The best matches to follow this weekend
Saturday
🇪🇸 After a mad midweek round of action in LaLiga that saw Girona smash four past Real Madrid on Tuesday, and Rayo Vallecano inflict just a third defeat of the season on leaders Barcelona the following evening, the top two feature again in Saturday’s fixtures.
The chasers, Real Madrid, are up first and have the easier game on paper, with Almería the visitors to the Bernabéu. In the evening kick-off, Barcelona take on sixth placed Real Betis. Barça’s charge towards the title has stalled somewhat in recent weeks, thanks to a run of one win in their last four but they will be keen to knock off the 11 points they need to confirm championship number 27.
🇮🇹 The city of Naples has been waiting 33 long years for another party like the one that raged when Diego Maradona last won Napoli the Serie A title back in 1990. The fans might just eclipse memories of that night over the course of this weekend but it all depends on the results of two games played on different days.
Napoli currently boast a 17-point lead in the table and a third Scudetto title will finally be theirs should they beat southern rivals Salernitana today AND Lazio drop points in tomorrow’s early kick-off at Inter.
Saturday also sees a massive game in the race for the top four as Europa League semi-finalists Roma take on Champions League semi-finalists Milan. The two are currently level on points and goal difference meaning Milan sit fourth on goals scored, and as it stands, would qualify for next season’s Champions League.
🏴 There was also a midweek round in the Premier League, meaning there appears to be a reduced number of games lined up for this afternoon. The three fixtures that remain, though, are all significant to the relegation battle. That is particularly the case for Crystal Palace and West Ham, who face each other after both suffering defeat during the week. Palace sit eight points clear of the relegation zone while the Hammers have a five point advantage on the bottom three – so a win for either side here would go a long way to securing their Premier League status.
Elsewhere, 17th placed Nottingham Forest will be looking to build on Wednesday’s surprise win over Brighton when they go to Brentford. And Wolves – who are level on points with Palace, the side they beat during the week, now face a trip south to play Brighton.
🇩🇪 The title race is going long in the Bundesliga this season, but with the main players in action on Friday night (Dortmund) and Sunday (Bayern), we’ll concentrate on two of the other main success stories in the league. And conveniently, they play each other this afternoon as third placed Union Berlin host in-form Bayer Leverkusen. The latter have been transformed following the appointment of Xabi Alonso, climbing the league table to sit sixth having lost just once in their last 10 games. Union still look to be guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League but Leverkusen are now a reasonable bet to be joining them with a top four finish.
🇫🇷 The 106th final of the Coupe de France is scheduled to take place later this evening. With France’s biggest sides falling by the wayside round after round we’re left with a situation similar to last season, when again, two unfancied, or underperforming sides, have a shot at some serious silverware. In 2022, that saw Nantes end a 20 year run without a trophy by beating Nice. This year, Nantes have again made the final – despite sitting a lowly 16th in Ligue 1 – where they will meet Toulouse, who were only promoted back to the top flight at the start of the campaign.
🏆 We also have a continental Cup final in the listings as the first leg of the 2022 AFC Champions League Final (yes, you read that right) takes place in Riyadh. Here, defending champions and the winners of the competition’s Western and Central zone, Al Hilal, face off against the J-League’s Urawa Red Diamonds, the team who has won through the Eastern zone.
As two of Asia’s most successful sides, the two are familiar foes and this match-up is a repeat of both the 2017, and 2019 finals. Urawa took the first of those, with Al Hilal winning the 2019 edition. In total, the Saudi club have four Champions League titles to their name and with home advantage in the first leg, they start as overwhelming favourites.
Sunday
🏴 Tomorrow looks a little busier in the Premier League with five games on the slate. They include an opportunity for Manchester City to leapfrog Arsenal at the top of the table. That’s if they back up Wednesday’s 4-1 thrashing of the Gunners, with victory, away at Fulham‘s Craven Cottage.
Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne ran riot in that midweek game and the Norwegian striker needs just one more goal to equal the Premier League single-season scoring record of 34 set by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer.
There are also some very intriguing games in terms of the battle for a Champions League spot. Newcastle United have scored 10 goals in their last two fixtures and look likely to heap more misery on basement side Southampton, who must be dreading their visit to St. James’ Park. Fourth meets sixth as Manchester United take on the Unai Emery-inspired form club, Aston Villa. While consistency has long been a bugbear at Old Trafford, Villa are currently unbeaten in 10 games, and now sit just six points down on United in the table.
And in the final game of the day, it’s fifth vs. seventh as interim coach Ryan Mason takes Tottenham Hotspur to Liverpool. Spurs recovered from 2-0 down to rescue a point against Manchester United in midweek but may want to exercise more caution for this away trip than they did their last – the horror show at Newcastle where they conceded five in the first 21 minutes of the game.
🇮🇹 Going back to Serie A, a reminder for you to keep an eye on the early kick-off between Inter and Lazio at the San Siro. A win for the home side, or a draw, combined with a win for Napoli on Saturday means that Napoli take the title with six games to spare.
With Inter currently outside the top four, the impetus is on them to get a result.
🏴 It’s semi-final weekend in the Scottish Cup and if today’s match up between third tier Falkirk and second tier Inverness Caledonian Thistle doesn’t get you excited (and why not?), then maybe Sunday’s fixture from the other side of the bracket will. Glasgow giants Rangers and Celtic are set to face off for what is a fifth meeting already this season, this time on the neutral ground that is the city’s Hampden Park Stadium.
Celtic are closing in on the league title and have a 13-point advantage on Rangers in the Premiership – thanks, in part, to the pulsating 3-2 win they enjoyed over their rivals earlier this month. The four previous match-ups between these two have averaged four goals per game so we should be on for a cracker, especially with this being Rangers last shot at a trophy this season.
🏆 Following on from Saturday’s showpiece game in the Coupe de France, there are a number of other cup finals taking place around Europe. Among them is the huge clash between Ajax and PSV in the final of the Dutch KNVB Cup, which follows last weekend’s league meeting between the two that was won convincingly, by PSV.
Then, in neighbouring Belgium, there’s the Croky Cup final between KV Mechelan and Royal Antwerp. Of the two, only Antwerp have performed well in the league this season but both are recent winners of this competition – Antwerp in 2020, and Mechelan in 2019, when they lifted the cup as a second tier club.
And lastly, we’ll have the ÖFB Cup Final in Austria, where Rapid take on Sturm Graz. This will be the first time someone other than Salzburg wins the competition since Graz last lifted the trophy in 2018. And unbelievably, Rapid, Austria’s most successful club, could end a 15-year barren spell without a trophy having not won the league since 2008, and the Cup since way back in 1995!
🚨 In this section, we just wanted to highlight a selection of big club, or derby match-ups also taking place on Sunday. We start in Türkiye, where Istanbul rivals, Beşiktaş and Galatasaray go head-to-head. Gala currently boast a six point lead in the table, with Beşiktaş sitting down in third.
In Bulgaria, where there are three rounds left to play, current leaders CSKA Sofia could take a massive step towards ending Ludogorets’ 11-year run of league wins. That’s if they can beat Ludogorets, at home!
Elsewhere, there’s the meeting between Danish football’s biggest rivals – FC København and Brøndby, plus another edition of Croatia’s Eternal Derby between Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb.
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Cover Image from IMAGO