable, and will it make any difference? Yes, it should make a difference and it is inevitable because I don't know how you can stay in power as the head of the Italian Football Federation when you have overseen two of the biggest failures in Italy not qualifying in the last World Cup. I mean, he wasn't there for the first biggest failure, which was called the apocalypse. I mean, I don't know where we are now if that was the apocalypse. And he's overseen the last two. I mean, one thing you can say is he was at least there when Italy won the euros. And as for Gianluigi Buffon, I think a lot of the times him, Bonucci, his decision,

it was largely his decision, Buffons, to bring in Gennaro Gato Cato. It was almost like trying to tug at our heartstrings. You know, these were some of your great champions, the Italian national team, but how much and how experienced are they to really take on those roles and be in charge of this team at the very top level, making these decisions? So, yeah, I do think it's inevitable. Will it change much? No, because they're not the problems.

Gravina, I would say, is a massive problem. But the problems are deeper than that. There is a rot at the moment in Italian football. The last time I was on this show, in fact, we were talking about the collapse of Seria because we were discussing how Inter and Juventus had exited in the last 16 of the Champions League, sorry, rather in the playoffs.

And I defended Seria. I defended SETIA because of the fact that I thought they've been overachieving, considering their revenues, how far that they had managed to come, whether it became the Europa League or whether it's a champion. It's an entirely different story for the national team. We're talking about four-time world champions, level only with Germany and Europe and obviously just behind Brazil. This is a side that was famed for their ability to never feel pressure at the highest level.

I mean, Andrea Pelo famously said that they were just hanging around and playing PlayStation before that final in 2006 when they won the World Curve. This was a team that was just up to its eyeballs with talent, especially in 2002. And now when we're saying big characters, oh, you know, Guillem said it's always nice because Italians always have, you know, you think of big characters, Jojo Killini, right? Bonucci.

Do they exist anymore? Who are the big characters within this current side right now? And if we're looking even at experience, right, you're thinking of Tonali, you're thinking of Bastoni, the best centre back at the moment who made that fatal error and and here's the thing how do you look at all of this because you can say in many ways just it is sometimes just delicate things like what if what if west don't get sent off what if moisekien converted his opportunity and made it to know what if they were facing a great Norway side when like sweden i mean they are in the

world cup and they didn't have that maybe what we're supposed to do is be relegated to in the the Nations League Group C, right? So there are different things that I look at and I think to myself, you know, it was what, I don't even remember the amount of shots at the time against against North Macedonia. It was 32 shots, 32 shots against Macedonia,

16 corners in every statistical measure of that game, Italy had the upper hand and they lost. And you can tell yourself it was cool. But even looking to that, they shouldn't have reached the playoffs because Georgia Jr. had missed a thousand, penalties. So should they have found themselves there? Even if they won North Macedonia, they would have had to face Portugal. So it's one of those where, but you know, there's no stadiums.

There's everyone isn't trying to keep power. It's so corrupt at that top level. I honestly, I need an hour to go through each one. Guillem, where do they start then? Do you think where do they start here? It's a, it's a, that failure, because it can only be called a failure, is a monster of many heads. is a tree with many branches and we've touched on some of them so you hear the likes of Cés Fabregas and many others

but Cess recently saying that he will prefer to have Italian talent in this court but he's been looking for it and so has the club and he kind of find it, youth talent well that's that's dangerous when you kind of find that talent but you can also

talk about the fact that the shadow of the past and we already mentioned some of those big monster in the past that were helping Italy win. They're not there, and the shadow is far too big, and perhaps they're trying to do things maybe the same way. Looking for, as Capello, when Capello talks and everybody listens, so many listen, he starts talking about,

we don't defend like in the past, we don't have the personalities of the past. Perhaps the past should be forgotten and just kick forward to a different direction. But warnings have been there since Roberto Vaggio was, what was you like, the technical director of the Federation? in 2013 when he said that I haven't been allowed to work, he said.

My 900-page program has remained a debt letter. 10 million euros had been allocated to help me, and I haven't received a send yet, and I'm hearing and suffering the consequences. So you're talking about somebody that's perhaps trying to change, and there's a whole structure of failure that means that you cannot fail unless you decapitate some of the people in charge.

Yeah. Can they look outside of Italy, do you think, Raffer, would they want to? to learn lessons from elsewhere to try and improve. You know, other nations who've been at rock bottom and sort of pick themselves up, or is it so, you know, is Italy such an individual sort of unique football nation?

