This is Early Kick Off from the Men in Blazers media network and presented by our great friends of the pod STōK Cold Brew Coffee, all your global football stories straight from the back pages of Europe's newspapers in around 10 minutes.

On today’s episode: The Champions League playoff games kick off on Tuesday, and the big clash is Manchester City vs Real Madrid, a game between the last two European champions; we remind you of the drama of the Ballon d’Or ceremony in November; Borussia Dortmund travel to Sporting Lisbon and it’s an all-French affair between Brest and PSG; in the FA Cup fourth round, Crystal Palace sailed past Doncaster; we bring you the big ties from the fifth round draw, which includes Manchester City v Plymouth Argyle, Manchester United v Fulham, and Crystal Palace v Millwall; we preview Tuesday’s other games, including Exeter City v Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup and Wrexham v Bolton in the EFL Trophy; and the under-17s US Men’s National Team win 22-0.

Football don't sleep, and neither do we.

This episode was made in the UK for Men In Blazers by…

Host: Betty Glover

Producer: George Cooper and Sammy James

Assistant producer: Elizabeth Barnard

Researcher: Jack Collins

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