Ask OTC: Salah’s next move, Lens’ fixture dispute and could Klopp return?

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Welcome to Ask OTC, the show where we answer all of your questions from the week in European

football.

I'm Dotson Adibio.

I'm Andy Brassel.

And I'm Nikki Bhandini.

Nikki, this question from Colin on Instagram is a move to Europe on the cards for Mozilla.

I wouldn't completely rule it out.

I also wouldn't say it feels like it's on the cards to me.

I think at the moment when I think about whether demand is most likely to exist, I suppose

what I think about the demand would exist for a par like Mozilla at 33, I think everywhere.

There are certainly clubs in Europe who'd like to have Mozilla.

He's certainly, despite having, I suppose, slightly more of a down season this season

when he's still hit double figures for goals, by the way.

He's still absolutely the age and of a talent where top clubs in Europe would want him.

But when it comes to clubs who can put the money on the table for someone of that age,

I do think the demand is likely to be strongest from the Saudi pro league and from Major League

Soccer.

I think the Saudi pro league is where everyone has assumed for a long time he will go.

And there's an obvious reason for that.

He's such a prominent Muslim footballer who speaks very openly about his faith.

And I think that having someone who represents that and who represents the region is something

that would be held in even higher value in Saudi than it might be in other places.

And I think that is a reason that he's got huge popularity all across the Middle East.

And I think it's a reason why he would have particular commercial value there.

And I think, of course, on top of that, those clubs simply do have huge financial resources,

bigger even than the Major League Soccer ones could muster up.

So there's obvious landing spots there for him between the four clubs that are owned

by the public investment fund and then also others backed by oil companies.

But the question really comes down to which he hasn't spoken about.

What does Moussala want?

And I do think that on top of might he still want one more crack at the European Champions

league, the UEFA Champions League before going somewhere like that.

The second question, which is a thornier to talk about and awkward right now,

is might he look at the currently scary situations unfolding around the world

and ask himself if his family, he might feel safe and not going somewhere like that?

I don't know if that's a thought on his mind.

But the reality is there have been games postponed recently,

even for Saudi clubs competing in the Asian Champions League.

And that's, I suppose, a really uncomfortable for everyone to talk about

and think about part of this conversation as well.

I mean, there is one perfect fit that we're kind of overlooking in all this, isn't there?

And you'd be very annoyed with me if I didn't bring this up.

Wouldn't you Turkish Super League?

I think really because if you're looking about him wanting to stay in Europe,

in European football, wanting to continue to compete in the Champions League,

getting paid what you couldn't get paid at any other European club,

and connecting with Muslim culture.

Well, if he rocked up at Gallatassara, Fenerbahce next season,

would that astonish you?

It wouldn't astonish me.

Now, I think if this was a slightly different era of Turkish football,

this would be a shoe-in because, of course, he's going to turn 34 in the summer,

but exceptions are made for superstars.

You look at Angola Cante, go into Fenerbahce,

and still look in the part, by the way.

And I think it's a really interesting halfway house for,

we've talked about it before, Don,

those who would like the money of the Saudi pro league,

but still want to be involved in European football.

So I think that's an interesting option that's out there.

This question from Happy Humber on Instagram.

Lance have opposed PSG's request to move their league game,

which falls between Paris's Champions League quarterfinals against Liverpool.

Since receiving this question from Happy Humber on Instagram,

we've now got news, just come to us that league air

have decided what should happen.

What's going to happen, Andy?

So Lance versus PSG, which was meant to be on April the 11th,

in between the two legs against Liverpool,

will be postponed.

Actually, PSG will breast versus Strasbourg.

That's the sort of undercard I suppose in terms of this dispute,

because Strasbourg, of course, are involved in the conference league,

which I would say they've got a pretty good chance of winning.

But to explain this, basically, we talk a lot, of course,

about how teams on the continent often get games moved

and get free weekends before big Champions League games

or in this case between big Champions League games.

But the point to make, when this happened previously with PSG this season,

when they had the game against Nantes postponed,

that was with the agreement of both clubs,

Nantes agreed to move it,

and will now be played in the fourth week of April,

and Nantes who are battling relegation.

