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.
🏴 Premier League: Arsenal vs. Liverpool
Five points and two places separate these two Premier League giants ahead of Sunday’s showdown at the Emirates. Liverpool are sitting pretty at the top of the table, a position they reinforced with a 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea in midweek, a game in which academy product Conor Bradley put in another top performance in what has been a breakthrough month for the young right-back.
Arsenal won too, 2-1 at Nottingham Forest, a result that backed up the 5-0 hammering that the Gunners dished out to Crystal Palace last weekend. And perhaps that signals the end of a slightly dodgy patch of form that saw the club go winless in four over Christmas.
Two of those games did, of course, come against Liverpool. There was the 1-1 draw at Anfield at the beginning of the festive period, and then, there was the FA Cup Third Round tie that Liverpool won 2-0, at the Emirates, one week in to January. In fact, Arsenal have only won one of their last nine meetings with the Reds, a record Mikel Arteta will no doubt be keen to improve upon.
Both sides have kept a league-high eight clean sheets this season but Liverpool have been out-gunning the Gunners, averaging 2.3 goals per game to Arsenal’s 2.0.
🇮🇹 Serie A: Inter vs. Juventus
The job of this article is often simply to hype the games coming up at the weekend, but this match, perhaps more than any of the others listed this week, shouldn’t be missed. The Derby d’Italia, Serie A’s biggest traditional rivalry sees the country’s two most successful sides lock horns once again. And this time, the game falls as Inter and Juventus sit first and second in the league.
Juventus are unbeaten in 19 games, while Inter have lost just one of their last 23 competitive fixtures. Both have only been beaten once in the league this season, and both have a fantastic defensive record – Inter conceding at a rate of 0.5 goals per game to Juve’s slightly worse(!) 0.6 goals per game.
So does something have to give at the San Siro on Sunday? Or is a draw more likely? In previous seasons, a draw would probably be the most obvious result but there is something different about Inter this time around. Yes, Simone Inzaghi led them to the Champions League Final last season but if anything, they’ve been more dominant during this campaign, winning their third straight Supercoppa in January, and averaging a league-high 2.4 goals scored per game.
Inter hold a one point advantage in the table. But they do have a game in hand. So whatever happens, the result will be critical in the race for the Scudetto.
🇪🇸 LaLiga: Real Madrid vs. Atlético Madrid
If you thought Arsenal and Liverpool had played each other a lot recently, that’s nothing compared to the two Madrid clubs, with this Sunday’s clash set to be the third Derby in the space of 25 days. And if this game proves to be even half as good as the previous two fixtures, we’re in for a treat.
First, there was the eight-goal thriller in the semi-finals of the Supercopa, played in Saudi Arabia, and won by Real Madrid. The lead exchanged hands three times in that game; a late Dani Carvajal equaliser forcing extra-time, with the score tied at 3-3. The sides were only separated by two Madrid goals at the death.
Atlético got swift revenge, though, taking the honours in a Copa Del Rey Round of 16 clash that was almost as high-scoring. Again, a late-ish leveller from Madrid took the game in to extra-time, but on this occasion, Diego Simeone’s side powered through – the inspired Antoine Griezmann once again proving influential as he scored one of their two goals during the additional 30 minutes.
Back in the league, Real Madrid appear to be in a closely fought title race with Girona. In midweek, Carlo Ancelotti watched his team win their game in hand, 2-0 at Getafe, to move two points clear of their unlikely rivals at the top of the table. They now sit 10 points above Atlético, who are the next best placed side in third, with Barcelona level on points with them in fourth. Atlético have won all four of the games they’ve played since the Derby win, conceding just once in process.
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayern vs. Gladbach
In Germany, we’ve quite rightly been putting a lot of focus on unbeaten leaders Leverkusen in recent weeks, so we thought it was time to turn our attention to the chasers, Bayern Munich. Trailing by two points, despite the goals of Harry Kane, who has 23 in just 19 Bundesliga games, the Bavarian club face Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday afternoon.
