A Weekend of Huge Football Fixtures

The final weekend before Christmas is set to be a highly entertaining one with a number of top matches from across Europe’s major leagues. With a relatively quiet midweek behind us, many fans will be eagerly looking forward to this round of fixtures, taking place just a few days before Christmas. 

We start off on Friday when the highlight is the Bundesliga clash between Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. Bayern’s loss last weekend means they are now only four points ahead of the chasing pack and RB Leipzig have won their last two matches to reignite their challenge. AC Milan are in action in Serie A, travelling to Verona and there are matches in Spain, Türkiye, Scotland and Portugal as well as the lower leagues in England. 

The PL action kicks off with an early afternoon match between Aston Villa and struggling Manchester City with both teams, especially the defending champions, unable to reach the heights of last season. Later in the day, Arsenal face a trip across London to take on Crystal Palace and there are three mid-afternoon matches. French football comes in the shape of the Coup de France this weekend with the top teams all playing away from home against lesser teams. In Germany, defending champions Bayer Leverkusen play in the late match against Freiburg in one of six Saturday matches. Second placed Napoli travel to Genoa on Saturday afternoon with Lazio looking to bounce back from the heavy defeat handed to them last weekend when they travel to Lecce. The match of the weekend in Spain is Barcelona’s home match against Atlético Madrid on Saturday evening with both teams tied on points and the latter in far better form than their hosts. 

It is a busy day in the PL on Sunday with five matches scheduled to take place, four of which all start at 3pm. High-flying Chelsea play at Everton, Manchester United face a tricky match against Bournemouth and Wolves will be looking for a reaction following the sacking of manager Gary O’Neill when they take on fellow strugglers Leicester. The late match, and arguably the match of the weekend, is Tottenham’s clash with Liverpool in the late kick-off on Sunday. Dortmund will be desperate for a win over Wolfsburg on Sunday with both currently stuck in mid-table. Serie A league leaders Atalanta will be hoping for another three points at home to Empoli on Saturday afternoon and the likes of AS Roma and Juventus are also in action. Real Madrid will expect three points at home to Sevilla as they attempt to close the gap at the top of the table in one of five La Liga matches.

The only match from England on Monday is a League One clash between high-flying Birmingham City and struggling Crawley, a match the team from the second city will be expecting to win. There are two Serie A matches to round off the weekend, including Inter’s match against Como and there are also fixtures from Portugal and Türkiye.

Bayern Munich vs RB Leipzig

Bayern will be hoping to return to winning ways after a surprising defeat at the hands of Mainz last time round. They are currently in bad form with only one win in their last four domestic matches, which has seen their lead at the top of the table cut to just four points. Leverkusen are the closest to them in the table and are in good form. Bayern are unbeaten at home since March and will be hoping to collect another three important points from what is a potentially tricky match, with recent meetings with RB not going their way. In fact, there has been nothing to choose between the two teams in the last five meetings, with Bayern conceding 12 goals with the overall result being two wins, two losses and a draw. 

RB Leipzig have turned a corner in recent weeks following a very poor month in November. They have won their last two league matches but their CL adventure is over as they have been eliminated from the competition following their sixth successive defeat. The rest of their season will now be fully focused on the league, which will make them a dangerous prospect for any other teams battling for a top four spot. Benjamin Sesko scored Leipzig’s only goal the last time these two met and will be hoping to be equally effective this time around. 

Bayern have won five of the last ten meetings with RB Leipzig winning two and the home side are justifiably favourites heading into this meeting. 

Aston Villa vs Manchester City

Manchester City’s horrendous recent run will once again be under the microscope as they face another tricky opponent in Aston Villa in this weekend’s early kick off. Villa had looked as though they were on the right track and regaining their form before falling to a defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest last weekend, with the midlands club clearly struggling to manage the demands of European football as well as the domestic league. A win for Villa will allow them to overtake City in the table and they can look back on last season, when they won 1-0, for an extra confidence boost. They are on a seven match unbeaten home run at home and will be looking to in-form striker Jhon Duran for goals. 

Manchester City collapsed yet again last weekend when they were leading right up until the last few minutes against bitter rivals Manchester United, only to self implode and lose the match. Pep Guardiola doesn’t appear to have the answers to this shocking run of form which has seen his side win only one of their last eleven matches in all competitions. This will be another tough match for his team who are devoid of confidence and he will need to try once again to find the right balance in his team and instil the mentality that they were so famed for over recent years. Phil Foden has had more shots without scoring than anyone in the league this season, he will be desperate to finally get himself on the scoresheet this time. 

Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid

Barcelona will be looking to bounce back to winning ways having only earned five points from the last eighteen on offer in La Liga. This slump has seen their lead at the top of the table cut, so much so that they are level on points with their opponents Atlético. On the positive side, this is a fixture that Barcelona have done well in recently, winning the last five clashes between these two teams. Manager Hansi Flick will not be able to direct proceedings from the touchline though as he is serving the second of his 2-game ban. Their home form has been somewhat of a worry of late, with consecutive defeats coming at their temporary home. Barcelona will hope that Robert Lewandowski is on form as he was the last time these two met when he scored and assisted twice. 

Diego Simeone will be desperate to break Atlético’s poor recent run and he himself has never won an away match at Barcelona. This is certainly a good opportunity to break that poor run as his team now has eleven wins in a row and they come up against an out of sorts Barcelona. They have the joint best defence in the league and have managed numerous clean sheets. 

Barcelona have won the last five meetings but prior to these matches, Atlético were unbeaten in the previous five. 

Tottenham vs Liverpool

The final match of the weekend from England’s top division should be a cracker as leaders Liverpool travel down to London to take on Tottenham. It is a quick turnaround for the home side, who are in action this evening in the League Cup but they do at least have home advantage. After their poor run of form, Tottenham got back to winning ways with a thumping 5-0 win at Southampton. Liverpool will of course be a much tougher task but they will be optimistic of repeating their win from last season at the London stadium.

Liverpool managed a narrow 2-1 away win in the EFL Cup in midweek to carry on their long unbeaten run. Last weekend, they dropped two important points at home against Fulham, after going a man down early on. They will be looking to get back to winning ways here as their lead going into this weekend is down to two points over Chelsea. Mo Salah continues to set the standards, he is the joint top scorer in the league with thirteen goals so far whereas midfielder James Maddison leads the charts for Tottenham with seven. 

Liverpool have had the better of recent meetings, having won seven of the last ten encounters including the most recent one. Tottenham have only managed to win once in the last ten meetings, so this is likely to be a tough game for the home side. 

PS: Odds might have changed since the writing and publication of this article.

Last updated: 19.12.24