Football Daily - Euro Leagues: The next Messi, the genius of Lamine Yamal and Mr Trousers

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

From PSG’s great win to the thrilling draw at Barca – this week’s Champions League action unpicked. Guillem Balague, Julien Laurens and James Horncastle reflect on a brilliant week of action in the Champions League. The team discuss the superb performances from Barcelona's Lamine Yamal and PSG's Gianluigi Donarumma among others – and pick who they think will go through to the final. James also gives some insight into the latest sensation from Argentina football after his trip to Buenos Aires. Plus, what is happening with Carlo Ancelotti and Brazil? And who is the man called Trousers who has just won promotion in France? Oh, and with Liam Rosenior signing a new deal at Strasbourg a year after being sacked by Hull, who are on the verge of relegation from the Championship, which other clubs made managerial sackings they lived to regret?TIMECODES 0 mins – Intro, with James talking about his trip to Argentina. Also, where is the presenter? 3 mins – James gives some insight into Franco Mastantuono, the new wonderkid of Argentine football. 6.50 mins – The brilliance of Lamine Yamal – and the difficulties he posed for Inter Milan. And who will go through from the tie? 18 mins – Carlo Ancelotti and the Brazil national job – will it happen? 22 mins – PSG and their win over Arsenal – how good was Gianluigi Donarumma? 33.53 mins – Lorient’s promotion – under Mr Pantaloni. 35.26 mins – Liam’s Rosenior’s new deal and terrible managerial sackings.FOOTBALL COMMENTARIES THIS WEEK Thursday 1st May EUROPA LEAGUE: Athletic Club v Manchester United - LIVE ON 5 LIVE - Ian Dennis and Paul Robinson. EUROPA LEAGUE: Spurs v Bodo Glimt – LIVE ON SPORTS EXTRA - Alistair Bruce-Ball and Rob Green. Saturday 3rd May PREMIER LEAGUE: Everton v Ipswich 1500 KO - LIVE ON 5 LIVE - Conor McNamara and Chris Sutton. PREMIER LEAGUE: Arsenal v Bournemouth 1730 KO - LIVE ON 5 LIVE - John Murray and Rob Green. Sunday 4th May WOMENS SUPER LEAGUE: Manchester United v Manchester City 1200 KO – LIVE ON SPORTS EXTRA - Maz Farookhi and Lindsay Johnson PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton v Newcastle 1400 KO - LIVE ON 5 LIVE - Alistair Bruce-Ball and TBC PREMIER LEAGUE: Brentford v Manchester United 1400 KO – LIVE ON SPORTS EXTRA - John Acres and Daniel Gabbidon PREMIER LEAGUE: West Ham v Spurs 1400 KO – LIVE ON BBC SPORT WEBSITE - Chris Wise and Matt Jarvis PREMIER LEAGUE: Chelsea v Liverpool 1630 KO - LIVE ON 5 LIVE - John Murray and Pat Nevin.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This week Matt sits down with team principal Christian Horner, you don't want to miss that. Watching him drive the car is a little bit like Roger Federer at the top of his game. So he'll be here driving for Red Bull next season. Experience F1 like never before by tuning into the inside track wherever you get your podcasts. Music Radio Podcasts. So I can see Julian Lorans on the Zoom and James Hong Castle, but I cannot see Steve Crossman or John Bennett. James, Jules, where are they? No, man, I thought they would be here, but... Are they late? No, well, I've got things to do.

I bet you've got things to do. Should we do, how about if we do this ourselves? Let's go for a game. Yeah. Set a dangerous precedent for Crossy and JP. Oh, you mean if we do it well. Let me ask the producer. No, I cannot hear the producer. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's press on with it. So I started

this morning in Barcelona before flying to London. No sleep today. I don't know if you've done that very often. Zero minutes sleep today. Yeah. I mean, for me, I was, I was flying from the bottom of the world to get back for this podcast. I've been in South America, so I watched into Barcelona at 35,000 feet over Brazil, over the Amazon. And so yeah, I'm likewise jet lagged, not had much sleep, but I do have my coffee. So that's gonna kick in throughout the show.

Jules, are you back from Manchester because you were in much of the day last night? Yeah, I got an early train, Guy Ember, still a little bit of sleep. And I was very excited to be on the show with you guys. So who needs to sleep anyway? Yeah, true. I imagine it has been quite an emotional few days in the Lawns household with the first leg of the PSG Arsenal.

