23
Oct
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

After a busy week of Champions League, Europa League and games in other continental competitions like the Copa Libertadores and CONCACAF League, what you really need is another mental weekend of football to keep you going! And if the games on offer over the next couple of days don’t catch your imagination, then do you even like the sport!?

Here’s our preview of the best FotMob has to offer. ⬇️

🍽 Friday Night

Tonight is one of those rare Friday evenings where each of Europe’s top five leagues serves us up an early treat to kick things off. And in the Premier League, that means we get to enjoy the meeting of in-form Aston Villa and newly promoted Leeds United.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 In England’s Championship, we have one of the football league’s biggest derbies outside of the top flight as Nottingham Forest face off against Derby County. Just 16 miles separates the two grand old rivals in the East Midlands.

🏆 Elsewhere, one of the CAF Champions League Semi-Finals will reach a conclusion as Egyptian title holders, Al Ahly host Wydad Casablanca looking to defend a 2-0 advantage from the 1st leg.

The other Semi-Final between Zamalek and Raja Casablanca has been postponed due to eight positive coronavirus cases in the Moroccan club’s 1st team squad.

🔥 Saturday

🇪🇸 There’s only one place to start tomorrow and that’s the prospect of El Clásico as Barcelona and Real Madrid play at Camp Nou. And don’t worry, unlike the last time the sides met at the home of Barcelona – the FotMob office won’t be in attendance so don’t expect a repeat of the first goalless draw in this fixture for 17 years that we saw!

🇩🇪 It’s also derby day in the Bundesliga as struggling Schalke go to Revierderby rivals, Borussia Dortmund still looking for their first win of the new campaign.

Meanwhile, Bayern München are at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. The Champions have already scored 17 times in just four Bundesliga games so far this season.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The Premier League also looks lively tomorrow with four of the so-called big 6 all in action. Manchester United and Chelsea play each other whilst Manchester City start proceedings at West Ham and Liverpool’s game against Sheffield United bookends the day.

🇺🇸 And we’re also looking forward to the Conference Finals over in the USL Championship. Post-season has lived up to it’s billing in the United States’ second-tier and four top teams are left to fight over first, their local Conference and then the Championship.

In the East, Louisville City look to win their 4th straight title against Florida’s Tampa Bay Rowdies, whist in the West, El Paso Locomotive have the chance to avenge their defeat at this stage last year when they play Phoenix Rising.

🛌 Sunday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rounding off the weekend in style, Premier League leaders Everton go to Southampton whilst Arsenal entertain Leicester City with both clubs looking to kick on following positive results in the Europa League during mid-week.

🇪🇸 The two sides at the top of La Liga going into the weekend also won in Europe on Thursday night, with Villarreal (2nd) enjoying a particularly eventful game against Turkish club Sivasspor. They must recover in time for their away game at Cádiz before Real Sociedad take on another of the promoted sides, Huesca at home.

🇮🇹 In Serie A, Juventus – unbeaten but perhaps not having hit real form just yet have a home game against Hellas Verona and Napoli, big winners over Atalanta last weekend now meet Pippo Inzaghi’s Benevento.

🇺🇸 Last but by no means least, the MLS – never to be outdone by goings on elsewhere throws up one its biggest derbies with another edition of El Tráfico – the game between LAFC and LA Galaxy. The away side are rock bottom of the Western Conference but that didn’t stop them beating their modern rivals when they last met back in September.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
16
Oct
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

If we could sum up this weekend’s football in just three words, those words would be; busy, busy and busy. The upcoming fixtures have been squeezed in between the international break and for Europe at least, the start of the Champions League and Europa League group stages – the result being that all the big teams are in action over the next couple of days. With the vast majority playing on Saturday.

And just to add some spice to the mix, there are massive derby games here, there and everywhere!

🍽 Friday Night

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 But as is traditional, we start a mad weekend with something a little gentler. Not that anyone can really call the rush of England’s super-competitive second tier, the EFL Championship particularly gentle. Derby County take on recently relegated, Watford in the Friday night game.

🇫🇷 Moving to France, the champions and dominant force, PSG are in action against Nîmes tonight. The home side sat only one place above the relegation zone when French football stopped earlier in the year but have started better this season, with Nîmes currently safe in mid-table obscurity. And they could advantage of PSG’s player shortage – with Thomas Tuchel reporting that he had just 11 players available for selection.

