As the curtain falls on European club football, this is the last Friday edition of The Assist for the season.
We’ll be back for the World Cup each matchday, with a morning recap of the interesting bits you may have missed, plus what to watch out for in the day ahead.
The French league champions vs. The winners of the Premier League. One a dominant force at home and the current holders, the other back on top after claiming their first league title for 22 years. This really is a Champions League final that lives up to it’s billing.
PSG are looking to do what no one else has done since Real Madrid completed a three-peat in 2018, and that is to follow up one Champions League win with another. In fact, no one since Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest side (in 1979 and 1980) have gone back-to-back after winning their first European Cup or Champions League title.
After dedicating years to the project of being crowned kings of Europe, the Parisians have followed last season’s triumph with an even more emphatic run to the final. Luis Enrique’s side have comfortably outgunned everyone bar Bayern Munich, who they then beat in a semifinal that will be talked about for years.
Both sides love to dominate the ball, but while PSG throw players forward and overwhelm their opponents with their passing, pace, and let’s face it, world class talent, Mikel Arteta’s favoured tactic is control.
Arsenal are resolute, they’ve conceded just six goals, and kept nine clean sheets en route to the final, but as we explored in this deep dive on Arteta’s obsessive focus, they haven’t actually averaged nearly as much ball possession as their rivals (52.9% to PSG’s 63%). And they don’t make as many passes (just 389.4 per game to PSG’s 546.6).
It does feel like Arsenal (and Arteta) have been building for this moment, in a similar way to PSG last season, and it could be their turn to end their long wait for European honours.
Soccer Aid for UNICEF, the world’s biggest charity football match reaches it’s 20th anniversary this year, and we’re pleased to have become the official live score partner for the match taking place at West Ham’s London Stadium this weekend.
An England XI made up of former players from both the men’s and women’s game, plus celebrities and influencers, will line up against a Soccer Aid World XI managed by Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt.
We’ll be covering the game with the same Opta data we use for the Premier League, meaning you’ll even be able to track heat maps for England representatives as varied as Tom Hiddlestone or Wayne Rooney!
As part of our partnership with Soccer Aid we also have full historical data, including FotMob match ratings and xG for past editions of the game - meaning you can relive Carlos Tevez’s four-goal, 9.9 rated performance at Old Trafford last year, or even Diego Maradona’s appearance as chef Gordon Ramsey’s striker partner for the Rest of the World team in the inaugural game back in 2006.
Let’s just say that this year’s prospective pairing, Dimitar Berbatov, and Nitro from UK TV series Gladiators, have plenty to live up to!
Just when you thought it was all over, there it is, one last remaining game in one of Europe’s top five leagues just sat there in your match feed.
Tonight, it’s the second leg of Nice’s Ligue 1 relegation playoff against second tier Saint Etienne. Nice have had a pretty shocking season under the distracted eye of owners INEOS, finishing 16th, and condemned due to a goalless draw against the already relegated Metz on the final day of the regular season. But now, they have one last chance to save their top flight status, at home to the side who finished third in Ligue 2.
Tuesday’s first leg was another tense affair that was incredibly low on chances - there were zero shots on target in the game, Saint Etienne only registered seven touches in Nice’s box, and the combined xG of both sides amounted to 0.36.
Tonight’s game should at least have more urgency given there needs to be a winner!
The latest and greatest from FotMob’s writers
FotMob Predict, playable weekly from the More tab, now features the tournament predictor that has just been launched for this summer’s main event!
Pick your results all through the 2026 World Cup and create your own mini leagues for the group chat, or the office. All our predictor games are free to play and super intuitive - use your regular FotMob sign in method and access the games via the link above, or via the app itself.
You get three points for a correct score, and two for the correct outcome, rack up more points than your mates and you’ll earn yourself some bragging rights for your ball knowledge.
Saturday: We’re properly getting in to pre-World Cup international friendly territory now, the time when the qualified nations look around for opposition that are similar to those they’ll face in the group stage, but not exactly the same. For instance, Scotland take on Dick Advocaat’s Curaçao, the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup. Ecuador face Saudi Arabia, and host nation Mexico start their preparations against Australia.
Sunday: There’s a true underdog story brewing in the Women’s FA Cup as first time finalists Brighton go up against Man City, the recently crowned WSL champions. Back in the pre-World Cup warm ups, Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT play AFCON runners-up Senegal. Five-time World Cup winners Brazil play Panama at the Maracanã. And Germany host Finland in their final home game before heading to North America.
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