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.
🏆 UEFA Nations League Final: Croatia vs. Spain
The third edition of the UEFA Nations League comes to a head on Sunday evening, with Feyenoord’s de Kuip stadium the setting for a final that pits Croatia against Spain. The sides ranked seventh and tenth in the world by FIFA.
To get here, both nations had to endure a stiff test against another highly ranked side in the mid-week semi-finals. Despite being pegged back right at the end of normal time by a Noa Lang equaliser, Croatia successfully negotiated a clash with hosts Netherlands, on Wednesday.
Captain Luka Modrić pulled the strings, and converted a penalty in extra-time, as a now well established line-up eventually won the tie 4-2.
On Thursday night, Spain beat Italy by two goals to one, a late goal from substitute Joselu sparing everybody another period of extra-time. That was coach Luis de la Fuente’s third game in charge of the full national team and marked a successful return to winning ways following March’s surprise defeat at the hands of Scotland. It also means that Spain have made successive finals in this competition having eventually missed out to France back in the 2021 Final.
The last meeting between the Croatia and Spain was a memorable one, coming as it did, at Euro 2020, the tournament that was delayed until 2021. In the Round of 16, Spain won an epic encounter 5-3 after extra-time. Croatia had rallied with goals in the 85th and 92nd minute levelling the game at 3-3 only for Spain to run away with it during the added period. A result that has similarities to Croatia’s semi-final win over the Netherlands to set up this weekend’s clash.
🏆 CONCACAF Nations League Final: Canada vs. United States
If the semi-finals in the European iteration of the Nations League saw slightly tired performances from some of the players involved, at the end of a long season, Thursday night’s equivalent games in the CONCACAF region, played in Las Vegas, were quite different.
Canada roared to a 2-0 victory over Panama with goals from star turns, Jonathan David and Alphonso Davies, who needed just seven minutes following his second half introduction to make his mark, on his return from injury. That was followed by a heated battle between the USMNT, and arch-rivals Mexico, a game where both sides ended with nine players on the pitch. Two goals from a fired up Christian Pulisic were capped off by another from Ricardo Pepi to secure a 3-0 win.
All of which sets us up nicely for Sunday’s final between the North American neighbours. The last few meetings between the two have also been fairly lively with, most recently, Canada recording a 2-0 win over the States en route to finishing top of the World Cup qualifying group that both nations featured in last year. Historically though, the US have had the upper hand and they will be keen to defend the Nations League title they won in 2021.
And this will be a good marker for the more prestigious CONCACAF Gold Cup – which starts next weekend.
🇲🇹🆚🏴 Malta vs. England
Nearly seven years after Gareth Southgate’s reign as England manager started with a 2-0 win over Malta at Wembley, the Three Lions are set to face the Mediterranean archipelago again, away in a Euro qualifier on Friday evening.
The goalscorers that day were Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli but despite the fact that four of that side – Marcus Rashford, Jordan Henderson, Kyle Walker, and John Stones – remain in the squad today, it’s fair to say we’re now looking at a very different England team. And one that having beaten Italy (away) and Ukraine (home) to start this qualifying campaign, should now be fully on the march to another major tournament, the Euro 2024 Finals being held in Germany.
Malta come in to this game having won four of their last 10, including a morale boasting 1-0 victory at fellow minnows Luxembourg last Friday night. And as they showed against European champions Italy back in March (they only lost that game 2-0), they’ll aim will be to make it tough for Southgate’s men.
🇬🇮🆚🇫🇷 Gibraltar vs. France
Also on Friday, there’s another David vs. Goliath match-up in Euro qualifying. This one pits Gibraltar, ranked 201st in the world (and the second lowest-ranked UEFA nation), against France, number two in the world and World Cup finalists as recently as last December.
Didier Deschamps will take his team of superstars – Mbappe, Griezmann, Dembélé, Camavinga, Tchouameni, et al, for a first ever meeting with the small British overseas territory, who were only formally accepted in to UEFA competition a decade ago. In fact, for the sake of these qualifiers, Gibraltar are playing their home games at the Estádio Algarve in southern Portugal.
Gibraltar ended a long losing run with friendly victories over Liechtenstein and Andorra at the tail-end of 2022 but were brought back down to earth as this qualifying campaign started with back-to-back 3-0 defeats to Greece and Netherlands in March. Since losing to Argentina in what was perhaps the most dramatic World Cup Final in recent history, France have responded with a 4-0 thrashing of Netherlands and a much harder fought 1-0 win against Ireland.
🇳🇴🆚🏴 Norway vs. Scotland
Moving to Saturday, we’ve selected another Euro qualifier, this time from Group A. But sadly, it’s not the home nation of your favourite live scores app who will be defending a 100% start to qualifying – instead, that will be Scotland, the visitors to Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion.
For those with short memories (how could you forget Scott McTominay’s back-to-back braces!?), the Tartan Army pulled off home wins over Cyprus, and Nations League finalists Spain, during the March international break. One of those wins was more expected than the other but both were rapturously received.
In contrast, Norway’s current golden generation started poorly; first losing in Spain before drawing 1-1 away in Georgia. That has sucked the confidence out of a supporter base long starved of qualification for a major tournament. And makes this fixture all the more important.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇺🇸 MLS: Nashville vs. St. Louis City
This week’s pick from MLS was an easy one; a cross-conference clash between Nashville, who sit second in the East, and St. Louis City, the current leaders in the West.
We picked out St. Louis last week and the new franchise club dropped points for just the second time at home, in this, their inaugural season in the league. They drew 1-1 with ‘crisis’ club LA Galaxy, which was somewhat against the run of form. We also mentioned that in a league where big names, and prestige signings are all the rage, St. Louis maybe swim against that tide. Something that’s evidenced by the fact that the 33 goals that they’ve scored so far this year have been spread between 11 different players.
In contrast, nearly half of Nashville’s 25 goals have come from one man: Last season’s league MVP, Hany Mukhtar. The German-born striker bagged 23 goals and 7 assists during the 2022 season and after 17 games of the current campaign, he’s leading the league in goals and assist combined (10 goals, 6 assists).
Nashville are on a nine-game unbeaten run in the East and they keep a tight ship – the 12 goals they’ve conceded marks them out as the league’s meanest defence. They too drew 1-1 last weekend, a goal from Randall Leal earning them a point at Toronto.
🇪🇸 LaLiga2 Promotion Play-off: Levante vs. Alavés (0-0 agg.)
Just when you thought you’d seen the back of the 2022/23 football season, here we are, reminding you that there’s a place in one of Europe’s top leagues still up for grabs. And that is in Spain, where either Levante or Deportivo Alavés will seal a return to LaLiga on Saturday night.
Relegated after finishing 19th and 20th in the top flight at the end of last season, they ended this season virtually locked together again, third and fourth. Both were only just pipped to automatic promotion by Las Palmas from the Canary Islands.
And there was nothing to separate the two sides in the first leg of this tie either with that game finishing 0-0 last weekend. The away goals rules is in place for this final but should we still remain goalless all the way to the end of extra-time, promotion will go to the side who finished highest during the regular season (Levante).
If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.
Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!
Cover Image from IMAGO