The point to make about that,

and what leads us into this situation with Lance and PSG,

is the fact that Nantes fans were really quite unhappy with this,

the fact that their survival push could be affected

by doing the right thing for the country as a whole.

And clearly, there is an imperative to put PSG in the best possible situation,

because it is for the benefit of all French clubs,

certainly in a UEFA club coefficients point of view,

because now, especially with the elimination of Leal and Leon from the Europa League,

in the last round, a lot leans on PSG for that.

But I guess when we mentioned Nantes,

that the last point of view is so important here,

because the way they framed it,

and the reason they didn't want to move it,

is because they have said,

well, look, we're the team of the 10th budget in Leal.

How many advantages do PSG need?

And also, really, do we have to move constantly to the rhythm of what the biggest clubs want?

And I have a lot of sympathy for that,

and because they are in the middle of a genuine title contest with PSG,

there are a point behind PSG at the moment of admittedly having played a game more,

but with the inconsistencies that have been part of PSG's season,

and the fact that I think they will drop more points in Leaghan.

The title race is well alive.

There's no doubt about that.

And the points and make here is that the official LFP Leaghan statement says that we've moved this

without the agreement of the clubs.

They can do that once in the season.

They can't do that for the semifinals, for example.

So if PSG were to get a postponement of their game in between the semifinal legs,

that would require the agreement of the club that they're playing against that weekend.

Yeah, I think what makes this situation so extraordinary is that it has such a big impact

as Andy's been saying on other clubs,

because there are other examples across Europe of leaks

making adjustments to fit into what suits their teams competing in the Champions League.

Certainly, if I look to say they are,

there have been games that would have previously taken place over the weekend,

have in recent years been moved to Friday nights,

which gives teams more room to have an extra day to prepare for their Champions League commitments,

say on a Tuesday.

And that's the sort of adjustment that sure it creates some disruption for the other club.

It's moving a game a day forward.

It might mean they get a day less in their preparation the week before,

but what's being proposed here for a long season is quite drastically different.

And one of the statements that they'd put out previously was saying the changing the date of this match

would mean that we would not play competitively for 15 days.

And then we would have to play a match every three days,

which that is a big material change to what they're having to put up with as a club.

When, as Andy points out, they are dealing with lesser resources than the team that's benefiting.

People from the outside look at legal and just think PSG win it by 20 points every year.

I mean, that's not actually factually true.

And I think if you compare it to a lot of the other leagues,

really what's happened to legal in the last decade?

Of course, it's affected by the Katari investment in PSG.

And that is something that needs to be kept a close eye on.

But if you compare it to Bayern's run in the Bundesliga or until the last couple of years,

that event has run when they went on all those successive titles

in the immediate aftermath of the building of the Allianz.

I think what's happened to legal is kind of in line with a lot of European football.

But that perception from the outside, if we're talking about his selling itself,

which legal has not always been great at.

And in an era where they've struggled to shift the television rights,

the value of the television rights has gone down to the point

where they felt they've had to have that sort of net flexification of legal

and basically sell their own rights directly to consumer,

which who knows if that will continue or not.

Because it does put them, the majority of clubs in the league

are a bit of a disadvantage, at least in the short term.

If you're trying to sell that as a product nationally and internationally,

if there's a league that's actually winnable by more than one team, surely,

at this point, when the league is trying to build its reputation

and say that it's a worthwhile competition, rather than saying,

we're just going to make it as easy as possible for PSG.

I think this is imperative to the future of the league.

That and your order, they just need to get more creatives.

You see, okay, we've given you an advantage by moving the fixture

and now you give an advantage back.

You have to pay the first five minutes about your goalkeeper.

Some would say PSG would be doing that for most of the seasons, but you know.

It would serve to you, perhaps, as well, because they need to have,

I think, extra TV interest in the game afterwards as well,

so you're going to have that so win-win.

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From Bruno and Blue Sky,

after Jürgen Klopp strongly rejects his claims

that he was sent to join Real Madrid,

are we feeling a sense that he's keen to return to coaching?

We're feeling a sense at least that he's open to it.

And he said that himself.

And I think part of that

is that he's not going to return to coaching.

He's going to return to coaching.

