In this weekend preview we summarise the best five games to follow on your match feed. And make a couple of suggestions for matches that you may otherwise miss.
🏆 Champions League Final: Manchester City vs. Inter
This one should need little introduction; Manchester City will play Inter Milan in the Champions League Final, the pinnacle of the European season on Saturday night. Perhaps the most prestigious game in club football.
City are, of course, aiming to complete a treble following their Premier League and FA Cup wins, but they’ll have to make history to do so. Despite their dominance in the English domestic game over the last few years, they’ve never cracked the Champions League, losing to Chelsea in their only other appearance in the final back in 2021.
Inter have a lot more history with back-to-back European Cup wins in the 1960s plus the Mourinho-inspired triumph over Bayern Munich in 2010. And they too are on for a treble, of sorts. The Nerazzurri beat Fiorentina in the final of the Coppa Italia last month and they beat rivals Milan to the Supercoppa back in January. In fact, it’s been argued that they are suited to knockout football under the management of Simone Inzaghi.
The recent form book shows Inter ended their season with just one defeat in 13 competitive games, with that solitary defeat coming against eventual Serie A champions, Napoli. Manchester City were merciless in their pursuit of Arsenal in the Premier League run-in, right up until the point at which they could take their foot off the gas, winning 12 straight games then dropping points to Brighton and Brentford in their final two games. They looked comfortable winners in last weekend’s FA Cup Final, beating Manchester United by three goals to one.
🇮🇹 Serie A Relegation Play-off: Spezia vs. Hellas Verona
Traditionally, the Champions League Final signals the end of the top flight football season across the UEFA nations, but this year, that’s not strictly the case. For in Serie A, the re-instatement of the relegation play-off, something that hasn’t been used since 2005, has kicked into effect because the sides who finished the regular season 18th and 17th in the table, Verona and Spezia, did so with the same points tally.
The league announced the change last summer, and the condition that a play-off would only be used to determine the Scudetto, or relegation. With Napoli finishing 16 points clear of Lazio that wasn’t needed at the top of the table. But it is at the bottom.
In the advent of a tie, all other positions are determined by this season’s head-to-head record, something that may have left Spezia feeling slightly aggrieved. Not only did they finish the season with a better goal difference than Verona, they also didn’t suffer a defeat in the two games played between them, even winning away from home back in November.
For Verona, this play-off is a bonus after their late collapse at Milan on the final day – a 3-1 defeat that saw them concede on 85 minutes and again in stoppage time, costing them the point that would have secured their top flight status.
One final rule to mention for this special play-off – should the game finish in a draw, we go straight to penalties, no extra-time. The season has gone on long enough!
🌍 CAF Champions League Final: Wydad vs. Al Alhy (1-2 agg)
As covered in this column last weekend, this year’s edition of the Champions League Final in Africa features the same two teams as last season: Defending champions Wydad, and Al Ahly, the most decorated side in the competition’s history.
The first leg, played in Egypt, looked to be relatively plain sailing for Al Ahly until a late goal from Wydad’s Saifeddine Bouhra changed the complexion of the tie. And that is because this is one competition where the Away Goals rules is still in use.
Yes, Al Ahly have the aggregate lead but should Wydad score first in Sunday’s second leg, the Egyptians will need to find a goal of their own against the Moroccans, backed as they will be, by a vociferous home crowd in Casablanca.
Just to go over old ground, last season’s final was a one-off game played at a designated venue chosen by CAF. A decision that was not changed despite the Stade Mohammed V being the home of one of the finalists; Wydad, who then proceeded to win it. Now we have returned to a two-legged format due mainly to Al Ahly’s protests about those events!
🏆 U20 World Cup Final: Uruguay vs. Italy
FIFA’s U20 World Cup has been running in Argentina for the past few weeks but we have now reached the final stage here as well. And in Sunday’s showpiece, set to be played at the Estadio Único Diego Armando Maradona in La Plata, regional representatives Uruguay will clash with Italy.
In the 46-year history of this youth level competition, neither of the finalists are past winners, with only Uruguay having previously made the final. As befitting of a nation that continually punches above its weight in international football, they’ve been runners-up once, finished third once, and fourth on three separate occasions. For their part, Italy finished third when England won the tournament in 2017 and fourth when the finals were last held back in 2019.
Uruguay have had a fairly easy route to the final, beating Gambia, the United States, and the tournament’s surprise package, Israel during the knock-out stages. Italy, inspired by the seven-goal haul of Chelsea striker Cesare Casadei, have knocked out England, Colombia and South Korea to make it this far. Casadei scored just once in a 15-game loan spell with English Championship side Reading as they were relegated this season but he impressed a lot of people and will definitely be a name to watch out for going forward.
🇹🇷 Turkish Cup Final: Fenerbahçe vs. İstanbul Başakşehir
The top level football is also still going in another of the UEFA nations, with the cup final yet to be played in Türkiye, where this season has been seriously affected by natural disaster.
Now, the curtain will come down on a difficult year following Sunday’s meeting between Fenerbahçe and İstanbul Başakşehir in the 61st final of the competition. For Fener, a win here would go some way to appease their massive fanbase after they missed out to arch-rivals Galatasaray in the Süper Lig title race – Gala beat Fener in their final game, securing a 8-point difference between first and second.
For Başakşehir, this is a chance to win their first Cup title having previously lost finals in 2011 and 2017. The club finished their league campaign fifth, unbeaten in their last five games, and ending with a 3-1 win over sixth placed Trabzonspor on Tuesday evening.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇺🇸 MLS: St. Louis City vs. LA Galaxy
From the weekend’s fixtures in MLS, one league that will be active in the app in the months to come, we’ve selected a game between sides who’s fortunes have been in sharp contrast this season.
After 17 matchdays (albeit they’ve only played 15 games), the Galaxy sit bottom of the Western Conference and 29th out of 29 in the cross-conference Supporters Shield. In other words, they have the lowest points haul out of everyone. Even the relative respite offered by their run in the US Open Cup came to an abrupt end in the midweek quarter-finals, when they were beaten by Real Salt Lake, despite having beaten the same opposition in the league just one week prior.
On Sunday, the Galaxy travel to Western Conference leaders St. Louis City. The expansion team only joined the league from this season but they’ve hit the ground running with a team lacking recognised names (on paper) achieving a return of 28 points from 15 games played. SLC are also the top scorers in the Conference with only Columbus and Atlanta outscoring them across the board. The newcomers did lose at FC Dallas during the week but prior to that, on home soil, they’d scored 10 goals in three back-to-back wins over Kansas City, Vancouver, and Houston.
🇮🇹 Serie B Promotion Play-off: Bari vs. Cagliari (1-1 agg)
The small matter of who replaces the losers of the Serie A Relegation Play-off (discussed above) is also something that gets decided this weekend. On Sunday evening, Bari host Cagliari in the second leg of the Serie B Promotion play-off.
And it’s the southern based hosts who are in the stronger position as we head into this game. Cagliari took an early lead in Thursday’s first leg, and Bari missed a first-half penalty, but did eventually atone for that with a stoppage time equaliser, also from the spot.
Due to another quirk of the Italian system – in the event of a tie, this final is not decided by extra-time and penalties, or even the Away Goals Rule, but rather, the seeding of each club. So where each side finished in the table over the course of the regular season. And with Bari finishing third and Cagliari fifth, all Bari need now is to draw the game on aggregate.
So why have these play-off games at all, you might ask? Well, because everybody knows play-offs are great. Just as long as you don’t support the team on the losing side!
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Cover Image from IMAGO