That won't happen, do you think? I'm in two minds about this. I think on the one hand, when you have a country, the size, the history of Italy, it would almost be a sense of capitulation if now they said, okay, we have no, not enough know-how we need to go and import it. I mean, England has done it,

and I'm not sure it says much for English coaching that they had to go down that route, as much as I think Tockel is a brilliant manager. I don't think Italy will do it, but looking at the list of names being mentioned, it also doesn't inspire me with a lot of confidence that things change, because the same names, I don't know,

maybe there are names that haven't emerged yet. I mean, but if I see, you know, again, Mancini, Allegri, all these guys, I mean, sounds to me like just, I haven't seen his name being mentioned. That would make for a change. That would make for a big change in style of football. But can he play, can I theoretical Pep Guardiola as Italy manager? Can he play Pep Guardiola football with the kind of player that Italy producers? When was the last time we have seen a job?

genuine word class, word class, attacking number 10, attacking winger, center forward even, of the likes that would walk into a Real Madrid team, a Barcelona team, a top English side. These players, they're not there.

Or if they are there, they're not being developed and they're not being given a chance to progress and to grow into the kind of players that they can be. But the players are not there. as far as I can see. Can I push back on some things? You know, when we talk about the youth and Fabregas says that he can't find them.

So Como has come under fire recently because from all the Italian football teams, they've given Italian football as the least amount of minutes. So all in all this season, they have played, an Italian football without that team has played one minute.

One minute is all an Italian player has played within Como. And so it's not that he can't find any because Italy in 2024 won the under 17 European Championship. They won the Under 17 World Cup. Sorry, the third place in 2025. The under 19 European Championship won in 2023 was Italy. Under 20 World Cup, runners up in 2023. The talent is there.

And I think that Baggio had some great ideas about it. The problem you have is after that, Nobody takes that forward. They don't transition from that level. Now, I'm not saying to you that the Italian is not there. I think it is. I think it's not being developed correctly. I think that it's become a system that is too tactical.

I think that if you bring Pequodolo, you are going to kill Fabio Capello because he thinks he's just the evil of everything in football. I think it's quite hilarious, to be honest with you. I think one of the major problems that you've got right now is Italian football has become really sensitive to physicality. Sorry, you want a minute. Keep going. Sorry, go on. Is that right now, if it's a great young player in Raff is right, a track artiste, you know, a fantasy player, if you like.

And I think this is the problem across football. That is sort of being ironed out right now because of tactical football. Do France really exploit the strengths of their squad? Do you think that you're watching an Arsenal side that play and exploit the creativity or are they more just a hardened team? How much are we actually now within the tactical? set up of our football, are we actually allowing players to show off and their technique at all times in the way that we're not being. I completely disagree.

I think we have an unbelievable number of creative players in the modern game right now, whether that's La Minia Mall or Michael Orly Se or Cole Palmer or all the French players you can think of, or half the Spanish I have mentioned, is full of amazing individualists. Are we playing really big? That's a different question. That's a different question because you have Deschamps as a manager who likes to play in a different way. But Barcelona play pretty exciting football. By Munich play pretty exciting football.

Manchester City play pretty exciting football. You have unbelievable players like Doku, like Dio Monday. I mean, there's dribblers everywhere. You shake a tree and dribblers falling out of it. This idea that football has become static and pragmatic and there's no individualist anymore. First of all, people used to say that in the 1930s, 100 years ago. This is just an old complaint. And it's just not true.

It's just not true. But what is true is that Italy doesn't have these players. None of the players that we've mentioned just now is Italian. And there's a reason for this. You're right. And actually there was a report that was done at the time by the C's Observatory, Football Observatory, Democratic Study. I was looking at the fact that from January 22nd, it was 2022 that they did this report, that Seria gave homegrown players just 7.4% of total playing time, which was the lowest among the top five leagues.

And when you look at Argentina, they give their home players 30% in the same period. So 30% of their own youth products are playing minutes. Then if you look further and you look at the leagues, 27 leagues from in their report in 2023, across 27 leagues, they found Italian players made the lowest proportion of forward runs of any league in possession. So this is a generation that is being built right now to destroy football more than actually created. So I agree with your point that Italy is not actually creating, if you like. But I personally don't think that a lot of teams are necessarily playing beautiful, attacking football, or exploiting the magnificence of their technical players.

