The best matches to follow this weekend
Saturday
🏴 There’s eight Premier League fixtures on the slate for Easter Saturday which should be enough to keep you busy. Manchester United and Everton get things underway in the early kick-off, a game that is important at both ends of the table, with United level on points with third-placed Newcastle, and Everton one of the nine teams separated by just seven points at the bottom.
In the afternoon kick-offs, the freshly re-appointed Frank Lampard takes caretaker charge of Chelsea for the first time as they look for a confidence boost at Wolves. That game comes at the start of a week where they must go to Real Madrid for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
Leicester City, the other side who sacked their manager last weekend, face Bournemouth, the team immediately above them in the relegation zone so that game looks particularly crucial for both clubs. As does the late kick-off, with both bottom side Southampton, and title-chasing Manchester City in need of three points. City could narrow the gap to leaders Arsenal to five, and avenge their surprise Carabao Cup defeat when these two last met, on the South Coast back in January.
Also of interest will be the battle between fifth-placed Spurs and sixth-placed Brighton, with the latter looking to sneak in to the European qualification places.
🏴 In Scotland, where we’re three games away from the league split, Celtic and Rangers meet for the fourth time this season. The former hold a nine-point advantage over the latter with the two Glasgow giants currently on long unbeaten runs. Since bowing out of the Champions League at the end of the groups stages, Celtic have won 22 out of 23 league and cup games – the other match being a 2-2 draw at Rangers back in January. For their part, Rangers have lost just once in 20 since coach Michael Beale took over in December – that single defeat coming against Celtic in the League Cup Final.
Celtic are therefore unbeaten against their eternal rivals this season but where there’s mathmatical hope, there’s a way, and even if they can’t overhaul them, Rangers will want to delay Celtic’s title win for a long as possible. Either in this game. Or in their final league meeting still to come after the league split. And they also have the chance to stop Celtic winning a domestic treble when the two clash in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup later this month.
🇩🇪 At the end of a week where the Bundesliga’s top three – Bayern, Dortmund, and Union Berlin, were all knocked out of the DFB Pokal at the quarter-finals stage, there’s a round of league games where the top four play one another. Freiburg are that fourth-placed side, and it was they who shocked Bayern in the cup, beating them for the first time ever in Munich thanks to a penalty scored by Lucas Höler, in injury time.
League leaders Bayern don’t have long to wait for revenge though, as they now visit Freiburg in the Black Forest on Saturday. With their win over Dortmund in the Klassiker last weekend, Bayern hold a slender two-point lead in the table as we head in to the weekend. There’s then a two point gap between second-placed Dortmund and Union Berlin in third. Something that could change when the two clash in what will be a massive game at the Signal Iduana Park.
🇮🇹 The main action in Serie A comes on Friday night, and therefore falls outside of the remit of this particular column! Head to your match feed in the app to get the low-down on the games between Salernitana and Inter, and Milan vs. Empoli. We’ll also see how leaders Napoli respond after that huge defeat, to Milan, when they go to Lecce.
Anyway, that leaves us with perhaps a bigger headline game on Saturday night as second-placed Lazio host Juventus. The Old Lady were held to a 1-1 draw by Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-finals in the week but they have a good record against the blue half of Rome, unbeaten, as they are, in their last seven meetings.
🇪🇸 Real Madrid have scored 10 goals in two games played so far in April – and Karim Benzema has six of those to his names with back-to-back hat-tricks coming against Real Valladolid last weekend, and in the Copa Del Rey win over Barcelona during the week. And while that sequence of results might not win them anything in the league due to Barça’s hefty points advantage, it does set them up well for that Champions League quater-final mentioned, against Chelsea on Wednesday night. Before that however, Madrid must take on sixth placed Villarreal.
🇫🇷 French league leaders PSG slipped up, again, last weekend, losing 1-0 at home to Lyon. A result that had coach Christophe Galtier pleading with his squad to wake up and defend their league title. With Lens playing on Friday night, PSG’s lead in the table could be down to three points by the time they kick-off at Nice, in the Côte d’Azur, in Saturday’s late game.
🇺🇸 Our pick of this weekend’s round in MLS takes in a number of games involving the early season pacesetters. FC Cincinnati are the only remaining unbeaten side in the Eastern Conference, and they’ll test that with a home fixture against Philadelphia Union. Also, Atlanta United, the next best placed side in the East now face a trip to NYCFC.
