The most important league game of the weekend is in Portugal with Benfica against Porto. Sporting Lisbon blew the league race open when they went to Oporto almost two weeks ago and beat the home team 1-0. Benfica have the best home record in Portugal with a draw in ten games the only blemish and they currently trail Porto by one point. Benfica have to play Sporting once more in the league this season – April 29. Portugal cut the league back to sixteen teams this season so although each team has only played 22 games they are only eight left to play.
Lyon are looking to for the first half of a league and league cup double – something they never accomplished – when they face Bordeaux in the League Cup Final. Lyon won the trophy in 2001 which was the year before they set off on their run of consecutive league wins. Bordeaux won the Cup the following season and it remains their last piece of silverware. Interestingly Juninho of Lyon has never scored a goal in a game against Bordeaux.
It looks as if Bayern Munich needs to beat Schalke in order to retain any interest in the Bundesliga title. With only eight games to go and trailing Schalke by nine points and Werder Bremen by six, three points would appear to be mandatory. The good news for Bayern fans is that in thirty-six Bundesliga visits Schalke have only five wins and five draws to show for their efforts.
With both teams facing Champions League action this coming week it will be interesting to see how Milan and Roma line up in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. Roma are sitting with a comfortable nine point lead on rivals Lazio – surely one of the over achievers in the European leagues this season – who are in third place. Milan have slowly but surely worked their up Serie A and are now within four points of a slumping Palermo side for the last Champions League spot and Milan has a game in hand.
The Barcelona versus Deportivo La Coruna game would be more interesting if the game wasn’t in the Nou Camp. Deportivo La Coruna have an abysmal away record having won only twice on their travels this season although both came relatively recently. Goal scoring has been Deportivo’s problem with only 20 goals in the “for” column – only seven have come away from the Riazor. Barcelona have yet to lose to any opposition in the bottom half of the table.
The best in the premiership would look to be Liverpool vs. Arsenal in the early Saturday game while free scoring Tottenham and Reading on Sunday also looks promising. In the battle to avoid relegation Charlton have the opportunity to pull Wigan into the battle and reduce the gap between the two teams to three points. Some things to note going into this game are that Wigan has yet to come back and win a game in which they have conceded the first goal and they have lost 19 points this season from winning positions – the worst in the Premiership
Sheffield United could give themselves a massive lift if they can beat a slumping Bolton side which has lost their last three games. The bad news is United last picked up a point on the road over three months ago. Here is Sheffield United run-in which at least gives them control of their fate - Newcastle (h), Manchester United (a), West Ham (h), Charlton (a), Watford (h), Aston Villa (a) and Wigan (h).
In Liga, I'm most interested in Atleti v Mallorca...for obvious reasons. The club are still pushing for a top five finish. Hopefully Getafe will beat or draw Real Zaragoza-- that'll give Atleti some breathing room.
In the EPL, I agree with you-- Spurs v Reading and Liverpool v Arsenal sound the most interesting.
What about Man City? I know you said on-air that you expect them to avoid relegation, but do you still think so? More importantly, do you think they can score the goal or two needed to beat Newcastle this weekend?
Whereas City are consistent about not putting shots on net and not being creative up front, Newcastle seem wildly unpredictable.
travel coach and Alex Morph - I didn't pick either Manchester city or Sheffield United to go down. I expect City to have enough in the tank to get a few more points - probably in the most unexpected games. United need to win a couple of key games and split another one or two. The only concern I would have is where will the goals come from now that Rob Hulse has gone for the season?
Doesn't really matter - both teams will finish third and fourth and the order is irrelevant, especially now that Bolton are falling apart. It is a good win for Liverpool ahead of their trip to Eindhoven; also hope Macca was watching.
you know what we are really two or three players away from challenging for the tittle.it was a dreadful perfomance.baptista 's alround play has been dreadful and l thought wenger should have played 4-5-1 like at old traford.we really need a wide man and a striker.if wenger buys baptista, he will surely be one of his bilogical sons, because the guy is ####.if wenger could get tevez he is a really good player and if he plays for a top team can really be a shining star
City's last signing, Mpenza, gave them the nod. Haven't seen highlights yet, though; apparently Fox Soccer Channel prefers those southern teams ... sigh.