🔥 Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tomorrow’s Premier League action kicks off with one of the biggest games of all as Everton meet Liverpool in the Merseyside Derby. And for once, despite their appalling recent record against their rivals – Everton don’t start as massive underdogs. Unbeaten, and sitting pretty at the top of the table, could we see a first Derby day win in 10 years for the blue half of the city?

As if that wasn’t enough we also get Manchester City vs. Arsenal which in itself, sandwiches the games between Chelsea and Southampton and Manchester United’s trip to Newcastle. 🔥

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 North of the border, there’s another of football’s classic match-ups as Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers meet in the Old Firm Derby. As usual, Scotland’s two biggest clubs sit 1st and 2nd in the league but despite this game falling relatively early in the season, it will go some way to determining where the next title ends up.

🇮🇹 The Derby day feel doesn’t let up away from the UK either as Inter go up against Milan in the Serie A stadium they share. Here’s a little preview of that one.

And in a quirk of the fixture computer – whoever loses that game will get the chance for revenge in the women’s Serie A derby, which takes place on Sunday!

Elsewhere in Serie A – the early season pace setters – Atalanta, who’ve scored 4 or more in each of their games so far play Napoli. And a Ronaldo-less Juventus face Crotone.

🇪🇸 In La Liga, all the big boys are in action – League leaders Real Madrid host Cádiz whilst rivals Barça go to Getafe and Atlético are at Celta Vigo.

🇩🇪 The same is the case in the Bundesliga as last season’s top three all play away – Dortmund travel to Hoffenheim whilst RB Leipzig face Augsburg and treble-holders Bayern visit promoted side Arminia Bielefeld.

🛌 Sunday

🏆 In African football, the much delayed CAF Champions League Semi-Finals finally take place over the weekend. And on Sunday, we see Raja Casablanca face Zamalek in a clash between the side who recently claimed the Moroccan title against the side who were just pipped to the Egyptian crown last month.

Whoever comes through that game will play the winners of the earlier Semi between Wydad Casablanca and Egyptian champions, Al Ahly taking place on Saturday evening. With both ties between big domestic rivals, we stand a decent chance of seeing a MASSIVE derby in the Final.

And if it comes down to either an all-Casablanca or all-Cairo clash, it only adds extra drama to their respective title battles back home.

🇪🇸 Sunday is a busy old day in Spain where six top flight games take place, headlined by the clash between Real Betis and Real Sociedad – the sides sat 2nd and 3rd going into the weekend.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 There’s yet more grudge matches in England – with Tottenham Hotspur vs. West Ham United and Crystal Palace vs. Brighton & Hove Albion two of four Premier League games on offer.

And here’s Two Girls Talk Balls with their preview of a WSL weekend that also includes a derby between London rivals:

“The first game of the weekend sees Manchester United play a struggling West Ham, where Stoney will look for the Red Devils to continue their run of form. Another tie to keep an eye on is Bristol vs. Birmingham City, a fixture where both teams will fancy their chances at taking all three points. And last, but certainly not least, is the stand-out game of the weekend: The North London Derby. Top of the table Arsenal play host to Spurs, who may look to capitalise on the Gunner’s string of injuries. And, will the wait finally be over to see Alex Morgan play in the WSL?“

🇷🇸 And one of the biggest, most spiteful derbies of all in European football takes place between Partizan and Red Star in Belgrade.

Last time out, Partizan got over the disappointment of watching their rivals win the league by beating Red Star in the Serbian Cup Final.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
09
Oct
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

International football takes priority this weekend with either friendlies, World Cup Qualifiers or the UEFA Nations League dominating the schedule in the app.

In this article, we’ll preview the best of what’s on offer and give you a little reminder for any key domestic matches still taking place around the world.

🍽 Friday Night

🌐 There’s an easing in period for the action this weekend and with little top flight competitive football on around the world, we do have the consolation of the CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers.

Always a mad format to the uninitiated, all the big footballing nations of South America play each other home and away in a league format with the top 4 guaranteed progression to the 2022 World Cup whilst a fifth goes on to an Inter-Continental play-off.

