A Manchester Derby without any winners?
Midweek was dominated by cup action across Europe and a full round of PL fixtures in England. We head into the weekend edging ever nearer to the end of the season and a number of tricky matches await some of Europe’s top teams. Let’s take a look at some of this weekend’s biggest matches!
The early kick off in England sees Arsenal travel to Everton, who are now counting down the final few matches at Goodison Park. The best match of the day is likely to be the late kick off between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Ligue 1 leaders PSG play at home to Angers whilst in Germany Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen, Dortmund and Stuttgart all play away from home on Saturday. The highlight on Saturday from Italy is the match between AC Milan and Fiorentina. Over in La Liga, leaders Barcelona face a potentially tricky match against Betis and Real Madrid will expect all three points at home to Valencia.
The highlights of the weekend largely take place on Sunday, none more so than the Manchester derby with United taking on City at Old Trafford in the late kick off. Prior to that, leaders Liverpool will travel to Fulham and there is a west London derby between Brentford and Chelsea. There are two intriguing ties in Italy as Atalanta host Lazio and AS Roma welcome Juventus to the capital. Two Portuguese giants clash in the late match on Sunday as FC Porto play against Benfica with both hoping to catch Sporting at the top of the table.
The action concludes on Monday with a match from the PL, with recent cup winners Newcastle travelling to Leicester and Napoli heading to Bologna in Italy. Portuguese leaders Sporting take on Braga on Monday evening and the solitary match from Spain is Leganes’ match against Osasuna.
Everton vs Arsenal
Goodison Park, Saturday @ 13:30
There are not too many games remaining at Goodison Park before their eagerly anticipated move to their flash new stadium next season so fans will be wanting to make the most of the last few matches. This PL match and the one later in the season against Manchester City are arguably the best, and toughest that remain and David Moyes will be pushing his players to try to get as many wins and finish as high up the table they can. Due to the form of the bottom three, they are safe from relegation but, with four draws in a row before the midweek loss to Liverpool, they have stagnated in the table. Goalscoring remains their biggest problem, only the bottom three have scored less than them and it is something that will certainly need addressing in the summer months.
Arsenal registered an important win over Fulham in midweek to keep them in touch with Liverpool, at least mathematically, and keep the gap to Nottingham Forest at four points. They will be hoping to make it three wins in a row against Everton, although they don’t have the best record against them with five wins in the last ten encounters. Gunners fans will have been delighted with the comeback by Bukayo Saka, the England man coming off the bench to score the all important second goal.
Earlier in the season these two played out a goalless draw at the Emirates, fans will be hoping for more entertainment this time around. Arsenal have five wins in the last ten and Everton have four, so historically there isn’t too much to choose between the two.
Barcelona vs Betis
Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, Saturday @ 21:00
Barcelona have an important few days at the start of April with a cup semi-final, a tricky league match against Betis and a CL quarter-final against Dortmund all within a week. The league match is, on paper, the easiest, but they only have a three point lead at the top of the table and Betis are the form team in La Liga, having stormed up to sixth place thanks to their recent good run. Barcelona’s last league match was a comfortable 4-1 win over Girona and their last defeat in any competition was all the way back on the 21st of December. They have certainly made themselves feel at home at the Olympic Stadium, whilst the Nou Camp is being rebuilt. 30 goals scored in their last ten matches is an impressive run and something that is likely to worry any opponent with Robert Lewandowski continuing the lead the La Liga goalscoring charts with 25 goals so far.
Betis have really turned a corner of late as they have eight wins in their last ten matches including their last five league matches. They also completed a 6-2 win over Vitoria Guimaraes to advance in the ECL where they next play Jagiellonia. Last week they got the better of Sevilla, winning 2-1. One man who has made a big impact since joining on loan from Manchester United is Antony, the Brazilian seems far more at home playing for Betis and has become a key player. They do lack an out and out goalscorer though, as evidenced by the fact they have scored only 40 goals so far, the lowest of any team in the top six.