Yeah, we moved out a week ago, me and the kids, obviously, and we haven't been back since. So yeah, it's been a bit, no, I'm kidding. But obviously, as you know, family ties very much divided between PSG and Arsenal. So as the kids put it, the kids said it really well, you know, we can't lose really on this tie. So maybe Mrs. L and me slightly differ, but it's all good.

And this first leg was great and the second leg will be great in Paris next week. PSG beats Arsenal, they knocked out Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa, nobody will call Legan a Mickey Mouse league anymore, I guess. We can talk about that because we've got lots to discuss today, including this week's two Champions League matches. Already talked a little bit about PSG and Arsenal, but we'll do more later on. And the thriller was Barcelona Inter Milan. Get the latest on Carlo Ancelotti's future as Real Madrid's season continues to unravel. We will also discuss another brilliant promotion for a man called Pantaloni, Mr Trousers, with

the impressive Lian Rossini or signing a new deal Pantaloni. Trousers, Mr. Trousers. And with the impressive Lian Rossinior signing a new deal at Strasbourg, while the club which sacked him last summer, Whole City, battled the drop, we will be discussing regrettable managerial dismissals. But Guillaume, before we get into all of that, I reckon we should get a scouting report from James now, after his trip to Argentina, definitely.

Because you were at the Superclassico on Sunday, you saw River played, beating trip to Argentina. Definitely, you were, because you were the super classical on Sunday, you saw River plate, beating Boca 2-1, and one of the River goal was scored by someone with a burgeoning reputation, would you say that? Yeah, also an Italian name, Italian passport. So naturally, I've sent all the details onto Luciano Spalletti, see if they can already get hold of Mastro Antuano before he plays for Argentina's first team but yes Franco Mastro Antuano who you know as we've seen with other talents

already is being sort of thrust into the spotlight as this potential new Messi we'll talk about the other one later in La Mínia Mal, but Mastromantoano only 17 years old, a very talented sportsman, not just a talented football player. He was one of the best tennis players in his age group coming through in Argentina, but very much the star already of this Gajado 2.0 River Plate and it gets a free kick and loops it over the Boca Juniors wall. The trajectory incredible. It looked like it was going... the curve is incredible but it looks like it's going quite way over the bar, and then it suddenly just dips

and curves. One of the best goals I've seen in the stadium, the last one, I think I was beside either one of you in Munich, which was Laminia Mal for Spain against France in the Euro Semi-Final. That was an extraordinary goal. But Mastro Antuano has got everybody in Argentina very excited. Let me tell you what has been said about him just in case Premier League

clubs are getting as you say excited too early because he seems that is the typical young player that Real Madrid have kind of locked and even though his buyer close is 50 million euros they don't mind paying that. Ribery is saying oh he'll stay here until the end of the year the calendar year 2025 we will see maybe that is the case but the impression we all have is that he's been identified as one of those players one of those guys that will become a Galactico being a Real Madrid player and that may mean staying perhaps one more year at Real Madrid.

It's very interesting, Guillem, because the day after that goal he scored in the Superclasico, he was on the front page, not only of the Argentine papers, but front page of Marca as well already. But I think one of the things that we Europeans struggle to get our head around is our summer transfer window obviously is our pre-season going into the next season. For South American teams it comes right in the middle of their season when for example River are not only going to be having a club world cup participating but also Copa Libertadores and you know they would like to keep Mastrantuano until the end of that Copa Libertadores campaign at the very least. So we'll see if they are successful because as Gianni Inventino hopes,

the world will be watching the Club World Cup this summer. One of the best stories as well about Mastrantuono for this game, James, is that he was supposed to, he's still at school obviously, he's 17, so he was supposed to have a geographic exam and Gashard was the manager, I guess that's what managers should do really, rang up the school and made sure that the exam was postponed or delayed or something so that Franco could focus on the Superclassico, on the game. And he's a month and one day younger than Lamin Yamal because, in a way, we should have really started this show to talk about Barcelona and Inter because, Guilhem, you were there at the game yesterday and we saw, again, a master class from Lamin Yamal, especially in that first half.