Colombia play Venezuela in the tropical heat of Barranquilla before Brazil kick off their qualification campaign at home to Bolivia in São Paulo.

🇵🇱 Meanwhile in domestic football, perhaps the biggest game taking place tonight comes in the Polish Super Cup where Legia Warsaw meet old rivals Cracovia.

🔥 Saturday

🌐 In international action, the latest round of the UEFA Nations League kicks off with seven games across the four tiers of competition.

Group 4 of League A is perhaps the most competitive of the all the mini-leagues within this colossal competition – as tomorrow’s fixtures suggest. Germany, who’ve yet to win in the Nations League play away in Ukraine whilst Spain host Switzerland looking to take control of the group table they currently lead.

🇺🇸 The play-offs in the USL Championship, officially the second level of professional football in the United States begin on Saturday, with 16 teams having progressed to this year’s post-season.

With the usual format tweaked this year, the sides have mostly been playing multiple games against the same opposition in regionalised groups up to this point so this could be the first true test for a few of them.

🛌 Sunday

🌐 Sunday’s main focus will no doubt be the games in the UEFA Nations League, so here’s a selection of just a few of the matches set to take place.

In League A, Group 3 gives us a clash between the current World Champions and European Champions – France vs. Portugal. And in Group 2, England take on Belgium, the side ranked number 1 in the world by FIFA.

Dropping to League B, Ireland meet Wales in an intriguing game at the Aviva Stadium whilst two sides successful in the midweek play-offs for next years’ Euros – Serbia and Hungary play in Group 3.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Away from international football and to England, where a host of the best international female players now find themselves – the Women’s Super League marches on as normal this weekend. And in the pick of the games, Manchester City go to Chelsea for the first league meeting between the sides since the cancellation of the last WSL season. City had led the table at that time only for Chelsea to be awarded the title.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
02
Oct
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

Welcome to our weekly guide to all the key football action coming up across the weekend. There’s no time for pleasantries today though because the big games are coming up thick and fast. Let’s get into it!

🍽 Friday Night

🇫🇷 PSG kick things off under the lights at the Parc des Princes – with Angers the visitors. The three-time consecutive Ligue 1 champions have recovered from their post-Champions League Final hangover and look to be getting back to their free-scoring best.

🇮🇹 Serie A provides us with a fixture that would have been right up there in the glory days of the 1990s when Serie A ruled the waves in European football. We think the league is on its way back but nevertheless, Fiorentina vs. Sampdoria will always have a nostalgic ring to it.

🇩🇪 There’s also Friday night action in the Bundesliga as Mainz go to Union Berlin. Neither side have won a game so far this season but we won’t let that put us off giving the contest a little nod here!

🇺🇸 And in the US, the Fall Championship Final takes place in the NISA League. Two cult clubs – Oakland Roots and Detroit City will meet to decide this season’s winner.

🔥 Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The weekend’s Premier League action gets under way with Chelsea against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge. There are three further fixtures – including the impressive new-look Everton, at home to Brighton and Marcelo Bielsa’s buccaneering Leeds, who take on Manchester City.

Further down the pyramid, the English non-league side that we sponsor – Hampton and Richmond Borough finally begin their season with an FA Cup Qualifier. So we’ll take this opportunity to wish good luck to the Beavers!

🇪🇸 In La Liga, Saturday provides at least two attractive sounding contests as Atlético entertain Villarreal and surprise league leaders, Getafe visit Real Sociedad.

🇩🇪 There’s a derby game in the Bundesliga with Borussia Mönchengladbach making the 27 mile journey to rivals FC Köln.

In a busy day for German football RB Leipzig face Schalke, who sacked coach David Wagner just two games into the new season and Borussia Dortmund host Freiburg looking to bounce back from their midweek defeat to Bayern in the Super Cup.

🇧🇷 It’s also derby-day in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre as old rivals, Grêmio play Internacional meet in the league. In a quirk of South American football, the two clubs are in the same group of the Copa Libertadores, the continent’s most famous tournament and faced each other just last week.

That game finished 1-0 to Grêmio but the earlier contest in the tournament ended in a mass brawl that saw four players from each team receive their marching orders.

