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- The Assist: The Big Five are back!
The Assist: The Big Five are back!
All the top European leagues are back in action over the next few days. Nature is healing.
The Premier League, LaLiga, and Ligue 1 were all in play last weekend, and now the top divisions in Italy and Germany join the fray. Here, we’ll pick out the games to follow in each league and throw in the usual sprinkling of additional content you may be interested in.
New EPL Grudge Matches
Thanks to a particularly juicy offseason in England, at least in terms of transfer speculation and controversy news stories, the Premier League has gained a couple of new burgeoning rivalries this season.
Newcastle and Liverpool have been locked in a transfer battle over Newcastle’s wantaway star striker Alexander Isak all summer. The Reds had an offer over £100m rejected for the Swedish international, and when he’s not posting inflammatory statements on social media, Isak has been forced to train on his own by Newcastle.
The upcoming game between the two - scheduled for Monday on Tyneside - is therefore sparking a lot of interest, with the press pouring over every little detail that comes out of both camps regarding a forward who has recorded a total of 44 Premier League goals in the past two seasons.
Defending champions Liverpool have no shortage of firepower already, of course, with recent signing Hugo Ekitike leading the line, and scoring in both the Community Shield and last weekend’s opening round win over Bournemouth. Does Arne Slot really need Isak? Do Newcastle need to sell? Two questions that will dominate the column inches in the build up to this one.
After all the court cases and conspiracy theories, Sunday’s meeting between Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest has taken on a whole new meaning.
Previously a pretty routine Premier League fixture, Palace’s demotion from Europa League qualification via their FA Cup win to now having to compete in the Conference League playoff round, at the hands of UEFA’s lawyers, was marked by the perceived involvement of Nottingham Forest and their owner Evangelous Marinakis. With Forest the beneficiaries of that ruling, and now preparing for a tilt at the Europa League, Palace are left planning additional security for this match due to extensive protests planned by the home faithful.
Ironically, this fixture falls between legs in Palace’s Conference League playoff against Norwegian side Fredrikstad. Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the Eagles’ first ever goal in European competition as Palace won the first instalment 1-0 on Thursday evening.
Bundesliga Return
Vincent Kompany’s German champions Bayern Munich picked up their first silverware of the new campaign last weekend, beating Stuttgart in the curtain raising Super Cup. Now, though, the real deal gets back underway.
The Bundesliga opener sees Bayern take on RB Leipzig at the Allianz Arena on Friday night. New signing Luis Díaz slotted in to a three man attacking unit that played just off Harry Kane in that Super Cup win, alongside Michael Olise and Serge Gnabry. Both Kane and Díaz were on the scoresheet, an ominous sign for anyone hoping to challenge their supremacy this season - not least Bayer Leverkusen, with Erik ten Hag’s new side starting their season against Hoffenheim on Saturday.
Famously, Leipzig failed to qualify for Europe after a seventh placed finish last season, and as is tradition for any Red Bull club, with their model built on selling their best young talent, transfer speculation has surrounded star man Xavi Simons over the summer. At the time of writing, a proposed move to Chelsea has not materialised, so keep an eye on the lineup announcement tonight to check on his involvement in this one.
Friday in Ligue 1
European champions PSG were made to work hard for their opening day win at Nantes in Ligue 1 last weekend, with a deflected Vitinha goal the only difference between the two sides. At the same time, unfancied Angers were pulling off a similar 1-0 result against newly promoted Paris FC.
Now, Angers must travel to the capital, where they face the more famous of Paris’ football teams on Friday night.
Goalkeeper Herve Koffi made seven saves in that game and with a 9.1 rating, was our best rated player across the division. In all likelihood, the Burkina Faso international will have to be at his best again to keep out the likes of Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Gonçalo Ramos, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on their home turf.
Oviedo host Madrid
Outside of the top division, the best story in Spanish football last season was Real Oviedo sealing their fairytale return to LaLiga. After a 24 year exile from the big time, Santi Cazorla, the now 40-year-old home town boy was front and centre in their charge through the Segunda playoffs.
This Sunday, in Matchday 2 of the season, they welcome the might of Real Madrid to the Estadio Carlos Tartiere for their home opener. Oviedo might set out to frustrate their more illustrious opponents - just as Osasuna did against Madrid on Tuesday night.
Xabi Alonso did pick up a maiden league win in charge of Los Blancos but he was reliant on a single second half penalty from Kylian Mbappé for the three points.
Elsewhere, on Saturday, defending champions Barcelona visit Levante, the side promoted as champions from the second division last season. Barca will be playing all of their games away from home until at least the September international break while the delays to the regeneration of Camp Nou get sorted out.
Serie A season start
The Italian top flight has produced four different champions in the last decade and remains perhaps the hardest of Europe’s big leagues to predict. Indeed, Napoli, who won the Scudetto last season had also done so in 2022/23 but finished a lowly tenth in the intervening season.
Antonio Conte will be hoping that his Azzurri side can mount a more successful title defence this time around. And he has gone all out to bolster his squad, signing the likes of former Ballon d’Or nominee Kevin De Bruyne to go with the likes of current Ballon d’Or nominee Scott McTominay that he already had! This weekend, Napoli start the campaign away at Sassuolo, with the home side just having returned from a one season sabbatical winning Serie B.
Pisa, who came up with Sassuolo, travel to Atalanta on Sunday. Expect some form of post-promotion hangover from Pisa, after all, this will be their first season in Serie A since 1991!
Long term Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini will be taking charge of new club Roma for the first time in the league, with Coppa Italia winners Bologna their opponents on Saturday night.
If the season start in Europe doesn’t provide you with enough excitement, or the lack of jeopardy in these early encounters just doesn’t get your engine going, you might be interested to know that there’s only three points separating the top six as we reach crunch time in Japan.
With ten rounds to play the J.League title race is well and truly on. By the time you’re reading this, fifth placed Kashiwa Reysol may have even taken top position, with the league’s Friday night game pitting them against Club World Cup whipping boys Urawa Red Diamonds.
Urawa sit seventh, only a further two points back, so if they were to pick up an away win, things could actually be even tighter heading in to the weekend!
With a goal of the season contender already under his belt and World Cup year just around the corner, is the new Spurs boss the right man to put an arm round Richarlison’s shoulder, and turn him in to the top level striker he once threatened to be? Sam McGuire thinks he has a chance.
While the all-powerful Munich machine has discarded a number of attacking players over the summer, is anyone else in the Bundesliga equipped well enough to challenge the Bavarians? Graham Ruthven takes a look at Erik Ten Hag’s Leverkusen, Dortmund, and the other potential contenders.
When most players in their 30s trade a top European league for life in MLS it usually means they’re heading out to the States to see out their golden years. That has not been the case for Olivier Giroud. Having failed to settle at glamour-club LAFC, the legendary Frenchman has returned to Ligue 1, where he scored on his debut for Lille.
Good with their feet or their hands? It’s a question that has been asked a lot as a number of clubs look to either offload, or sign a first choice shot stopper during this transfer window. We decided to take a look at the conundrum facing some of the world's top goalkeepers and the style-wars going on at the clubs that they play for.
As football spreads across more and more services, finding where to watch the match is no simple task. Luckily, we have you covered.
Head to More > TV Schedules to see what’s on. If you live somewhere with access to broadcasters in multiple countries, or only have access to certain channels and streaming providers, don’t worry - you can tailor your schedule to just show what you can watch on the channels you have by using the the settings button in the top right.