Page 130 – The Pulse of Football

Sep

2022

Last Weekend: Bayern beaten, Son on Song, Mexico’s Súper Clásico and more

We are entering the final international break before the World Cup, so this weekend gave us the last taste of elite-level club football we’ll get for a couple of weeks. It certainly left us looking for more because there was plenty of drama and intrigue all around the world. We will go over some of that here, including Bayern’s loss to Augsburg and Tottenham’s big win over Leicester City in this edition of Last Weekend.

By Neel Shelat

🇩🇪 Germany: Augsburg 1-0 Bayern München

Saturday’s Konferenz kick-offs saw the Bundesliga’s first Revierderby with fans in about three years, so it was going to take something special to stop us from talking about that. FC Augsburg came up with the goods in a little derby of their own as Bayern München were defeated for the first time this season, although the relationship between the two clubs and their fanbases has no animosity at all.

This was the first time since February 2020 that Bayern Munich drew a blank in a league fixture. The last time that happened, Julian Nagelsmann was in the opposition dugout as he saw his RB Leipzig side come away with a 0-0 draw against the would-be champions. Looking at the bigger picture, Bayern are down in 5th and five points away from the top of the table, as they have failed to win four consecutive league matches for the first time in almost two decades.

Before the alarm bells start ringing at the Allianz Arena, though, it is important to take a closer look at what is going on. Although results have not been going their way, Bayern’s performances have been alright and their underlying numbers look very impressive indeed, so all indications are that they can turn this around quite quickly. Additionally, it is also clear that there are no strong contenders that can challenge Bayern for the title, so the Rekordmeister remain the overwhelming favourites.

This was arguably their worst performance of the season, but Augsburg will certainly feel that they did enough to merit the win as they constantly posed a threat throughout the match despite having less than a quarter of possession.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: Tottenham Hotspur 6-2 Leicester City

Spurs are enjoying a very good start to the season. They are one of just two unbeaten teams in the Premier League at the moment and are level on points with defending champions Manchester City (who, of course, are the other team). One of their players who might not have been enjoying it as much as the others, though, is Son Heung-min.

Having failed to score in eight competitive matches this season, the South Korean international’s campaign seemed to be getting even worse during Leicester City’s visit to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Saturday when he found himself starting a Premier League match on the bench for the first time since April 2021, and therefore the first time in Antonio Conte’s tenure at Tottenham.

That meant that he had quite a point to prove when he was sent on just before the hour-mark, with the scoreboard reading 3-2 after an entertaining first half that saw the sides going in level at the break, with four goals scored. He probably considered his outing a success as he scored a wonderful hat-trick, which featured two sublime curling efforts from outside the box, one with either foot, and a clinical one-on-one finish.

That made the result go from bad to a little ugly for Leicester, who remain rooted to the foot of the table with just one point. Clearly, their start to the season has been far worse than Son’s, but that is a story for another day.

🇲🇽 Mexico: América 2-1 Chivas

We covered El Superclásico in the previous edition of the column, and we will be doing the same this time, but with an extra space between the words. Mexico’s biggest derby – El Súper Clásico – features capital club América and Chivas from Guadalajara.

The home side were the favourites for this fixture as they led the league standings going into the weekend, but had dropped to second by the time this match kicked off after Monterrey beat defending champions Atlas. They were also on a ten-match unbeaten run in the league heading into this fixture, having won nine on the bounce before drawing against Santos in midweek.

América took just four minutes to take the lead as Henry Martin, the league’s most dangerous forward this season in terms of goals and assists, won and converted a penalty. He also played a part in his side’s other goal, setting up Alex Zandejas’ strike just a few minutes after half-time. Cristian Calderón pulled one back for Chivas about 10 minutes later, but they failed to find an equaliser.

The win meant América restored their one-point lead over Monterrey at the top of the standings. With just one match left for them in the 2022/23 Apertura, a visit to Puebla, they will fancy their chances of finishing first.

Of course, they will not get any trophy for that, because the Liga MX champions are crowned after the play-offs, for which the top four directly qualify. América already had assurance of that heading into this fixture, so in the grand scheme of things, they were not playing for much more than bragging rights.

🇮🇹 Italy: Monza 1-0 Juventus

We covered the incredible late drama at the Allianz Stadium last weekend with a slightly tongue-in-cheek tone. It is time to get more serious this time, though, because there are some real problems at Juventus.

Their draw with Salernitana made it three consecutive matches without a win in all competitions, but things went from bad to significantly worse in the subsequent seven days. Their loss to Benfica in midweek left them rooted at the bottom of their Champions League group, and they faced another bad result on Sunday.

On Sunday, they were visiting the Stadio Comunale Brianteo, just eight kilometres away from the site of Max Verstappen’s latest F1 race victory. Monza is, of course, best known for its famous racetrack, but the local football club has also come to prominence of late after securing their first-ever promotion to Serie A last season. They were finding life in the big time quite tough, though, as they lost their first five matches before picking up their first point against Lecce last week.

Massimiliano Allegri was not on the touchline for Juventus’ visit since he had been sent off last weekend, so we did not get to see his full reaction when Ángel Di María saw red towards the end of a relatively uneventful first half, but we can imagine it was not positive. The home side proceeded to totally dominate the match thereafter, eventually taking the lead through Christian Gytkjær in the 74th minute and then comfortably holding on for their first-ever Serie A win against the league’s most decorated club.

It was by no means undeserved either because they were the better team in this match by some margin and arguably should have scored more.

That shotmap is a damning image for Juventus, who surely have to be conducting a detailed introspection and change something during the international break.

🇪🇸 Spain: Real Valladolid 0-1 Cadíz

There was lots of action in LaLiga this weekend, so we were spoilt for choice while picking the match to cover. The Madrid derby obviously stood out, while the high-flying Athletic Club provided an alternative. Naturally, therefore, we decided to go with the Friday night clash between Real Valladolid and Cádiz.

Fans of the intricate tiki-taka style of Spanish football would not have lasted long watching this match, but what else should you expect from two relegation candidates? To be fair to them, Valladolid put out a good performance and created a number of good chances, so the only thing Pacheta would have been frustrated by was their inability to take them.

Cádiz, on the other hand, looked as drab as they have done throughout the season. Heading into this match, they were on zero points after five matches, having failed to score a single goal against Real Sociedad, Osasuna, Athletic Club, Celta Vigo and Barcelona while shipping 14 at the other end.

As the match entered stoppage-time with no goals scored, everyone quickly realised that there could only be one outcome. Álvaro Negredo’s finish in the 92nd minute broke the home fans’ hearts as his goal propelled Cádiz off the foot of the table, taking them just one point and place behind their opponents.