🇶🇦 The Western side of the AFC Champions League comes to a close in Qatar, with a semi-final for Asia’s biggest club prize. Saudi club, Al Nassr will fight it out with Persepolis, Iran’s most successful side to decide who will go on to face the winners of the Eastern side of the draw.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Back in England, Two Girls Talk Balls are back to preview all the action in the booming Women’s Super League:

“This weekend we see the WSL return, following the international break and some lively FA Cup ties. Aston Villa and Everton kick us off with an early Saturday start where Villa will look to put some points on the board. Chelsea will want to get back to winning ways, however they face Carla Ward’s fight-back Birmingham.
Further up north we see Spurs visit Manchester City, where watchful eyes will hopefully be on an Alex Morgan debut, rather than her benched water bottle. And will the American uprising continue over at Leigh Sports Village? Fans (unless you support Brighton) will hope to see Heath and Press don the Manchester United jersey for the first time.”

🛌 Sunday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sunday is a bumper day in the Premier League with no less than SIX games lined up! Early leaders Leicester start things off versus West Ham whilst the headline acts come from José Mourinho, who takes his Spurs side back to Manchester United and later still, the champions are at Aston Villa.

🇪🇸 La Liga’s two most famous sides go on Sunday with Real Madrid facing Levante and Barcelona up against Europa League winners Sevilla.

Meanwhile, on the opening weekend of the Primera Iberdrola there’s the first Clásico of the new era as Barcelona’s women’s side go to Real Madrid for the first time since the home side were allowed to appear in the league under the club’s name.

🇩🇪 Newly crowned Super Cup winners and now holders of five major honours – plus a host of individual player awards given out by UEFA this week, Bayern München and their heaving trophy cabinet host Hertha on Sunday afternoon.

🇮🇹 Lastly, there’s a lively end to the weekend in Serie A. Juventus may have run up 9 league titles in a row but more often than not in recent years, it’s been Napoli who’ve come closed to knocking the Old Lady off of her perch. And they get a chance to do that again when Napoli visit Turin on Sunday night. Before that we’ll also have the meeting between the sides who finished second and fourth last season as Inter go to Lazio.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
01
Oct
2020
Follow the #UCL draw live!

Follow the #UCL draw live!

Join us over on Twitter as we live tweet the draw for the Champions League Group Stages.

Click – here to follow!

Posted by Bill Biss
25
Sep
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

Now we’re talking – all of the app’s most popular teams and all the top leagues are in action this weekend, bar maybe Liverpool and Arsenal. But you’ll only have to wait until Monday night for the spectacle of a game between the two in the Premier League!

For now then, let’s get back to the weekend as we bring you the FotMob guide to the best football taking place anywhere in the world over the coming days.

🍽 Friday Night

🇩🇪 The Bundesliga weekend begins with Eintracht Frankfurt’s trip to Hertha. The sides finished 9th and 10th last season but Hertha came racing out of the blocks in the opening round of this campaign – putting 4 past Wolfsburg away.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 And tonight in England, there’s EFL Championship action in the guise of Huddersfield Town vs. Nottingham Forest. Both sides have lost their two games so far, conceding the same amount of goals across two weekends so something has to give tonight, surely!

🇺🇸 Over the US, we’ve been keenly following the NISA League – a league we’ve partnered with to bring this season’s games into the app. And tonight’s meeting between Chattanooga and New York Cosmos promises to be a good one.

🔥 Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 There’s four Premier League games coming up tomorrow, with the action starting at Brighton, where Manchester United are the visitors. West Bromwich Albion’s return to the Premier League has seen them lose both their opening games, so they’ll be looking for an improved result against Chelsea.

☕️ Elsewhere in England, we welcome back our friends at Two Girls Talk Balls with their pick for this weekend:

“We see the return of domestic football as the Women’s FA Cup reaches the quarter-final stage after being postponed last season. There is a huge North London Derby to kicks things off on Saturday with rumours still rife that it could be Alex Morgan’s debut for Spurs. If that’s the case then it’s certainly not to be missed.”

🇮🇹 Inter return to Serie A action for the first time since their defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League Final and having added Arturo Vidal to a squad that has already been reinforced considerably over the break, the side from Milan will be looking to launch another title challenge with victory over Fiorentina.

