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 Preliminary Round: Budućnost Podgorica vs. Breiðablik
For those of you who are unaware, the 2023/24 Champions League is already underway! The Preliminary Round of the long qualifying process started, in Iceland, this past Tuesday. And now, tonight, we have the final between Icelandic side Breiðablik and Budućnost Podgorica, who hail from Montenegro.
Breiðablik will start as favourites, not least because they are hosting the four-team tournament, but also because of the ease with which they got past San Marino’s Tre Penne in their semi-final.
With the Icelandic season in full swing, the timing of these matches also suits the hosts but Budućnost Podgorica showed their credentials, with a 3-0 win, when they met Andorran side Atlètic d’Escaldes in their previous game. And they are fresh from a very tight title race in Montenegro which they won only by virtue of having a superior head-to-head record against rivals Sutjeska.
The winners of this tie go on to face Shamrock Rovers in the first round of qualifying proper and they’ll need to win through a further two rounds to take one of the remaining places in the hallowed Group Stages.
🏆 Gold Cup: United States vs. Trinidad & Tobago
This weekend also brings us Matchday 3 in the Group Stages of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and on Sunday night, the USMNT, the defending champions, go up against Trinidad and Tobago.
The situation in the group means that the US still require at least a draw to make it through to the knockout phase of the competition. And this game will be all about maintaining momentum after they backed up last weekend’s disappointing draw with Jamaica by running riot against minnows St. Kitts and Nevis during the week.
The US notched up 34 shots in a display that showed plenty of attacking intent – particularly from hat-trick hero Jesus Ferreira, and Đorđe Mihailović, who had four goal contributions, as both recorded matching 9.6 FotMob ratings.
In the group’s other final game, Jamaica will qualify for the quarter-finals if they can pull off a similar result against St. Kitts and Nevis.
🏆 Gold Cup: Mexico vs. Qatar
A little later, on Sunday, we’ll see how regional giants Mexico fare against tournament guest nation Qatar. El Tri have already secured their quarter-final spot after starting with a comfortable win over Honduras (4-0) and eventually breaking down a resilient Haitian side on Thursday night (3-1).
And no doubt, still smarting from their recent Nations League Final defeat to the US, they’ll be looking to complete a full sweep of group stage wins.
Their globe-trotting opponents made it to the semi-finals when they were invited to take part in the 2021 edition of this tournament but, in truth, their progress in international football has stalled of late. And after gaining a single point from their two games so far, they’ll need a win, and a favour from Honduras, in order to take second place in the group. The Qataris have just one victory in their last nine competitive games, a run that dates back to before the World Cup they hosted in 2022.
🏆 U21 Euros: Georgia vs. Israel
UEFA’s U21 European Championship is one stage further on with the quarter-finals set to start on Saturday afternoon. And in a somewhat surprising turn of events, co-hosts Georgia feature in the opening game, against Israel.
Such is the success of the Georgian youngsters, the game has had to be moved to a bigger stadium. That’s after the hosts finished top of the ‘Group of Death’, beating Portugal, before going on to secure draws against both Belgium and the Netherlands. The latter encounter was watched by a tournament record crowd of over 43,000.
Now, the side, which boasts a number of fully fledged senior internationals, must start as favourites against an Israeli team who qualified for the knockout stages with four points after holding Germany to a draw, and beating Czechia in their final game.
🏆 U21 Euros: England vs. Portugal
On the same side of the draw, but playing on Sunday, England face Portugal. The Young Lions have put in three dominant displays, so far, recording three back-to-back 2-0 wins to top Group C.
With the wealth of talent that Lee Carsley has at his disposal that perhaps shouldn’t be surprising – Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe, Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott, Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon, and Villa starlets Jacob Ramsey and Cameron Archer have provided the goals.
Portugal got over that shock defeat to Georgia in their opening game, drawing with Netherlands, and then scrapping through to the knockouts thanks to a win against Belgium secured by a Tiago Dantas penalty scored in the 89th minute.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇺🇸 MLS: San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy
Long before LAFC joined Major League Soccier, and El Tráfico became a regular feature on the fixture list, LA Galaxy had a well-established rivalry with fellow Californians, San Jose Earthquakes. And this Saturday, the two are set to meet in the 97th edition of the Cali Clasico.
After finishing rock bottom of the Western Conference last year, 2023 has been far kinder to the Quakes, and they go in to the weekend sat fifth in the table, 12 points better off than their rivals. However, that advantage would have been much greater had their form not taken a significant dip following recent defeats to higher ranked sides, Houston and St. Louis.
For Galaxy, it’s been a season of turmoil both on and off the field. On it, they’ve recorded just three wins and things probably reached a nadir when they drew with Colorado last weekend, the only side with a worse record across the entire league, not just the Conference. That was their third successive draw but there is, at least, one glimmer of hope for the fans – one of their three wins came against San Jose back in May (2-1).
🇲🇽 Liga MX: Tigres vs. Puebla
Much like the league north of the border, Mexico’s domestic league starts again this weekend, despite the fact that the national team are away participating in a major tournament.
And from the opening round of Apertura fixtures, we’ve picked out the one between Tigres UANL and Puebla, which takes place on Saturday night. The Apertura is the first of the two campaigns that will played across the 2023/24 season in Mexico, and will be followed by it’s own play-off sequence.
Puebla ended the most recent Clausura campaign in fifth but were knocked out of the post-season play-offs by a Tigres side, who despite finishing a lowly seventh, went on to win the entire thing. Their run to the title included wins over Monterrey, who had finished the regular season in first, and then Chivas, in the Final. To cap things off Tigres also won last weekend’s Campeón de Campeones title against Pachuca, who’d picked up last season’s Apertura.
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Cover Image from IMAGO