If you are a Valladolid fan and have somehow managed to read on to this point, we advise you to look away now, because the match’s shotmap will make for very painful reading.

The beautiful game at its very best.

🇫🇷 France: Stade Brestois 0-1 AC Ajaccio

It was also a good weekend for one of the relegation candidates in France. The league’s two bottom clubs, namely Brest and Ajaccio, were squaring off on Sunday afternoon at the Stade Francis-Le Blé, and although their match was quite forgettable, the result was not, especially for the small contingent of travelling fans.

Many of those supporters had made the 1,600-kilometre journey from the island of Corsica, where Ajaccio is located, to Brest on the Northwestern tip of France. After watching their side suffer five consecutive defeats in the league, they would have been overjoyed to see their first win of the season, which also happened to be their first top-flight win on the French mainland in over eight years.

Unfortunately, Ajaccio are still at the foot of the table, but they have closed the gap to Brest to just one point. In a season where four sides are set to be directly relegated from Ligue 1 as the division is trimmed to 18 teams, their chances of survival are even slimmer than they otherwise would have been. Nonetheless, they should enjoy their top-flight trips to the mainland while they last.

🇫🇴 Faroe Islands: HB Tórshavn 2-1 Víkingur

The Faroe Islands Premier League is always fun to watch, as many of you will have found during the dark days of the pandemic, when the league was one of only a handful to forge ahead with fixtures.

This year has been no exception and on Saturday, the sides in third and second faced off as HB Tórshavn, better known as Havnar Bóltfelag or simply HB, played hosts to Víkingur. The result was very good news for league-leaders Klaksvík, who consequently became the first top-flight side to be crowned champions in Europe’s 2022 summer season.

This is Kí’s third title in four years and their 19th overall, which makes them the second-most successful club in the league’s history. They failed to qualify for the Europa Conference League this season after losing to Ballkani, but at least they can now get on with celebrating all the way through to the end of the domestic season.

Cover Image from IMAGO

Sep

2022

LaLiga Review: All the major stories from Round Six in Spain

Real Madrid won a Derby that left a bitter taste in the mouth while Barca’s league form continued vs. Elche. We’ll cover all that and more in this week’s column.

By Ben Hayward, LaLiga expert

Madrid Derby overshadowed by racist abuse aimed at Vinícius Juníor

Real Madrid’s derby win over Atlético at the Metropolitano made it six out of six for Los Blancos in LaLiga this season, but the match was marred by racist abuse aimed at Vinícius Juníor by the home side’s ultras before and during the match.

Sickening videos emerged ahead of the game in which chants of ‘Vinícius is a monkey’ could be clearly heard. Those continued inside the stadium and highlighted a serious issue in Spanish sport and also society.

Vinícius had been the subject of criticism last week for his dance moves when celebrating his goals and a guest on Spanish sports show El Chiringuito used an expression – ‘hacer el mono’ (loosely ‘to monkey around’) – when calling for the Brazilian to ‘respect his opponents’ on the pitch and suggested he should ‘go to a sambadrome’ if he wants to dance.

Whether the expression was meant as a racial slur or not by the president of Spanish football agents Pedro Bravo, it was an unfortunate choice of words at best and clearly his rant contained racial and zenophobic undertones, even if El Chiringuito have claimed otherwise.

On Saturday, Vinícius released a video on Twitter in which he condemned the racial abuse and vowed to keep on dancing. And he was good to his word as he and compatriot Rodrygo danced together after the latter gave Madrid the lead in the derby following an exquisite chipped pass by Aurélien Tchouaméni and a fine first-time finish from the Brazilian.

Vinícius almost made it 2-0 himself later in the half, but his shot after a trademark run down the left cannoned off the post and into the path of Fede Valverde, who fired in his third goal in as many games.

Mario Hermoso headed a late consolation for Atletico following a corner, but Madrid march on and significantly, Los Blancos have found a way to win games without the injured Karim Benzema.

“I think the team has replaced Karim well,” Carlo Ancelotti said after the game. “Everyone who has played in his position has done well. Today, Rodrygo scored a spectacular goal. The squad is in very good health.”

It certainly looks that way as Madrid sit on top of the table with 18 points, eight ahead of seventh-placed Atlético.

Atlético coach Diego Simeone handed a rare start to Antoine Griezmann, who is being restricted in terms of minutes in order for the club to avoid an automatic €40 million payment to Barcelona, but the French forward’s presence could not prevent a second defeat of the season for the Rojiblancos.

“We understood that Antoine could go out from the start and he worked hard as a second striker, dropping deep to link up and to the wings in the second half in order to play with the forwards,” Simeone said. “He played an important game, like several others.”

The Argentine could not resist a veiled dig at Madrid and also the media, though. “They remind me of the team we had with [Diego] Costa,” he said. “When people criticised us…”

Atletico travel to the Sánchez Pizjuán after the international break in another big game. “We’ll keep working,” Simeone said. “And we look to Sevilla knowing what we have to improve and what we are doing well.”

Three and easy for Barcelona

Barcelona did not have to be at their best against Elche, but still scored three times in a routine win at Camp Nou.

Robert Lewandowski was on target twice, taking his tally for the season to 11 goals in just eight games – and eight in six in LaLiga. The Polish striker opened the scoring and netted the third early in the second half with two fairly simple finishes by his standards, with Memphis Depay netting the pick of the three as he turned skilfully and smashed a shot into the roof of the net for the second. Pedri also saw a goal ruled out by VAR in a match Barça were expected to win easily anyway, but which was conditioned somewhat by the red card for Elche’s Gonzalo Verdu inside 14 minutes.

Barça remain unbeaten, with five wins and a draw from their six games – and only one goal conceded in LaLiga this season. The Blaugrana stay just two points behind Real Madrid ahead of the international break.

Xavi’s team selection caused some surprise here, with Depay and Franck Kessié both in the line-up against Elche, but the coach said: “It’s squads that win titles, not one starting XI.”

Barça’s former midfield great is approaching a year in the job. “We have a very clear idea of how we play: to be protagonists with the ball,” he said. “We know the pressure and the demands at this club. The team has improved a lot since we arrived in November.” No doubt.

Betis and Athletic impress early on

Real Betis and Athletic Club might not have been the favourites for the two remaining Champions League positions behind Real Madrid and Barcelona at the season start, but those two clubs currently occupy third and fourth in LaLiga.