We're feeling a sense at least that he's open to it

and I think part of that is that he's refreshed

after how tidy was at the end of the Liverpool experience.

But the other half of it,

I think is the politics of the job that he's taken on since.

Now, look, being ahead of global football for Red Bull,

even though a lot of people,

particularly in Germany, were really upset by this

because they felt it went against what Jürgen Klopp had stood for

for years as a friend of the fans.

And there's still a very strong anti-Red Bull sentiment

in Germany,

although I would argue that it's more projection

and us as a community of fans

supposing what Jürgen Klopp stood for,

rather than him actually selling out what he stood for.

I think the politics of it have been difficult

because he wanted something that was not front line coaching,

of course,

and it's not been that.

And you look at him out and join his life

and go into the Grand Prix and on holiday with his wife

and playing paddle and it looks great.

But I think there's another side to it

that what you represent to the football community as a coach

and as a coach of substance.

It can't leave you because not only is he spread quite thinly

over a lot of different clubs.

So Parry FC want help from him.

Salzburg want help from him.

Leipzig want help from him.

But Aganchino in Brazil want help from him.

And you know, there's a sense in France of,

well, isn't Klopp meant to be in charge of this?

You know, he turns up every so often

wearing the Parry FC cap because we know he loves the club shop clobber.

And you know, shouldn't we be better?

But how can he do that?

I think in terms of someone doing that oversight job

and setting a sort of a house style

for all those different clubs

and having a shared philosophy.

Mario Gomez, who has been working for Red Bull for a while,

he's far more, I think,

a man and coherent and good at that oversight job.

He would be better at Jürgen Klopp's current job

than Jürgen Klopp is.

I think that's fair.

But the other thing with Klopp that you've got bear in mind

is, you know, I think we look back at his CV

and think, well, there's not that many clubs on it.

Surely he's got loads more in the tank.

But he should be exhausted after every job.

I mean, he was in charge of minds for like seven years

and before that he was there for what nine, ten as a player.

He was a Dortmund for seven years.

He was at Liverpool for nine.

He's like this football serial monogamous.

He just throws himself into everything.

And he looked, he looked knackered at the end of minds.

He looks absolutely exhausted and out of ideas

at the end of Dortmund.

And we know how he looked, of course,

at the end of Liverpool.

And he spoke about that quite openly about how tired he felt.

For me, the logical next step is probably not a club,

but the German national team.

And there's growing speculation that he's been speaking

to the DFB over the last couple of months.

And maybe despite the contractual situation

of Julian Nagelsmann,

Nagelsmann will go at the end of the World Cup,

which for what is worth,

I don't think would be a massively successful one for Germany.

And then maybe Klopp takes the job from there.

So he gets to engage his coaching side.

But the risk of burnout is far, far lesser.

Yeah. And he's gone exactly the direction

that I was thinking about national team.

A little part of me was thinking not about Germany.

I do think if it wasn't for the fact that Thomas Tuchel

is doing great,

that there would have been a lovely fit for him in England,

just because he's got that connection

with at least a part of the fanbase.

I do feel like maybe I'm off the mark on this one

and maybe fans of Manchester clubs

or other clubs feel differently.

But I feel like despite having managed one of the big English clubs,

he hasn't necessarily got the fans of the other clubs all hating him.

I don't think that most of the fans of...

I don't feel like he's hated by Arsenal fans.

Again, maybe everyone will disagree with me listening to this,

which can easily happen if you coach one of the big clubs.

If you coach a big club, then the others might all hate you.

So I feel like he has a certain genealogy

in his public image that would go down quite well in England.

But of course, Tuchel is doing a great job right now.

So I can't imagine that it's going to be on the table.

But I do agree with Andy that the national team pace feels like the way to go.

I think that the Syrian Monogamous is a really nice way of putting it

because as Andy says, he has given everything he has to every club he's been at.

And he has burned himself out.

And he is going to be...

He's going to be in his 60s soon,

which is of course not a time when you can't keep doing things,

but it is going to get harder to give that a level of physical energy

as well as emotional energy.

Because it is physical energy as well,

that I think coach has put in a certain level of the amount of time you spend

being, travelling everywhere,

being at training all the time with club level,

football at the top level now is a lot as well.