I don't, I even think right now, even if we look at Manchester City, I would argue that they are relying on a lot of tall and bigger physical players. This is one of the issues that we have in Italy in the sense that, I'm sorry, I know, Guillaume, you're dying to say something, but just let me finish this point because, yeah, but one of the issues that we have is that one of, like, Spain understood at the time that they had a physical limitation, that they were smaller players, that they were technical players, and they played on that. They created it, they ensured that they had the infrastructure to allow those players to develop. Italy right now is dismissing shorter players and smaller players and nimble players and they are choosing the big big guy at the top. You know, you're Lorenzo Lucrez. And I think that that focus on physicality is also another problem. So I don't at all want to diminish Italian.

I absolutely think Italy is leading that and they are not creating creative players. And that's why, Mina, I've got it. Fabio Capello is the reason why you're failing big time. What does Fabio Cabello represents winning at any cost? Style doesn't matter. You're not building anything. You have to win now. So you don't look after the young players because you think it's a waste of time.

You have to win now. They're not prepared to be to jump into the defining players of a nation side or of a team. He defends that physicality that you're talking about as well and does not like where football is going, which is. position of football, players developed through the intelligence, not just the physique. It defends a lot of things that really doesn't help by him being perhaps one of the biggest voices of Italian football doesn't help Italian football. And the thing to go in favor of Pep Wardiola or whoever, it has to be somebody of a strong

personality that proposes things differently with players that perhaps have been brought up with that style, with that way of, with that methodology of being intelligent first. that peboradio methodology if you like to have somebody like that is that it will mean that we'll have enough authority to build something there's nothing being built and what are the national sides doing that are the successful ones it's called scloni has got a way of doing it but he's been there for a long time the shams louis de la fuente and before him a way of doing with the federation there's no plan to build anything in italy you go from one to the other without really relation That's entirely true, but I would argue that with Capello and not that, you know, at the end of the day, I think that he turned a lot of players into monsters, starting with Zlatan Ibrahimovich, you know, teaching him, nurturing him into being the champion that he became.

And much of like that has been, he's been lauded for creating that champion mentality. But I don't think that Capello, listen, I disagree with a lot of the points that he makes, especially when it comes to Pep Guardiola. But what I would say is that what he is trying to say is let's not try. to import different ideas from different countries and actually focusing on actually looking what we are creating and develop around that. So who do we have right now? How can we go back to the things that made Italy famous? What is the things that, you know, whether it be great defending, let's get back to great

defending. I think Capello being somebody who focuses on the results, that's an Italy issue. Every single coach there from Max Elegri to Antonio Conte focuses on results. focuses on their ego. Conte would rather be known as the guy who revolutionizes Manchester United players than to give Lorenzo Luca a chance up top. So I think that is the issue that we've got

is big egos and people not wanting to lose power and wanting to win. On the Football Daily podcast, the Euroleagues with Alistair Bruce Ball. Teams. New rules. Burns. We race live on BBC Sounds.

It's all right to the lights. Hand to the floor. On five live spots. On the Football Daily podcast, the Euroleagues with Alistair Bruce Ball. Let's move it on from Italy then. Let's talk about the winners of the tie. Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They have qualified for just their second World Cup, so their first since 2014. We can actually bring in the man who played in goal for his country at that World Cup. Asmere Begovich. Azmir, thank you very much for joining us on the show. If you can put it into words, can you explain, describe what it means for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be there again?

Well, good evening, everyone. Thanks for having me on the show. And it's been one heck of a week, absolutely. I think for all Bosnians, a very unexpected qualification for a major tournament. I think in terms of the rebuild and what's happened in the Federation and Bosnia football over the last few years, people were more looking towards the next European championship, so to be in this World Cup is incredibly unexpected,

but a very, very pleasant surprise. We've had a lot of bad luck in playoffs. Many times, I think we've been undone five times, when I was there, four or five times at least. So it was nice to have a bit of good fortune on our side, and it means everything to our people. We're going to be one of the smallest nations at a World Cup. And, yeah, just incredible to see so many happy people

on the streets of Sarajevo on Tuesday night celebrating the team and celebrating such a successful story. Yeah, and we saw Ed Injeco on Instagram, posting images of himself singing in a bar. Which is great, yeah. I remember 12 years ago having the same similar celebrations, so nothing's changed, which is great. I don't think he'll be available for this weekend,

but hey-ho, I think he had a great night on Tuesday night. Asmir, who, by the way, I can say publicly is one of the nicest people in the world. Oh, Guy have a pleasure to say it publicly, but he knows. I admire a lot of what he does. I was recently in Sarajevo, and there is such a pride for the country. There is such a sense that everybody is building something, be it in football or outside football, where there is a push towards the collective and where the ego disappears.