🇪🇸 Real Betis have been impressive in La Liga so far, with three of the side who beat Valladolid last weekend making it into our team of the week. Now, the other side from Seville face a stiffer test as Real Madrid come to town.

🇩🇪 In Germany, our Norwegian hearts will only have eyes for the fixtures involving our current international front-pairing of Erling Haaland and Alexander Sørloth!

Haaland’s Dortmund play Augsburg whilst Sørloth could feature in his first game since his midweek move to RB Leipzig, who take on Leverkusen.

The last four fixtures between Augsburg and Dortmund have averaged 6 goals a game so fingers crossed that one lives up to recent history!

🛌 Sunday

🇪🇸 La Liga looks lively on Sunday, not least because it’s the first opportunity to see Barcelona in action since the summer. Ronald Koeman’s semi-refreshed, or at least much changed squad play Villarreal whilst elsewhere, Atlético Madrid also return with a home game against unlikely league leaders Granada.

🇹🇷 Sunday sees one of Europe’s most fiercely contested derby games take place in Turkey. In fact, it’s bigger than that – Galatasaray vs. Fenerbahçe is known as the Intercontinental Derby with the two sides hailing from either side of the Bosporus straight that divides the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.

🇩🇪 German champions Bayern visit Hoffenheim with the home side no doubt praying for a slightly easier ride than Schalke received from Bayern in last weekend’s opening round.

🇧🇷 Lastly, the two most recent champions of the Brasileiro, Palmeiras and Flamengo meet on Sunday evening in São Paulo. The sides are separated by just a point in the table this year but could close the gap on surprise leaders, Atlético Goianiense with a win over their Big 12 rivals.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
18
Sep
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

With all five of Europe’s big leagues back in action and football being played on almost every continent, this weekend might feel somewhere close to business as normal.

From today onwards we all get to enjoy the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Premier League with 100s of other games from leagues around the globe also filling up your matches tab.

And here, we preview the best of what’s coming up.

🍽 Friday Night

🇩🇪 As you probably know already – the Bundesliga is back! And tonight’s curtain raiser is a chance for Germany’s top division to celebrate last season’s champions and now Champions League winners, Bayern Munich as they take on Schalke at the Allianz Arena.

🇫🇷 In France, Lyon have been picked for the live Friday night slot on TV for the third Friday in a row! Tonight, they host Nimes – the surprise package of the 2019/20 season. Both sides do however, have only one win to their name so far this season.

🇵🇹 Another league coming back to the app is the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Here, Benfica who are probably still licking their wounds from a surprise defeat to Greek champions PAOK in the Champions League qualifiers during the week start their campaign at Famalicão.

🇺🇸 And in MLS, the games between Seattle Sounders and LAFC should guarantee us some goals! Last time out, the MLS Cup holders smashed in seven against San Jose whilst LAFC found some form as they scored four in their win over Portland Timbers.

🔥 Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tomorrow is a busy day in the Premier League with Manchester United set to return from their extended rest against Crystal Palace and the recently inspired looking, Arsenal hosting West Ham United. There’s also a chance for Everton to improve their shooting stats with the Toffees playing West Bromwich Albion. In last weekend’s win over Spurs, Everton had a grand total of 9 shots off-target!

🇮🇹 The new Serie A season starts somewhat slowly in Italy with Saturday featuring just two games – Fiorentina welcome Torino to Florence whilst AS Roma go to Hellas Verona.

🇩🇪 On day two of the new Bundesliga, there’s a Borussen Derby to look forward to – a rivalry between two sides bonded by reasonable proximity but mainly because they both chose the word Borussia for their club name! Borussia Dortmund vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach also happens to be a clash between the teams that finished second and fourth in 2019/20.

🇨🇦 For just over a month, the eight sides that make up the Canadian Premier League have been playing in the Island Games – a condensed, bubble like tournament that has formed the league’s second season of existence. And on Saturday, it’s come down to a final between defending champions, Forge FC and HFX Wanderers.

The winners will go on to contest the Canadian Championship, the country’s long running Cup competition against Toronto FC and compete in next year’s CONCACAF League.

