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Celebrating Easter Sunday: Arsenal-City, Athletic-Sevilla, Madrid-Valencia

April 8, 2012 — by Suman

The three matches we chose yesterday weren't the most compelling: Sunderland-Spurs the most dreary, a scoreless draw, while Lazio beat Napoli 3-1 (highlighted by a fantastic chilena goal by Mauri), and Porto beat Sporting Braga 1-0 on their home ground. There were other interesting results in Italy, where AC Milan lost to lowly Fiorentina due to a late late goal, and later in the day Juve dispatched Palermo, thus pulling even with Milan on points at the top of the table. And in Germany, both Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund won (vs Augsburg and Wolfsburg, respectively), and thus Dortmund's 3-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga table was conserved--setting up a showdown this coming Wednesday. But more on that later--for now, here are a few matches to watch on this sunny Easter Sunday: Arsenal vs Manchester City (11amET; FSC & Fox Deportes): The big match of the weekend in England.

What To Watch Today: Sunderland-Spurs, Lazio-Napoli, Braga-Porto

April 7, 2012 — by Suman

Three matches to watch out of the plethora: Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur (7:45amET): Fourth-place Spurs visit the Stadium of Light. The pressure is on Spurs to hang on to 4th, but Sunderland have been impressive since Martin O'Neill took over in place of the sacked Steve Bruce in December. From the Guardian's mbm this morning: Yep, this one is all about pressure. Newcastle have poured in on Spurs with their win over Swansea on Good Friday, now Spurs can slather it over Arsenal with a win at the Stadium of Light. That's far from a given, though. Sunderland have lost on home soil only once since November, should've completed a double over Manchester City last weekend, and are playing with the verve and swagger of brash young pop stars. You know, REO Speedwagon, Norman Greenbaum and the rest of the popular beat combos the kids are listening to today. Lazio vs Napoli (3pmET): A

An All-Iberian Europa Final Four

April 6, 2012 — by Suman

Yes, we're eagerly looking forward to the big-name UEFA Champions League semifinal ties--but don't overlook UEFA's other final four. (Indeed, as Zonal_Marking wrote for ESPN today, the Europa League deserves more respect.) Given our growing interest in La Liga beyond the Big Two, yesterday's quarterfinal results make for an especially interesting Europa League run-in: Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, and Sporting Clube de Portugal advanced to the semifinals, setting up an all-Iberian set of semifinal ties: 1st legs on Thursday April 19: Atlético Madrid-Valencia & Sporting CP-Athletic Bilbao 2nd legs a week later, Thursday April 26: Valencia-Atlético Madrid & Athletic Bilbao-Atlético Madrid As we wrote earlier in the week, the Athletic Bilbao-Schalke tie was the only was that was pretty much wrapped up after the 1st leg, with Athletic's 4-2 win in Germany. But the return leg at the legendary San Mames turned out to be a match worth watching (not that we did, unfortunately).

Champions League Final Four Set, Europa Coming Up Today

April 5, 2012 — by Suman — 1

So the semifinalists are set for the Champions League, making for some tantalizing fixtures coming up in a couple weeks: Tues 17 April: Bayern-Real Madrid Wed 18 April Chelsea-Barcelona Tues 24 April: Barcelona-Chelsea Wed 25 April: Real Madrid-Bayern (and the final: Sat 19 May at Fußball Arena München, Munich) And now on to today... Thursday, April 5 (all four matches kickoff at 3:05pmET): The Europa League Final Four will be set after today's 4 quarterfinal 2nd leg matches, kicking off simultaneously in Kharkiv (Ukraine), Hannover (Germany), Bilbao (Basque autonomous community), and Valencia (Spain). It's always exhausting to follow a Champions League matchday over a Tuesday and Wednesday, and then realize there's a whole slate of Europa League games Thursday. But if you're up for it, here are the quarterfinal 2nd leg fixtures. We've included some notes on the 1st leg results (3 finely balanced ties following 2-1 home wins for AZ,