What a game. What a game. I think we've watched so many games in our career that that is difficult to actually lift yourself from the seat. We've seen it all haven't we? I mean you're talking about the goal of Lameen against France, we've seen Messi, we've seen Cristiano, some of us remember Maradona, but it just felt like one of those moments that we in the stadium had the impression we were witnessing history. And not because of the results, certainly was a game that had absolutely everything, but because

somebody lifted the level to a dimension that people write books about. It was the first 45 minutes were just incredible and the more I was watching La Minyamal asking for the ball and by the way I was in a privileged position, a position I don't like to be sitting on, it's the first row of server seat so they had the opportunity to go to the, this is but decided to sit in the front seat because that's where Barcelona were attacking. So I had the opportunity to see Lamin Yamal 15 metres away from me and see that when you are so low, you can see that there is no spaces. The work that Inter defense were doing on him

and on the rest of the team, how they were protecting the box on the edge of the box, but inside the box as well. And how quickly decisions had to be made to actually do any kind of impact. You could see that close up. And I mean, did that all the time. And remind reminded me of a story I heard about Maradona

when Menotti was the national manager of Argentina and one of his players said to him, right, yeah, we've got Maradona, when do we give him the ball? And Menotti said, all the time, just give him the ball all the time, right? And that's what Barcelona did in the first half, not only because he asked for every single ball, it's because he always found solutions. And after 20 minutes in which Barcelona seemed affected by the two-goal score by Inter, Lamine just kept saying, just give me the ball. I'll sort it out, which she did with another of those goals that James, if you had been there, you would have discussed it at one of those memorable moments in football.

So I don't know, watching it, what you two felt, one up in the sky and another one somewhere in London, I imagine, Julian, what did you feel? Well, I felt close to heaven. Oh, nice. No, it was magnificent. And rarely have I heard an opposition manager And rarely have I heard an opposition manager spend the time and talk at length, as Simone Zaghi did, about an opposing player in the way that he did about Laminia Mal. Because he said

that he hadn't seen someone with that talent for maybe eight or nine years. I think he was clearly alluding to Lionel Messi and said that talents like this are born once every 50 years. I think he contradicted himself slightly because we've been privileged to see Messi, Ronaldo and now Lameen and maybe Mastuantoana as well. But he then gave the explanation of how difficult L Ménima made it for his players, because he said, you know, our entire game plan, all of a sudden just had to revolve around stopping La Ménima. And you could have, you could double up on him,

you could triple up on him, but that then created spaces elsewhere. Which was the second goal of Barcelona. That came that way, came on the left hand side. Yeah. And so his analysis, yeah, even though he paid great respect to Barcelona and how well they played,

his analysis was focused on an individual. Inter had three defeats in a row prior to this game, coming into the game without scoring a single goal, which is obviously not like them. The game finished 3-3. Does this call surprise you? Maybe not so much the fight that they scored three goals, but the fact that they didn't actually lose that game away at Barcelona? Yeah, it's interesting because I think on the one hand, if you

look at it from a glass half full perspective, you say that Inter scored three goals away from home against Barcelona. Not many teams do that. People don't expect it from an Italian team and you know a fourth goal was disallowed for a matter of inches from from Mkhitaryan. So yeah they go into the tie, the second leg of the tie at San Siro and it's still alive and they will be confident playing in front of their own fans in that atmosphere at San Siro that they can perhaps put in a better performance than they did because I think that's the other

thing here. If you look at it from a glass half empty point of view, they scored with their only shots on target. Two of them were set plays. And we have spoken at length about Inter on this podcast for the last few years, talking about their brand of football, how able they are to play from their back, how their defenders are hybrid players who join in attack, how their midfield is able to move around opponents really well. They couldn't do any of that. Some of that was down to Lamin Yamal. Some of it, I think, was also down to what you just referenced there, Jules, that they went into this game in perhaps their most difficult moment of the season so far. Having lost twice in the league,

the lead has changed, it's gone to Napoli, having been knocked out of the Coppa Italia by their cousins, their main rivals AC Milan. Delicate moments. I think on the one hand, they're very positive about the results. The fact that they were able to exploit some vulnerabilities that they see in Barcelona, but they'll have to play better, I think next Tuesday.

Marcus Turan was fascinating about what made it so difficult to play against Barcelona. He said that they're so good technically that they can come out of pressure, which Inter does sometimes, is part of the game. They're the quick reaction of losing the ball, but they can come out of that. Then of course there's a danger you have to track back. Eventually you decide not to pressure high because they're going to come out of it all the time.