Betis made it five wins out of six, this time beating promoted club Girona 2-1 at the Benito Villamarín on Sunday. Both goals were scored by the dependable Borja Iglesias, who now has six in as many games this season. “Starting the season with 15 points from 18 is a very high level of performance,” coach Manuel Pellegrini said. Their only blip? A narrow 2-1 loss at Real Madrid. Impressive.

And at San Mames on Saturday, Athletic came out on top in an entertaining encounter against Rayo Vallecano. Brothers Iñaki and Nico Williams were on the scoresheet together for the first time, both latching onto long passes with extraordinary control and speed before producing fine finishes. Iñaki is set to make his debut for Ghana in this international break, while Nico has been called up to the Spain squad. Under Ernesto Valverde, Athletic have made their best start in 27 years and fans gave a warm welcome to midfielder Ander Herrera, who recently returned to the Basque club after signing from PSG on loan and came on as a substitute. “It’s a perfect night,” he said. “But the season is long and the marks are handed out in May.”

Osasuna, beaten 2-0 at home by Getafe on Sunday, drop to fifth. Villarreal are sixth after a 1-1 draw with improving Sevilla (now 15th, also on Sunday) and Valencia move up to ninth after a 3-0 win at home to Celta Vigo on Saturday.

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every match from the 2022/23 LaLiga season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Sep

2022

Premier League Team of the Week

FotMob TOTW – Round 8

Super Sub Heung-Min Son earns the week’s highest rating after scoring a 14 minute hattrick in Spurs’ 6-3 win over Leicester. Tottenham make up the spine of this week’s TOTW, with five players earning a place in the XI.

Sep

2022

Premier League Review: Your essential recap of a depleted Round 8

Premier League football returned this weekend with a reduced offering. However, it was still a matchday filled with goals and drama. Here, we take a look at some of the biggest talking points.

By Sam McGuire, Premier League expert

The curse of the draw

Newcastle United are winless since their opening day victory over Nottingham Forest. Since then, Eddie Howe’s side have drawn five of their six matches. Their return of five draws is a total no other team in the Premier League can match.

The Magpies huffed and puffed against Bournemouth on Saturday but failed to capitalise on their superiority. They dominated the ball with 72% possession while also attempting double the number of efforts and having a significantly higher Expected Goals total – 1.92 to 0.75.

Yet they required an Alexander Isak penalty to restore parity after Phillip Billing had opened the scoring for the Cherries.

If Newcastle are unable to turn their dominance into victories, as has been the case so far this term, it could be a season of frustration for the Toon Army.

A continuous hot-streak

Heung-Min Son continues to break Expected Goal models. The Spurs forward has regularly outperformed his underlying metrics since moving to the Premier League and he put on a goalscoring clinic against Leicester City on Saturday.

The versatile attacker opened his account for the season against Leicester City after replacing Richarlison on the hour mark. He then finish the match the a hat-trick despite his opportunities amassing an xG total of just 0.67.

Son also landed all four of his attempts on target to complete one of the most ruthless showings of the season just as it looked as though the Foxes might take something from what was an end to end game.

The machine

Erling Haaland just scores goals. It is what he does.

Manchester City’s No.9 added to his tally this term against Wolves to make it 11 goals – five more than anyone else in the race for the Golden Boot.

The former BVB forward is on course to break the record for goals scored in a single Premier League season and he is doing it playing his own unique way. Haaland hasn’t adapted to life at the Etihad and the players haven’t really had to adapt to him.

On Saturday, he attempted just 17 passes and found a teammate 71% of the time. Haaland is not heavily involved but he’s involved enough to impact the scoreline, and that is why City added him to their ranks.

The wildcard

Eyebrows were raised when Arsenal added Fábio Vieria to their ranks this summer. The Portuguese playmaker excelled in areas usually occupied by club captain Martin Ødegaard and the Gunners had other departments that needed to be worked on.

However, the former Porto man really turned it on against Brentford, filling the void left by the absent Arsenal No.8.

His nonchalant finish – the third for Mikel Arteta’s side – capped off a fine performance. The 22-year-old had a FotMob rating of 8.2 having scored one and created one chance while finishing the game with a pass success rate of 82%. If this is a sign of things to come, the Gunners have a player on their hands.

A disappointing return

David Moyes took his West Ham United side to Goodison Park as they looked to get back to winning ways in the Premier League.

The Hammers had won just one of their six outings prior to the trip to Merseyside, a disappointing return after a summer of spending.

West Ham suffered yet another loss with Neal Maupay opening his account for the Toffees in the second half to claim all three points.

An alarming stat for Moyes is that prior to the match yesterday, Everton had averaged just 40% possession in their games this season. Against his side, though, Frank Lampard’s side had more of the ball, finishing with 53% of the possession.

This was supposed to be the season that West Ham challenged for a top four spot after adding Gianluca Scamacca, Lucas Paquetá, Maxwel Cornet and a handful of other talented players. Instead they find themselves in the bottom three with star summer signing Paquetá having a FotMob rating of 5.7 before he was replaced.

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Premier League season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Sep

2022

This Weekend: The Madrid Derby, the Revierderby and a reduced Premier League schedule

The best action to follow this weekend

By Bill Biss

Saturday

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 As England and the wider UK continues to deal with the logistical challenges around staging major sporting events at the same time as a change in the Head of State, and arrangements for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the Premier League will be running a reduced number of games this weekend. They start with two fixtures on Friday evening – at Villa and Forest, then continue with three games on Saturday.

Manchester City return to league action after consecutive wins over Sevilla and Dortmund in the Champions League when they face Wolves. Bruno Lage has seen his ranks bolstered by the signing of Diego Costa in recent days and they’ll be hoping he can improve their record of three goals from their first six games of the season.

Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United welcome Bournemouth (his former charges) to Tyneside as they look to halt a run of five games without a win in the league. And the day ends with third placed Tottenham Hotspur testing their unbeaten record against bottom side Leicester City.

🇩🇪 In Germany, Schalke have endured a slow start to life back in the top flight, only picking up their first win at the sixth time of asking, last weekend. The 3-1 victory over Bochum should at least give them a little confidence going in to their reunion with Borussia Dortmund in the Revierderby – perhaps the Bundesliga’s most fierce rivalry.

Dortmund scored seven unanswered goals against their rivals in Schalke’s relegation season (2020/2021) and are on a run of four clean sheets in the derby dating back to 2018/19. They do however come in to this game after morale-sapping defeats to City in the Champions League and against former manager Marco Rose, at Leipzig.

Bayern also have a Derby on Saturday as they make the short trip to Bavarian neighbours Augsburg. The 10-time reigning champions are technically on their worst start to a season since 2010/11 (3 wins, 3 draws) so now might not be a good time to remind their fans of the 2-1 defeat they suffered in this fixture last year!