Nice to see Watford even with Chelsea at the half; can't last though. And, how sweet it is that Liverpool (finally) stuffed Arsenal.
That censor option is nifty. I saw the word "bleep" as a hyperlink, and by clicking the link I was able to turn off censorship and see the curse that was used. Again, great feature.
On any other season todays loss to The Liver would have had me all depressed and worried but having experienced what I have this season it doesn't hurt that much.About Baptista, I guess we can use him for carling cup games and fa cup games to save the good players for the Epl and Cl. so lets keep him he seems to do well in the small tournys.
Crouch was awesome today and Big big loss for Man U in Vidic. This might cost them the C.L. But they might still get the Epl. and Fa.
I keep reading all these massive figures spent by Arsenal on Baptista. I assume you guys are talking about his salary, because I thought he is only with the gunners one a 12 month loan swap, with Reyes being on loan at Real Madrid til the end of the season.
I'm sure Milan will put an offer in for him because they seem to be linked with every available (and otherwise!) Brazilian player.
I know this isn't necessarily the appropriate place to comment, but I can stay silent no more! The game coverage on FSC is getting worse with each passing week. First, they start the Tot/Rea game with the (actual) live audio feed, but the video feed is three minutes off. This was fixed quickly, but it's still annoying. (As an aside, how can FSC have the little "Live" box in the corner when it's clearly not). Second, they were just showing highlights of the Liv/Ars game at halftime and the FSC guy (can't remember his name) just called (Fabio) Aurelio "Areola". That's right, he called him the piece of skin that surrounds the nipple. What a joke?! You'd think that FSC would be able to find someone that actually can pronounce the players' names. Is this dude someone's brother-in-law or something? Jesus!
that will be great news because in freddy, senderos , baptista we have lost approximately 6 points in the prem and two three cup runs, l really hope milan goes for him
The Calderón is looking more and more like the Bernabéu. Where's the 'pasión'? Where's the 'afició? Atleti are playing poorly with no desire- most of them don't deserve to wear the rojiblanco shirt. Truly a shameful display. After such a promising start to the season, they've disappointed over and over again. I don't think my heart can take any more of this garbage.
After this display, I hope that Atleti give it their all for the rest of the season-- it's the least they can do for the club and their faithful supporters. If they continue on in their current spot, we'll surely lose our European spot.
I, for one, desperately miss Maxi and Petrov. I can't wait until next season.
Meanwhile, Racing Santander 5 Athletic Bilbao 4. Heart-breaking result for Athletic (Atletico Madrid's parent club), who are flirting with relegation. Trivia: They've never been relegated in their entire history.
Osasuna 0 Sevilla 0-- I knew Osasuna would put up a fight against Sevilla. Pamplona isn't the easiest place to get a result.
Atleti,please explain "pasion"and "aficio".
The last time I went to the Vicente calderon(1982 world cup),it did not look anything like the bernabeu .
What do you think of the Basque teams?
RINGO:
Sorry about that: 'pasión'and 'afició'-- the passion, the drive, etc.
When I say that the Calderón is looking more and more like the Bernabéu, I mean in terms of disappointing, uninspiring results.
What do I think of Basque clubs? I think it's a bad time to be a supporter of a Basque club, at least at the moment! Both Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao are at the very bottom of the table. Real Sociedad will surely be relegated this season. There's still some light at the end of the tunnel for Athletic though because it's still very tight at the bottom of the table. Osasuna are doing fairly well in Europe and they seem to have gotten out of that slump they were in earlier in the season.
Of the three in the top division, I tend to like Athletic Bilbao, but that's only because Atletico Madrid were founded by three members of that club.
Atleti,I did not know that Atletico and Bilbao were related.I do like Athletic Bilbao,I remember going to the San Mames during Espana 82,England vs Czechoslavakia,Kuwait and France,we stayed in a little village called Cestona about an hour`s bus ride from Bilbao.The Basque people were great(after they forgot what the tabloids told them about the English"hooligans").Madrid on the other hand was a different story!!
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