Champions League play-offs begin, PSG shocked by Rennes + chaos in Derby D'Italia
The Totally Football Show with James Richardson
The Athletic
4.5 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jimbo is joined by the Euro crew Tom Williams, James Horncastle, Pol Ballus and Seb Stafford-Bloor to discuss the latest from football across the continent.
The Champions League play-offs are here: Tuesday night sees Galatasaray vs Juve, Benfica vs Real Madrid, Dortmund vs Atalanta and Monaco vs PSG + Wednesday is Qarabag vs Newcastle, Bodø/Glimt vs Inter, Brugge vs Atléti + Olympiacos vs Leverkusen.
All change at the top of Ligue 1 with managerless Rennes beating PSG 3-1, which meant that Lens go top after racking up their biggest ever league win, 5-0 at Paris FC.
It was a big weekend in Italy with Inter edging a chaotic Derby D’Italia and Napoli coming back from two Donyell Malen goals to draw 2-2 with Roma. The top 4 all won in Germany and in Spain, TAA is back and got an assist as Real beat Sociedad 4-1 to make it 8 wins in a row.
Plus Vermut/Vermouth and Pol's Barca 'sauce'.
Produced by Lucy Oliva and Jesse Howard.
RUNNING ORDER:
• PART 1: Moment of the week (6.24)
• PART 1a: Champions League playoffs (15.20)
• PART 2a: Serie A review - Inter win Derby D’Italia (24.25)
• PART 3a: La Liga review - Barca battered in the Copa Del Rey (37.03)
• PART 4a: Ligue 1 review - Lens go top (49.30)
• PART 5a: Bundesliga review - Top 4 all win (1.04.00)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC. |
| 0:03.2 | Totally Football Show. |
| 0:11.0 | European edition today. |
| 0:13.0 | Champions League, the playoffs, Roberto DeZerbi, the payoff. |
| 0:16.0 | Derby diTalya, Kulula Matsada, Hansi Flick and Barcer, Popp potata, with the new |
| 0:47.4 | classic lineup |
| 0:48.6 | of James Horncastle |
| 0:50.8 | Hello. |
| 0:52.1 | Tom Williams |
| 0:53.3 | Hello James Sam, staff of Bloor Hey, Jim Boy. All right. And Paul Belouse. Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Mm. Hello, hello to you, Paul. Paul and James, I was a bit late for the studio today. A little bit late. My apologies for that. Apologies, listener. |
| 1:12.9 | But you know what? |
| 1:16.0 | Sometimes, you know, cloud silver lining, etc. |
| 1:19.8 | And me not being here meant that some proper chat could develop. |
| 1:20.5 | Oh, yeah. In which we discovered that Vermute and Vermouth are not the same thing, Tom. |
| 1:26.0 | No. |
| 1:26.7 | So careful when you're ordering things. |
| 1:29.9 | Your drinks, right. |
| 1:30.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:31.5 | So, James, you've been learning how to make a Spanish omelette with vermouth, |
| 1:35.2 | vermouth, but not vermouth. |
| 1:37.9 | Yeah, I mean, it's a Paul specialty. |
| 1:40.3 | Is it Paul? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.