An early edition this week as an Old Timers (or for the PC Masters) game beckons tonight.

Some interesting data regarding visits to European soccer websites.

Nick Harris on Mike Ashley’s takeover bid for Newcastle. Is there any Newcastle fan opposed to this? I doubt it. Two teams that I thought would be worth buying outside of the top four would be Newcastle and Manchester City.

An extract from Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox’s autobiography.

Where to start this week? Seeing that Milan won the Champions League and that they are involved in the battle to stay in Serie A – they play relegation threatened Reggina – we will start in Italy.

With the final round on Sunday five teams are battling to avoid the final relegation spot. Here is a rundown in order of the team most likely to step on the trapdoor.

Siena (37 points) plays Lazio and if they lose they will be relegated. A draw could keep them in Serie A if either Catania or Reggina lose.  Siena was docked a point for irregular tax payments and come Sunday night they may rue their run-in with the taxman. Siena has only one win in their last five matches and they must be hoping that Lazio - who has already secured a Champions League spot for next season - have already started their holidays.

Reggina (37 points) is surely hoping that Milan will lack motivation after winning the Champions League on Wednesday. Reggina pulled off a stunning comeback last weekend against Empoli. Down 3-0 they fought back to draw 3-3. Reggina has two wins and six draws in their last eight games and if it wasn’t for an 11-point penalty they would be sitting in a comfortable mid-table position. Reggina needs to match Siena’s result in order to stay up.

The only head-to-head battle of relegation threatened teams is Catania (38 points) and Chievo (39 points) and it will be played at the neutral site of Bologna. The winner of this game is definitely secure. However, a draw combined with Siena and Reggina wins would relegate Catania. The same fate is in store should Catania lose and the other two take a point each. Since the ill-fated match against Palermo that resulted in the murder of a policeman outside of the Catania stadium the Sicilian club has picked up only 8 points out of a possible 42.

On the other hand Chievo (39 points) has picked it up lately with only one loss in the last six games. A draw is enough for Chievo although a loss combined with wins by Siena and Reggina and a draw for Parma would mean some unhappy donkeys.

Parma (39 points) and Claudio Ranieri need only a point from Empoli and after suffering only two losses in their last 14 matches they would appear to be well positioned to do so. In fact they might even survive a loss given that in order to be relegated Reggina and Siena both need to win and Catania needs to at least draw with Chievo.

In Spain the focus is at the top end of the table with Real Madrid and Barcelona both playing on Saturday and Sevilla on Sunday. Talk of revenge will be prevalent as Barcelona takes on Getafe the side that knocked them out of the Copa del Rey. Barcelona is the only team in La Liga with an undefeated record at home while no team in the top 12 in Spain has a poorer away record than Getafe – only 5 wins and 18 points.

Getafe did however administer a 5-1 spanking last weekend to Espanyol in Barcelona. If Getafe is to pull off a major surprise then they are probably going to have to score at least a couple of goals given that Barcelona has scored in every home game this season in La Liga.

Next weekend it is the Barcelona derby while the season concludes with the reigning champions visiting already relegated Gimnastic.

Real Madrid has won eight of their last nine matches but in the last three games they have left it late. Wins against Sevilla, Espanyol and Recreativo have all been secured with progressively later goals - 85th, 89th, and 90th. For a team that has struggled to score goals this season, Real has hit a purple patch with 14 coming in the last four games.

However, they have also conceded eight. Real’s opponents this weekend Deportivo La Coruna has the third poorest away record in La Liga with only 13 points (2 wins) and have only scored 9 goals. After this match Real has Real Zaragoza away and Mallorca at home to finish the season.

Sevilla showed a lot of character to come back from a goal down to beat Deportivo last week and on paper they face a stiff test against Real Zaragoza. However, Zaragoza’s challenge has faded and they have not won consecutive matches since last November. They also only won once away from home since mid-December. Mallorca away and Villarreal at home await Sevilla.

A late charging Villarreal (5 straight wins) might bring to an end any faint hope Valencia may harbour of a La Liga title. Villarreal is only a point behind Atletico Madrid and pushing hard for a UEFA Cup spot. Valencia centre back Roberto Ayala has already signed for Villarreal for next season and in the last two days alone Shevchenko, Makelele and Heinze have all been linked with possible moves to El Madrigal.

In Scotland and Germany cups will be decided. Relegated Dunfermline will be making a third appearance in a final since 2004 and all against Celtic. They will hoping to make it third time lucky after losing both the CIS Cup and Scottish Cup finals. Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup twice in the sixties and beat Celtic on route both times. All in this will be the fourth time Celtic and Dunfermline will have faced each other in a Scottish Cup final.

Celtic finished the league season sluggishly with three losses in last four league games and five of their six league season losses came in the final nine league games. In contrast Dunfermline have had half of their six league wins this season come in their last four league games and have lost only three of their last nine. But still there was a 58 point gap between the two teams come the final league table.

Domestic doubles are not normally frequent events but it doesn’t seen that way in German where for the last four seasons it appears to have been a case of win one and get the other one free. The last four seasons Bayern Munich three times and Werder Bremen have all done the double. Stuttgart has a chance to make it five when they play Nurnberg in the German Cup final on Saturday.

Both teams have won the Cup three times. Stuttgart’s last German Cup win was in 1997 and Nurnberg’s in 1962. Nurnberg finished sixth in the Bundesliga, their best performance since 1988 when they were one place higher. They beat Stuttgart 3-0 on the opening day of the season and again 4-1 after the winter break. Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer is trying to become the first coach to win cup competitions in both East Germany and Germany.

On Monday there is the Premiership play off that is worth zillions of dollars – just pick a number everyone one else does. Derby versus West Brom – I’ll go for West Brom.