Barcelona & Bayern Advance, Six More Semifinalists To Go

April 4, 2012 — by Suman — 2

Barcelona beat Milan 3-1 in yet another controversial Camp Nou Champions League result, while Bayern finished off Olympique Marseille with another 2-0 victory, for an aggregate score of 4-0. Wednesday, April 4 (both kickoffs at 2:45pmET): Chelsea vs Benfica: The match to watch on Wednesday. Chelsea pulled out a 1-0 victory at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon last week--continuing a remarkable turnaround from when they were down 3-1 after the first leg in Napoli in the Round of 16. We'll be rooting for the Portuguese. Well, turns out there aren' aren't many actual Portuguese in Benfica's squad. For instance, Ben Shave's list of 5 Benfica players to watch, published prior to the 1st leg, consisted of a Brazilian (goalkeeper Artur), a Uruguayan (defender Maxi Pereira), a Spaniard (holding midfielder Javi Garcia), an Argentine (aging semi-legendary playmaker Pablo Aimar), and a Paraguayan (striker Oscar Cardozo). You can add to that list two more young Benfica players we've been hearing

This Week in Europe – From Elite Eights to Final Fours

April 3, 2012 — by Suman

We did tune in over the past few weeks for bits of March Madness--culminating in Calipari's Kentucky completing the professionalization of the college game last night--but we found it mostly uninteresting. And although we haven't found the Champions League completely compelling this year either, we'll certainly be watching these quarterfinal 2nd leg matches over the next couple days to see which clubs advance to the Final 4--at which stage it should get very interesting. And it's not only the Champions League winnowing down from 8 to 4 this week. The Europa League too--that largely overshadowed European stepchild to the Champions--also has its quarterfinal 2nd legs this week. True to our name, we actually find Europa League worth following--and this season especially so, given Athletic Bilbao's scintillating run which has them on track for the semifinals. Here are the fixtures and some match notes: Tuesday, April 3 (both matches kickoff at

Arsenal to Consolidate Third?

March 23, 2012 — by Rob Kirby — 1

On Wednesday against Everton, Arsenal entered the last quarter of the season. The victory and results elsewhere meant that after the first game of the final fourth of the season, we occupy third place, six points separating us from the mega-rich but fifth-placed Blues and one point ahead of the Lilywhites. And with Tottenham and Chelsea to play in the early match Saturday, if we can get three points against Aston Villa, we have a chance to consolidate or extend that lead. (Obviously, we could also blow it, but let’s not go there right now.) Things are looking pretty decent for the Arsenal, you’d have to say. That statement would have seemed patently absurd in August and the 8-2 at Old Trafford (or the September 4-3 loss to Blackburn, where we scored five of the goals). It might have sounded slightly more reasonable in later fall after a good run

Granada CF & Udinese Calcio: A Symbiotic Relationship

March 20, 2012 — by Suman — 1

There's a full slate of mid-week La Liga fixtures this week--two matches today and the rest of La Liga playing tomorrow. One of today's matches has Barcelona hosting Granada. It shouldn't really be much of a contest--Barcelona hasn't lost at home all season. Perhaps the only reason to watch is that there's a good chance Lionel Messi will pull even with or even surpass César as Barcelona's all-time leading scorer. But it's also a chance to take a look at Granada's unique arrangement with Italian club Udinese. Granada essentially serves as a development squad for Udinese, with a large number of Granada's squad over the past few years arriving on loan from Udinese. From AFootballReport piece on how this came about: In 2009, Granada CF was a club in crisis, both competitively and financially. The club was on the brink of disappearing, despite a rich 80 year history. Gino Pozzo

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England Preview Schedule Spain

Celebrating Easter Sunday: Arsenal-City, Athletic-Sevilla, Madrid-Valencia

England Italy Preview Schedule

What To Watch Today: Sunderland-Spurs, Lazio-Napoli, Braga-Porto

Commentary Europe Spain

An All-Iberian Europa Final Four

Commentary

Champions League Final Four Set, Europa Coming Up Today

Champions League Preview Schedule

Barcelona & Bayern Advance, Six More Semifinalists To Go

Preview Schedule

This Week in Europe – From Elite Eights to Final Fours

Commentary England Photography

Arsenal to Consolidate Third?

Commentary Italy Spain

Granada CF & Udinese Calcio: A Symbiotic Relationship