There is such a pride in telling you, you know, how. Bosnian people want to succeed but want to do it the right way there's so many also children of the diaspora children of war migrants who obviously this is again not just in football but universities everywhere who learned the craft in top tier

Western European academies or universities bringing high level technical training and perhaps a different way of playing that the national side has benefited from. So is that part of the essence of what's happening when you go back and help your team win? Yeah, for sure. I mean, we have an incredible, incredibly passionate

country and people who are very proud of their country. We've been through a lot, an incredibly turbulent history for the people there. And I think everyone who's come through it on the other side and trying to rebuild the country is very passionate for it and wants to succeed and do great. And I think the qualification 12 years ago was definitely the highlights ever since the country became independent. And now this is the next one. And I think the passion that people have, you know, the kids love football, they love sport, they can't get enough. And I really hope that for all the turbulent years over the last few years and a lot of corruption that gets in the way of opening up opportunities for next generation, I really hope a triumph like this and the rewards of this kind of an achievement. achievement will really be reinvested into our country and into our next generation because we've

had so many kids and people who've had to leave the country to pursue opportunities outside of Bosnia, whereas I really hope that now we can we can do better and reinvest us into the country and give those kids the opportunities. Teams need great leaders, Asmear. Can you tell me a bit about the manager Sergei Barberes? Because as I understand, this is his first coaching job. He's always wanted to do it, didn't get it initially, went off and played poker, I think, for a living on the European poker tour. I mean, had a great career as a player, particularly in the Bundesliga. Actually, watched him on the touchline in Cardiff in the playoff semi-final, and actually he's quite just visually striking as an individual as well.

He really is. So if you look at Sergabarabariz, maybe, you know, on top of Ed and Jekko and a couple of others, really the figurehead for our national team, one of the heroes for us, younger players growing up and someone who flew the flag ever since independence, played for the nationally was one of the first captains and really led the line for our country and the rebuild. So he was in for the manager's job a couple of times. Things outside of football got in the way, which weren't his fault and leadership was, we're not keen to give him that opportunity. So I think it was rock bottom for Bosnia football two or three years ago really was if you look at the world ranking the results the change of managers absolutely no vision and I think the president

maybe in a bit of desperation to keep his seat and keep his position went to Sergai barbraise and gave him the job and what he did was give him full control of this rebuild even though he didn't have coaching experience what he did have was the pull of the people so he had the people and really the the power of the population on his side to try and make a change and improve things He's made a few changes. He's tried a lot of new things. It wasn't easy at first. But he's come through it on the other side and really qualify for a tournament. Nobody expect them to qualify. But that's the power, having a level of togetherness, bringing people together, pushing in one direction.

Hi, Osmea. How important do you think it was that Bosnia did have these very extraordinarily hard games in the Nations League playing the Netherlands, playing Germany, and being able to... I mean, that was something that the coach cited as being helped. helpful into building this. And I mean, as far as I know, he was tasked with trying to get Bosnia to the 2020-Eur's and now he's managed to get them to the World Cup. So it's almost like you're ahead of schedule. Very much out of schedule.

I think there was this talk of a four-year plan when he took over to look ahead of those euros and bring in some new talent. Also alongside him, they put in the director of Amir Spahitch who was captain for many years and also legend of Bosnian football to try and find this talent all over the world. that maybe fled during the war and part of this new generation with their parents living outside of Bosnia. So trying to bring those roots back home. And they've done that with the likes of Vennesmere Barak Tarievich, who's come in and scored the winning penalty the other night, Keremalabegovic, who's doing well at Salzburg and being bought by Leverkus.

