Weekly Football Preview and Predictions

The season is nearing its end now with only a few weeks left until all the major leagues and cup competitions are over in Europe. It will be a rather quiet summer ahead with the Women’s World Cup as the major event, so we will make sure to make the most of the last few remaining rounds of action.

Last weekend saw Arsenal slip up in the Premier League, all but handing the title to Manchester City whilst Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester United continue to do battle for the remaining top four spots.

There were big wins for leaders Bayern in Germany and PSG in France but the likes of Lens, Marseille and Dortmund are yet to give up on their dreams of winning the title. Barcelona confirmed the La Liga title with a win over Espanyol and there was a shock defeat for Atletico at Elche, which allowed rivals Real to overtake them into second place. There were contrasting fortunes for the Milan teams in Italy as Inter are now five points ahead of rivals AC Milan in the battle for a top four place. 

In midweek, the second legs of the Champions League took place which saw Inter put in an effective performance against AC Milan to get through without much fuss. In the other semi final, Manchester City were dominant against Real Madrid, winning 4-0 on the day in an impressive display.

The final will take place, therefore, between Inter and Manchester City in Istanbul. In other midweek action, it was Luton and Coventry that made it through to the Championship playoff final with the winner to be rewarded with a place in next season’s Premier League as well as all the riches that go along with that. 

With not many rounds of fixtures left to go this season, there is an important meeting in the Bundesliga on Saturday as leaders Bayern face a tricky match against fellow top four team RB Leipzig. Third play against fifth in Ligue 1 as Lille host Marseille whilst in Spain, newly crowned champions Barcelona host Real Sociedad. In England, if Arsenal fail to win against Nottingham on Saturday evening the title will belong to Manchester City who play against Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. A win for Paris SG against lowly Auxerre on Sunday will wrap up the title for them too. 

European matches on Friday

Friday brings the usual solitary matches from Europe’s top leagues, barring England. Lyon host Monaco in Ligue 1 with both teams battling it out for a European place.

Bundesliga action comes in the form of Freiburg versus Wolfsburg with both fighting it out for European football next season here too.

By contrast, there is not much to play for in the Serie A offering as Sassulo take on Monza with both teams comfortable in mid-table.

The La Liga matchup between Cadiz and Valladolid does have much riding on it though, as both teams are equal on points just outside the relegation zone, so a win for either will go a long way to guaranteeing their safety.

English Football

The early kick-off on Saturday sees Tottenham face Brentford with only four points separating them. Tottenham’s season has nosedived and they now run a very serious risk of not getting any European Football at all next season as they are level on points with Aston Villa in the final spot for a Conference League place.

Later that afternoon, Manchester United will hope that their recent poor away form won’t haunt them again as they travel to the south coast to play Bournemouth and elsewhere, Fulham host Crystal Palace and Wolves play Everton.

A match of significance for both teams is Aston Villa’s visit to Liverpool with the hosts in excellent form and Aston Villa also in good form as they stormed up the league table before hitting a recent blip. The final game of the day sees Nottingham, still fighting for their lives, hosting Arsenal, who appear to have thrown away their chance of a league title. 

European Leagues on Saturday

The best match of the weekend in the Bundesliga is Bayern Munich against RB Leipzig, the toughest of the remaining fixtures for the league leaders. A win for the home team and they will feel they have one hand on the trophy yet again. There are four other matches from the Bundesliga scheduled for the usual mid-afternoon kick-off.

Two matches are to be played in Ligue 1 in France as Nantes play Montpellier and Lille host Marseille. In Italy, AC Milan are home to relegated Sampdoria whilst Atalanta need a win at home to Verona if they are to challenge AS Roma and AC Milan for the remaining European spots. There are five La Liga matches scheduled for Saturday with champions Barcelona in action in the late match against Real Sociedad. 

English Football on Sunday

West Ham will be grateful to have enough points on the board to avoid relegation as they turned their focus to their European campaign in the Conference League. Had that not been the case then this match against Leeds United would have been a very tense affair.

As it stands, Leeds need to get three points from their visit to London if they are to stand a chance of survival. Later, Brighton will be hoping to follow up their impressive win over Arsenal with another three points against already relegated Southampton before Manchester City play Chelsea, a game which might be a celebration depending on the Arsenal result from Saturday. 