So you end up defending very deep and that's mentally and physically very tiring. Then of course the pressure that they do themselves, it's outstanding. They didn't allow Inter, especially in the first half, to pass the ball more than three or four passes. Second half, Inter came out better. But that pressure of Barcelona has an interesting effect on players because you see the treasure. You see the space there, it's not that far. If you actually beat the first line of pressure of Barcelona,

it's there to be exploited, but they cannot get there. But it won't help that Lautaro Martino won't be there to actually help them, hold the ball and turn and then find that space. So it's bad news because I don't think they've got a player like him that can actually help them with that and makes their football more predictable and favorable for Barcelona. Don't you think James? Yeah, losing Lautaro is a big blow because he is the first

defender really when it comes to pressing, winning the ball back, can score in lots of different ways, man for the big occasion as well. And the issue with Inter, if we just briefly analyze what happened to them in the last week when they lost to Bologna, lost to Roma, lost AC Milan, is that when they've tried to rotate or when they've been without their key players,

the players who've come in just haven't been able to do it for them. I suppose we should also mention that Barcelona were without Lewandowski last night. And they lost Koundé. And Maldi. Who they actually lost. Yeah, they lost Koundé as well and Gerard Martin. And that's the thing I would say about the second leg.

I think as great as Wednesday night and the first leg was and spectacular and everything and I think we can expect pretty much the same next week in Milan and Inter will have to play better but I think they're capable of that. The thing is when you get there you want to see the two teams of full strength, you want to see all the stars really all the best players and to not have Kunde potentially Lewandowski might be back might not be back, Lautaro, we're not sure. No left-back really, because if Inigo Martinez has to play left-back again from Barcelona, it's not the same story. And that's just the little thing.

Of course it'd be great, and I think Inter can do it, although my money will still be on Barcelona purely because of Lamin. It's just a shame that neither team will be at full strength really. Yeah, but let's finish perhaps this conversation about this picture going full circle and back into La Mijn just because he showed a side that perhaps not many had seen before. At the end of the game, he stood on his own, so annoyed that the game was drawn. He just wanted to win that game. drone. He just wanted to win that game. So he was his 100th game with Barcelona. Messi at his age had played seven games at that point and took three more years to get to a hundred games when he was 20, is when he celebrated his 100th game. And Barcelona had

a shirt with the numbers 100 in the back of it to be given to him. He didn't want it. He just didn't want the photo. He didn't want anything. So that what he's given the side is the youthfulness and the bravery and that feeling that, yeah, we can beat anybody. I see that he said in the press conference, yeah, we're able to beat anybody. But also that ambitious,

ambitiousness that makes them, in my eyes, favorites against Inter, even the second leg, because they play the same way, home and away, and they will do the same in Milan. ["The Commentator's View"] The Commentator's View on the Football Daily. I'm Alistair Bruce Ball. I'm John Murray.

Hello, I'm Ian Dennis. And Friday's On the Football Daily means one thing. It's time for the Commentator's View episode. Join us every Friday as we look ahead to the weekend's football action with a few untold stories along the way. A wasp flew into my mouth while I was talking and I panicked. Hello and welcome to the Inside Track, the Formula One podcast with exclusive access to Red Bull Racing. I'm broadcaster and Formula One fan Rick Edwards. And I'm sports journalist Matt Magindy. Each week we break down the latest F1 news, the

backstage gossip and who's under pressure. This week Matt sits down with team principal Christian Horner. You don't want to miss that. Watching him drive the car is a little bit like Roger Federer at the top of his game. So he'll be here driving for Red Bull next season. Experience F1 like never before by tuning into the inside track, wherever you get your podcasts. Guillaume, I know that Real Madrid are not in the competition that they've won more than anybody else, but we have to talk about Real Madrid.

They try to make us talk about them even in Champions League weeks when they've been eliminated. We've seen the front page of Marco Mastromentono, Real Madrid, but what about Carlo Ancelotti? What's going on there? Fascinating, because it's like negotiations with Brazil have been explained by the minute. Every minute there is a new story coming out of it. And let's go a little bit deep in this. What is what Ancelotti want? To become the Brazil national manager.

What does Brazil want? Ancelotti to become the national manager of Brazil. What does Real Madrid want? Ancelotti to go. So it's going to happen. It's certainly going to happen. But then on Monday, he traveled to Madrid, sorry, to London and with the idea of signing some kind of pre-contract or something that tied him up to Brazil, they want him to take over the next two games in June, the beginning of June. And by the 26th, 27th of May, he's got to come out with a squad list.