It's not that you can't do those things,

but can you do them in the way that your club has always done them?

Because he's such a full-on person, he's such a...

an all-in person.

And I can see international shooting him better.

But I do think the way he's talking,

the way he responded to these questions about Real Madrid effective,

he's saying, listen, that offer doesn't exist,

so that's not a real thing.

But he's clearly got it in him still.

He clearly still wants to coach.

And what I don't want to happen for you can club.

I don't want him to wind up,

like Arsen Venga trying to reinvent the off-side rule

in 15 different ways,

when he could just be doing the thing he's really good at,

and then he enjoys.

That is true, isn't it?

I think the other point I would make about

Jürgen Klopp apart from seconding that last point from Nicky

is the fact that you've got to consider how incredibly influential he is

in Germany and beyond.

And when we're talking about managing the latter part

of your football career,

I think it's really important.

We always talk about how a football part of being a coach

is picking the right job at the right time,

and you're probably only two bad choices away

from never getting a job again or never getting a job again.

He really has, right?

The fact that he said those clubs for that long

is not just about him,

it's about the fact he's picked the right club three times.

Yeah, it is.

And really, he made a kind of brave choice

and going to Liverpool in the first place,

because from what I gather,

he was planning to take an extended time out,

after leaving Dortmund,

and then the Liverpool job came up, and he was like,

okay, this is too soon, but I can't not do it.

And he took that risk, and eventually,

partly because of the patience he was afforded,

it proved to be the right one,

but he was only out of the game for what five months,

if that in the end.

After leaving Dortmund.

But I think how culturally significant he is,

particularly back in Germany, is really interesting.

And when you think about him particularly taking

on the Germany job,

it's easy to forget that he was a massive cultural figure

before he was even the Dortmund manager,

not just because of his loyalty to minds,

but because of his punditry during the 2006 World Cup,

and like people thought, wow, this guy, he's fun, isn't he?

And that really was the start of the legend of Klopp,

in like wider football fandom, I suppose.

But it's interesting here in Dortmund,

Hansi Flick speaking last week about how Barcelona's his last job,

and once he's done with Barcelona, he's done with coaching.

Now again, I think if you look down,

I mean, he's done less years Klopp coaching than Klopp,

but he will have finished only doing a couple of clubs.

But I think it's indicative of how much he put into it.

I mean, a couple of people, like I spoke to after that,

said, Hansi Flick's like 61.

I can't believe he's 61.

He looks incredible, but he looks incredible

because he's not really coached like 20 years of club football.

And if he had, he'd be looking like exhausted, I think.

I think that is a good thing.

And like what Klopp has done,

I'm not saying this is necessarily influencing

Hansi Flick's decision, but that sense that, you know,

there's time to enjoy your life.

There's time to enjoy your family as well.

There's time to do other stuff.

There's time to dick about playing paddle and going to a Formula One.

And that's not so different to anyone else in any job.

But I think some people get to that point

and realize they don't actually enjoy the other stuff.

That is the problem.

I think some people think they're going to enjoy retirement.

And that's true again, not just in football,

and then they actually don't,

because what they've built their whole self around

is enjoying the thing that they were doing.

Just don't talk to me about retirement.

Anyway, from who?

Never so funny.

You're not going anywhere, mate.

Forget it.

It's not loud.

This from nothing to see here on YouTube

with the two new recruits of Paul Vanna and Karni Chukameka.

How would you rate Austria's chances at the World Cup?

I think there's two parts of this question.

I don't know what you feel, Nicky,

but that there's how do you rate Austria's chances at the World Cup?

And how do you see Austria looking over the next 10 years?

Because I don't feel that either Vanna,

who could have played for Germany and Chukameka,

of course, could have played for England,

are players that will necessarily make them

step up several levels during this World Cup.

They're both players with enormous potential.

And bear in mind that

Bion wanted to keep Vanna this season.

And he said,

well, I don't think I'm going to start enough.

I'm going and went off to PSV,

which interestingly opened up the door to Leonard Carl

to become the player that he has.

So it's not only Vanna's not only responsible for his

participation at the World Cup.