🛌 Sunday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The new Premier League season gives us a proper Super Sunday this week, with four games spread across the day.

Spurs go to Southampton, Newcastle United entertain Brighton and Leicester play Burnley but the undoubted main event sees the champions Liverpool meet Chelsea for a grudge match in London.

🇪🇸 In something we’re going to start calling the Martin Ødegaard Clasico (suggestions for a better name welcome) Real Madrid will feature for the first time since the return of La Liga. And coach Zinedine Zidane, who cancelled Ødegaard’s two season loan deal to Real Sociedad precisely because he did so well in his first season may now use the Norwegian himself as his side start their campaign at Sociedad.

🇮🇹 And with Sunday the traditional day of action in Serie A, Juventus vs. Sampdoria headlines the opening round of fixtures. The Champions will look to start strong as they set their sights on a TENTH straight title.

🇰🇷 South Korea’s K League reaches it’s final regular season round with the title still very much on the line! Ahead of five further games that will take place after the league split, just two points separates leaders Ulsan Hyundai from last year’s winners, Jeonbuk. That’s following the midweek meeting between the two that ended in a 2-1 win for the chasers.

On Sunday, Ulsan head to Incheon – a side who need points themselves as they bid to avoid relegation whilst Jeonbuk are at home to Busan IPark.

🚨 And there’s a mini-Derby Day feel to Sunday in Scandinavia with AIK playing Hammarby in Stockholm, capital of Sweden whilst further south, Denmark’s most tempestuous rivals, FC København and Brøndby face off in the Superligaen.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
11
Sep
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

Whether you’ve had the date circled in your diary for a while now or this has all just come around a little too fast for you – there can be no denying that club football is well and truly back on the agenda this weekend.

And we’re here to help you make sense of it all!

🍽 Friday Night

🇫🇷 In France, the Ligue 1 season resumes at Matchday 3 following the international break and Lyon travel west to meet Bordeaux, with both sides unbeaten so far. Although they may have to make do without Barcelona target, Memphis Depay who was integral to their latest league win.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Professional league football also starts up again in England, with the EFL Championship the first of the top four divisions to get underway. Watford, still smarting from their Premier League relegation will be looking to start well against a Middlesbrough team who suffered their own issues last season, before recovering to finish 17th.

🇩🇪 Meanwhile, some of Germany’s top flight sides face an early season test in the country’s main cup competition, the DFB Pokal. Unlike it’s equivalents in other countries – the big boys from the Bundesliga get thrown in at the very first stage with a guaranteed away tie at just about anyone from the lower echelons of German football. For example, in tonight’s match-ups Hertha Berlin travel to third tier side, Eintracht Braunschweig whilst Mainz go to TSV Havelse from the regional 4th tier.

And there is precedent for the small teams going a long way in the competition, with Saarbrücken making it to the semi-finals just a few months ago.

🔥 Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 In what is probably the main event of the weekend, Saturday sees the launch of the new Premier League season. And despite some teams sitting out this weekend due to their exploits in Europe, we still have Arsenal kicking things off just across London at Fulham AND there’s the prospect of the Champions, Liverpool taking on Leeds United in what will be the Yorkshire club’s first match back in the top flight since 2004.

Marcelo Bielsa leading a resurgent Leeds, at Anfield against the best of the best in his first ever Premier League game. We’re up for that!

🇪🇸 La Liga also returns with the pick of the opening day games coming between between Granada and Athletic Bilbao. Yes these sides may have ‘only’ finished 7th and 11th in the table last season but you’ll have to wait another week for the return of the league’s big hitters. Just like in England, Spain’s best performing sides in the Champions League and Europa League have been given some extra time to rest.

🇭🇷 Elsewhere, in Croatia there is an Eternal Derby to look forward to with Hajduk Split taking on arch-rivals Dinamo Zagreb. Always heated this one.

🇬🇷 And we previewed this one when the game was originally scheduled a couple of weekends ago, but we should finally get the Greek Cup Final between AEK Athens and reigning league champions, Olympiacos. Remember, AEK Athens are on an amazing run having reached the final in each of the last five seasons…but they have lost the last 3.