Having nullified the threat of Barcelona, and former striker Robert Lewandowski, in Tuesday night’s Champions League win however, Bayern are probably looking to build on that impressive result rather than dwell on old news.

🇪🇸 Speaking of Barcelona, the Catalan club are back in LaLiga action with a game against Elche on Saturday afternoon. In fact, a win would take Xavi’s side top of the table – at least until Madrid play in Sunday’s headline game against Atlético.

Since drawing a blank in their season opener, Barça have matched Madrid in terms of goals scored and have proved miserly at the back, conceding just once, in a run of four league wins.

Athletic Club – managed by former Barça coach Ernesto Valverde, also boast an impressive defensive record this season. They sit sixth after five rounds with a goal difference of +7 and will test their unbeaten home run against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday night.

🇺🇸 We’re reaching crunch time in the MLS regular season with most sides having just three games to play before the top seven from the East and West conferences progress to the play-offs. New York Red Bulls are one of three Eastern sides who’ve already confirmed their post-season spot but they still face a very important game this weekend – against rivals New York City, in the Hudson River Derby.

NYCFC might be the reigning MLS Cup champions but they currently find themselves in the midst of a winless run that has seen them pick up just one point in their last six. They still sit fourth in the conference but with all the sides below them having games in hand they really need to pick up a win soon, and there’s no better time to do that than against your main rivals.

Atlanta United are one of the sides who currently sit outside the play-off picture looking in but they face the daunting task of a home game against Eastern Conference and Supporters’ Shield leaders Philadelphia Union.

🇲🇽 We also have a longer-running feud to look forward to elsewhere in the Concacaf region on Saturday. That comes in the form of Mexico’s Súper Clásico between national rivals América and Chivas.

And as if this fixture needed any more riding on it, both teams need a win. América are unbeaten in ten and currently lead the Apertura table but still require three points to guarantee their place in the play-offs. And despite their poor start to the season, Chivas still have a mathematical chance of reaching the top four – but only if they get one over their rivals at the Azteca. Something they’ve not done in the last three derby games.

This rivalry dates back to the 1940s, with América having the upper hand in both the all-time head-to-head record, and more recently – as the FotMob records show (from 2010 onwards)!

Sunday

🇪🇸 The major Derbies keep coming on Sunday with the Estadio Metropolitano the setting for the biggest LaLiga game of the season so far. Atlético Madrid host city-rivals Real in Round 6 hoping to repeat last season’s 1-0 home win and put a stop to Madrid’s perfect start to the campaign.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side lifted the UEFA Super Cup in August and haven’t looked back – winning seven straight games and scoring 15 goals in the process. And that run has continued despite the absence of talisman Karim Benzema through injury in recent weeks.

After enduring a slightly rockier path to date, Atlético looked strong in wins against Porto and Celta Vigo last week, before then coming unstuck, at Bayer Leverkusen on Matchday 2 in the Champions League. Diego Simeone will be wondering which version of his side will turn up for the Derby.

Also among the games taking place on Sunday, high-flying Betis face Girona, who’ve had an encouraging return to LaLiga (W2, D1, L2) and Villarreal host Sevilla. The Yellow Submarine and the Blanquirrojos couldn’t have had more contrasting season starts – Villarreal going four goals without conceding a goal until last weekend’s defeat at Betis, and Sevilla failing to pick up a win until a nervy 3-2 victory, at Espanyol last Saturday.

🇮🇹 All of the key action in Italy comes towards the end of the weekend with six fixtures lined up across the day.

Udinese – who’ve impressed so far, kick things off with a home game against Inter. That’s fourth vs. sixth in the fledgling Serie A table.

Later, joint leaders Atalanta travel to José Mourinho’s Roma (second vs. fifth) and then just to cap things off, there’s the real heavyweight clash between reigning champions Milan (third) and Napoli (first) – perhaps this season’s most interesting story among the form teams.

Unbeaten in their Champions League group and in the league, Luciano Spalletti’s totally refreshed squad have outscored everyone while maintaining the second best defensive record. Central to that has been the form of newcomers Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a winger with four goals and one assist in his first six games. And South Korean centre-back Kim Min-jae. Kim has weighed in with two goals himself and currently has the second best FotMob average rating in the league behind Paulo Dybala (7.96 to Dybala’s 8.04).

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Back in the Premier League, two of four scheduled games are taking place. Chelsea vs. Liverpool and Manchester United vs. Leeds United are the headline clashes that have been postponed but there’s still the prospect of leaders Arsenal playing away at Brentford. And Everton‘s meeting with West Ham at Goodison Park.

Arsenal famously came unstuck at the Bees in the very first game of last season but Mikel Arteta’s side look much more settled this time around – albeit they did lose their 100% record in spectacular fashion at Manchester United before the enforced break in their fixtures.

For their part, both Everton and West Ham are lingering towards the bottom of the table, with goals, or the lack of them seemingly being the root cause of the issue. Everton have found the net just three times and are on a run of four straight draws while there have at least been more encouraging signs for West Ham in the Europa Conference League. They’ve only won once in the league but have scored six across consecutive wins over FCSB and Sikeborg.

🇩🇪 Going in to the weekend, Union Berlin are the somewhat surprise leaders in the Bundesliga and depending on other results – they may well need a win against Wolfsburg in Sunday’s game to take that position in to the international break. The East Berliners’ historic unbeaten start to the campaign has seen them win four of their six games and only Bayern München have scored more than their 13 goals.

The match between Hoffenheim (fourth) and Freiburg (second) should also be worth a watch as two of the league’s early pacesetters meet at the PreZero Arena. Hoffenheim put four past Mainz last week while Freiburg are on a run of six unbeaten games, including impressive wins over Qarabağ and Greek champions Olympiacos in the Europa League.

🇫🇷 The form of France’s big two has been the talk of the opening months in Ligue 1 – with Marseille matching PSG point-for-point. In fact, with 19 points from their first seven games, this is Marseille’s best ever start in the top flight.

On Sunday, L’OM face sixth placed Rennes while PSG face a tough trip to Lyon, who sit fifth. Christophe Galtier will be hoping that his superstar front three can once again come good. The resurgent Neymar, Mbappé and Messi all scored in PSG’s Champions League win at Maccabi Haifa in midweek and all three have looked unstoppable in the league.

🚨 We’ve already mentioned the weekend’s big Derbies in the UEFA and Concacaf federations so we’ll end this preview with two of the biggest games coming up in Conmebol.

