Our Picks: Belgian and Italian giants lock horns this weekend
Napoli v Lazio - Ali Pollock
It’s the winners of last season’s Serie A against the runners-up on Saturday evening, with current champions Napoli hosting Lazio.
The home side have picked up where they left off in the previous campaign, winning their first two matches – scoring five and conceding one.
Lazio, however, have struggled so far and sit in the relegation zone after two losses, where they only found the net once.
For the dominance seen across most of the top leagues in Europe, Italy is perhaps the only one where any number of sides could win the division. Napoli, Juventus and both Milan clubs will challenge as well as outsiders like Lazio and Roma.
That makes Saturday’s encounter one with serious implications in the early stages of the season – a match both sides will be desperate to win.
Napoli’s star men of the previous campaign will be key once again; Victor Osimhen already has three goals in the Serie A and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will be looking to register his first of the campaign.
New Lazio signing Daichi Kamada is another to look out for – the attacking midfielder registered 16 goals and seven assists in all competitions for Frankfurt last season.
Both teams play an exciting brand of football that should set up a highly entertaining fixture on Saturday evening.
Gent v Brugge - Anthony Paphitis
Two of the Jupiler Pro League's big scorers meet on Sunday when Gent play host to Club Brugge at the Ghelamco Arena.
Hosts Gent have enjoyed a solid start to the new campaign with three wins and a draw, which came in an entertaining 2-2 affair against St. Truiden last time out.
The Buffalos have split their time to participate in the qualifying rounds of the Europa Conference League, which they successfully navigated by fending off APOEL of Cyprus in the final stage.
All the talk has been on the talented Gift Orban after his stellar campaign last season, but it's Hugo Cuypers, who has impressed massively with 10 goals and nine assists across all competitions.
Gent will no doubt be looking towards their attacking duo for inspiration against visiting Brugge, who possess plenty of firepower of their own.
After drawing their league opener, they have surged to three league wins in a row scoring 13 goals in the process - a tally padded by their 7-1 thrashing of Molenbeek.
Brugge, too, have been in qualification action for the Conference League and their momentum ahead of Gent will only increase after seeing off a tricky final test against La Liga side Osasuna.
Brugge's early success has largely been down to their distribution of the scoring. Denmark's Andreas Skov Olsen has led the way with four while former Watford and Nottingham Forest man Philip Zinckernagel and Brazilian striker Thiago Rodrigues have three each.
Honours were even in the two league fixtures between Gent and Brugge last term - the home team winning 2-0 on both occasions - and another even-looking contest beckons.
The away side will hold slight bragging rights after edging their opponents out in last year's Super Cup, but either team will fancy their chances this time round.
Monaco v Lens - Joel Barnett
It’s a surprising clash of top and almost-bottom at the Stade Louis II stadium on Saturday, with early strugglers Lens travelling to Monaco.
Lens are yet to win any of their opening three matches of the season and find themselves 16th in the table - a shocking position for a team who have only once in the past 20 years failed to win any of their opening four games.
They face a daunting trip to the Principality with this record very much on the line: the Blood and Gold have lost to Monaco more than any other side in the division but will hope for better luck after such a tumultuous start.
It all began so well for Lens. After flying into a 2-0 lead against Brest on the opening day they found themselves losing 3-2 courtesy of a last-minute penalty, and were 1-0 up at home to Rennes before another penalty pegged them back.
They will hope their chastening 3-1 defeat to a Kylian Mbappe-inspired PSG last time out was nothing more than a blip.
As fans start to worry, the one shining light for salvation could be Monaco’s leaky defence.
The Red and Whites top the table despite conceding five times in their opening three matches.
This weekend could have been a different story, had they not fought back from being 3-1 down against Nantes and 1-0 down to Clermont after just seven minutes on the opening day.
Atletico v Sevilla - Ste Carson
What an eye-catching clash this one is; the Europa League title holders in Sevilla and a fiery side off the back of smashing Rayo Vallecano 7-0 in Atletico Madrid.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's Atleti who have had the better start to the new Spanish league season - with two wins and a draw from their first three matches of the season.
Despite fortunes in Europe last season, in La Liga this term, Sevilla have struggled - with three losses on the spin, not to mention their unfortunate Super Cup defeat to Manchester City.
Scoring hasn't been much of an issue for the Rojiblancos, so far this term, their problems have been at the other end of the pitch; they shipped two to Valencia to start the season, lost 4-3 to Alaves after that and, before facing Atleti, were beaten at home by Girona.
The Madrid side, however, have been able to shut out two opponents this season: the aforementioned 7-0 over Rayo and a not-to-be-sniffed-at 0-0 stalemate with Betis.
Alvaro Morata has also been in fine form - with four goals in his last four matches - a 'who to watch', if you will.
What will happen? It's hard to say, but goals for both sides are fairly likely.
Sevilla are in a miserable rut of form, but the side that conquered Europe's second flagship tournament is still in there somewhere.
Atleti are undoubtedly favourites going into this tie, and with the home advantage to boot, they should claim a victory over their domestic rivals.
