Weekend Soccer Preview

Weekend Soccer Preview and Champions League Review
As always, home team listed first, all times Eastern. Click on the league name to see the league table.

Game of the Week (Rankings from Poll)
11:00 ET Sunday (English Premier League)
(1) Chelsea v (2) Manchester United
This is without a doubt the match of the week in European football. Both teams are coming off of draws mid-week that clinched them a spot in the Round of 16 of the Champions League, and the squads are separated by a mere two points at the top of the table. Chelsea is on top form at home in the Premier League this season, going 5-0-0 while outscoring opponents 15-1, including wins over Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Manchester United has only taken 9 points from its 5 road games, and will still be without defender Rio Ferdinand, who is out with a calf injury. United will need the rest of the heretofore rather shaky defense to step it up and stop the attack of Drogba, Anelka, and the strong Chelsea midfield. Look for a 4-5-1 from Sir Alex with Giggs, Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Valencia left to right in the midfield and Rooney as the lone striker up top. This gives United the best chance to overpower the Chelsea midfield and go for goal. This could morph into a 4-3-3 with the addition of Berbatov for a mid, with Rooney moving to a wing if United want to play more of an attacking game. Chelsea will go with their usual diamond midfield with Essien and some combination of Ballack, Lampard, Joe Cole, and Deco, with Drogba and Anelka as strikers. If Chelsea are on form, United would be happy to come out of this match with a point.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United. It pains me as a United fan to not predict a win but Chelsea is too strong of a team at home for me to say otherwise.

Other Games Between Two Ranked Teams
6:00 ET Sunday (Russian Premier League)
(17) CSKA Moscow v (21) FK Rubin Kazan
There are only three games remaining on the schedule for the Russian Premier League, and this is a vital one. Both clubs have massive matchups next week as well, when Rubin Kazan hosts third place Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow visits second place Spartak Moscow. Here is what the top 6 look like as of now:
FK Rubin Kazan 56 (+36 GD)
Spartak Moscow 55 (+31 GD)
Zenit St. Petersburg 47 (+18 GD)
FC Moscow 47 (+14 GD)
CSKA Moscow 46 (+16 GD)
Lokomotiv Moscow 45 (+8 GD)
Interestingly, these are six of the seven teams in the 16-team Russian Premier League that boast a positive goal differential. The seventh team is 13th placed Spartak Nalchik, who has a +1 goal differential on a 6-10-11 record. In any case, Rubin Kazan and Spartak Moscow have all but clinched the top two spots and a place in the UEFA Champions League group stages next season. Third place gets a spot in the UEFA Champions League qualifying round, and Zenit St. Petersburg holds on to that spot by a thread. Fourth and fifth place each get spots in the Europa League. Currently Lokomotiv Moscow is on the outside looking in, but they end with FK Akmar Perm’, Dinamo Moscow, and FC Khimki, two of which are in the bottom three of the league. Look for these last 3 rounds to be hard fought as teams try to find their place in Europe.

Top of the Table Clashes
11:00 ET Sunday (English Premier League)
(1) Chelsea v (2) Manchester United
10:30 ET Sunday (Dutch Eredivisie)
Twente Enschede v (24) Ajax Amsterdam
Not actually a top of the table clash, but outside of the Premiership, there are absolutely none. I checked every single league I could, from Serie B to the Swedish Allsvenskanliga. Twente is in first with 32 points from 12 games, and Ajax sits back in third on 29 points, with PSV in the middle with 30 points. These are two high-scoring, attack-oriented clubs. Twente is averaging 2.17 goals per game, while Ajax is averaging a stunning 3.33 goals per game with the aforementioned second best goal differential in Europe, outscoring their opponents 2.5 goals per game. Look for another goal fest in the Netherlands.

Game between Two Teams whose names are just impossible to pronounce
12:00 ET Sunday (Ukranian Premier League)
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk v Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
We can also look forward to the matchup between Dnipro forward Volodymyr Homenyuk and Kryvbas defender Vitaliy Komarnitskyy, and the return of Kryvbas midfielder Vyacheslav Serdyuk to his mother club, as Dnipro loaned him out to Kryvbas for this season.

English Premier League
10:00 ET Saturday
Aston Villa v Bolton Wanderers
Blackburn Rovers v Portsmouth
This is a battle of two teams who sit in the relegation zone. Blackburn is 18th with 10 points and Portsmouth is in last place with 7 points. Though these games are hardly of any interest in terms of quality of play, they are vital for the teams involved. Three points from this game may save the winner from dropping to the Championship at the end of the season.
(13) Manchester City v Burnley
(16) Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland
12:30 ET Saturday
Wolverhampton Wanderers v (T4) Arsenal
8:30 ET Sunday
Hull City v Stoke City
10:00 ET Sunday
West Ham United v Everton
Wigan Athletic v Fulham
11:00 ET Sunday
(1) Chelsea v (2) Manchester United
15:00 ET Monday
Liverpool v Birmingham City

Scottish Premier League
10:00 ET Saturday
Rangers v St. Mirren
7:45 ET Sunday
Falkirk v Celtic

