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- The Manchester Derby, Leipzig vs. Bayern, Barca, and the AFCON Final
The Manchester Derby, Leipzig vs. Bayern, Barca, and the AFCON Final
Need to plan out your football fix this weekend? Here's FotMob with The Assist.
The football world is a wide and varied one, and we’ve tried to bring you the best of everything in this edition of the newsletter. There’s all your usual big league game previews, plus a focus on the final of the African Cup of Nations and an inspiring story you might not have heard about from Cypriot football.
Man United vs. Man City
2026 is just 16 days old but Manchester United are set to be led out by a third different manager of the year, interim or otherwise, when they take on their City rivals on Saturday lunchtime.
Michael Carrick is the latest ex-player to be charged with steering the ship for the remainder of the campaign but it’s unlikely he would have picked Pep Guardiola and Manchester City as his dream first opponents. He has been here before, having led United for three unbeaten games in a previous interim spell back in 2021, and has since led Middlesbrough to fourth, eighth, and tenth place finishes in the Championship.
Both sides come into the Derby having drawn each of their last three league games, an anomaly that Opta report has not happened anywhere in the top flight since 2001. Since those three draws City have smashed ten past League One Exeter and come away with a 2-0 lead from the first leg of their Carabao Cup semifinal at Newcastle.
Notably, United have been knocked out of both domestic cups at the earliest opportunity, meaning a strong league finish is the best they can hope for this season. They start the weekend in seventh, 11 points behind second placed City, who in turn, sit six points down on leaders Arsenal.
Erling Haaland scored twice when the two sides met in September but the league’s top scorer is going through a relative dry spell, netting just once in his last six appearances. Now would be an opportune moment to improve that record, with City aiming to apply some pressure on the Gunners before they face Nottingham Forest later in the day.
Real Sociedad vs. Barcelona
After a week that included lifting the Supercopa for the third time in four years, and avoiding a potential banana skin with victory at Racing Santander in the Copa Del Rey, Barcelona return to league action in fine form, with 11 straight wins across all competitions.
Hansi Flick’s defending champions resume their campaign in the Basque Country where they face a Real Sociedad side who appear to have turned a slight corner in their season. La Real are unbeaten in five heading into this one, a run that includes two draws and a win in the league.
Barca hold a four point lead over Real Madrid in the standings, and their awesome attacking prowess has seen them score 53 times at an average of 2.8 goals per game, something that might worry new Real Sociedad manager Pellegrino Matarazzo, whose side have only kept one clean sheet all season.
The American-born coach had been out of frontline work since leaving German club Hoffenheim in November 2024, so this will be by far the biggest test he has faced to date in Spanish football.
On paper, the stars appear to have aligned for Morocco. At a time when the nation’s stock in the footballing world is at its highest — four years after becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semifinal and four years before they themselves will host a portion of the 2030 World Cup — they have a chance to end a 50-year wait for Africa’s biggest crown.
And so far, the team have lived up to expectations on the pitch, conceding just one goal en route to the final (a penalty at that), and defeating both Cameroon and high-scoring Nigeria in the knockout stages. Real Madrid’s Brahim Díaz has been a revelation having found the net in five consecutive games (there’s more on him in the Must Reads further down).
The only hurdle standing in their way is, however, a formidable one. Senegal have built themselves a reputation in this tournament, reaching the final in three of the last four editions, and winning it in 2021. Sadio Mané’s goal was enough to see off Egypt in the semifinal and the Lions of Teranga will be counting on all of their big game savvy to get through this final encounter.
RB Leipzig vs. Bayern Munich
On Wednesday night Bayern suffered a slight scare away at FC Köln. The hosts dared to take the lead against the Bundesliga’s unbeaten leaders and for all of nine minutes it looked like a shock might be on the cards.
Vincent Kompany’s side did, inevitably, come back - equalising in first half stoppage time, and then going on to score a further two goals in the second half. That result took them to 47 points from a possible 51 at the halfway point of the season, a tally that equals a league record set by Pep Guardiola’s Bayern side in the 2013/14 season.
This year’s squad have, however, surpassed that achievement due to breaking the record for goals scored as we reach the midpoint marker. Their total of 66 goals beats the 56 that they notched in the 2021/22 campaign.
Now, they take their 25-league-game unbeaten run to Leipzig, where the Red Bull side have lost just once at home so far this season. Ole Werner’s appointment as head coach has proven a good decision, and the 37-year-old has them third in the table - albeit 15 points down on Bayern - and high up for a number of key metrics like clean sheets, xG, big chances, and shots on target.
