Whether you’re looking for a tasty looking tie to watch in one of Europe’s top leagues or fancy following something more obscure, we’re here every Friday, selecting the best games FotMob has to offer over the weekend.
? Friday Night
?? Tonight starts with a sense of calm ahead of a weekend full of big derby energy. In La Liga, we get the meeting between Valencia (14th) and Villarreal (7th).
This should be a run-of-the-mill mid-table clash but there is little love between the clubs following Villarreal’s signing of Valencia’s long-term captain, Dani Parejo at the start of the season. Parejo spent nearly a decade at the Mestalla and was one of the highest performing players in the league last season. And we’re rating him even higher so far this season – 7.28 FotMob rating compared to 7.19 in 2019/20.
??????? Moving to the EFL Championship, in-form Cardiff City are on the road at Huddersfield Town. Since the appointment of veteran coach Mick McCarthy in January, the Welsh club have gone 10 games unbeaten and look a good outside bet to be in the play-off picture come the end of the season.
?? It’s always strangelyly captivating when a big side struggles so hard and there can be no better example than Schalke in the Bundesliga. With just one league win under their belts this season, the club appointed Dimitrios Grammozis, their 5th coach of the campaign earlier in the week and tonight they face Mainz 05, their nearest rivals in what already looks a doomed fight against relegation.
? Saturday
?? We’ll start our round-up of tomorrow’s action with a banger in the Bundesliga: Der Klassiker – Bayern München against Borussia Dortmund!
Now Dortmund may be a little inconsistent this season and they do go in to this one sitting fifth in the table but they are capable of beating anyone on their day. And they would love to land a blow on old rivals Bayern, who may well have lost top spot after RB Leipzig play earlier in the day.
?? Barcelona managed to claw their way to the final of the Copa del Rey with an extra-time victory over Sevilla during the week and after beating the same opposition in the league last weekend, they’ll be looking to keep the energy up as they hunt down La Liga leaders Atlético. To do that, Barcelona need a win at Osasuna.
?? The biggest game in Serie A tomorrow sees Juventus take on Lazio. Any lingering thoughts the away side may have had about a title shot have fallen by the wayside in recent weeks but Juventus are still very much in with a shout of retaining their crowd. Yes, they sit 10 points down on current leaders Inter but they do have a game in hand and they are set to face each other in the penultimate round of the season.
??????? The Premier League offers up four games on Saturday with perhaps the pick of the ties being Arsenal’s trip to Burnley, and what could be a vital result for both the luckless Brighton and a seemingly fading Leicester City.
?? Not to be outdone by all the big European derbies taking place over the next few days, the first clásico of the new league cup tournament in Argentina sees one of the country’s ‘cinco grades’ San Lorenzo play their nearest and not so dearest rivals Huracán.
? Sunday
??????? Moving on to another of the weekend’s biggest matches – the Premier League brings us the Manchester Derby between City and United on Sunday.
Anyone with a brain in their head will probably tell you that a win – which would be their 22nd in a row would seal the title for City. And anything less than a win for second placed United – who currently trail their rivals by 14 points also ends the title race. But with United on a club-record run without defeat away from Old Trafford, we perhaps shouldn’t discount them just yet.
Here’s what else is on in England’s top flight on Sunday:
?? Not to be outdone, La Liga brings us another potential title decider between two big city rivals. In this one we’ll see Atlético Madrid battle it out against Real Madrid.
Diego Simeone’s side have not looked as fluent in recent games but importantly, they picked up a win last weekend whilst Real could only draw. That has left them five points clear of both Barcelona and Real with a game in hand on both. But in the league at least, Atlético have failed to win a derby in nine attempts. Can they really afford to make that 10?
?? There is a real derby-day feel elsewhere in Europe on Sunday – Hammarby play AIK in Sweden, Brøndby and København go head-to-head in Denmark and Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki hosts the game between PAOK and Aris. But the game we’ve chosen to focus on is from Vienna in Austria, where our friends at The Other Bundesliga will no doubt be providing expert analysis on twitter. This one pits Austria Wien against Rapid, which is apparently the 3rd most played City derby in all of Europe.
We are teaming up with the guys behind The Other Bundesliga to bring a new project to the airwaves later this year, a podcast entitled, The Sweeper. The pod will focus on European football outside of the top five leagues, providing you with more stories that you need to know about from the lesser known footballing countries. For more info, please watch the video below and give The Sweeper a follow on social media.
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