The Premier League takes a well-earned break after a hectic midweek round of games, so the focus lies elsewhere over the next few days. As usual, there is still a wide variety of top of the table clashes, derbies, and potential Cup upsets to keep you entertained. We preview the best of them here.
Wrexham vs. Chelsea
The FA Cup has reached the Fifth Round and perhaps the pick of the ties pits Wrexham, the headline grabbing Welsh club with the famous owners, against Chelsea, eight time winners of the competition.
For both, a deep Cup run offers a distraction from a high-pressure league campaign. Wrexham, famously, are aiming to become the first side in England’s professional divisions to secure a fourth straight promotion. They currently sit sixth in the Championship, in the last playoff place, with a four point cushion to the sides below them. Chelsea, meanwhile, are fifth in top flight and in the midst of a battle to claim a Champions League place having just beaten Aston Villa, one of the sides above them.
Liam Rosenior now takes his team to the Racecourse Ground looking to improve a record that includes nine wins, two draws, and three defeats since taking over the club at the start of the year. The Blues have a fine record against lower division sides in the FA Cup, having won through in their last 24 such encounters.
Wrexham and Chelsea have met in two friendlies played in the US in recent years
Wrexham, meanwhile, have lost just twice in ten games since beating Premier League opposition back in the third round (Nottingham Forest). They have reached this stage of the competition for the first time since 1997, which incidentally, was a year that Chelsea lifted the trophy at Wembley.
FA Cup continued…
Elsewhere in the world’s oldest / longest running tournament, the draw for the fifth round has been playing tricks on us. Tonight, Liverpool return to Wolves, where they went down to a shock league defeat just four days ago. And Newcastle United host Manchester City, a side they’ve already faced twice in the league and in a two-legged League Cup semifinal this season - City have triumphed in three of those four meetings.
But the clash between League One Mansfield Town and Arsenal, the Premier League leaders does rather catch the imagination. Traditionalists will be hoping for some of that old Cup magic when Mikel Arteta’s expensively assembled quadruple-chasing squad take to the pitch at Field Mill, the oldest ground in the EFL and one that has been in use since 1861, the same year that saw the start of the American Civil War.
Portugal’s big three once again occupy the first three places in the country’s top division but it’s the biggest two of those three who we focus on here. José Mourinho’s unbeaten Benfica welcome league leaders Porto, the club where he won his first Champions League title, to Lisbon on Sunday.
Mourinho’s standing in the world is not what it was but he knows how to grind out results at this level. Even The Special One, though, must be impressed with the job that former-Ajax and Nice manager Francesco Farioli has done in what is his first season with Porto.
After watching Sporting and Benfica battle it out for the last two seasons, Porto have roared back with a title charge built on the most miserly of defences. The Dragões have kept 17 clean sheets, lost only once, and concede goals at a rate of 0.30 goals per game.
Benfica, second placed Sporting, and fourth placed Braga (who play each other this weekend) have all scored more goals than the leaders but nobody, it seems, can stop them from winning games.
Could they be the side to finally end Benfica’s run?
Derby della Madonnina
Last week, we labelled Der Klassiker as the virtual title decider in Germany, such was Bayern’s lead in the Bundesliga before a ball had been kicked against Dortmund. Similarly, the outcome of Sunday’s Milan Derby has the potential to decide the Scudetto in Serie A.
With Inter holding a ten point lead over second placed city rivals AC, an Inter win would give Cristian Chivu’s side an advantage that surely couldn’t be made up with only ten rounds left to play in the season.
Since winning the last derby, played back in November, a result that actually took Milan above Inter in the table at that point, Max Allegri has failed to get consistent results out of the Rossoneri. They’ve drawn six and lost one of the consequent 15 games, while Inter have dropped points only once.
For all their troubles in Europe, Inter have remained dominant at home, winning their last eight in a row, and scoring at rate of 2.4 goals per game (Juve have the next best record on 1.7 goals per game!). Federico Dimarco has two goals and eight assists in his last six games alone.
To have any chance of stopping their rivals winning the title, Milan must cut off the Dimarco supply line, and look to extend their current six-game unbeaten run in the derby (all comps) - their best run in this fixture for over a decade.
Image courtesy of Bjarg IF
We probably all work with someone that tells a tall tale about their footballing ability, you know the ones, the ‘I had trials for United you know’ guys and the ‘I would have made it if it wasn’t for this dodgy knee’ fella you got stuck next to at the Christmas party.