The Maracanã plays host to the latest edition of the Fla-Flu, the major Rio de Janeiro clash between Flamengo and Fluminense. This is a rivalry that has been somewhat revived with the upswing in fortunes that Fluminense have enjoyed this season and the sides go in to this one locked level on points, third and fourth in the Brasileirão.

And in Ecuador, there’s the Clásico del Astillero that pits together the two Guayaquil clubs, Emelec and Barcelona. You can expect plenty of colour in this game, albeit TV coverage might be harder to come by.

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 us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Cover Image from IMAGO

Sep

2022

Champions League Team of the Week

FotMob TOTW – Matchday 2

Lionel Messi leads the ratings after his role in PSG’s comeback win at Maccabi Haifa. And there’s a place for Rangers’ 40-year-old keeper Allan McGregor as he made seven saves, including a penalty in defeat to Napoli.

Who was your standout player? Who was unlucky to miss out? Let us know in the comments on Instagram.

Sep

2022

LaLiga Review: All the major stories from the fifth round of games

Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético all won big over the weekend, while Sevilla lifted some of the pressure off coach Julen Lopetegui as they claimed their first three points of the campaign. We’ll discuss all that, and more, in their week’s round-up.

By Ben Hayward, LaLiga expert

Five on the bounce for Real Madrid

Real Madrid made it five wins out of five in LaLiga this season. Karim Benzema’s absence has so often been an issue in the past, but against Mallorca others stepped up. Fede Valverde did so spectacularly in added time at the end of the first half. The Uruguayan is an elite ball carrier, but this time rounded off his 52-metre run with a stunning strike into the top corner. It was out of nothing – and out of this world.

Rodrygo and Vinícius Júnior combined to make it 2-1 to Madrid, before the former added a third with some fancy footwork in tight spaces. Antonio Rüdiger then rounded off the scoring following a set piece with his first Madrid goal in added time to complete an ultimately comprehensive victory.

In Benzema’s absence, Eden Hazard started centrally. The Belgian was replaced by Luka Modrić after 59 minutes and Madrid improved. Karim still does not have a replacement at Real, but at least others are chipping in with goals.

“The first three goals were all quality,” coach Carlo Ancelotti said afterwards. “We’re doing well. Very well. The team were able to cope with Karim’s absence. That has given us an important confidence boost. We hope he is back soon.”

He will be needed. But in the meantime, everyone is happy at Madrid. Well, almost everybody. Marco Asensio kicked a cool box and threw a bib when he was told he would not be coming on as a substitute in the second half. “I understand his anger,” Ancelotti said. “It’s fine.” It looks like the beginning of the end for Asensio, who is out of contract next summer, but Madrid are indeed looking just fine right now.

Four more for Barcelona

Another win for Barcelona and four more goals. Since their 0-0 draw at home to Rayo Vallecano on the opening weekend, Barça have scored four, four, three and four in LaLiga. This time, Cadíz were the victims and although it took a while, it was emphatic in the end. Frenkie de Jong gave Xavi’s side the lead after 55 minutes, before an exciting triple change saw Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé introduced. Lewandowski was soon on the scoresheet again, before setting up Ansu Fati for a third late on. And Dembélé added a fourth with the best of them all in added time.

However, there was drama at the Nuevo Mirandilla as the game was halted after 81 minutes to allow for a Cadíz fan to receive treatment for a suspected heart attack in the stands. Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo was seen praying for the supporter, while Cadíz goalkeeper Conan Ledesma brought on a defibrillator and his team-mates carried a stretcher onto the pitch. After the resumption and his goal, Ansu also put his hands together in an apologetic gesture.

“Luckily, they were able to resuscitate him,” Xavi said of the fan afterwards. “It was a very unpleasant situation. We hope he and his family are well.”

And on the win, he said: “It’s an important victory at a difficult ground. The three points mean we are up there. Everyone is doing well. We’re in a good dynamic. I’m happy with the result.”

Barça are just two points behind Madrid and have a superior goal difference. It’s close at the top.

Atlético face a fight for the top-four

Atlético Madrid’s results have been mixed so far this season, but Saturday’s 4-1 win over Celta Vigo – with Ángel Correa, Rodrigo de Paul and Yannick Carrasco on target, plus an own goal – was emphatic. As in every match this season, Antoine Griezmann was introduced after the hour mark as the Rojiblancos restrict his minutes in an attempt to avoid an obligatory payment of €40 million to Barcelona to sign the French forward. And in a dig at the press following recent criticism of his team, coach Diego Simeone said: “There are so many things we do really well, even if some people don’t see it.”

But Atlético have competition in their fight for a top-four spot. The Rojiblancos are in seventh with 10 points. Above them, Athletic Bilbao (also on 10 points) thrashed Elche 4-1 away from home and Real Betis (third, on 12 points) beat Villarreal 1-0. The goal scored by Rodri at the Benito Villamarín was the first Villarreal had conceded all season in LaLiga, but the Yellow Submarine remain fifth (also on 10 points).

For Betis, meanwhile, it was a fourth win in five fixtures and an excellent reaction after their 2-1 defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu last weekend. And it’s Osasuna who now occupy fourth following a 1-0 victory over Almería on Monday night.

Sevilla win at last

While Betis are flying, their city rivals Sevilla sealed their first win of the season – a 3-2 success away to Espanyol – and coach Julen Lopetegui will hope that result can kick-start their campaign after a miserable first few weeks. “I’m happy for the players,” Lopetegui said. “They deserved it. In football, you don’t win without suffering.” And suffer they did, as Martin Braithwaite closed the gap to a single goal after 62 minutes and Erik Lamela – who scored Sevilla’s opener – was sent off close to the end. But it was a win and Isco impressed for the Andalusians. Despite a few summer sales, plenty of quality remains and they are finally up and running.

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every match from the 2022/23 LaLiga season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Sep

2022

Serie A Review: Three takeaways from Round Six

Matchday six is in the books and plenty of new burning questions have sprung up – should Napoli be considered Scudetto contenders? What’s Allegri’s future with Juventus, and are Monza the disappointment of the season so far?

By Matteo Bonetti, US Serie A expert

Napoli’s New Expectations

What a week it has been for Napoli. They continued their undefeated streak in all competitions by torching Liverpool 4-1, a scoreline that doesn’t do Napoli any favours by the way, as it could’ve easily finished 7-1!

After that dominant performance in the Champions League, Luciano Spalletti opted to rotate a few players given the hectic schedule of now playing a game pretty much every three days. At home against Spezia, Napoli took care of business once again, relying on Giacomo Raspadori’s late finish to give them all three points and keeping them at the top of the Serie A table.

