The best matches to follow this weekend
Friday
🇮🇹 Your match feed should be brimming with big name match-ups over the next few days, not least tonight in Serie A, where leaders Napoli meet nearest rivals Juventus.
The Neapolitans boast a seven point lead but have, since the re-start, lost their unbeaten record, and found strugglers Sampdoria tough to break down in the 2-0 win last weekend. Juve have been typically pragmatic since the turn of the year, picking up consecutive 1-0 wins thanks to late goals, results that take their current winning streak to eight games. Amazingly, they’ve also kept eight straight clean sheets in that run.
Saturday
🏴 After last weekend’s FA Cup drama, it’s back to the regular Premier League schedule for England’s top flight clubs. Aston Villa face Leeds United on Friday night before a run of six games take us through Saturday.
Among the fixtures, in-form Brighton host the unpredictable Liverpool knowing that a win would see them switch places with the Reds and move in to seventh. The two played out an exciting 3-3 draw at Anfield back in October with Leandro Trossard scoring a hat-trick for the Seagulls.
There’s also a battle in the bottom three as Everton face Southampton at Goodison Park. Nathan Jones relieved some of the pressure on his new position with an unexpected Carabao Cup win over Manchester City in the week and he’ll be hoping to transfer that form to the league where the Saints haven’t won since mid-October.
But clearly the day’s biggest draw is the Manchester Derby. Pep Guardiola will undoubtably bring in more of his star players from the start for this one as City look to get back to winning ways and keep the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the table. For their part, United are aiming to win their first derby in four having conceded 12 goals in the last three meetings between these two city rivals.
🇪🇸 With the top two (plus Betis and Valencia) away in Saudi Arabia contesting the Spanish Supercopa, it’s up to third placed Real Sociedad to hold the fort in LaLiga. And fittingly, they have their biggest game of the season – the home derby against Basque rivals Athletic Club. The Bilbao side may sit down in eighth but they are unbeaten in five competitive games and have the third best goalscoring record in the division – scoring at a rate of 1.5 goals per game to Real Sociedad’s 1.4.
🇮🇹 In Serie A, defending champions Milan go to Lecce – where depending on the result of the big Friday night game – a win could take them second in the league. But they’ll need to shake off the shock of losing to Torino in the Coppa Italia during the week. Fourth placed Inter, who required extra-time to defeat Serie B side Parma in their Coppa R16 tie, now face relegation threatened Hellas Verona. That was the Nerazzurri’s fifth game without defeat.
Milan and Inter will then turn their attention to the small matter of next Wednesday’s Supercoppa, a game also being played in Saudi Arabia.
🇳🇱 The Eredivisie returned to action last weekend and both leaders Feyenoord, and three-time defending champions, Ajax, were held to 1-1 draws. That left the Amsterdam club still in need of three points to catch up with their old rivals – points that might be tough to come by with their Saturday fixture coming against FC Twente, who sit just behind them in what is a heavily congested top five. Feyenoord will look to reinstate their slender advantage when they go to Groningen on Sunday.
Sunday
🇪🇸 The format of the Spanish Supercopa – pitting last season’s league and Cup winners together with the runners-up in both competitions and taking them off to Riyadh is designed to give us a spectacle. And for the first time since moving to this format, the league have finally got what they wanted – an additional Clásico to add to the two regular league meetings between Real Madrid and eternal enemies Barcelona!
Both sides required penalty shoot-outs to get through the midweek semi-finals, with Thibaut Courtois Madrid’s hero against Valencia and Marc-André ter Stegen pulling off two crucial saves for Barça against Real Betis. That sets us up nicely for Sunday’s showdown, and gives Xavi’s Barcelona the chance to avenge October’s defeat at the Bernabéu.
🏴 The Premier League weren’t content with providing just the one derby this weekend – they’ve also lined up the North London Derby for Sunday afternoon! League leaders Arsenal travel the short distance to Tottenham Hotspur aiming to extend their current unbeaten league run to 11 games. But they’ll have to do so against a side who looked refreshed in the recent win over Crystal Palace but then only managed a 1-0 win at home against League One Portsmouth in the FA Cup. There hasn’t been a draw between these two rivals in seven previous meetings.
Elsewhere, Palace go to Stamford Bridge looking to heap more misery on Chelsea and their under-pressure coach Graham Potter. That game comes just 72 hours after the Blues lost to West London rivals Fulham for the first time since 2006.
A result that might also be bad news for Newcastle United, who now have to face a Fulham side still riding that high from Thursday night.
There’s also something of a Super Sunday in the Women’s Super League as the return of the league is headlined by the clash between the top two – Arsenal and Chelsea.
🇫🇷 World Cup winner Lionel Messi returned to the PSG line-up in the midweek round of Ligue 1 action – scoring the second in a 2-0 win over bottom side Angers. With Lens only drawing at the same time, that gave the Parisians a six point lead in the title-race – a lead they’ll want to at least maintain in Sunday’s clash with Rennes. The Breton side are themselves in the hunt for a top four finish so should provide stiff opposition.
🇵🇹 In keeping with this weekend’s theme, two of Portugal’s three super clubs – Benfica and Sporting are set to meet in the latest edition of the Derby de Lisboa. Benfica have been dominant this season, going 13 games unbeaten at the start of the league campaign and progressing from their Champions League group. They currently sit six points clear of Braga at the top of the table and will be dreaming that a win against their city rivals will take them another step closer to a first title in three years – an unusually long wait for them.
Sporting appear to have gone backwards a little after finishing first and second in the last two seasons and they currently lie down in fourth, 12 points behind the leaders.
🇧🇪 To round things up, we’ll point you in the direction of one last game of national-level interest taking place on Sunday: The battle between Belgium’s two most successful, and therefore biggest rivals – Club Brugge and Anderlecht. Neither are particularly in a rich vein of form, with three-time defending champions Cub Brugge currently on a run that has seen them win just one competitive game since October and Anderlecht, who sit 11th, fairing little better.
It’s certainly been a baptism of fire for Club Brugge’s new coach Scott Parker – he’s had to face runaway leaders Genk – a game they lost last weekend – and now arch-rivals Anderlecht in his first two games managing in a new country.
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Cover Image from IMAGO