MATCH!の 26 Feb 19 の目次

TIGHT TITLE RACE! With six different teams having led the table this season, the battle for top spot is wide open! As it stands, any one of the top seven have a shot at winning the league, but Norwich, Leeds and Sheffield United are the big favourites for title glory now! WICKED WONDERKIDS! There are some awesome young guns that look set for the top! On-loan stars Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Harry Wilson have bossed the league this season for Aston Villa and Derby, while keep an eye out for Bristol City’s Lloyd Kelly and QPR’s Eberechi Eze too – they’re all set for massive futures! MEGA MANAGERS! The bosses in the Championship make almost as many headlines as the players do! Leeds gaffer Marcelo Bielsa got into trouble…

RIVALRIES 7/10 Dortmund are at the heart of Germany’s biggest grudge matches. Their clash with Schalke is the country’s fiercest derby, and the ‘Klassiker’ v Bayern often decides the title! None of the other big Bundesliga rivalries can compare! STAR QUALITY 84/100 Sancho and Werner have the potential to be world class, but Bayern’s squad of Champions League and World Cup winners still dominates this line-up – Sule, Muller, Robben, Ribery and James Rodriguez were unlucky to miss out! ENTERTAINMENT 8/10 The Bundesliga is the Prem’s closest rival when it comes to goals per game, and it can be just as exciting. Loads of German players combine speed and strength with technical ability, so games can be proper end-to-end and unpredictable at times! HISTORY 7/10 Bayern are easily one of…

LIGUE 1 STAR QUALITY 88 COMPETITION 5 RIVALRIES 7 ENTERTAINMENT 6 STADIUMS 7 HISTORY 5 TOTAL 118/150 Ligue 1 might have some real world-class stars and exciting young talent, but the league as a whole is still behind the rest of Europe’s big five for entertainment! BUNDESLIGA STAR QUALITY 84 COMPETITION 7 RIVALRIES 7 ENTERTAINMENT 8 STADIUMS 10 HISTORY 7 TOTAL 123/150 The fast-paced footy and mind-blowing atmospheres make the Bundesliga tons of fun to watch, but with Bayern off colour at the moment, it’s lacking star quality! SERIE A STAR QUALITY 85 COMPETITION 6 RIVALRIES 10 ENTERTAINMENT 7 STADIUMS 7 HISTORY 10 TOTAL 125/150 The enormous and legendary clubs in Italy help make up for the one-sided title races, but if somebody could topple Juve, Serie A would have…

CHELSEA v TOTTENHAM There’s adouble header of Prem action this week, and the highlight midweek fixture is another London derby for Spurs! They go to Stamford Bridge – aground they’ve already lost at once this campaign. The Blues beat them on penalties in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg there, so the away side will want to leave with happier memories this time! LEEDS v WEST BROM The Championship has been well interesting to watch this season, and the top of the table is still really tight! Both of these sides are up there, and their last meeting back in November was mega exciting. The Baggies scored four second-half goals to thrash The Whites 4-1, and are actually on a five-game unbeaten run against Marcelo Bielsa’s side! REAL MADRID v…

Jurgen Klopp NB Trainers It’s not unusual for players to be given their own customised cleats, but New Balance have decided that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp deserves his own on-field trainers too! The German boss actually customised these bright-red NB1 990V3 trainers himself, with YNWA – You’ll Never Walk Alone – embroidered on the back. That’s a class touch! Price: £230 newbalance.co.uk adidas Copa 19.1 TF You’ve gotta remember the ace Copa 19 cleats from adidas’ recent Exhibit Pack – well, here are the turf trainer version of those awesome boots. They’re beauts! Price: £110 lovellsoccer.co.uk…

AstonVilla 3 Sheffield United 3 After 81 minutes, The Villans were trailing 3-0 to a Billy Sharp hat-trick and had given up hope, but somehow pulled off an incredible comeback! QPR 3 Birmingham 4 QPR were 4-0 down, and thought they’d pulled off a stunning comeback in stoppage time, but then Nahki Wells missed from the penalty spot. Ouch! Norwich 3 Derby 4 These two promotion rivals produced an epic, end-to-end contest, but Derby stole the three points with two goals in the last five minutes!…