That's when La Liga finishes on the 25th. Timings are more or less alright, but there is money involved in this. Remadit is saying, oh you want to go? That's fine, go. But we're not going to pay you next year either, which is the intention we had. Because of course there is a Club World Cup to play this part of the season isn't it and you're leaving so and you see anything's not no, but Do you could count the Club World Cup as the next season and then you put either Solari

Santi Solari who's director of football there or you know, you get Xavi Alonso earlier, whatever So this is what's happening They're just basically negotiating in front of our eyes the move for Carlo Ancelotti, who yesterday was published everywhere that the whole deal had collapsed. This is it. End of the world. It's not going to happen. Guess what? They're talking again this morning. So I think it's going to happen. I think so too. But you know what? It seems there's a lot of people trying to get involved in that deal as well. A lot of intermediaries, a lot of agents.

I mean, it's potentially a big deal, of course. Some friends of Neymar, Neymar's family, some friends of Messi as well. It seems a little bit messy and I'm not sure. I mean, I don't know Carlo as well as James, obviously, but I don't think Carlo likes the mess. I don't think Carlo likes people trying to come into a deal where which should be pretty simple to do, really. And yet, why does he want to? Why does he go to Madrid and we all know about it?

You know, it's like I don't know, it's one of them. He wants to leave Real Madrid in a nice way, in a much nicer way than the previous time. But wants people to know as well that, you know, he's wanted. You know, it's not just another coach. Everybody needs to feel wanted, you know? Exactly, exactly that. But yeah, I think he will go and I think he will be a good fit and I think he will enjoy that. Can he sort this Brazil team out because they haven't been great for a long time now and obviously we saw what happened against Argentina in the last international break so there's a

lot of work to do and he's not getting any younger. But yeah, I think, I think that potentially on paper, he looks promising. Right. I mean, I think a few weeks, uh, every month on Copacabana, uh, with his, with his big cigar that, you know, he smoked with Vinicius. I think, I think, you know, that will rehabilitate, rejuvenate Carlo in some respects. Um, but I do think it's interesting what Jules was saying about how many people are involved

in this. Agents looking after the Brazilian Football Federation, agents also trying to get involved as intermediaries. And Don Carlo just wants to make everybody happy. Just leave on the right terms with Real Madrid, sort of move to Brazil at the right time. These qualifiers seem to be coming a little bit too soon really. You know, it doesn't want to slip up in them

because already Brazil in difficult position. Remember, there's a vacancy there because they got hammered by Argentina in the last international break. So, yeah, this is something to monitor. But let's move on to one of Carlo's former clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, Jules. I know you've been wanting to talk about this all show. I watched PSG's 1-0 victory over Arsenal, not on Copa Gabana, as I was talking about, but in Buenos Aires.

You were at the Emirates as part of Five Lives coverage. What are your broader reflections on that game? I thought there was two sides of the game. The first 25 minutes where PSG were just incredible. I've rarely seen a team going to the Emirates and dominate like they did. The stats are so telling really because they had almost 80% of the ball in the first 25 minutes of the game, PSG, and they were outstanding. Arsenal could not do three passes together. Dembele scored a brilliant goal after a sequence of 26 passes from PSG. One minute, 10 seconds, nine outfield players touching the ball. The ball moved so well until Dembele dropped deeper,

got the ball similar to what Liverpool did on that goal, then goes to Vazquelia and the ball comes back to him and he scores. And after that, and credit to Arsenal because they came back in the game, a little tactical tweak from Marte Etta who went from a 4-4-2 in pressing out position to a 4-2-3-1, more of a double pivot. And that kind of midfield battle that when so PSG's were for the first 25 minutes became level again. And Arsenal came back in the game, they had two huge chances to come back at 1-1 with Roissaint and Martinelli on each side of the half and Donnarumma made two amazing saves,

especially the second one. And after that, it was really if somebody could find something, PhD for a second goal, Arsenal to come back at 1-1 in the end, it was 1-0 for PhD. But I think that leaves everything open really for the second leg. And even if PhD have a bit of an advantage, of course, they've got one goal advantage. I still think Arsenal can go to Paris and do something special there, like Arteta said after the game. And from PSG though, I think the French are getting a little bit carried away, which is not like us, as you know, we are very hungry. We're not arrogant at all, especially in Paris.

I can see headlines of like they have a foot in the final already. They're close to the stars. People are booking their flights. I'm getting asked for tickets for the final from PSG fans already. So let's relax and wait and see what happens next week. It was a fantastic game between two young, very energetic teams with similar positional philosophies, but different approaches. And I found that very interesting because the game showed that Luis Enrique is more radical in terms of all the offensive phase.