European Leagues to watch this weekend

Paris SG can wrap up another title if they beat Auxerre in the late match from Ligue 1, that is assuming that Lens are able to win on the road to Lorient in the later kick-off in one of eight matches from Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Dortmund play Augsburg knowing that three points is a must, once again and Bayer Leverkusen will be hoping to pick up a win at home to Gladbach in the race for a European spot. Inter can wrap up a top-four spot if they manage to win at Napoli on Sunday, normally a tough task but since Napoli have won the title already, they might be in a more generous mood.

The late match sees Lazio, who have hit a run of poor form of late, attempt to keep hold of their top-four spot by getting three points against Udinese. Valencia seem to have just about escaped relegation from La Liga this year but some points in the match at home against Real Madrid would certainly be welcome, although not expected.

Sevilla are one point off finishing in a Europa Conference League spot and, considering their start to the season, that will be a welcome success. They are at home to Betis, who seem likely to settle for sixth place and Europa League football. 

Rest of the week

Monday night Premier League football comes from St James Park in Newcastle as the Magpies attempt to ensure they finish an excellent campaign in the top four with their last home match of the season at home to Leicester. The visitors are in big trouble and, depending on results earlier in this round, they might find themselves five points away from safety, so a win would be what they need.

AS Roma and Juventus are in action in Serie A on Monday night, against Salernitana and Empoli respectively. An extra round of La Liga fixtures will be played across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well as two Premier League matches and the Coppa Italia final between Fiorentina and Inter Milan

Saturday 20/05

Liverpool vs Aston Villa

An important match in the race for European Football as two teams who had poor starts to the season but a very good second half clash at Anfield. At one point, it looked like Liverpool wouldn’t achieve any qualification at all but now they are actually close to reaching the Champions League. Their seven game winning run in the league has been their best form and coincided with a number of players returning from injury and form.

Liverpool now have both Manchester United and Newcastle in their sights, and a slip up from either of these will open the door to Liverpool to finish in the top four. Their last result was a straightforward 3-0 win over struggling Leicester and with this being their last home match of the season, another win seems likely. 

Aston Villa got back to winning ways last weekend with a win over troubled Tottenham. That result means that they are now level on points with the team from north London and pushes ever closer to qualification for European football next season. Their last top seven league finish came back in 2009/10 so this would be a remarkable turnaround for Unai Emery. Their record against Liverpool is a poor one though, so should they achieve anything from this match it will be viewed as a positive result. 

Liverpool have won eight of the last ten matches between these two and Aston Villa have won the other two. Traditionally this is a high scoring match with eight of the last ten matches seeing three or more goals being scored. 

Lille vs Marseille

Another important match in the battle for top tour and European Football next season, with the league title almost surely now out of reach for both of these teams. Despite losing as many games as leaders PSG this season, Marseille really suffered due to the number of draws, with seven in total so far. That leaves them eight points behind with three matches to go. Lille’s form has not been great in recent weeks with only two wins from their last five matches.

Their place in the top four is now hanging by a thread and a win in this match is imperative in that quest. Once again, draws have been the downfall, as Lille have had nine so far this season. They will be hoping that star forward Jonathan David can fire them to the top four as he is unlikely to be at the club next season. 

Marseille will go into this match in good form, with four wins from the last five but have still not been able to confirm second place in the league as Lens retain a two point advantage over them. Only Lens have conceded fewer goals in the league than Marseille and the visitors will know that a clean sheet will be vital in this matchup. They have been less reliant on a single player to get the goals as their highest scorer is Alexis Sanchez who has only managed 14 so far this year. 

Both teams have won four of the last ten meetings with the remaining two matches finishing as draws. Most games between these two are close contests as only four matches have been won by more than one goal. Six of the last ten have seen three or more goals and it was Marseille that won the reverse fixture 2-1 last season. 

Bayern Munich vs RB Leipzig

A very significant match in the title run in as leaders Bayern Munich face their toughest match of the remaining season when they take on third place RB Leipzig. Both teams have much to fight for with the home time searching for yet another Bundesliga title whereas the visitors are looking to ensure they finish in a top-four slot and qualify for the Champions League next season.

Bayern’s lead at the top remains at one point as both they and Dortmund won their matches last weekend, the tightest title race since 2010. This is the final home game for Bayern this season and they will hope that the Allianz Arena will help push them past a tricky opponent. Bayern have scored in each of their last 56 home league matches but the last time they were prevented from doing so was actually against RB Leipzig in 2020.

