The best action to follow this weekend
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Saturday
? Liverpool and Real Madrid will become the first sides to have met in three European Cup / Champions League Finals when their players take to the field at the Stade de France on Saturday night.
With that in mind there can be no forgetting that this is a clash between true European royalty. Real Madrid, with their 13 titles and 16 previous final appearances up against Liverpool who have six wins to their name and the experience of reaching this stage in three of the last five seasons. Even in the dugout we have Carlo Ancelotti looking to secure a record-breaking fourth title in what is his fifth final as a coach. And Jürgen Klopp looking to improve on his career record of one out of three possible wins.
Form-wise, Liverpool are unbeaten in 18 having recently won the FA Cup but did miss out on the Premier League title by a single point. Madrid have had a patchier run but that can probably be forgiven after they prevailed in that classic semi-final against Manchester City and lifted their 35th La Liga title with four rounds to spare.
?? In Australia, the A-League is set to conclude with the Championship Final between Premier Plate winners Melbourne City and relative upstarts Western United. The former are the defending champions and boast the league’s golden boot, Jaime Maclaren, in their ranks but they only finished the regular season four points clear of Saturday’s opponents.
Western United are playing just their third season as a club and they continued to upset the odds in the play-offs – ending the 16-game unbeaten run of Melbourne Victory at the semi-final stage. Serbian striker Aleksandar Prijović scored twice and provided an assist in that win so watch out for him.
Sunday
??????? Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest meet in what some say is the richest game in English football – the Play-off final that rewards the winner with a place in the promised land of the Premier League.
For Forest, it’s a chance to get back to where they feel they belong with the former European Champions having not played top flight football since 1999. Huddersfield’s one and only stint in the Premier League (under it’s current guise) came with a two-season spell between 2017 and 2019.
Their head-to-head record in the regular season reads one win each in the league with both sides winning away from home. They also met in the FA Cup Fifth Round in a game won by Forest.
? The U17 European Championships have been taking place in Israel over the past few weeks and the tournament reaches the semi-final stage on Sunday. Having won the last two editions that were run, in the pre-pandemic world of 2018 and 2019, Netherlands will no doubt start as favourites when they take on Serbia.
On the other side of the draw, France meet Portugal. This one may be too close to call after their respective victories over Germany and Spain in the last round.
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Cover Image from IMAGO