Spain’s La Liga
12:00 ET Saturday
Getafe v Deportivo La Coruna
14:00 ET Saturday
(3) Barcelona v Mallorca
16:00 ET Saturday
Atletico Madrid v (7) Real Madrid
This is "El Derbi Madrileno." Historically it has been a battle between the upper class (Real Madrid) and working class (Atletico Madrid), though Real Madrid is certainly more well supported due to their success year after year. Real Madrid leads the series 77-35 (31 draws), and Atletico Madrid has not won one of these derbies since the 1999-2000 season when they defeated Real Madrid 3-1 at the Berbeneu. Since then, it has been 9 wins for Real Madrid and 4 draws, the last coming this past season when they drew 1-1 at the Berbeneu. Atletico Madrid sits in the relegation zone of La Liga, so it may be more of the same for "Los colochoneros".
13:00 ET Sunday
(T25) Valencia v Real Zaragoza
15:00 ET Sunday
(T4) Sevilla FC v Villarreal

Italy’s Serie A
12:00 ET Saturday
Catania v Napoli
14:45 ET Saturday
Atalanta v (9) Juventus
9:00 ET Sunday
Bari v Livorno
Cagliari v (T14) Sampdoria
Lazio v (11) AC Milan
Udinese v (T14) Fiorentina
14:45 ET Sunday
(T4) Inter Milan v AS Roma

German Bundesliga
14:30 ET Friday
(10) Bayer Leverkusen v Eintracht Frankfurt
9:30 ET Saturday
Bayern Munich v (T18) Schalke 04
TSG Hoffenheim v VfL Wolfsburg
9:30 ET Sunday
Hannover 96 v (20) Hamburg SV
11:30 ET Sunday
(T22) Werder Bremen v Borussia Dortmund

French Ligue 1
13:00 ET Saturday
AS Monaco v Grenoble
Le Mans v AJ Auxerre
Valenciennes v Montpellier
11:00 ET Sunday
Lille v (8) Bordeaux
15:00 ET Sunday
(12) Lyon v Marseille

Dutch Eredivisie
8:30 ET Sunday
ADO Den Haag v PSV Eindhoven
AZ Alkmaar v Feyenoord Rotterdam
10:30 ET Sunday
Twente Enschede v (24) Ajax Amsterdam

Portuguese Liga
16:15 ET Saturday
Guimaraes v Braga
13:00 ET Sunday
Maritimo v (T22) FC Porto
15:15 ET Sunday
Rio Ave v Sporting Lisbon
15:15 ET Monday
Benfica v Naval 1 Maio

Russian Premier League
9:00 ET Saturday
PFK Samara Kryliya Sovetov v Spartak Moscow
6:00 ET Sunday
(17) CSKA Moscow v (21) FK Rubin Kazan
8:45 ET Sunday
Zenit St. Petersburg v Terek Grozny

Turkish Super League
13:00 ET Saturday
Trabzonspor v Besiktas
7:00 ET Sunday
(T25) Fenerbahce v Ankaraspor
13:00 ET Sunday
Diyarbakirspor v Galatasaray

Greek Super League
12:00 ET Saturday
(T18) Olympiakos v Iraklis
12:00 ET Sunday
Levadiakos v Panathinaikos

Ukranian Premier League
8:00 AM Sunday
Zakarpattya Uzhhorod v Dynamo Kyiv
9:00 AM Sunday
Shakhtar Donetsk v Metalurh Zaporizhya

MLS Conference Semi-finals (Second Leg)
Result from Thursday:
Columbus 2-3 Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake wins 4-2 on aggregate. Good riddance Columbus!!!!
19:30 ET Saturday
Chicago Fire v New England
New England won first leg 2-1.
14:00 ET Sunday
Houston v Seattle Sounders FC
First leg was a 0-0 draw.
18:30 ET Sunday
Los Angeles v Chivas USA
First leg was a 2-2 draw.

Champions League Summary
Chelsea, FC Porto and Sevilla FC have officially clinched spots in the Round of 16, and Bordeaux, Manchester United, Lyon, and Arsenal are all a single point away from clinching a spot in the next round. Liverpool’s draw at Lyon leaves them at third in Group E with 4 points, behind Lyon and Fiorentina who are on 10 and 9 points respectively. However, all is not lost for Liverpool. If Lyon win at Fiorentina and Liverpool win at Debrecen in the next matchday, Liverpool would host Fiorentina on the final matchday, and a win there would put them through to the knockout stages. It was another wacky matchday for Group F, with Inter Milan winning at Dynamo Kiev 2-1 and Barcelona drawing Rubin Kazan 0-0 in Russia. Inter is on top of the group with 6 points, Barcelona and Rubin Kazan have 5 (Barcelona leads on goal differential) and Dynamo Kiev is in fourth with 4 points. Barcelona is still in very real danger of not moving on, as they still host a strong Inter Milan side and have to travel to Ukraine to face Dynamo Kiev. For full Champions League tables, click here.