So with a month of Serie A action behind us, is it too early to wonder if we all slept on Napoli this summer? Keep in mind that the Partenopei were a 25/1 underdog to win the Scudetto; compare that to Roma who were at 8/1, and it makes those odds look sillier by the week.

Of course, the idea was that a rebuild always takes some time to translate on the field, as chemistry needs time to develop.

Napoli lost players this summer who were not only important in games, but behind the scenes in the locker room too. Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and Fabian Ruiz left to make room for younger signings like Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kim Min-Jae, Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Simeone and Tanguy N’Dombele.

Napoli’s scouting plan for the transfer window had a clear plan in place: Empty out big wages of players in their 30s with no resale value, to make way for U-25 signings with plenty of potential and room to grow. So far, it has looked like a masterstroke. The Georgian winger Kvara was just named the August player of the month in Serie A. Kim Min-Jae has been a rock at the back – showing aggressiveness, a fantastic aerial game and plenty of pace for such a tall player (6”3). Up front, Simeone and Raspadori suddenly give Spalletti plenty of options in case striker Victor Osimhen goes down with injury or needs a rest. Finally, N’Dombele, a mercurial player who has bags of talent but issues with work rate and fitness, looks like the type of signing that could be the ideal project for Spalletti to work his magic on.

At the start of the season, I wondered whether Napoli would even challenge for a Champions League spot in the top four. With the inconsistency some of the other top teams have have shown so far, I’m now changing my predictions and considering them as a dark horse for the Scudetto.

The Allegri Dilemma

Juventus have opened the campaign with two wins and four draws, but perhaps more concerning is their disjointed style of play which has been a grim continuation from last season. The manager Max Allegri has been under fire since he came back to Juventus, the club that wanted to go in a different direction last time he was manager despite having won a Scudetto together. At least in his first stint, Juventus were winning, albeit without really entertaining. Now, they seem to be unable do either. Against Salernitana, Juventus fell 2-0 down despite playing at the Allianz Stadium, a venue that once was a fortress that visiting teams viewed as an impossibility in terms of getting a result.

Forgetting the dramatic Juventus comeback in the final seconds and the controversial VAR decision, the overall point is that Juventus still struggle to assert any sort of dominance against teams they should be beating easily.

You could make the case that Juventus are without key players, and while that is true, that would only work as a debate point if this wasn’t just a continuation of all of last season. Every team has periods where they’re without key stars, especially now with this ultra-condensed schedule. Allegri’s Juve has this bizarre mentality where they seem content with draws – a tactic normally seen only with mid-table sides. There’s also no real identity when they have possession. Once upon a time Allegri could get away with a lacklustre offence because the defence was so solid, that they could squeeze out 1-0 wins whenever they felt like it. With the backline now conceding silly goals against smaller teams, then what exactly is the strength supposed to be here?

If Juventus continue to drop points like this, it brings up an interesting debate about the manager Allegri. If he wasn’t on such a long, expensive contract (apparently a 4 year deal signed in 2021 worth €9m per season), would he be on the hot seat?

Monza’s Nightmare Start

Monza was Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani’s little project, a town not far from Milan with no football pedigree to speak of, but with deep pockets at the top to help take them to the promised land. Once Monza finally got promoted to Serie A in May, they went to work right away in the summer and had one of the most impressive transfer windows of a newly promoted team in Italian history. Monza were able to sign five current or former Italian internationals. They also brought in the talented Juventus-owned midfield pairing of Andrea Ranocchia and Nicolo Rovella, Arsenal defender Pablo Mari, and arguably the best wingback from the second division, Pisa’s Samuele Birindelli.

As you’d expect, this transfer window was met with plenty of enthusiasm. The talk wasn’t just about Monza avoiding relegation, but potentially sneaking into the top half of the table. Six games in, and a new reality has set in – one point total, the worst defence in the league by far with 14 goals conceded, and lacklustre play. Sadly, this is nothing new for Giovanni Stroppa. The current Monza manager was already sacked once in Serie A with Crotone only three months into the season due to being rock bottom with the worst defence in the league. To make matters worse, the attack is doing no better – the four main strikers have combined for one goal in total, scored by Dany Mota. Caprari and Andrea Petagna are still waiting to score after six games.

There’s still plenty of season left to play, but at the moment, it looks like Stroppa is the manager who’s on the hottest seat of all. On paper, Monza look too good to go down. In reality, it seems like the sheer number of new signings will take some time to gel and build chemistry together. For Berlusconi and Galliani, the hope is that the product on the field starts resembling the expectations laid out in the summer.

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Serie A season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Sep

2022

Last Weekend: Madrid maintain their 100% record, Boca win the Superclásico and more

There was no football across Great Britain this weekend following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, meaning the action from elsewhere took centre stage. There were lots of intriguing fixtures, results and storylines across Europe, and the world, including Real Madrid’s perfect start to the season, Marco Rose’s Bundesliga return and Argentina’s fiercest derby. We will be going over all of that and more in this week’s edition of Last Weekend.

By Neel Shelat

🇪🇸 Spain: Real Madrid 4-1 Mallorca

Going into the weekend, there was just one side across Europe’s top-five leagues that had a 100% record in 2022/23. That team was Real Madrid, and they preserved their record after surviving a slight scare against Mallorca on Sunday.

Mallorca delivered a resolute defensive performance in the first half and did a great job of keeping them out of their penalty area, forcing Madrid to take a lot of shots from range. At the other end, the visitors took the lead through Vedat Muriqi’s header from a set-piece in the 35th minute with what was their second goalscoring opportunity of the match.

Real Madrid looked set to be trailing at the half-time break, but Federico Valverde had other ideas. In the last minute of stoppage-time, he picked up the ball deep inside his own half and drove forward all the way to the edge of the box before finding the top corner with a curling finish on his weaker foot.

The home side continued to struggle to create good chances in the second half in their striker-less system without the injured Karim Benzema, but they finally broke through in the 72nd minute when Rodrygo slipped Vinícius Júnior through on goal, and the 22-year-old Brazilian winger applied a smart finish, making it five goals in his last five matches in all competitions. Rodrygo went on to score a nice solo goal to make it 11 goal involvements in his last 11 appearances for him, which shows just how consistent he has been. In stoppage time, Antonio Rüdiger added a little more gloss to the scoreline by scoring his first goal for his new club.

Real Madrid were frustrated for large periods of this match and had to resort to long shots as aforementioned, so they will be pleased with this result. When they did manage to create chances in the box, they made sure of taking them, which is always an encouraging sign for a side missing its star striker.

