This Weekend: Europe’s big leagues and the Superclásico
The best action to follow this weekend
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.
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Cover Image from IMAGO