He could be responsible for Leonard Carl's participation

from Germany at the World Cup,

because he's just got caught up to the squad, of course.

But Chukameka,

he is such a talented player.

I love him.

I love watching him.

And it is exactly what Dortmund need.

But as of yet,

he's not a player that you can consistently get games out of,

such as as it's been his fitness.

Remarkable thing about Kani Chukameka,

bear in mind he made his Premier League debut at 17

for Aston Villa,

and he's been at Chelsea and Dortmund since.

And everywhere he's been,

people have massively rated him.

And I'm massively rating him.

You know, he's never completed 90 minutes of first team football.

That's a major minute.

Not once, not once,

as he lasted the whole 90 minutes.

And I guess that's the thing.

How he's looked after

and what is bodies capable of

over the next four or five years.

Is such a part of this question.

Yeah, like you say,

and a question in two parts.

Austria, I mean, to an extent,

the Austrian qualification campaign itself was quite inconsistent.

Wasn't it?

You know, 10 now.

And they also nearly blew it at the end of the group.

It lost to Romania.

And they nearly didn't,

didn't go through.

And,

and do I think that they are ready to

to go and be a front runner at the World Cup?

Probably not.

To be honest with you,

I look at a team.

And I think you're still relying on Marco and Arty,

which for goals.

Not again, trying to tear him down as a player.

He's, they're all time leading score, I think.

And he's been there for such a long time.

But he is 37 and he's not someone who,

and to revert to a conversation,

PSA show,

he's not a bad player on Arty,

but he's not,

he's not the go to Z.

He's not the one who you think is going to carry you

from, from nowhere to,

to win a World Cup on his own.

So he thought he was to go.

He thought he was.

Yeah, that's true.

So,

so I,

I don't know.

I don't see them as,

as,

and they're not one of the teams

that I'm imagining,

being in the lattice age of the competition.

But also,

World Cups have their own journeys

and unexpected twists.

And sometimes part of that,

that story has to be a player

who gets called up at the last minute.

You're not expecting necessarily

to be the one who defines the whole World Cup.

So who knows?

But, but this is,

this is what Austria need

to get younger.

There's no doubt about it

because you touched on,

on out of it, Chernicki,

David Alaba,

who knows if he's ever going to get

to his proper level again.

And I think the answer is,

is, is probably no,

with,

with the fitness issues he's,

he's had in the last little while.

Look at Marcel Zabitz,

is the wrong side of,

of 30 now.

They need something new in there.

These guys have got the talent.

That's,

that's not even the,

the question.

And I think if we're basing it on fitness,

Vanna could probably make the,

the bigger difference in,

in the medium term.

I feel like,

Chukrameka personally has got

a higher ceiling as a player,

but the fitness is the question.

Especially in Ralph Ragnic team

that's going to play.

It's going to press.

It's going to bring that intensity

at the end of a season

when everyone's naked.

I think that,

that's also part of the picture as well.

Mark Onimo wants to know,

Jean-Pierre Gasparini has struggled

to establish his system at Roma this season,

Nicky,

with a club unable to fully meet

his player requirements.

But Claudia Ragnieri,

has also frequently pointed

to financial constraints as well.

Is Gasparini trying to do

too much too soon?

I think this is a really interesting topic

because I think there have been points this season

when absolutely everyone has been convinced

that Gasparini is brilliant

and has been doing the best job imaginable.

And look how vindicated Roma

and Ragnieri are in making this choice.

And then recently there has been this wobble.

And it's come at a point this season

where you don't want to have a wobble going

through the spring when you've gone

from trying to qualify for a Champions League sport

to looking increasingly like that

might not happen,

especially because other teams,

especially Korma,

are suddenly finding their form

and pulling ahead of you.

And it feels like this verdict

on Gasparini is still so perhaps unsurprisingly

because it's Rome

and Rome has always been an over-emotional city.

But it's so prone to the whims of the moment.

It's so prone to all what happened this week.

Well, that is the entire verdict

on Gasparini's time there.

I think he's dealt with some quite tricky

stuff this season.

I think for the first half of the season

they were really missing a goal scorer.