Well, there can be no doubting the best footballer currently working at FotMob. And that’s because he’s actually on FotMob. During the week, Axel Ahlander works as a developer at out HQ in Bergen. At the weekend, he’s turning out in midfield for Bjarg IF, a side recently promoted to the third tier of Norwegian football.
And this weekend, thanks in part to Axel’s heroics against Stabæk in the last round, the minnows of Bjarg are preparing to take on Viking, the current Norwegian league champions (yes, Bodø/Glimt only came second last season), in the fourth round of the Norwegian Cup.
We caught Axel at the water cooler and pressed him on their chances of causing what would be a famous Cupset:
“I think it depends on how quickly we are able to adapt to the tempo - and get a good feeling early on. If we get all these things right - and play our own style of football, I think there is the possibility for an upset.
Me, and everyone else on the team have been working a bit harder than usual, with this game in mind. We have analysed Viking well, and feel well prepared.”
Lincoln City have been competing in English football since 1884 but have only spent 36 of the consequent 142 years as high as the second tier. The rest of their existence has been spent battling away in the lower leagues, and even non-league for a spell that ended as recently as 2017. All that makes their current campaign all the more remarkable.
The Imps are riding high in League One, and occupy the second automatic promotion spot behind Cardiff City, their weekend opponents, 10 points clear of the play-off places below them. The Lincolnshire side look likely to be reach the EFL Championship for the first time since a ill-fated one-season stint in 1998/99.
England’s second tier wasn’t even known as the Championship at that point.
Led by career coach Michael Skubala, Lincoln head in to this weekend’s showdown with Cardiff unbeaten in 17 games, a run that includes a win over the Welsh side back in December. Both clubs seem likely to be promoted, but for Cardiff that was always expected, they are relative giants at this level and relegated from the Championship only last summer.
Not many were predicting similar success for Lincoln, not least a fanbase who haven’t seen such dizzying heights in a generation.
Hajduk Split have come close to ending a two-decade wait for a league title in recent seasons, and they’re in the running again this year. As usual, Dinamo Zagreb stand in their way, meaning this weekend’s Eternal Derby is a must-win game.
We’ve documented the once-in-a-generation battle raging in Scotland in previous weeks, with Hearts looking to break the Old Firm’s stranglehold on the title. Now we’ve profiled Jens Berthel Askou, the manager behind fourth placed Motherwell, perhaps the best footballing side in the SPFL.
Manchester United’s Slovenian striker had a slow start to life at Old Trafford but since Michael Carrick’s return as interim boss, it’s Šeško who’s come good, scoring match winners and point saving goals since the turn of the year. The big man deserves to start more games in the hunt for Champions League qualification.
In the latest version of FotMob now available at your favourite app store, we’ve linked up with SciSports to bring you the best Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) insights currently available in the public domain.
Now, if you head to any player profile in the app - we’ve used Eberechi Eze in the example shown here - you’ll see a chart plotting their transfer value at any given point in their senior career.
What to know how much that new striker being linked to your club is going to cost? Wonder no more! The ETV is updated regularly and takes into account factors like player performance and development, age, remaining contract length, and how often, and at what level they currently play.
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: The FA Cup fifth round starts with a repeat of Tuesday night’s Premier League fixture between Wolves and Liverpool. In Ligue 1, leaders PSG take on Monaco, the side they defeated in the Champions League just a couple of weeks ago. Álvaro Arbeloa will look to avoid a third straight loss when Real Madrid go to Celta Vigo. And in the Bundesliga, leaders Bayern clash with Gladbach, the side that were their chief rivals prior to the emergence of Dortmund as a major force.
Saturday: Away from the FA Cup, and the other noteworthy games we’ve already previewed, the main draw is likely to be Barcelona’s trip to Athletic Club. Hansi Flick’s side will be aiming to reestablish their four-point lead, or extend that lead at the top of LaLiga, depending on Madrid’s result tonight. Elsewhere, two of Istanbul’s big three, Beşiktaş and Galatasaray, face off in the SüperLig. And in MLS, Inter Miami are in the US capital to face DC United.
Sunday: Premier League sides Fulham and Leeds United play Championship opposition in the FA Cup. And Port Vale, bottom of League One and the lowest ranked side still in the competition, host top flight Sunderland. Just one weekend after playing out a 2-2 draw in the league, Glasgow rivals Rangers and Celtic meet in the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup. And across a number of European nations the fixture gods have scheduled a host of big derbies, including the Hajduk Split vs. Dinamo Zagreb game we mentioned in the Must Reads section.