🇩🇪 Germany: RB Leipzig 3-0 Borussia Dortmund

We are barely a month and a half into the new season, but the Bundesliga’s managerial merry-go-round is spinning again. RB Leipzig relieved Domenico Tedesco of his duties after their loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League in midweek and proceeded to replace him with Marco Rose, who was out of a job since the summer after parting ways with Borussia Dortmund. That could only mean one thing: his first match in charge of Leipzig would fall against Dortmund.

Leipzig’s league season had also gotten off to a terrible start as they just had one win in five games and were seven points adrift of their opponents going into this match, so Tedesco’s dismissal was certainly justified. Rose made an instant impact after arriving, changing the team’s formation to a 4-2-3-1 and adopting a more transition-based approach in this match. That yielded results just six minutes into the match, as a counterattack from Christopher Nkunku and Timo Werner led to a corner, which was then headed home by Willi Orbán.

Leipzig also looked very good defensively as they completely contained Dortmund in an interesting 4-3-1-2 shape out of possession, leading to the visitors failing to register a single shot on target in a league match for the first time in three years.

A superb strike from Dominik Szoboszlai just before half-time doubled their lead, and Amadou Haidara made it 3-0 in the 84th minute to seal a resounding win for RB Leipzig. The Marco Rose-era has gotten off to the perfect start, and if they can keep this up, they could easily be in with a shout in the race for the best of the rest spot.

🇦🇷 Argentina: Boca Juniors 1-0 River Plate

Over in Argentina, a packed La Bombonera played host to what is among the fiercest derbies in world football – the Superclásico. Boca Juniors and River Plate squared off in a derby that could have huge implications on the title race, as the two sides were five points behind league-leaders Atlético Tucumán going into this match.

In the Boca Juniors dugout was Hugo Ibarra, who was overseeing his first Superclásico as a manager, although he had participated in 13 derbies as a player. On the other bench, Marcelo Gallardo sprung a bit of a tactical surprise as he switched to a back-three system having used a back-four throughout the season.

The match was, as you might expect of such a derby, a pretty cagey affair with very few good chances. The first half ended goalless, and Gallardo reverted to a back-four for the second half. The decisive moment came in the 62nd minute when Darío Benedetto headed a corner home to make the capacity crowd erupt in celebration.

Boca Juniors held on to that lead, coming away with three huge points that take them to within touching distance of first place, along with the bragging rights of course. That makes it five teams placed within four points of Atlético Tucumán, and with nine rounds of fixtures left, an enthralling title race in Argentina is certain.

🇫🇷 France: Lorient 3-2 Nantes

If you take a peak at the league table in France, you will find a couple of surprises close to the top. Last season’s top two – Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille – are first and second again, but behind them are Lens and Lorient, who are just two and three points behind them respectively.

Our focus this week will be on Lorient, who have secured back-to-back wins against sides playing in European competitions this season. While everyone was watching the Champions League on Wednesday night, they put three past Lyon, and on Sunday, did the same to Coupe de France holders Nantes.

Ex-Lens striker Ignatius Ganago opened the scoring for the away side, but Dango Ouattara equalised from a free-kick soon thereafter. Goals from Yoann Cathline and Ibrahima Koné in the second half were enough for Lorient to secure the three points after an impressive performance where they defended well and created a good few chances.

It is far too early for Lorient to be getting carried away with a European dream, but they should certainly be targeting a first top-half finish in Ligue 1 since 2013/14.

🇮🇹 Italy: Juventus 2-2 Salernitana

If your football intake over the weekend didn’t feature a lot of last minute drama then you definitely didn’t watch the Serie A game between Juventus and Salernitana on Sunday night. All of this took place after the clock had struck 90 minutes at the Allianz Stadium:

Before we unpack all of that, first, a little bit of background. Juventus were booed off by their own fans at half-time after a dismal first-half performance that left them trailing by two goals, scored by Antonio Candreva (who broke a record by becoming the first player to score in Serie A for seven different clubs) and Krzysztof Piątek from the penalty spot. They responded well in the second half as Gleison Bremer pulled one back within six minutes, but they struggled to find an equaliser. Some puzzling substitutions, such as taking off Filip Kostić for Danilo, certainly did not help their cause, but that is a different story.

Now, onto the real drama. The fourth official lifted the board and showed four minutes of stoppage time in the 90th minute, but little did he know about what was to follow. Just a minute later, Salernitana conceded a penalty, which Leonardo Bonucci stepped up to take. His effort was saved, but he turned in the rebound. Then, just seconds after the match restarted, Juventus won a corner, which eventually ended up in the back of the net thanks to the head of Arkadiusz Milik. He picked up a second yellow card for taking his shirt off while celebrating, but there was a bigger twist in the tale. VAR found a case of offside in the goal and ruled it out, after which a great scuffle ensued. Federico Fazio, Juan Cuadrado and Massimiliano Allegri were all sent off.

All of that for the match to end without a winner. Although, the repercussions of that VAR decision are likely to rumble on and on.

🇸🇪 Sweden: Hammarby 0-0 Djurgården

There were some big derbies up north too. In Norway, Tromsø faced Bodø/Glimt in what could be the northernmost professional derby in the world. And over in Sweden, Hammarby faced Djurgården in a Stockholm derby that also had major implications on the title race.

Much like the Superclásico, both sides attempted 10 shots each, but the key difference was that there were no goals to speak of. That was a worse result for Hammarby, who are four points adrift of top spot in third. Things could have gotten worse for them, but AIK’s shock loss to Varbergs BoIS keeps them in the European spots.

The biggest winners, though, are Häcken, who have the chance to extend their lead to three points when they face Kalmar on Monday evening. The title race in Sweden is also set to go down to the wire, with eight rounds of fixtures left after this one.

Cover Image from IMAGO

Sep

2022

This Weekend: Europe’s big leagues and the Superclásico

The best action to follow this weekend

By Bill Biss

Saturday

First, confirmation that all this weekend’s scheduled fixtures have been postponed in the UK following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. More info can be found – here.

🇮🇹 In Italy, Napoli will start Serie A’s sixth round of games against Spezia on Saturday afternoon. The early kick-off gives Luciano Spalletti the chance to extend their unbeaten run and temporarily at least, take top spot, with current leaders Atalanta not playing until Sunday. A win would also cap a fine week for the Neapolitans after their 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool in the Champions League.

Later in the day, defending champions Milan travel to winless Sampdoria. They too could go top with a significant swing in goal difference and they’ll be confident of achieving that against a side with the joint-worst goalscoring record so far (Sampdoria have netted just twice in five matches).

Inter feature in the day’s other game when they face Torino at the San Siro. The Turin club have impressed so far – their only defeat coming against Atalanta, and they currently sit one point better off than the Nerazzurri. Inter will need to bounce back after the loss to Milan in the Derby last weekend, and the 2-0 reverse inflicted on them by Bayern in their Champions League opener.