Over in the West, defending champions LAFC play the unpredictable Austin FC, and the top two will meet as Seattle Sounders are the next side to face newcomers St. Louis City. The latter’s record breaking 100% start to their inaugural MLS season was brought to an abrupt end by Minnesota United last time out.
Sunday
🏴 They have actually saved a couple of Premier League games for Sunday, the first of which comes at Elland Road, between two clubs who’ve recently changed coach to good effect. In fact, Leeds United and Crystal Palace are now the two best placed sides in the aforementioned nine-way relegation battle. Leeds have lost two out of six games under Spanish coach Javi Gracia while Roy Hodgson returned to take charge of the Eagles and promptly snapped their 12-game winless run, at home, to Leicester in his first game back.
Then, the final game of the weekend sees two giants of the Big Six clash at Anfield. Okay, so Liverpool will start outside of the current top six but this has the pedigree of a top flight rivalry that goes back decades in the English game. Jürgen Klopp’s side looked poor in defeat to Bournemouth, then Man City, before the midweek draw at Chelsea, but have proved capable of taking apart a big name, or two, over the course of the season. Should Arsenal survive this test then surely we’ll be taking about when will they win the title, not if? The Gunners have won each of their last seven league games, a run in which they’ve scored 23 goals and come in to this one off the back of two straight 4-1 wins – against Palace and Leeds.
🇪🇸 In La Liga, Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid are aiming to lock down third place as quickly as possible. They go in to their game at Rayo Vallecano hoping to extend their current unbeaten run in to double figures having only dropped points twice during that time – drawing at home to Getafe and away at Real Madrid. For their part, Rayo are without a win in seven but remain an outside bet for a place in the top six come the end of the season.
🇧🇷 There’s plenty of excitement on offer in Brazil on Sunday as a selection of the biggest State Championships come to a head.
The second leg of the Carioca, the Rio State competition sees Flamengo start with a 2-0 goal advantage against old rivals Fluminense in a Fla-Flu Derby that will be played at the World famous Maracanã stadium. Not to be outdone, Atlético Mineiro have a slender advantage over city rivals América, with the second leg of the Mineiro championship starting with the aggregate score at 3-2. But perhaps the biggest game of all comes in the Paulista. Here, regional minnows Agua Santa go up against last year’s national champions Palmeiras having beaten them 2-1 in the first leg! They won’t be expected to hold on for what would be a famous trophy win but Palmeiras have also had to endure a gruelling Copa Libertadores trip to Bolivia during the week, where they lost, so you never know. You never know!
Monday
🇪🇸 Barcelona have to wait until Monday to exercise any remaining demons from that humiliating Clásico defeat, at home, in the Copa Del Rey during the week. Their 12-point, possibly 9-point cushion, at the top of LaLiga come kick-off, should go someway to easing the mood but Xavi won’t want to rest on his laurels. Nothing but three points against mid-table Girona will do.
🏴 In the EFL Championship, England’s second tier, Burnley and Sheffield United have been head and shoulders above the rest of the division for the majority of the season and they now face each other at Turf Moor. Burnley more so – under the stewardship of Vincent Kompany – but The Blades have battled through some tough runs and remain six points clear of the sides below them in the play-off places.
Automatic promotion for both is the aim then and Burnley could have secured that by the time you’re reading this article. Or shortly afterwards! That depends on results elsewhere on Friday, and should Burnley beat third placed Middlesbrough, whom they face on Friday evening.
🏴 And in Wales, there’s possibly an even more eagerly awaited clash between title rivals. Wrexham, supercharged by their A-List backers, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – and the goals of Paul Mullin – finally meet Notts County, who are fired on by their own in-form marksmen, the 40-goal-man, Macauley Langstaff. The two have been neck-and-neck at the top of the National League, England’s fifth tier, all season, fighting for the one automatic promotion place to the football league and both clubs are set to finish on record breaking point and goals tallies in this, the final month of the campaign.
At the time of writing (both also play on today – Friday) it’s home side Wrexham who have a three point advantage with six games to play, one more than Notts County’s five.
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Cover Image from IMAGO