And Adam Doffbick never really fit the way

that Gasparini wants his teams to play.

He wants his teams to be very involved

and connected.

And Doffbick is more of a pure poachero

wants to be Evan Ferguson came in obviously

and just couldn't score the goals.

Gasparini liked some of what he did as a footballer,

connecting the team but he wasn't

and hasn't really ever been prolific

in front of goal and that was a problem.

And now finally the curious twist

is they get Daniel Marlin in January

who is scoring the goals.

And somehow nothing else is quite working around it.

Everything else is gone a bit off the boil.

I think when you listen to Gasparini,

it's sometimes quite hard to know

where his head is at exactly

because he even said something in February

in one press conference where he said

he was talking not for the first,

not for the first, second or third time

about the fact that he perhaps hadn't got everything

he wanted out of the transfer market yet.

And he said, and then if the club doesn't make

the Champions League you sack of the manager.

And that sounded like,

do you think this is the end?

If you don't make the Champions League

are you already planning for this come to an end?

Or is it what happened several times

during his chapter at Atlanta?

Well he's basically just letting the board know

this isn't really my fault.

I haven't got the players I want

and if you want me to deliver

what you think I can deliver,

you need to back me up.

And I think it's interesting you brought

in that Ranieri quote there,

dot in, and it sounds like Ranieri is still in his corner.

And I think that as long as he's got Ranieri

in his corner,

I'm more inclined to believe that the project goes forward

and they keep moving than not.

But it has been a difficult few weeks.

They have fallen off quite badly in the league.

And I think that what also feels quite like

another blow is getting eliminated

from the Europa League by Bologna

because that was a reasonable,

not saying they were the favourite,

but they were among the teams

that could win that competition you thought.

And that was a way into the Champions League as well.

And to lose to a club who are below you in the league

and who have lower aspirations in you in the league

from your own domestic league,

that certainly was not,

was not the ending of that competition they were looking for.

So yeah, interesting point in the gas brainy story.

I think this has twists yet to come

in the next couple of months in terms of his mentality

and the club's mentality about what the project is.

In this difficult period though,

what we are getting,

that Nikki is entertainingly cantankarous

Jan Bologna Sparini.

He's very good at that.

But it's just on a bigger scale now,

at a bigger club, isn't it?

And so you had after the win over Lecce

that they just about scratched out last weekend.

It being reported that he couldn't do his media duties afterwards

because he'd lost his voice.

And then it being reported

from various TV people that were in the tunnel.

They could hear him shouting at the team.

I'm sorry, he clearly hadn't lost his voice.

It was clearly nonsense.

But I guess I wanted to ask you like how much of his,

how much of his complaints

be they open or veiled are reasonable.

Because on one hand,

the fact that they're picking the same team again and again and again

and he's picking the same team again and again and again

does sort of explain diminishing returns.

I think we get to this point in the season.

They've looked leaky, I think, the last couple of weeks.

So the question is,

does he not have the depth

or is he making the point that he would like a better depth

because that wouldn't be something that I would put past him?

So the phrase that stuck with me

from one of his recent press conferences

was he said when he was saying about

the club needs to decide what it wants to be.

Do we want to be a Champions League team

or do we want to be a team that's bringing through under 23s?

And I think that's a completely false dichotomy

that he's created.

And I think that it's a frustrating one

because it plays into all sorts of stereotypes

that when I say stereotype,

it's not just an outside stereotype.

I think it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy

of Italian football

that not enough faith is put in young players sometimes

and it should be.

And I think that what's interesting is even this weekend,

we saw Robin Yovaz came in

and scored the winning gold against Latja,

who's one of the players they signed in January,

who might have a very bright future.

People have very high hopes for Vaz.

And I think that you are seeing now

Gaspettini giving some more room to players like Vaz

and also Busy Lee,

who's another of these young Italians

who there's been a bit of buzz around.

And I think what's interesting actually is that

I think Gaspettini needed some of his best work at Atlanta

when the board understood how to tread the line

between letting him vent,

but also just being like,

yeah, these are players you've got and they're young

and you should play them.

Because Atlanta brought through lots of great young Italian players

while he was there.

Often they were sold after a year or two for good money

and that's how the club sustained itself.