🇪🇸 LaLiga enters Round 5 with Friday’s clash between promoted sides Girona and Real Valladolid before moving on to a run of four games across Saturday.

Barcelona visit Cadíz, who currently sit bottom of the table with no points to their name, having scored none, and conceded 10 so far. Not the kind of form you want to take in to a game against Xavi’s refreshed squad, for whom Robert Lewandowski has scored eight in his last four, across all competitions!

Atlético Madrid left it late against Porto in midweek, with supersub Antoine Griezmann scoring the latest goal in Champions League history (100 minutes and 21 seconds) to give them a 2-1 win. They’ll return to domestic action against Celta Vigo, with whom they share an identical W2 D1 L1 record so far this season. Watch out for the evergreen Iago Aspas in that one – five of their seven goals have come from him.

You might want to look out for Sevilla’s result as well – they play away at Espanyol. All is not well with Julen Lopetegui’s side, with no win in their first four league games followed by the limp display in losing 4-0 at home, to Manchester City, in the week.

🇩🇪 If you haven’t been tracking the Bundesliga over the last month or so the current standings might just surprise you going in to the weekend.

10-time defending champions Bayern will begin proceedings way down in third when they kick-off the Saturday fixtures against Stuttgart. Consecutive 1-1 draws against Gladbach and Union Berlin have somewhat curtailed their free-scoring start to the campaign.

The day’s biggest game is the clash between RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund – two sides who can usually be found fighting over the league’s runners-up spot come the end of the season. Dortmund are doing their part again but Leipzig look well off the pace. The club’s owners have however moved swiftly to change that – sacking their DFB Pokal-winning coach Domenico Tedesco straight after Tuesday’s humiliating 4-1 defeat to Shahktar Donetsk in the Champions League, and replacing him with Marco Rose.

Rose was sacked by Dortmund back in May. Something that could add a little spice to proceedings!

🇫🇷 The top two both feature in Ligue 1 on Saturday – although by the time you read this, Lens could have leapfrogged PSG and Marseille with a win in the Friday night game against Troyes.

PSG have been in sparkling form so far, scoring at a rate of four goals a game in the league, and of course winning against Juventus, thanks to brace from Kylian Mbappé during the week. Lionel Messi appears to be back on form and Neymar is producing his best stats in years. Stade Brestois are the team tasked with facing Christopher Galtier’s side on Saturday afternoon.

Not to be outdone though, arch-rivals Marseille have matched PSG’s unbeaten start to the campaign, and have actually conceded one less. They welcome Lille to the Vélodrome, a side who’ve so far struggled for consistency but are unbeaten on the road.

🏆 In Africa, CAF are finally playing the Super Cup Final between the two Moroccan sides who won last season’s continental competitions. Casablanca-based giants and Champions League winners Wydad will start as the overwhelming favourites against regional side RS Berkane.

Berkane have never won the Moroccan league (contrast that with Wydad’s 22 titles) but a run of high finishes and Cup wins has allowed them to compete in Africa’s second most prestigious tournament – the Confederations Cup in recent years. In fact, they’ve won two of the last three titles in the competition and also featured in the Super Cup in May 2021, where they were defeated by Al Ahly of Egypt.

Sunday

🇦🇷 People will argue forever about what constitutes the biggest derby in world football, but there’s only one club game known as the Superclásico with no prefix, or need to mention the country in which it’s played.

Boca Juniors vs. River Plate is the most keenly fought rivalry, perhaps anywhere. A game for which the whole of Argentina will stop to watch on Sunday. And that’s despite the fact that after 17 rounds of the Liga Profesional season the two sides sit sixth and seventh in the table. River won the league last year, and Boca won it in three of the four years prior to that but even if neither go on to claim the title, this is still the most important game of the season.

🇩🇪 Back in Europe, Freiburg will likely be looking to restore themselves to top spot in the Bundesliga. The side from the Black Forest sit above Dortmund and Bayern going in to the weekend but don’t feature until the final game of the round on Sunday afternoon when they face Gladbach. The two meetings between them last season produced 12 goals – there was a 3-3 draw in the corresponding home game while Freiburg managed to come away from Mönchengladbach with a 6-0 win last December.

Two of this season’s other overachievers in the Bundesliga also clash on Sunday – with sixth placed FC Köln hosting fourth placed Union Berlin. They, along with Bayern are the only three unbeaten teams left in the division. ‘Something has to give’…unless it’s a draw.

🇪🇸 There’s another full day of LaLiga action scheduled, starting with champions and current leaders, Madrid playing promoted side Mallorca at the Bernabéu. Madrid extended their perfect start to the campaign by kicking off their Champions League defence with a 3-0 win at Celtic in midweek but Mallorca have fared quite well themselves since returning to the top flight. They’ve only been beaten by Betis and have picked up credible points against Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano.

The league’s headline act comes with the late kick-off between Betis and Villarreal. Unai Emry’s Villarreal sit third but saw their run of four consecutive clean sheets ended by Lech Poznan in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night – albeit, the Yellow Submarine still triumphed 4-3 in that game! For their part, Betis lie one point further back in fourth and have only suffered defeat against Madrid so far.

🇮🇹 Sunday is traditionally the day for action in Serie A and this weekend is no exception. The excitement starts with Atalanta‘s game against Cremonese. The promoted side sit second bottom but it could be a lot worse without the experience of their goalkeeper Ionut Radu. The Romanian has been forced in to an average of 6.6 saves per match and has been included in our TOTW on a number of occasions already.

Atalanta will however be motivated by the fact that regardless of other results a win would put them top of the table.

Later in the day, unbeaten Juventus take on Salernitana at the Allianz Stadium. Coach Massimiliano Allegri has come in for some significant criticism so far this season with his pragmatic tactics ensuring that they continue to pick up points but fail to impress whilst doing so. A run of three draws separated only by a more convincing win over hapless Sampdoria has since been followed by the defeat to PSG in the Champions League. Another poor showing here will only increase the pressure on Allegri.

🇳🇴 Lastly, it wouldn’t be a FotMob lookahead to the weekend without an obscure Derby to add to the list of games that you’re following in the app! This time, we’re pointing you northwards. Pretty much as far as you can go for the North Norwegian clash between Tromsø and two-time defending champions Bodø/Glimt.

At 350km above the Artic Circle, this is probably the most northernmost professional Derby game in the world and fittingly, the home side have sold out their stadium, for the first time since 2011.

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 us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

Cover Image from IMAGO