Could this be the test that Bayern actually need?
Ball KnowledgeWho was Bayern manager when the club recorded an overall league record points haul of 91 out of a possible 102 in the 2012/13 season? |
Krasava, a team newly promoted to the top flight of Cypriot football, come with some back story. Originally founded in Russia by former-pro-turned-famous-YouTuber Yevgeny Savin, the side re-registered as a professional outfit on the Mediterranean island following Savin’s move into exile.
An outspoken critic of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Savin faced criminal charges for his condemnation of the war and was forced to uproot his family and leave the country. He was later sentenced to a prison term in his absence in 2024, just before Krasava embarked on their successful promotion campaign.
Savin has funded Krasava’s ascent through his own money and with the backing of other wealthy Russian exiles, and currently claims the support of a fanbase almost entirely made up of immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and other Russian speaking countries. The club also work extensively with support groups for the diaspora in their base city of Limassol.
Krasava’s first top flight season hasn’t gone entirely to plan - they sit second bottom - but their sheer existence is an amazing achievement. They play the rather more familiar Cypriot side AEK Larnaca this weekend, a team who will be competing in the knockout stages of the UEFA Conference League later this season - a level that Savin is determined to reach himself.
EFL Championship leaders Coventry City have won just two of their last nine games, a stretch that includes last weekend’s defeat at Stoke in the FA Cup. Such was their early season form, though, Frank Lampard’s side still boast a six point advantage at the top of the table.
The Sky Blues won 11 out of 12 games heading in to December when it seemed that injuries and suspensions had caught up with them. On top of that, Lampard had to deal with a flu outbreak that ruled out a number of key players over the festive period.
Now though, with reinforcements coming in during the January transfer window, Lampard has described the remaining 20 games of the season as a ‘shootout’ as the club look to seal a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2001. It all starts with a lunchtime kickoff against local rivals Leicester City.
The Gunners need Viktor Gyökeres to find his form
The usual FotMob curse of publishing an article about a player and that player immediately tanking had the reverse effect on Wednesday, with the Swedish striker scoring and assisting against Chelsea. Arsenal will want much more of that.
We’ve spoken about Fàbregas’ exciting Como side in the newsletter before but with a number of big clubs in search of a manager, or in need of a succession plan, the former Spain international has demonstrated that he may be one to watch in the future.
Players usually use their club form as a way to break in to their national team, but with five goals in six games for Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations, Real Madrid wide forward Díaz is doing the opposite. With a new manager at the helm when he returns to Spain, will he be able to get more game time in LaLiga?
If you ever find yourself questioning your national team’s place in the world, or watch a major tournament and wonder which team should really be winning, you can always check FotMob for the latest FIFA Rankings.
Head to a national team profile and you’ll get a plotted history of their ranking all the way back to 1992 when FIFA started keeping a record of such matters!
Or, you can click where you see a FIFA number listed under a team name and you’ll be taken to the latest overall rankings table.
If you check back on Monday, you should see if the AFCON has had any impact on the rankings when FIFA’s next monthly update is due.
Pro Tip: Click on any of the matches below, then tap the star in the right hand side of the match page to add them to your Following section.
Friday: It’s second vs. fourth in Ligue 1 as PSG host Lille. A win would take the Parisians above plucky upstarts Lens at the top of the table. Middlesbrough can put more pressure on Championship leaders Coventry if they win at struggling West Brom. And in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup, League Two minnows Annan Athletic go to Rangers.
Saturday: Egypt and Nigeria fight it out for third place at the AFCON, Real Madrid will look to get over their midweek Copa Del Rey embarrassment when they play Levante, and Serie A leaders Inter head to Udinese. In the Premier League, there’s two all-London ties as Chelsea meet Brentford and luckless West Ham go to Tottenham Hotspur. Back in France, Lens play Auxerre hoping to avoid any damaging slip ups.
Sunday: Aston Villa vs. Everton is the fixture assigned to the headline slot in the Premier League, while Milan play Lecce in Serie A, and Atlético Madrid entertain Deportivo Alavés in LaLiga. Celtic face unfamiliar opposition in the Scottish Cup as they play Auchinleck Talbot of the sixth tier West of Scotland Premier Division. And with the state championships restarting in Brazil, Corinthians and São Paulo contest the Clássico Majestoso.