🛌 Sunday

🇫🇷 There would never be a good time for seven of your first team players to test positive for coronavirus but that’s where French giants PSG find themselves in the week when they continue their latest title defence with the biggest game of them all in Ligue 1 – La Classique against Marseille.

In a rivalry that transcends football, Sunday’s clash will see PSG without the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Ángel Di María.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sunday’s Premier League action includes an early opportunity to see if Everton’s marquee signing, James Rodríguez can make an immediate impact on his debut against Tottenham Hotspur.

🇷🇺 It’s Derby Day in Moscow as CSKA, historically the team of the military in the days of the former Soviet Union meet Spartak, the people’s team originally founded by a trade union organisation.

🇳🇱 And finally, this weekend also marks the return of the Dutch Eredivisie. Reigning champions Ajax go to Sparta Rotterdam in Sunday’s main game but for the romantics among you, make sure you check the score between FC Groningen and league big boys, PSV Eindhoven.

As you probably know, Arjen Robben came out of retirement to re-join his boyhood club over the summer break and his comeback is dovetailing nicely with the season start. He scored in Groningen’s final friendly last weekend, but can he reproduce it on Sunday? 🤔

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss
05
Sep
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

The UEFA Nations League dominates proceedings this weekend and over the next couple of days there’s plenty of opportunity to see who’s looking good in their brand new international strip and more importantly, how fit your favourite stars are ahead of the new club football season.

And of course, we’ll be bringing you our tips from those domestic leagues that are already in full flow.

🍽 Friday Night

🌐 In international action, there’s a number of tasty looking games tonight, with Italy facing Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands vs. Poland both taking place in League A, the top tier of the UEFA Nations League.

Lower down the food chain in League B, we will of course be rooting for our much hyped generation of Norwegian talent as we play Austria in Oslo.

And for fans of European political history there’s the game between both sides of what was formally Czechoslovakia – Slovakia vs. Czech Republic.

🇽🇰 At U21 level, there is also a raft of qualifiers for the next junior European Championships set to be held in Hungary and Slovenia in 2021. England’s young lions go to Kosovo as they bid to maintain their stranglehold on Group 3.

🇸🇦 And in club football, there’s a meeting between two of the Saudi Professional League’s biggest sides; Al Ittihad and Al Nassr.

🔥 Saturday

🌐 Moving to tomorrow’s packed schedule, the Nations League provides games with some serious pedigree.

World champions France are in Sweden whilst in the same group in League A, Portugal – the inaugural winners of the competition will surely be tested by World Cup runners-up, Croatia.

And elsewhere, England will be looking to exorcise some old demons as they travel to Reykjavík to meet Iceland, the side who famously knocked them out of Euro 2016.

🇮🇪 Back in domestic action, it’s Derby Day in the League of Ireland where Shamrock Rovers go up against old foes Bohemians. And it’s not the only time the club will be playing a side famous for their red and black stripes this month with Rovers having drawn Serie A giants, Milan in the next round of Europa League qualifying!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 And in England, the Women’s Super League has been making a lot of noise in the build-up to the start of their new season. World Cup winners, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis have joined up with Manchester City whilst reigning champions Chelsea snapped up Danish international and Wolfsburg legend, Pernille Harder. With other world stars already plying their trade in the league and England internationals like Rachel Daly returning home amid rumours of similar news regarding Champions League winners Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood, we’ve got ourselves a serious season on the cards!

Who better to ask what we should be looking out for this weekend, than our friends at the Two Girls Talk Balls Podcast:

The WSL makes its long awaited return this weekend after a curtailed ending last season. On Saturday, Aston Villa host Manchester City following their promotion from the Championship. However, all eyes will be on Sunday’s Manchester United vs. Chelsea match as the Casey Stoney vs. Emma Hayes battle recommences. United pushed them close last season, they’ll be desperate to go one better this time around.

🛌 Sunday

🌐 In the Nations League, Sunday will see Spain and Germany look to build on / get over the disappointment of Thursday’s 1-1 draw between the two, where a 96th minute equaliser from Spain’s José Gayà cancelled out an earlier effort from new Chelsea signing, Timo Werner.

Spain host Ukraine, who themselves managed a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in Thursday’s other game in League A, Group 4 – with Germany now travelling to face the Swiss in Basel.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sunday is a significant day for EFL Championship side Brentford as they play the first competitive game at their new stadium in West London, a Carabao Cup tie against Wycombe Wanderers.