And I think that the real way forward for Roma

is probably, yeah, we bring in some signings like Marlin

who are practical signings who fit what you need

and who's gonna score those goals for you.

But also play these young players we're signing for you.

These young players you've got, they're good

and you're gonna have to use them.

And I think that Gaspettini,

it is a line to tread,

because he is cantankerous and he is not shy

of saying what he thinks in front of the cameras

or indeed to his players.

But I do think he did, again,

some of his best work at Atlanta was in chapters

when he was insisting that he couldn't possibly

achieve things with this group

where he hasn't got everything he wanted.

So yeah, the balance is between the club

and between him I think is less straightforward

than he would like to present to us, certainly.

That's a really interesting listen, guys.

But now let's go to our game of the week recommendations.

Each week we recommend a game for you to watch,

or at least each of our experts recommends a game

for you to watch the weekend.

And just as importantly, we also suggest the food, yes,

as FWD that we should be having with it.

Now we'll let you into a big secret here.

I'll tell you that we are recording this episode

on Thursday afternoon.

So we don't yet know who's going to be playing

in Europe's World Cup playoff finals.

However, through the magic of broadcast technology,

we can now find out the answers.

Over to you, Andy Brassel.

So game of the week, now I've just watched

the penalty shoot out that saw Republic Wilder

not get through.

It's got to be Sweden versus Poland.

It's a biggie.

There's no doubt about it.

In Stockholm, Sweden's getting through

despite no Alex Ezek, all down to Victor Yuckres

and his hat trick.

I knew he'd find his score in books.

So just told you.

And Robert Lewandowski and Poland, obviously two number nines,

at different ends of the career,

but we'll see which one of them gets to the state's Mexico

and Canada.

It's going to be a great game anyway.

Pretty sure about that.

Especially now the Grand Potter Train is properly rolling.

Accompleting this, obviously,

it has to be Coppola as Mr. Potter would tell you

that's the meatballs, of course,

with a bit of Lingham Berry Jam.

To go on the side, I know Mr. Adabair will approve.

And now for the big one,

did Italy make it to the final, Nikki Bandini?

Well, now that the semi-finals are done,

I am relieved that I can give you a game of the week

with Italy in it.

It will of course be their playoff final for the World Cup

away to Bosnia and Herzegovina,

who beat Wales on penalties in car.

You're absolutely dramatic ending

that I've just finished watching.

And perhaps setting up,

can I call it the Adin Jekko Derby,

after Jekko's years in Serie A,

everything he did for Roma and Inter.

I think certainly he's the familiar face for Italian football fans.

And certainly even at 40,

he has been a hugely important figure for Bosnia

all through this qualifying campaign.

Was there leading scorer in the groups

and scored their equaliser in Cardiff?

So not just there to make up the numbers.

I do think he's going to be a central figure.

I think it's going to be a very physical tough game

for Italy in Zennitzer.

Italy, kind of what we expected tonight,

there were better Northern Ireland,

they did get through.

But certainly someone in the nerve still there

and relied on that moment.

I think of just absolute quality really from tonight

to break things open.

And after that,

it felt like the breaks came off a little bit.

And obviously got the second goal

and looked a bit better towards the end.

Fort Piro is positive.

I was good after coming on.

The interesting to see if he could even get a nod.

Ahead of retake in a second leg.

We'll see if Gattusa is going to stick to his guns

or if he's ready for a gamble.

Should be a great game for food.

Don, I'm sorry.

I don't think I'm going to be able to eat next Tuesday night.

So it's just going to be a gallon of ice cream

in the fridge as my food will do the week

in case in the fridge in the freezer.

Might as well just be on the side, frankly,

because if we lose,

I'm eating all of it.

So just on stand by some ice cream

other than that too nervous to me, I think.

Well, there we go.

We now know who will be playing in this weekend's finals.

Thank you for listening to Ask OTC.

If you'd like to ask a question,

you can contact us at any time at OTC Pod.

You can also email us OTC at footballrambl.com.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks, don't you?

And thank you, Andy.

Thank you.

And we'll see you all next week.

Music

On the continent is a stack production

and part of the ACAST creation network.

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