And Arteta has got a great work in terms of defensive positional work. But it was done all at 200 miles an hour and the accuracy was missing for Arsenal in the last touch. While PSG were very happy that the football was played at that level. And as I said, defensively, Arsenal good in attack. That's the work that Arteta has to put into the team. If you stop Sakai, you stop Arsenal in so many ways. But one name that has been mentioned a couple of times already and we need to look into as well to see if he's at the level that we expected is Donnar Uma. Do we call him the best goalkeeper in the world or close to it, James?

goalkeeping the world or close to it, James? I mean, I've always liked him, Gere, not because I'm partial, but, you know, I mean, he is seen as a generational talent. I mean, he made his debut at 16 at San Siro. I mean, he's been in the game for 10 years now, and he's still a young guy. And he's put in, you know, what Americans would call clutch performances, big moments.

Be that for example in the penalty shootout at the Euros final in Wembley, he was the difference maker. He was named player of the tournament after that. I'm always surprised by the skepticism here in England towards Donnarumma after he put in that performance against an English team ultimately. If we look at his career since then, there have been ups and downs as Jules has chronicled at PSG. I don't think it helped him for example that the guy who replaced him at AC Milan, Mike Maignan, in his first year in Italy was outstanding and won the league with AC Milan.

But Donnarumma this season, particularly in the knockout stage of the Champions League, you think of decisive in another penalty shootout against Liverpool, made key saves against Villa. I think if you look at the expected goals, PSG would be expected to have conceded another two goals in the knockout stages. And yet, Donnarumma has got in the way, be it on Trossard in the game against Arsenal. And there was another chance, I think,

on Martinelli as well. So outstanding. He could be better with his feet, but even at the last Euros where Italy were really disappointing, he was very good. Even when they got absolutely torn to shreds by Nico Williams and Lameen, that would have been an all-time humiliation without Donnarumma. I think it's about time he got his due. That's the thing, I guess.

This flows to everybody as qualities and flows really. I think we know his, as James said, distribution not great, which potentially is something that PhD and Luis Enrique looked at and said, can we get a keeper that is better with the ball at his feet because that would help us? Yeah, of course you can find that. On the pieces and crosses, as we saw on the Marino goal that was disallowed for Arsenal, Radley saw for Northside, but he's all over the place, nowhere to be seen. And that could have gone in again and we've seen that many times. That ball was impossible for a goalkeeper. That was impossible. He doesn't have to come out, he stays on his line. If you watch the replay again, he jumps

on his own, alone, nowhere near the ball, nowhere near Marino as well. I don't want him to come out on the cross. He stays on your line and tries to save the header. I don't want him to come out on the cross. Stay on your line and try to save the header. I spoke to Alguilquip about that one and he said in that ball that he goes, he hasn't done a curve. It was so strong and lineal, if you like, to the head of the attacker. Just trying to defend Donnarumah here, but it's true that that seems like one of his weaknesses. In any case, Luis Enrique is absolutely pleased with him. But his contract finishes in 2026, Jules. So what do you think is going to happen? I think for a long time, they wondered at the club to what to do to get an upgrade or try to get an upgrade, but that would cost a lot of money. But

they know they can get money for Donnarumma if they put him on the transfer list. Club like Inter Milan, Sommar was very good yesterday despite conceding the three goals but he's 30 something and there's a point where they might need somebody else. So there might be a market for Gio back in Italy but he wants to stay and I think right now he feels very much like he's convinced the club in a way. Not convinced, he might be a bit strong because he's the top five goalkeeper in the world so you hardly need to convince anyone. But it feels like, like you said, Guilherme, Luis Enrique is happy, Luis Campos is happy.

And I think people at the club thinking like, we have a great one here. Yeah, of course, it's not perfect, but nobody is. So we can continue with him. And I believe I was told again on Tuesday night that the discussions are positive on a new deal and an extension. So I wouldn't be surprised if that was done before the summer. Why would you want to leave PSG right now? This is a, it's a young team that has got a lot of Champions League experience. So you've got, you've got this kind of contradiction really between the fact that I think their

average age is 24. But if you look at the number of appearances, these PSG players have clocked up in the Champions League, be it Dembele, be it Donnarumma, be it Hakimi. These guys have played in this competition for years. And it feels like they're all coming together as a group. It feels like PSG, this cultural reset that they embarked upon a couple of years ago

is really now beginning to bear fruit. Both Lewis Campos and Luis Enrique, I think, deserve a lot of credit for that. Which means Jules, as they go to the Parc des Princes in an atmosphere which will definitely be more Fiebara than the one that we saw at the Emirates with that horrendous choreography. I am backing PSG to go through. That is not a kiss of death. It's, I'm just saying the trajectory is with PSG. Yeah, I mean, we said earlier, there's an advantage there because of that win in the first.

