Football fans will need to gear up for a thrilling weekend of an unbeatble football actions from the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A.
This weekend’s Premier League action opens at Anfield, the home of log leaders Liverpool, as they welcome Newcastle United for an early afternoon kick-off on Saturday. The meeting of the Reds and the Magpies is one of the great fixtures of the English top flight in the past 25 years.
Both teams played out a 3-2 thriller in their last meeting in May – with Divock Origi scoring a late winner for Jurgen Klopp’s men at St. James Park as they kept up their bid for the title – while their most famous clashes were a pair of 4-3 thrillers (both at Anfield) back in 1996 and 1997.
The resumption of La Liga after the international break starts on Friday night with a clash between Mallorca and Athletic Bilbao. The latter have enjoyed a wonderful start to the campaign – capped by a 2-0 home win over Real Sociedad in the Basque derby at the end of last month – and they will be determined to maintain their momentum with a strong result at the Iberostar Stadium.
Real Madrid will be at home to Levante in the early afternoon kick-off. Patience for manager Zinedine Zidane is wearing thin and Los Blanocs need a convincing win at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu to keep the critics at bay.
The next round of Serie A opens with a potential thriller on Saturday afternoon, as champions Juventus head to the Stadio Artemio Franchi to take on Fiorentina. Given that Juve’s last match was an incredible 4-3 win over Napoli, and the Florence team’s two games have produced 10 goals, this clash between the Viola and Bianconeri could one to savour for viewers.
Napoli, who are no doubt still hurting from that heartbreaking defeat to Juve at the end of last month, must get back on track when they host Sampdoria at Stadio San Paolo on Saturday evening. Samp are rock bottom of the standings after defeats to Lazio and Sassuolo, but the Neapolitans are unlikely to have any mercy.
Anthony Nlebem
