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.
🇪🇸 Supercopa Final: Real Madrid vs. Barcelona
For the second season running, the Spanish football authorities have got what they envisioned when they devised the four-team format for the Supercopa de España: a bonus edition of El Clásico at an otherwise quiet time in the football calendar! That hasn’t always been the case in recent years, but by virtue of keeping the reigning league champions, and the holders of the Copa Del Rey holders in opposing semi-finals, we’ve got ourselves one of the biggest games in world football to look forward to on Sunday evening.
Real Madrid eventually came through a dramatic derby against rivals Atlético, played in host city Riyadh, on Wednesday night. That game finished 5-3 to Los Blancos, but only after extra-time, with Madrid’s goals coming from all over the park – Antonio Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy, Dani Carvajal, Joselu, and substitute Brahim Díaz were all on the scoresheet. That win took their unbeaten run to 20 games (all comps).
For their part, Barcelona put paid to a recent running gag in football folklore by ending their three month wait to win a game by more than a single goal, when they put two unanswered strikes past Osasuna, in their semi-final on Thursday evening.
Madrid won the corresponding final 3-1 last season, and they also beat Barcelona in their most recent competitive fixture, with Jude Bellingham scoring a brace in a LaLiga clash back in October.
🏴 Premier League: Newcastle United vs. Manchester City
There’s a curtailed look about the Premier League fixtures this weekend, which is due to the league spreading Matchday 21 across two weekends, with the aim of giving each club a short winter break. But that still leaves us with five games to look forward to, and perhaps the pick of the two being played on Saturday comes at St. James’ Park.
Here, under pressure Newcastle boss Eddie Howe must raise his troops for what is always a battle, against Pep Guardiola’s World Club champions. Newcastle United did get one over their bitter rivals Sunderland in last weekend’s FA Cup tie but they are on an awful run in the league – the Magpies have lost five of their last seven dating back to the start of December.
City haven’t been at their most fluent this season but they are now unbeaten in eight (all comps), and they are back up to third in the table, five points down on leaders Liverpool, and still with a game in hand following their exploits at FIFA’s Club World Cup.
The two sides have met twice already this season – City coming out on top in the reverse league fixture, by one goal to nil, while Newcastle were responsible for City’s early exit from the Carabao Cup, by the same scoreline.
🏴 Premier League: Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspur
On Sunday, two more Premier League giants clash as Ange Postecoglou takes his Spurs side to Old Trafford, where they face another under pressure manager.
Erik ten Haag endured a 2023 where Manchester United lost more games than at any point since the mid-1970s but the Dutchman will be hoping, beyond hope, to turn the ship around in 2024. Things didn’t start smoothly, but United did enough to beat League One Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup last weekend, and they’ll be looking to build on that against a side who, despite everything, only sit eight points above them in the standings.
United’s nine defeats before Christmas may be a record, but by virtue of a lack of draws in their other fixtures, they remain just one win outside the top six.
Spurs, who’ve had a particularly active week in the transfer market – summed up here, come into the game off the back of consecutive wins over Bournemouth, in the league, and Burnley in the Cup. The London side have impressed under their Australian manager, playing a expansive game that sees them ranked as the third best Premier League side away from home, with the fourth best goals per game average, at 2.1 goals per game.
When these two met earlier in the season, Spurs ran out 2-0 comfortable winners, despite United having 22 shots and creating chances worth 2.07 xG.
🇪🇸 LaLiga: Athletic Club vs. Real Sociedad
As perennial Copa Del Rey finalists, or thereabouts, Athletic Club have been involved in two of the last four Supercopa tournaments, but that’s not the case this year. So instead, LaLiga have lined up the Basque Derby for Saturday, keeping everybody entertained with another of the biggest games in the Spanish calendar, as they play host to Real Sociedad in Bilbao.
Both sides are on the charge this season, with Athletic currently sat in the top four, just three points down on third placed Barcelona, and La Real sat six points further back, in sixth. They have each lost just three games and have conceded the same amount of goals – 19 a piece (19 games). Only leaders Madrid, and strangely, mid-table Las Palmas can boast a better record.
Real Sociedad were comfortable winners last time the two sides met, eventually coming away with a 3-0 victory back in late September. But that appeared to be a wake up call for Ernesto Valverde’s Athletic side – they’ve lost just once in the 14 games they’ve played since then, keeping a clean sheet in six of their last seven.
This should be an intriguing contest in what is always a unique rivalry.
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayern Munich vs. Hoffenheim
The ‘Winterpause’ is over and the Bundesliga returns this weekend! And in Friday night’s opening game, Bayern Munich are playing catch-up. When football stopped in Germany a few short weeks ago, the 11-time defending champions sat four points below unbeaten league leaders Bayer Leverkusen, with a game in hand.
The Bavarian giants can close the majority of that gap with a win on home soil but they’ll have to do so against a Hoffenheim side who themselves sit seventh in the table. Having enjoyed a solid start to the season TSG appear to be going through a rocky patch. They’ve won just two of their last 10 league and cup games and ended 2023 with a 3-3 draw against bottom side Darmstadt.
Bayern, thanks to the goals of Harry Kane, are the league’s top scorers – he has 21 of the club’s 49 scored in the league, and we’ll have to see whether his red-hot form continues now that he also has an old friend in the squad, with Eric Dier having joined Bayern, on loan, from Spurs during the week.
Plus two key fixtures to look out for at the major international tournaments starting this weekend…
🏆 AFCON 2023: Ivory Coast vs. Guinea-Bissau
Africa’s biggest national team tournament gets underway this weekend with hosts Ivory Coast taking on Guinea-Bissau in the opening game on Saturday. The tournament was held over from last year in order to take advantage of better weather in the region and the thinking is that Jean-Louis Gasset’s Elephants squad could just be one of the strongest nations taking part.
However, the AFCON is notoriously difficult to predict so we’ll wait to see how the other big teams start off in their group openers before passing too much comment. The likes of Nigeria, Egypt, and Ghana all feature on Sunday, with defending champions Senegal playing on Monday. For our full preview of the tournament, click – here.
🏆 Asian Cup 2023: Japan vs. Vietnam
Similarly, the 18th edition of the Asian Cup, the AFC federation’s flagship tournament for national teams, was also moved to 2024 in order to accommodate a change in host nation. Here, Qatar stepped in, as they have done for so many continental competitions run since the original COVID outbreak.
By the time you’ve read this, Qatar will have kicked off their curtain raiser against Lebanon on Friday. But on Sunday, Japan, the overwhelming favourites play their first fixture against Vietnam. The Samurai Blue come in to the tournament off the back of 10 straight wins, a run in which they’ve averaged over four goals per game, and that includes victories over Germany, Canada, Turkiye, and Peru.
For a more in-depth look at this tournament, check our full preview – here.
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