And these kids are 18 and 21 years old. So they're trying to bring fresh talent through, which has been key. And then a couple of things have turned our way. Those games at the beginning for Sergei Barbaris, very difficult. And in past times, maybe he wouldn't have seen it through that first year in charge. But actually, no, they've given him time and given him time to rebuild the squad through those difficult times and come out on the other side in a better way. And he's done a really great job in putting this young group together. We had a very good group, and a lot of people thought we missed our chance

by not going through with the group that we had in qualification. So to come through this playoff in two very, very difficult games has been required. remarkable. I just want to ask me if you who have been at all kinds of levels of pressure, if we touch on something when we say you draw against Netherlands and the reaction is positive and even Zekko saying, you know, this is great, we're going to learn from this, while the expectations of an England or an Italy means that at least you have to qualify in the World Cup and once you are in the World Cup you have to do really, really well and that pressure may may stop people

themselves being creative while the lack of pressure at Bosnia allows you to grow and to develop as you're describing and also you've got nothing to lose do you think that that does make a difference I think it makes a massive difference you know I came through probably

a golden generation once you then achieve a big result like Qualifying World Cup people expect the expectation goes through the roof and then people are expecting it to be a major tournament at all times even though we're still one of the smallest countries were very small and lack of support through the infrastructure. So it probably wasn't realistic to qualify for every tournament,

but that's what happens. And then you go down, like I said, a couple of years ago, being at Rock Bottom, not being anywhere near it, losing to the likes of Luxembourg and Armenia, which was unheard of for us for many, many years. Now to be going to this tournament is a huge turnaround. Yes, you're right. We played with a bit of house money.

There's no getting away from it. The idea was to try and really qualify for the Euros, to be in this position and playing these games against the Giants of football, I mean, you look at this Italy squad, they're worth five or six times more than the Bosnian team. You know, we really didn't have any right in winning that game. But when you have a group of that's together, that's fighting for one another, with a bit of luck, you know, crazy things can happen. Asmir, thank you very much indeed for joining us on Euroleagues tonight.

Congratulations to Bosnia and Herzegovina. And good luck to them in the tournament. Five Live will be there this summer. Bosnia and Herzegovina going into Group B with Kempi, with Canada, Qatar and Switzerland. Ian Balaget and Mina Razuki, both here on the Euroleagues. Well, let's look at it from Poland's point of view. So Sweden will be at the World Cup this summer,

beat Poland 3-2 in that playoff final. Sweden going to Group F with Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia. It means Poland failed to qualify for a major tournament for the first time since the 2014 World Cup. We can bring in football commentator for TVP sport, Machi Ivansky. Matchy, you know, we're just talking about the qualification process there and how Sweden got to that playoff and how Poland got to that playoff.

Does it feel a little sore that? Good evening. Nice to be on your show, first of all. Yes, of course, it is a tough moment for Polish national team, for the fans, for all of the country, because we got used to playing in a major tournament. As you said, since 2014, we've been all the time at Euro or at the World Cup. not having a major success because the best the far as that we've got was 2016 with Adam Navalca as the head coach at Euro it was the quarterfinal but at least we've been there and that

was important so of course it's painful but first time ever in my life and I was born in 1979 I witnessed something very strange Poland not qualifying for the World Cup and no drama in the country you don't have journalists you don't have fans you don't have people, you don't have ex-players talking about getting new coach, sucking half of the team, all the drama that we now discuss about concerning

Italy, which I also heard earlier on your show. So, it's peaceful here, it's quiet and not, of course, nobody is happy, but we understand that we are in the middle of a process when we have a new coach, Jan Urban, who took over the team

only last year, and we started from the very tough situation in the qualifiers. Yeah, you do mention that Sweden had only two points in the qualification group, and yet they were able to go through the

Nations League from the results from 2024 to these playoffs, and that's the way it is. But also we had a tough group, and we managed to turn things around and go to the playoffs with Jan Urban. And we've seen a very different team than in the past, because

when we beat Sweden in 2022, we were literally murdering football. And our presence in the last World Cup in Qatar is being a painful one to many of the fans, where we almost lack even the smallest amount of creativity. While against Sweden and previously in the semifinal with Albania, where we also had our troubles in Warsaw, we've seen the team that was able to attack, we've seen the team that performed really well in terms of creating the attack,

but we really missed a quality in defense. And that's what killed us in the game. in Stockholm, where we had 15 shots, Sweden had eight, five on target, but the quality of their shots were better. This got first, beautiful goal, then the second goal with a set piece, the third one that cost us the place in the World Cup. In the last 10 minutes of the game, when actually we lost that game at that period, and Sweden was attacking all time, and we lacked a little bit of patience to stop the match at that point and just not think all the time about scoring all the goals. So we were losing one nil, we were also two one down, but we managed to equalize and we just didn't have