Gladbach have been Bayern’s bogey side in recent seasons. September’s win in the reverse fixture was Bayern’s first over Die Fohlen since May 2021, seven meetings ago. In the interim period Gladbach had won twice at the Allianz Arena, and racked up 5-0 and 3-2 wins on their own ground.
This season however, Gladbach have struggled and they start the weekend sat 12th in the table. Under former Leverkusen boss Geraldo Seoane they have won only five times in the league this season but they did hold the aforementioned league leaders to a 0-0 draw last weekend, a result that will have pleased Bayern, with Leverkusen dropping points for just the fourth time since August.
For their part, Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen face bottom side Darmstadt in a fixture that is being played at the same time as the meeting between Bayern and Gladbach.
🇳🇱 Eredivisie: Ajax vs. PSV Eindhoven
If Leverkusen have been dominating the news in Germany, PSV Eindhoven have been making similar amounts of headlines in the Netherlands, where they currently sit 12 points clear having won 18 and drawn one of their 19 games so far.
In fact, that might not be true, simply because Ajax’s disastrous start to the season probably generated even more press coverage than the form of Peter Bosz’s PSV. After winning 4-1 on the opening day of the season, the Amsterdam giants didn’t win another league game until November. They were even flirting with the relegation zone, something virtually unheard of throughout their history!
But, thankfully for them, they do appear to have turned a corner since the appointment of interim head coach John van ‘t Schip in October. Ajax are now back up to a more respectable fifth place in the Eredivisie table and they’ve won all three of the games played since the winter break, albeit they’ve conceded five goals during that run, while scoring 11 of their own!
PSV have simply been on another level. They didn’t drop a point until mid-January and they’ve only lost two competitive games across all competitions this season – once, to Arsenal, in the Champions League, and to Feyenoord in last week’s KNVB Cup Round of 16 tie. In all areas of the pitch, they’ve dominated the league – they’ve scored as many goals away from home as they have at home (31 goals apiece) and they’ve conceded just eight times in 19 games (only three of those coming in their nine away games).
Plus two suggestions from the ongoing international tournaments, as we reach the quarter-final stages
🏆 AFCON 2023: Mali vs. Ivory Coast
Saturday sees the third and fourth quarter-finals take place at the Africa Cup of Nations, but our focus will be on the hosts, who take on Mali in the day’s early kick-off.
Despite everything – losing to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in the group stages, sacking their coach, finishing as the fourth best third placed side, then having to face holders Senegal in the Round of 16 – Ivory Coast are still in the competition! And they may have finally found a way to win, having successfully contained an in-form Senegalese side on Monday night. Albeit, they had to do it the hard way, with Frank Kessié coming off the bench to score the late penalty that took the game to extra-time, before then also scoring the decisive spot kick in the ensuing penalty shootout.
Mali, in contrast have posted some impressive results to reach this stage. They conceded just once in the group stages, beating South Africa, and drawing with Tunisia and Namibia. They then beat Burkina Faso, who were semi-finalists in the 2021 finals.
🏆 Asian Cup 2023: Iran vs. Japan
Over in Qatar, we’ve also reached the quarter-finals in the Asian Cup. While not as unpredictable as the AFCON, where none of the last eight reached the same stage at the previous finals, the draw is relatively open for one of Asia’s footballing powerhouses to find their form and truly dominate the tournament.
The winners of Saturday’s meeting between Iran and pre-tournament favourites Japan would be a good bet for the nation that could go on and do that. The Samurai Blue have underperformed so far, but they looked a little more like their fluent selves in beating Bahrain 3-1, in the Round of 16.
For their part, Iran needed penalties to see off Syria in the last round, and they’ll have to play Japan without one of their star players. Porto forward Mehdi Taremi was sent off for two yellow card offences in that game and is now suspended.
Check out our latest review from the Asian Cup for a wider look at the quarter-finals.
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Cover Image from IMAGO