The previous league meeting ended in a 2-2 draw but Barcelona thrashed Betis in the cup in January, winning 5-1. Overall the home side have by far the better record, winning eight of the last ten encounters with Betis’ only win coming in the league in 2021.
Manchester United vs Manchester City
Etihad Stadium, Sunday @ 17:30
One of the most anticipated clashes of the PL season traditionally as these two Manchester giants clash for the final time this season. United managed an unexpected win over City at the Etihad Stadium back in December so the visitors will definitely be looking for revenge here. It has been a poor season for both these teams but United have been by far the most disappointing as they languish down in the bottom half of the table. All their focus is now on the EL, with a tricky fixture taking place next week. Should they manage to win the European trophy, they will find themselves back in the CL next season no matter where they finish in the league. That being said, their fans will expect them to turn up against City and will be hoping to complete an unlikely double over the outgoing champions. A midweek defeat against Nottingham Forest was not entirely unexpected, but they did manage a decent performance overall, although nowhere near potent enough in front of goal. That was their first loss since being eliminated from the cup by Fulham.
Manchester City are still on course to win a trophy following their cup win over Bournemouth and might yet finish the season with a trophy and a top four finish. By their recent high standards that is not quite good enough, but at the same time it is not all doom and gloom, as some would like to believe. They too lost to Nottingham Forest in the league by the same narrow 1-0 scoreline and find themselves in a battle for top four with Chelsea, Newcastle and Brighton amongst others. Some of their new signings are starting to show signs of setting in and that is a positive looking forward to next season.
United have won three of the last ten but that includes two of the last three, including last season’s cup final. Manchester City have managed six wins in the last ten though, so their recent dominance is clear.
Atalanta vs Lazio
Gewiss Stadium, Sunday @ 18:00
Atalanta will be desperate to get back to winning ways after two successive losses in the league recently, against Inter and Fiorentina. This is another tricky match but they will think they should have enough for three points at home against a side that is out of form lately. Atalanta are now nine points behind leaders Inter and a genuine title charge appears to have fizzled out, but that being said, they will want to guarantee a top four finish with Bologna and Juventus catching them. Atalanta remain the second highest scorers in the division with 63 goals so far as Retegui and Lookman are both doing well.
Lazio’s last win came over AC Milan over a month ago and they have slipped down to seventh in the table. Their recent poor run included a disappointing 5-0 loss at the hands of Bologna and they now have the worst goal difference in the top ten, barring Udinese. The odds indicate that it will be a surprise if they get anything out of this match but they do have two away wins in the last ten meetings overall against Atalanta.
The last meeting was a 1-1 draw towards the end of December and Atalanta have four wins in the last ten encounters. Lazio have three wins in that same timeframe.
AS Roma vs Juventus
Stadio Olimpico, Sunday @ 20:45
The final match of the day from Italy’s top flight sees Juventus travel to Rome to take on AS Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in what should be an intriguing clash. Only three points separate these two teams as the battle for European places hots up and it is the away side who hold the advantage. AS Roma have been the form team in the league of late and are on a run of seven wins in a row heading into this important match up. Their EL adventure came to an end a couple of weeks back so all focus will be on finishing as high as possible and taking points off Juventus will be a big help in their ambitions. Artem Dovbyk leads the way for the home sides in terms of goalscoring with 11 goals to his name.
Juventus managed to get back to winning ways last week, collecting three points courtesy of a 1-0 win over Genoa, a much needed boost after two losses. They have been overtaken by Bologna in the table and now find themselves out of the top four with eight games to go and will be looking over their shoulders at an in-form AS Roma. The visitors have the second best defensive record in the league but remain hampered by a run earlier in the season that sees them with thirteen draws to their name, plenty of missed opportunities for more points.
This has been a low scoring affair over recent years with none of the last five meetings seeing more than two goals scored. The Roma side have only won two of the last ten whereas Juventus have won four.
Please note that the odds might have changed since the writing and/or publication of this article.
Last updated: 04.04.25