I think Lekib said on Wednesday that 11 teams out of 13 who won the first leg of the semi-finals of the Champions League away from home usually qualify. So that's 85 percent so it's high. Usually you qualify but I think Arsenal will have to if they produce the perfect game they can obviously overturn the tie and qualify. I think they're capable of doing that they can go to Paris and win 1-0 of course or 2-1 or something like that. We are waiting on news from Ousmane Dembele who had to come off with a little bit of a niggle. It looks okay for now as we're recording the show but we're not sure yet exactly if he can be on the pitch and Arsenal will have party back and there will be a better team with party in the

team, Rice in the right position, Marino probably as well. Then if Dembele doesn't play for PSG, PSG will be weaker this time. So we will see, I still think that anything can happen. The narrative, I think, after we see the second leg will be, see Arsenal had injuries, Arteta is still part, is a work in progress, he needs to advance that work in offensive organisation. But PSG is what Luis Enrique has got in his mind, the best version of a Luis Enrique team. Because remember when he won the treble with Barcelona, he had Luis Suárez name on a Messi

front and halfway through that season, he wanted to get rid of Messi. So it's not the kind of Barcelona that he wanted. But here he's designed it all coming from his head in such a way that even though there must be some pressure that he puts himself to say, well, let's convert this into a winning machine and let's get and win the Champions League eventually. At the same time, he's acting, this is described by somebody I know at PSG, he's acting as if it doesn't matter what happens, that he's just happy to be here, there,

enjoy themselves, putting things together, and if they win, they win, if they don't win, it doesn't matter. I think he's definitely one to win. He's, in my eyes, favorites to win it, and that perhaps takes us to a PSG-Bartholomew final, which will be the final that we deserve, I think. Well, and also, Guillaume, I mean, I'm glad you referenced

his Luis Henriquez treble winning Barca side, because we get thrown lots of useless stats over these Champions League weeks. But the one that I really liked going into that PSG Arsenal game was that PSG had completed 190 dribbles in the Champions League this season. That is the most since Barcelona under Luis Enrique in 2014, 2015, when they completed 238.

So he loves dribblers, Luis Enrique. Dribblers, you know, in football terms, they're the players that pull defenders' pants down. But let's move on to a team that has been very good. Pants being pulled up by Jules. Talk to us about Lorient and their coach, Panteloni. Yeah, Lorient have been promoted. Amazing. I mean, this is the best link we've ever had on the show. Much better than Crossman or JB could have done, James. Lorient promoted a season after, just one season after being relegated to the second division,

to Ligue 2, back in Ligue 1 next season. And they've done it with their coach, Olivier Pantaloni. That's right. Olivier Trousers, who is a bit of a specialist in terms of going up. Oh, I don't know how you say with pants up. Because that's the third time that he did it. He had twice with Ajaxio, he's a Corsican, so twice with Ajaxio, and now with this Lorient team that has been brilliant really. And they have a bit of what we saw with Leeds, for example, in England in the championship. They had, even in Ligue 2, very much of a Ligue

1 squad. And they had a very special player up front who is Eli Croupy Jr. whose dad was a really good Ligue 1 player who went through the Lorient academy has been just unplayable in Ligue 1 this season and as you know Lorient is also owned by the same owner as Bournemouth and there's already a deal for Croupy to go to Bournemouth and I think he's probably ready to make a step up really and I think at Bournemouth he will have the time to continue his progression and improvement. But a wonderful season from Mr Pants and Eli Kruppi Jr. to be fair. And Lorient and well done for being promoted again. And briefly while we are in France, Lian Rozenier has signed a new deal with Strasbourg and his

team remain in the hunt for a Champions League play. Great job done by him. Yeah, amazing. Amazing. Great team. If you have the opportunity to watch them, they play PSG on Saturday at the La Menos Stadium. Since November, they are the best team in France with PSG and they only won four points

less than Luis Enrique and his team. Incredible job that Liam is doing with a young team. Fun to watch play football, fun to follow on social media. If you haven't done it, there's a lot of dancing and singing, French rap and French reference and French words, but they're all brilliant. Omega, Moreira, all of them. And Liam himself to have put all these teams together.

