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.
🏴 FA Cup: Arsenal vs. Liverpool
When the draw for this round of England’s premier Cup competition was made, you couldn’t have put two more high profile, Premier League teams together. Liverpool and Arsenal appear to be key protagonists in the title race this season – they played a 1-1 draw at Anfield barely two weeks ago – and now we have the added bonus of Sunday’s side battle between the two in the Cup.
Both teams have a rich history in the competition, with Arsenal the record winners, and in fact, this tie has been the Final on three occasions (the last in 2001), so for the two to be drawn together so early is an anomaly. And it comes when the Gunners could do with a win – they’ve won just one of their last six (all comps) and have just lost consecutive games against West Ham and Fulham.
Liverpool’s only defeat since early November came in the Europa League, with qualification already secured, and with the side heavily rotated, and Jürgen Klopp’s side now sat top of the league by three points.
There may be the temptation for both managers to make significant changes to the line-ups that squared up against one another, back on 23 December, but considering both sides’ current momentum, and the pressure to get a result, perhaps that won’t be the case.
🏴 FA Cup: Sunderland vs. Newcastle United
Before that tie though, on Saturday, rivalries are renewed in England’s North East, in another FA Cup tie, when Championship side Sunderland faced hated near-neighbours Newcastle.
The Tyne–Wear Derby (or Wear-Tyne) hasn’t been a regular feature in the schedules for a while, in fact their last meeting came in the Premier League back in 2016. Both clubs have been through their ups and downs since – Newcastle dropping out of the top flight at the end of that season, Sunderland doing the same the season after, then going down again, and spending four seasons in the third tier.
Back to the present day though, and Newcastle, now looking to establish themselves as Champions League regulars, have hit a bit of a blip. They’ve won just two games in the nine that they’ve played since the start of December (all comps) and they’ve lost their last three over the festive period – to Luton, Forest, and Liverpool.
For Sunderland, this campaign is about backing up their successful return to the Championship last season, and ensuring that they at least make the play-offs again. They currently sit sixth and come in to the game off the back of a three-game unbeaten run. For the fans, and the club, this should be a great opportunity to test themselves against their rivals. That message perhaps didn’t reach every department at the club, though, when one of the bars at Sunderland’s stadium got decorated in Newcastle colours, as a welcome for visiting guests, and then hastily redecorated.
🇪🇸 Copa Del Rey: Barbastro vs. Barcelona
Forgive us, if you’re unfamiliar with some of the team names mentioned in the column this week, but this really is the beauty of major Cup competitions.
Take a team like Unión Deportiva Barbastro, who, for example, have followed their recent promotion to Spain’s regional fourth tier, with a run in the Copa Del Rey that will see them take on the might of Barcelona in Spain’s Copa Del Rey on Sunday evening.
Xavi’s Catalan giants were in the Canary Islands on Thursday night, where they got a last gasp league win, thanks to İlkay Gündoğan’s 93rd minute penalty. They’ll now travel to the town of Barbastro, in the province of Huesca, where the 16,000 inhabitants have been desperately seeking tickets for the game at the club’s 3,000 capacity stadium.
That capacity has been doubled, temporarily, but not a lot has been done to the pitch, something that will no doubt, not be lost on the superstar visitors. The minnows have already beaten top flight Almería en route to this stage of the competition but this is by far and away the biggest game in the club’s history. Barcelona will be hoping it becomes nothing more than a footnote in their records.
🇫🇷 Coupe de France: Revel vs. PSG
France’s main domestic Cup competition is renowned for throwing up stories like Sunday’s clash between Revel and Paris Saint-Germain. After all, it’s a tournament that saw 5271 teams enter, from all levels of French football, and indeed from the country’s numerous overseas departments and territories. That has now been whittled down to 64, with the giants of Ligue 1 joining at this stage.
And sixth tier amateurs Revel were the lucky side to pull the biggest name possible out of the hat, and with ‘home advantage’, as is traditional – but then you may have already seen news of the draw when it went viral late last year.
Revel currently sit top of their division but for the squad, this game, is probably all they’ve been thinking about since that draw was made. Their run to the R64 has seen them defeat sides from the eighth tier and the fifth tier so far.
PSG come in to the contest five points clear in Ligue 1, and on the back of a week where they’ve already lifted silverware, thanks to a 2-0 victory over Toulouse in the Trophée des Champions, or Super Cup, on Wednesday night. We’ll have to wait and see how many of the star names from that line-up also feature in the weekend’s game.
🇮🇹 Serie A: Inter vs. Hellas Verona
In Italy, they dealt with the remaining round of 16 ties in the Coppa Italia during midweek, so it’s back to normal service over the weekend. And in the first game of the day, on Saturday, leaders Inter host Hellas Verona at the San Siro.
Having won the Coppa last season, Inter were surprisingly dumped out of the competition, by Bologna, in a game played before Christmas. Since then, they got back to winning ways against Lecce but were then held to a 1-1 draw by Genoa in what was their final Serie A fixture of 2023. To date, they’ve only lost one league game and they’ve conceded just eight goals across 18 rounds of action. Sadly for Simone Inzaghi, that particularly strong first half of the campaign has come at a time where Juventus are producing similar results – they too have lost only once and have let only three more goals. But they have won one fewer meaning Inter come in to the weekend with a two point advantage.
For their part, Verona travel to Milan having struggled to get going this season. The did win both their opening fixtures back in August but they then went 15 without a win, until a third victory came against Cagliari in the build-up to Christmas. A further defeat, at home to Salernitana, has left them 17th in the table, just outside the relegation zone on goal difference, at the time of writing.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇫🇷 Coupe de France: LOSC vs. Golden Lion
We couldn’t resist another story from the Coupe de France! Similarly to PSG – fellow Ligue 1 side, and six time winners of the competition, Lille, will also be lining up against unfamiliar opposition. On Saturday, they face the magnificently named Golden Lion FC, who are based in Saint-Joseph on the isle of Martinique, in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
That’s right, the qualifiers from one of the overseas departments are making the near 7,000km journey having earned the right to face one of Frances’ most famous sides.
🏴 FA Cup: Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester United
We’ve included this fixture because it has quite literally been hidden away from your match feed for the weekend, what with it being held over for the TV broadcast slot on Monday evening.
Under pressure Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag takes his side on the short journey to visit a side currently struggling, and placed 17th in League One. Nothing but a comfortable win will do for the Red Devils.
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 our new WhatsApp Channel for updates on all the important football going on this weekend!
Cover Image from IMAGO