RIVALRIES 8/10 The North London, Merseyside and Manchester derbies are huge, while Man. United v Liverpool’s one of the most-watched grudge games on the planet! We do miss epic local rivalries like Newcastle v Sunderland, though! STAR QUALITY 90/100 Any of the front six players wouldn’t be out of place in a World XI, while Virgil van Dijk and David De Gea are arguably the best centre-back and goalkeeper in the world right now! We can’t even fit stars like Pogba and Aubameyang into the XI! ENTERTAINMENT 9/10 Prem matches are fast and furious, so there’s always loads of action. More goals have been scored in the Prem than any of the other top five leagues this season, and the last two FIFA Goal Of The Year awards have gone…

RIVALRIES 7/10 There can be fireworks when PSG take on Marseille – they really don’t like each other – but the champions’ recent total dominance has taken the sting out of it. The biggest local derbies in Ligue 1 are Monaco v Nice and Saint-Etienne v Lyon! STAR QUALITY 88/100 A Ligue XI dream team would be tough to beat, but mainly coz it contains more than £500 million worth of PSG talent! £200m man Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are total megastars, while Depay, Fekir and Mendy are turning Lyon into challengers as well! ENTERTAINMENT 6/10 Ligue 1 has fewer goals and shots per game than any of the other leagues in this battle, even though PSG are one of the top-scoring teams in Europe. It’s not short of drama,…

2001 The last newly-promoted side to finish in the Prem top seven was Ipswich in 2000-01! La Liga club Leganes have one of the weirdest mascots in world football – ‘ SuperPepino’ is a superhero cucumber! How random is that?! 400 Aaron Ramey’s £400,000-a-week deal with Juventus will make him the highest-earning British player ever! 4 Rangers were awarded four penalties when they faced St. Mirren in the Scottish Prem recently – and scored three of them. Mad! Man. City goal machine Sergio Aguero and Man. United goalkeeper David de Gea both played for Atletico between 2009 and 2011! 1 CB Davinson Sanchez’s goal v Leicester was his first ever 10 Benfica won their recent league game v Nacional 10-0. Ouch! 8 Cristiano Ronaldo is the first star ever to…

RIVALRIES 8/10 El Clasico is probably the biggest game on the planet, so that match alone is enough to give La Liga a decent score here. The Madrid derby is massive too, while the Seville derby between Sevilla and Real Betis is a proper fierce rivalry! STAR QUALITY 95/100 This line-up contains six Ballons d’Or, seven European Golden Shoes, four World Cup winners and a former world’s most expensive player! The Barcelona-Real Madrid dominated XI is a dazzling set of stars –headlined by Lionel Messi! ENTERTAINMENT 7/10 If you like watching slower, technical footy with accurate passing and tricky dribbling, La Liga is for you. There’s a bit too much rule breaking for our liking, though – there are more bookings per game than in any other top league! HISTORY…

RIVALRIES 10/10 Because Serie A has so many historic clubs, there’s a fierce rivalry practically every week! The Milan, Turin and Rome derbies are massive, Roma and Napoli’s ‘Derby of the Sun’ is hotly contested and Juve v Inter is the biggest game in Italy! STAR QUALITY 85/100 Serie A’s star quality was given ahuge boost when Cristiano Ronaldo rocked up last summer, but he joined some other big names. Team-mate Dybala is getting better and better, while CB Koulibaly and lethal Icardi are both £100 million players! ENTERTAINMENT 7/10 Italian footy is known for being tactical and defensive, but this season Serie A averages more shots per game than any other! Teams like Napoli and Roma have improved the attacking play, and CR7 is always worth watching. He’s bossing…

TOTTENHAM V ARSENAL This North London derby is huge for both sides! There’s no better way to kick-start a weekend of epic Prem action than with a North London derby! Both clubs are desperate for three points, with Spurs still outsiders in the title race and The Gunners on the hunt for one of those top-four spots. Arsenal would love to scupper Spurs’ title hopes, while the home side want revenge after they threw away a lead at The Emirates in their league clash back in December! HARRY KANE Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the hero for Arsenal in the league in December, but all eyes will be on the sick Spurs striker! His record in London derbies is just out of this world, and can you guess the London club he’s…