The Champions League and the Europa League served up interesting encounters in the midweek with the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Dortmund and PSG progressing to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
In the Europa League, surprise package of the season, Bayer Leverkusen continued their impressive unbeaten run by seeing off West Ham to qualify for the semi-finals of the Europa League, Marseille and Atalanta completed the cast in Europe’s second tier competition.
Attention returns to the various domestic leagues as we approach the business end of the season. Some are battling for the title, while others are scrambling to avoid relegation.
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THE WHISTLER takes a look at the top five football matches to watch this weekend.
Manchester City vs Chelsea (FA Cup)
Manchester City will take on Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday. Guardiola’s men will be hoping to bounce back from their penalty shootout loss to Real Madrid, which all but ended their double-treble title hopes.
In Chelsea, they will be facing a team on a mini revival, unbeaten in their last eight matches with 26 goals scored.
The Premier League clashes between both sides ended in draws, with the first leg producing eight goals in an entertaining 4-4 draw, while the second leg ended 1-1.
Manchester City are unbeaten in their last eight matches against Chelsea. They will need to fight off the fatigue of playing few days ago to overcome Chelsea.
Cole Palmer will hope to continue his impressive run of form against his former club, following his hat-trick against Manchester United, and a four-goal haul against Everton.
Real Madrid vs Barcelona (La Liga)
The El Classico is upon us again with Real Madrid and Barcelona experiencing contrasting fortunes in their European adventure in midweek. Barcelona suffered a 4-1 loss at home to PSG to crash out of the Champions League, while Real Madrid survived the onslaught of Manchester City to advance on penalties.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men are eight points clear of Barcelona with seven games to go and a win for Real Madrid will push them towards the league title, while a defeat for Barcelona will end their title dreams.
Real Madrid will be buoyed by their masterclass defensive performance against Manchester City, and they will be hoping to build on it to compound Barcelona’s woes.
The Los Blancos have the best attack in the league, scoring 67 goals, while also boasting of the best defence with a paltry 20 goals conceded with 16 clean sheets.
Barcelona have scored 62 goals and conceded 34 goals in 31 La Liga matches with 14 clean sheets.
Both sides have met 256 times with Real Madrid earning 104 wins and Barcelona picking up 100 wins, while 52 games ended in draws.
Real Madrid have won three of the last five encounters with Barcelona winning the other two.
The Blaugrana have won five out of their last six matches. In terms of form, the encounter is delicately poised, but in clashes like the El Classico form often counts for nothing.
Wolves vs Arsenal (Premier League)
It has been a tough week for Mikel Arteta’s team, losing two matches in the space of four days, first against Aston Villa, which put their title hopes in jeopardy, and then a 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich to crash out of the Champions League.
The Gunners are two points behind Manchester City with two games to go following the damaging loss to Aston Villa.
Gary O’Neill’s Wolves are currently riding above their weight with impressive performances this season, which has them occupying the 11th position with 43 points from 32 games.
Arsenal have conceded just two goals in the first half of their 12 Premier League games so far in 2024.
The Gunners will be buoyed by their recent good form against Wolves having won their last five matches against them.
The match is a test of Arsenal’s ability to recover from major setback, a win will get their flailing season back on track, while a defeat will spell doom for their title hopes.