Hello and welcome to the game football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times.

Close but over the bar. Arsenal lost the Champions League final to Paris San Jaman on penalties

and on today's show. We'll be asking could they have approached the game differently?

Does the stuttering run-up work and how can Mikhail Artettus side go one better next season? We'll also discuss the huge news from Merseyside as Liverpool's sack aren't a slot, but is Andoni Iriola the right man to replace him? And we'll look at some worrying developments for Scotland and England ahead of the World Cup. I'm Tom Clark, and joining me today, we have have the senior sports writer and Sunday Times columnist

Alison Rudd, the former Millwall, Marseilles and Island striker Tony Cascarino and the former

footballer turn journalist Gregor Robertson is alongside me as usual team. Here we are. Just you can't

stop the stories, can you? You cannot stop the stories. I honestly just thought this would be a

Champions League final review, maybe a little tease to the World Cup. Maybe throw in like a mad, silly idea like I always do, end of season awards. Income Liverpool. This means more. We're a bit different. Not anymore, guys. Thankfully, we have two of Liverpool's biggest fans in journalism on the show to dissect that, but that will be coming up in part two. Let's start with the

Champions League final, Arsenal, heartbreakingly close to winning, to beating the great PSG. Let's

start with just reflections on the game, how we felt it would panned out. Gregor, you and I and Tony

discussed it in detail on Thursday. We said they had a chance, so it proved falling just short at the end.

What caught your eye in this game? It can be penalties, it can be tactics. Where do you want to

start us off? I think there's been a bit of kind of sometimes thinly veiled sometimes, not

criticism of Arsenal in the wake of this because they had I think the lowest share of the

ball of any team to have 11 men on the pitch in Michael Artetta's reign.

I think when you're playing, you're coming up against PSG who are the best team in Europe and by virtue of the world as well.

And as I said before the game, they're on the verge of greatness. I think this was the way to approach the game. The way they approached it. It was almost perfect the game plan. I mean, they got some fortune with the fact that they took the lead. It was like a fortunate deflection and then a great finish. Bit of moment of fortune. And that enabled them to really hold on to that game plan. But I think

this idea that it's like a missed opportunity because of the way they approached it is wrong.

I think they came so close to winning it. They came to within a penalty kick of winning it

the way they did. And I think sometimes in this job, like we're far too sort of reactive to

something that is that much, like half a percent. If they'd won the Champions League and they've won

a double, we'll be talking about a historic team and a team that did it their way. And I also think

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