So well done to him. And I wonder, Guillaume and James, if back in Hull City, which is obviously close to James' heart, if they regret sacking him the way they did after missing out on the playoff last season? I wonder, that was a weird one. And I was thinking of similar cases where you actually sack a manager and completely pack fires against you. I don't know if he, well, I'll tell you the one I thought of straight away. Have a think and see if you can come up with another one.

I take you to January 1992. Real Madrid have just beaten Tenerife. Managers Rado Mirantich are at the top of the table. They've only lost two games that season against Valencia and Atletico Madrid away, which is not drama at that point. Atletich has moved Fernando Hier is not drama at that point. Antic has moved Fernando Hierro to the midfield and has become the best goal scorer of the side alongside Butragueño. Prosinecki is the big star with Hugo Sánchez. A team doing well, very, very well in fact. And Antic gets the sack. He gets the sack because he gets this idea

in people's minds. I remember this perfectly in radio shows, in newspapers. Yeah, they won, but they're not playing well. They're not playing well, they're not playing well. And the manager goes and says, Ramon Mendoza that was, yeah, sacked. And Leo Ben Hacker takes charge, who was at Ajax, announced that he was going to Real Madrid. Well, Antic was still at Real Madrid.

And Barcelona ends up winning the league, because Real Madrid lost against Tenerife the last game of the season. And that has been one of those mysterious things. Why would they do that? And it was just down to pressure, that thing that's invisible, generally, but that changed people's minds. Around the same time, Guilhem, in Italy, 92-93, you had Fiorentina. And Fiorentina had signed Gabriel Battistuta. And Battistuta was having a fantastic season.

He scored 19 goals. But those 19 goals would not keep Fiorentina in the title race, which they were for the first two or three months of the season. In fact, they wouldn't even keep Fiorentina up in the league because they changed coach a third of the way through the season thinking that, OK, we need that extra push. We can really contend for the title.

Cechi Gaudi, the film producer. Remember, in Italy, we like to have film producers as club owners. That's what happened with Napoli and De Laurentiis. Well, Cechi Gori gets rid of Gigi Radice, a coach who had a past winning the league with Torino, brings in Aldo Agrippi, and they go into absolute free fall.

And Fiorentina, notwithstanding having an outstanding young Gabriel Battistuta scoring almost 20 goals, were relegated. I mean I think there's a case to be made for Roma this season for example to replace Terosi with Juric and even Leicester Cooper with Van Nistelroep but my one is a bit more recent than yours. December 2011, PSG are top of the table, they win the Champions as we say, Champions de Tourn in French with Antoine Comboire on the bench. And this is the first season of the Qatari, owners, everything is going well. And they decided to sack Comboire, being top of the table at Christmas,

and replace him with this young, inexperienced, unknown guy from Italy called Carlo Ancelotti, who obviously bottles up and finishes second at the end of the season. I mean come on really that would be my pick. Carlo Ancelotti has to appear as often as possible he's got so many stories to tell from so many clubs that he's been part of but that's all we have time for here at the EuroLeaks today I think that's what we did okay what did you think do we think? Do we need Steve? Do we need John? Well that invisible thing you called pressure, Guillermo. That invisible thing, I think Crossy

and JB are feeling that right now. They must be. I think they should. The next Football Daily will be out later on Thursday and will have reaction to Manchester United's Europa League match against Athletic Club. And don't forget, there are loads more episodes of the Football Daily to download right now on BBC Sounds. Jules James, see you soon! It's the scandal that rocked rugby union to its core. The so-called Bloodgate scandal. Tom Williams now receiving attention.

It seems so clear that this wasn't real blood. It's out and out cheating. This is a story of lies and deception, conspiracies and cover-ups. There was terror that it could tear the house down. Courtroom drama and secret deals. So obviously a lie. And a human cost that changed lives and careers forever. Richards is found guilty and banned for three years.

I'm Ross Kemp and this is sports. Strangers crimes. Bloodgate. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Inside Track, the Formula One podcast with exclusive access to Red Bull Racing. I'm broadcaster and Formula One fan Rick Edwards. And I'm sports journalist Matt Magindy. Each week we break down the latest F1 news, the backstage gossip and who's under pressure. This week Matt sits down with team principal

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