enough time, didn't have enough power to go back again to the camp. But just going to the point, the country is not unhappy, the country understands what happened and we hope for the better future. I saw an Instagram photo of Lewandowski with his arm raised kind of saying goodbye. Is that the last of Lewandowski for Poland? We don't know that. Robert himself and the coach, they both said that nobody's putting any pressure on Robert. We all know that he is making a very important choice this summer, which is will he stay at Barcelona or maybe he goes elsewhere. And I think that at the moment he doesn't need to say that he's resigning from the national team

because he played 165 games for Poland, scored 89 goals. And in that period that Alisat mentioned, that we qualified for every tournament since 2016 until now, Robert Loews and Lewandowski was a key post. in all of these qualification processes that we've been going through. So, yes, we know that there needs to be life without Robert Lewandowski in the national team, but he's the legend. He can have enough time to make his own decision.

Nobody will put pressure on him. We'll be happy if he stays. We'll understand if he says that was his last dance. And what do you think Levandowski's legacy will be for a player who's dominated the national team? but perhaps couldn't quite collectively produce in this big tournaments. How would people see him looking back at him, you think? That is a great question, because, look, Robert Lewandowski is precisely 17 years and 204 days in national football since his first game against San Marino

with Poland under Dutch coat Leo Benhacker. From that team, the only player that is still active in football is Lukash Fabiansky, by the way. So that tells a lot about the time that he's. he spent on top when you take a look at the international football. So yeah, maybe we're unable to win medals with Robert Lewandowski. But he was the player that actually changed the perception of Polish players in the top leagues. Because before Robert Lewandowski, it was really hard to imagine the player from Poland,

grown up in Poland, to go to the top clubs and play on the top lever for so many years. The things that he's done in Borussia Dortmund and Bayern, now in Barcelona. It is absolutely amazing. His legacy will be the feeling in the next generations in the footballers that are later coming into the national team and into football after him that it is possible to have such a huge career in Poland. There are discussions. Is he the best in the Polish history or maybe it's Big Nyev Bonnick, maybe it's Kregoslato, Kazimers Dei. There are a couple of names from the past because we've had the teams that were third in the world in 1974 and 1992. But certainly Robert Lever

Rondozky forever will be one of the greatest. Raffa, what do you think of his legacy? Well, I think his legacy is secure and unfortunately he is a figure, you know, a little bit like Gareth Bail at Wales or before him, Ryan Giggs. And I'm sure we can think of other similar type of players who just weren't able to drag players that were not quite at their level to the next level, because they were the quality or the depth in difference between the quality was just too big. I think with one or two more Lewandowski's,

I think Poland could have had a golden generation and maybe done something very special. But I think it's really, really hard, even for one of the best forwards of his generation, to carry an entire team the way he was always expected to and ultimately it was even beyond his powers. That's how I would see it. Machi, thank you very much indeed for your time.

Great to have you on the show. Raffa, not even had a chance to chat, Germany tonight in terms of preparations for the World Cup. If I gave you 60 seconds on that, what's the top lines at the moment? Top line is that Julian Nagisman has sort of started a bit of a private war with Dennis Undaff, the Stuttgart striker, who scored a goal, the winning goal against Ghana, and then had to listen to Nagutsman telling him all the things he didn't do well. He didn't have a good game. If he'd played before, he probably would have been too tired to score that goal.

Nuggetsman talked him down quite a lot. And this goes back to his idea, which is basically modeled on the German basketball team winning the World Cup a year ago or so, that you have very fixed roles in the squad. And he's told everyone, you're a starter, you're a sub, and you are just a squad player. And he doesn't see Undaf as a striker he will start, despite him scoring more goals at the moment than Voltaimade and Harvard. and when Undav sort of inconveniently scored a goal

he did his best to put him back in his place but it hasn't gone down well with the young public on that note we will finish Mina Rizuki Guy and Balaget rapper Honnstein thank you very much as always for your time on Euroleagues we will see you again soon on the next episode of the Football Daily it's that season when Liverpool beat

Newcastle 4-3 welcome to the Wayne Rooney show Wayne Rooney Kekerd and me Kelly Somers break down the biggest stories in the Premier League and beyond. He's gone in quite quick, but he hasn't caught him high. I just don't think it's the red card. Plus, we'll hear the funniest and most outrageous stories from Wayne's career.

I was going into positions and doing things I shouldn't have really been doing, but you do it because you feel like you have to, and that helped us drive on and win the FA Club. The Wayne Rooney Show. Watch a night player, listen on Towns.