00:00So we're going to talk about what we actually know so far, and that is the playoffs.
00:04So you've got eight teams already good to go who qualified, and now what we're seeing is
00:07another 16 teams that are going to fight, be whittled down to eight, to join the top eight,
00:11and make the round of 16. Who are they?
00:14Monaco vs PSG. We've got a French matchup, and more specifically, the squad that built Mbappe
00:20versus the squad that developed Mbappe and turned him in to a global superstar.
00:26We've got Galatasaray vs Juventus, we've got Benfica vs Real Madrid, we've got Atlanta
00:31vs Borussia Dortmund, and Karabakh FK. Hey, the last and final true underdog in this tournament
00:38fighting to stay alive, and they're up against Newcastle. Could have been worse.
00:42Club Bruges vs Atlético Madrid, Bodo Glimt vs a team that did very well last year, that's
00:47Inter Milan, also not making it in the top eight. Interesting that they're fighting for
00:50their lives right now. And then Bayer Leverkusen vs the Greek giants of Olympiakos.
00:55You guys want to know my favorite thing about Koreatown? It's the parking!
01:00Alright, cool, we found parking. We get my favorite sandwich in LA, which is a beautiful
01:05banh mi sandwich. Alright, right next to the office, I know very well, the Parking Violations
01:12Bureau.
01:18Can I please get an Olympic?
01:19Olympic?
01:24So as the Champions League kind of enters into its knockout stage, I'm clearly rooting
01:30for the underdogs. Like, it would be cool to see a Karabakh FK from Azerbaijan, you know,
01:35get into the final, I don't know, 16 or the top eight. I mean, that would be absolutely amazing.
01:40But at the end of the day, an overarching theme that I see with this Champions League, you could
01:45feel it in the air. It is sort of this feeling of redemption. For teams like, I don't know, PSG,
01:51for example. Redemption means finally validating the project. Years of investment, superstar signings,
01:57yet the trophy somehow has always eluded them. This is about erasing that narrative for them.
02:02At Barcelona, that kind of looks a little bit differently, right? They're not trying to win
02:06their first trophy. Financial turmoil, painful European exits, a fading aura, almost, you could
02:12say. And now this younger core kind of coming in, trying to restore the identity of the club
02:17that once obviously defined this entire competition. Barcelona was the team to beat for so long.
02:23And then for a team that's been unbeaten so far, looking absolutely flawless, you have Arsenal.
02:29For them, it's about proving that they truly belong back on this stage. Again, that theme of
02:33redemption. It has been years, years away from Europe's elite. This isn't nostalgia for Arsenal.
02:39It's a statement that their return is real. Speaking of real. Let me tell you, this is the
02:46bombest sandwich in LA. All right, that's it for me here on the knockout phase of the Champions League.
02:52We'll have to see what happens. It's still a wide open field. It's a Champions League though.
02:57Nothing can happen.
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