They hosted their first friendly there just this week.

🇺🇸 And finally, in MLS Sunday gives us another dose of not one, but two of the league’s biggest rivalries.

Barely a fortnight after the club’s last met – MLS Cup holders Seattle Sounders look to do the double over Portland Timbers and LA Galaxy continue their so called El Tráfico beef with LAFC.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Curt Baker in TestingBelgium
04
Sep
2020
This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

This Weekend: Everything you need to know in 5 minutes

The UEFA Nations League dominates proceedings this weekend and over the next couple of days there’s plenty of opportunity to see who’s looking good in their brand new international strip and more importantly, how fit your favourite stars are ahead of the new club football season.

And of course, we’ll be bringing you our tips from those domestic leagues that are already in full flow.

🍽 Friday Night

🌐 In international action, there’s a number of tasty looking games tonight, with Italy facing Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands vs. Poland both taking place in League A, the top tier of the UEFA Nations League.

Lower down the food chain in League B, we will of course be rooting for our much hyped generation of Norwegian talent as we play Austria in Oslo.

And for fans of European political history there’s the game between both sides of what was formally Czechoslovakia – Slovakia vs. Czech Republic.

🇽🇰 At U21 level, there is also a raft of qualifiers for the next junior European Championships set to be held in Hungary and Slovenia in 2021. England’s young lions go to Kosovo as they bid to maintain their stranglehold on Group 3.

🇸🇦 And in club football, there’s a meeting between two of the Saudi Professional League’s biggest sides; Al Ittihad and Al Nassr.

🔥 Saturday

🌐 Moving to tomorrow’s packed schedule, the Nations League provides games with some serious pedigree.

World champions France are in Sweden whilst in the same group in League A, Portugal – the inaugural winners of the competition will surely be tested by World Cup runners-up, Croatia.

And elsewhere, England will be looking to exorcise some old demons as they travel to Reykjavík to meet Iceland, the side who famously knocked them out of Euro 2016.

🇮🇪 Back in domestic action, it’s Derby Day in the League of Ireland where Shamrock Rovers go up against old foes Bohemians. And it’s not the only time the club will be playing a side famous for their red and black stripes this month with Rovers having drawn Serie A giants, Milan in the next round of Europa League qualifying!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 And in England, the Women’s Super League has been making a lot of noise in the build-up to the start of their new season. World Cup winners, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis have joined up with Manchester City whilst reigning champions Chelsea snapped up Danish international and Wolfsburg legend, Pernille Harder. With other world stars already plying their trade in the league and England internationals like Rachel Daly returning home amid rumours of similar news regarding Champions League winners Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood, we’ve got ourselves a serious season on the cards!

Who better to ask what we should be looking out for this weekend, than our friends at the Two Girls Talk Balls Podcast:

The WSL makes its long awaited return this weekend after a curtailed ending last season. On Saturday, Aston Villa host Manchester City following their promotion from the Championship. However, all eyes will be on Sunday’s Manchester United vs. Chelsea match as the Casey Stoney vs. Emma Hayes battle recommences. United pushed them close last season, they’ll be desperate to go one better this time around.

🛌 Sunday

🌐 In the Nations League, Sunday will see Spain and Germany look to build on / get over the disappointment of Thursday’s 1-1 draw between the two, where a 96th minute equaliser from Spain’s José Gayà cancelled out an earlier effort from new Chelsea signing, Timo Werner.

Spain host Ukraine, who themselves managed a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in Thursday’s other game in League A, Group 4 – with Germany now travelling to face the Swiss in Basel.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sunday is a significant day for EFL Championship side Brentford as they play the first competitive game at their new stadium in West London, a Carabao Cup tie against Wycombe Wanderers.

They hosted their first friendly there just this week.

🇺🇸 And finally, in MLS Sunday gives us another dose of not one, but two of the league’s biggest rivalries.

Barely a fortnight after the club’s last met – MLS Cup holders Seattle Sounders look to do the double over Portland Timbers and LA Galaxy continue their so called El Tráfico beef with LAFC.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Posted by Bill Biss