5️⃣ spicy European fixtures you MUST watch this weekend 🌶 | OneFootball

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Dan Burke·3 December 2021

5️⃣ spicy European fixtures you MUST watch this weekend 🌶

Article image:5️⃣ spicy European fixtures you MUST watch this weekend 🌶

Winter is truly here and the domestic football season is approaching one of its most interesting periods.

Here’s our guide to the non-Premier League games you should be feasting on this weekend around Europe, but only if you like it spicy.


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The Scott Parker derby

Article image:5️⃣ spicy European fixtures you MUST watch this weekend 🌶

Spice rating: Mild 🌶

Fulham vs Bournemouth isn’t actually a derby of course, but it is Scott Parker’s old club against his new club, and it’s also 1st against 2nd in the Championship.

The Cottagers have been loving life under Marco Silva this season and currently lead the promotion charge having scored a very impressive 49 goals in 20 matches.

But they go into this game on the back of two draws, as do Parker’s Bournemouth, who are just a point behind the leaders in the table.

It’s a Friday night cracker from England’s second tier.

📊 Fun fact: Fulham have won their last seven home Championship matches played on a Friday by an aggregate score of 14-2.


A royal appointment

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Spice rating: Medium 🌶🌶

There’s also a top of the table clash in LaLiga, where leaders Real Madrid travel to face Real Sociedad at San Sebastián on Saturday night.

If you haven’t been watching closely, Carlo Ancelotti’s side have quietly built up a seven-point lead at the top and they could go 10 points clear of La Real if they win this one.

Vinícius Jr in fine form, Karim Benzema has chipped in with 17 goal involvements already, and Los Blancos should be considered strong title favourites at this moment in time.

But lose on Saturday and again in next weekend’s Madrid derby, and their advantage could unravel pretty quickly.

📊 Fun fact: Real Sociedad have won just two of their last 14 home LaLiga games against Real Madrid.


Silverware up for grabs at Wembley

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Spice rating: Hot 🌶🌶🌶

Chelsea will be vying to win back the Women’s FA Cup when they take on Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday.

Emma Hayes’s Blues had a magnificent season last year as they won the FA Women’s Super League and the Continental League Cup and that double will become a treble if they win on Sunday as, rather confusingly, this is actually the final of the 2020/21 FA Cup.

Manchester City are the current holders of the trophy having won the 2019/20 edition, and this weekend Chelsea face an Arsenal side who have won the cup 14 times – more than any other club.

The Gunners are currently one point ahead of Chelsea at the top of the FAWSL table having dropped just two points all season, meaning this promises to be a cracking final featuring some of the very best players in the women’s game.

📊 Fun fact: This will be Arsenal’s first FA Cup final since 2016, when they beat Chelsea 1-0.


The biggest game in Portugal

Article image:5️⃣ spicy European fixtures you MUST watch this weekend 🌶

Spice rating: Fire 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Legend has it that Lisbon’s two giant football clubs have despised each other ever since eight Benfica players left to join Sporting back in 1907, sparking a fierce rivalry that still rumbles on to this day.

On Friday night they lock horns again in the latest instalment of the Dérbi de Lisboa, with Portuguese champions Sporting aiming to go top of the table with a win.

A win for Benfica would also put them top and after that farcical game against nine-man Belenenses SAD last week, it’s difficult to predict what sort of form they will be in heading into their biggest domestic fixture of the season so far.

What we can predict for sure is that there will be no love lost on that pitch.

📊 Fun fact: Sporting have won just one of their last five Primeira Liga fixtures against Benfica.


The title tussle Germany needs right now

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Spice rating: Insane 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

A lot has been made of Bayern Munich’s almost-decade of dominance in Germany and of course, it’s never a good sign if one club is winning nine titles in a row.

But while the Bundesliga doesn’t necessarily need Bayern’s reign of terror to end, it does need at least a proper title race to get excited about.

And at the time of writing that’s exactly what we’ve got, with Borussia Dortmund hosting Bayern this weekend with the two sides separated by just one point at the top of the table.

It’s Robert Lewandowski vs Erling Haaland and a Bayern team without Joshua Kimmich and possibly a couple of other first-team players means BVB have a great chance of winning this one.

But what the hosts won’t have is their fearsome Yellow Wall, with the match to be played behind-closed-doors due to rising Covid case numbers in the region.

It won’t be the same without that famous Westfalenstadion atmosphere, but the football alone should be more than enough reason to tune in.

📊 Fun fact: Bayern have lost more often against Dortmund than any other team (32) and BVB have also lost against Bayern more often than any other professional team (63).