A win for the visitors would ensure a top-four finish so there is certainly much for them to play for in this match. Another aspect is that RB Leipzig will want to retain their good form as they head towards the DFB Pokal Final on 3rd June. They have won the last three of their matches and will rely on their strong backline to try to keep Bayern at bay. RB Leipzig have a poor record overall against Bayern though, with only one win in the last sixteen matches. 

Bayern have won five of the last ten meetings with the other five all finishing in a draw. Earlier this season these teams played out a 1-1 draw.

Sunday 21/05

Manchester City vs Chelsea

Manchester City go into this match all but guaranteed of winning the league title yet again. This follows Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton last week and, if Arsenal fail to win on Saturday, this game will be a full on celebration. There might be more to celebrate should City get past Real Madrid in midweek as their target of winning a treble remains alive.

It has been another excellent campaign for City, despite an underwhelming start, as they have 27 wins and have scored an impressive 92 goals in the 35 games so far. They are currently top of the form table, with fifteen points from the last five matches and their goal machine Erling Haaland has an unbelievable 36 goals so far. 

Chelsea supporters cannot wait for the season to end as this has been one of the most disappointing campaigns for them in recent years. They are currently in 11th place and can finish no higher than 10th.

Only three teams in the whole league have scored fewer goals than Chelsea, despite the huge outlay on new players last summer and in January. This will be a tough match for Chelsea and it will be interesting to see whether the players can motivate themselves for the challenge of playing the champions in waiting.  

Manchester City have won six of the last ten meetings between these two, including the last five. The last time Chelsea beat Manchester City was in the Champions League final back in 2021. Earlier in the season, City thrashed the Londoners 4-0 but many of the meetings between these two have been tight with only three seeing a win by more than a solitary goal. 

Napoli vs Inter

Inter will go into this match as favourites to win as they have something to fight for whereas Napoli’s season is effectively over having won the Serie A title already. In fact, Napoli suffered defeat last weekend at Monza, their fourth of the season.

They remain the top goal scorers in the league with 70 goals, with Inter next on the list with 66. Both teams have a player at the top of goalscoring charts with Napoli’s Victor Osimhen leading the way with 23 so far, so there is certainly a personal target for him to achieve and for his teammates to help him with. 

Inter are currently top of the form table in Serie A and this has come at exactly the right time in the season. Not only are they looking very much like finishing in the top four in the league, but they also managed to beat city rivals AC Milan in midweek to make it through to the Champions League final.

For the time being though, attention must turn to league matters and they are four points clear of fifth place with three matches to go. This would, in other circumstances, have been their toughest match of the remaining season, but it might turn out to be easier due to Napoli not having anything to play for. One thing they will have to manage is squad rotation, as they have played many intense matches in recent weeks. 

Inter have won five of the last ten matches, including winning the reverse fixture 1-0 in January. Napoli have only won two of the last ten with their last win coming in the Coppa Italia back in 2020. Only three of the previous ten matches have seen more than two goals scored so this is not historically a high-scoring match. 

Valencia vs Real Madrid

Things have taken a turn for the better for Valencia in recent weeks, resulting in them moving up to 14th in the table, but despite this, they are still involved in a relegation battle as they remain only three points ahead of the relegation zone.

With three wins from their last five matches, Valencia will be hopeful of another solid showing against giants Real Madrid. Goal scoring has been a struggle for them, with Kluivert their top scorer with six goals. Overall, Valencia have scored 38 goals, not the worst as six teams in the league have scored less. 

Real Madrid are in a battle with city rivals Atletico to finish second but took a beating in their midweek tie in Manchester, something which might put a serious dent in their confidence and will to fight on this season. With the league title long since confirmed as being Barcelona’s, the only thing left to fight for is second place and the knowledge that they can finish above their local rivals.

The squad will probably need to be rotated following the thrashing they were victims of in Manchester but there is certainly enough depth to still put out a strong team. Carlo Ancelotti will be hoping for a positive response from his players to the setback they received 

Neither team are in fantastic league form with Valencia managing three wins from their last five and Real only managing two. Historically, Real Madrid have six wins from the last ten, including a 2-0 win earlier this season, whereas Valencia have only won two of the last ten meetings. 

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