Our Picks: Spanish leaders clash and resurgent Juventus face test
Take a look at some of our top picks across Europe worth keeping an eye on over the weekend:
Girona v Real Madrid - Joel Barnett
La Liga’s top two sides clash on Saturday with surprise leaders Girona hosting Real Madrid at Estadi Montilivi.
Free-scoring Girona have been thrilling to watch this season and go into the match having won a club record six games on the bounce, including thumping wins over Mallorca, Granada and Getafe, and impressive away victories at Villarreal and Sevilla.
It is only Los Blanquivermells’ fourth campaign in Spain’s top flight but how much better could it get? After winning last weekend, head coach Míchel joked his team should enjoy the moment and shouldn’t get too carried away.
“We will take a screenshot (of the league table) on our mobile phones. We are in a great moment and the idea is that we have consistency. We will lose games, of course, we will have bad moments, of course, but if the day-to-day life is good everything will be fine.”
Los Blancos sit one point behind them in the league and go into the match in patchy form. After narrowly scraping past Union Berlin in the Champions League, they suffered an agonising defeat in the Madrid derby before battling past lowly Las Palmas midweek.
Hope will be high that Vinícius Júnior can finally relieve the pressure on Jude Bellingham up front - the England midfielder is already the league’s joint-top scorer this season - as they shouldn’t rely too much on their injury-ravaged defence from keeping a clean sheet here.
Barcelona could move top when they face Sevilla on Friday, but all eyes will be on whether Girona can maintain their sensational start and replace them at the summit.
Monaco v Marseille - Anthony Paphitis
Fireworks could be on the agenda when Marseille travel to face Monaco at the Stade Louis-II on Saturday with a well-known face now in the dugout.
The fiery Gennaro Gattuso was appointed as Les Phoceens' new manager earlier in the week after Marcelino, who oversaw just five Ligue 1 games, resigned amid tensions between the club's supporters and hierarchy.
But hosts Monaco will see it as a chance to capitalise while there is still some instability in the visiting dressing room.
They themselves will be out for blood after losing last weekend's Derby de la Côte d'Azur to Nice late on in what became a big missed opportunity after Folarin Balogun missed two penalties.
It was a blot on Les Monegasques' start this season, though, propping up fourth in the table and just two points off surprise early leaders Brest.
Adi Hutter's team is the one to watch in the division at present - their 15 goals a league-best which was helped by them scoring three in each of their first four.
Former Liverpool winger Takumi Minamino has raced out the blocks with three goals and three assists already, while Aleksandr Golovin and Caio Henrique chipping in with some decent production.
There is less positivity over at Marseille, however, with Gattuso no doubt needing to win over the supporters after his recent mediocre tenure at Valencia.
Interestingly, they did start the campaign well under Marcelino by avoiding defeat in their first five games to post a record of two wins and three draws, but his exit before Le Classique against Paris Saint-Germain had zero effect on preserving their unbeaten streak.
Marseille were hammered 4-0 under interim boss Jacques Abardonado, whose lineup boasted just 23% possession and failed to have a single shot on target at the Parc des Princes.
Still, they do possess some weapons that could trouble Monaco including forwards Vitor Oliveira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored twice in the recent 3-3 Europa League draw at Ajax, as well as marauding full-back Jonathan Clauss.
But even then, Monaco could hold too much firepower and with Gattuso having little coaching time between now and the match, it looks to be a tough hand for the visitors.
Atalanta v Juventus - Brad Ferguson
A rejuvenated Juventus hit a roadblock last weekend with their disappointing and somewhat surprising 4-2 defeat away at a Sassuolo side not pulling up any trees this season.
It was an end to their undefeated start to the season. Still, The Old Lady at least rectified things in midweek with a 1-0 win over Lecce - tighter than it perhaps should have been given their dominance in the shooting department (they had 14 attempts on goal to Lecce’s two).
Still, it’s been a much more positive start to the campaign after last year and Juve find themselves back in the hunting pack, currently sitting in third place in the Serie A table.
Their hosts this weekend are another revitalised side in Atalanta, who sit just a place and a point behind them in the league.
Atalanta have also had a solid start to a first season since losing yet another of their big star players from the previous campaign - in this instance last year’s top scorer Rasmus Hojlund.
That being said they’re yet to face the test of one of Italy’s traditional top clubs and have still managed to fall foul twice - they’re very much a side that doesn’t like drawing.
This season they’re very much building from the back, with all four of their Serie A victories coming to nil, with sturdy performances from Berat Djimsiti standing out in particular.
Juventus, meanwhile, feel as if they’re not quite firing on all cylinders just yet, with more seemingly yet to come - but they’ll be pleased to still be picking up points.
Manager Max Allegri stormed down the tunnel prior to full-time in their last match and you would expect he’s still trying to light a fire under the belly of his players, but he will still be pleased with the general form being shown by the likes of Federico Chiesa, Dusan Vlahovic and Adrien Rabiot, all of whom are getting involved with goals and assists.
Atalanta have won only one of the last 18 home league outings against Juventus - they’ll be hoping their recent good run of home form will be able to turn that tide.
They’ve also opened the scoring in six of their seven competitive matches this campaign, so having something to defend against Juve could be key in this one.
Aston Villa v Brighton - Ali Pollock
One of the standout fixtures in the Premier League this weekend sees sixth place Aston Villa take on Brighton, who sit in third.
Both sides impressed last season and secured spots in European competition and will be looking to do the same again this time around.
The form from the previous campaign has continued into the current one – which makes Saturday’s clash incredibly exciting and hard to predict.
The hosts have won four and lost two, while the visiting side have won five matches already and only lost once.
Villa’s marquee summer signing Moussa Diaby has taken very quickly to life in the Premier League having scored twice and assisted twice in the opening six fixtures.
His positive performances in attack will make for an entertaining battle against the likes of Pervis Estupinan – who has made an equally impressive start to the season with Brighton.
While failing to keep any clean sheets so far, the defender has had a major impact at the other end of the pitch, scoring once and setting up three.
Brighton themselves are the division’s top scorers with 18 while Villa have already conceded 10 times, which would suggest more goals are to come on Saturday.
Panathinaikos v PAOK - Ste Carson
A clash of Greek giants on the cards this weekend as second and third in the Super League lock horns in Athens.
Both sides come into the match with a fine run of form, but hosts Panathinaikos will still be hurting from their 2-1 home defeat to rivals AEK earlier this week.
PAOK travel to the capital off the back of three wins in all competitions, including an exhilarating 3-2 victory over HJK Helsinki in Europe. It is no mistake these two teams are threatening Olympiacos at the top of the league table.
Fotis Ioannidis, who bagged a brace in his last outing, will be a danger man for Panithinaikos, with five league goal contributions (3G, 2A) already this season. Bernard, who scored a hat-trick against lowly Panetolikos, could also be worth keeping an eye on.
PAOK, however, will be hoping Andrija Zivkovic maintains his goal-scoring form - the Serbian has three successful strikes to his name thus far. Giannis Konstantelias has also started the season brightly.
Panathinaikos will be a tough nut to crack, though - the Greens have kept seven clean sheets in their past 10 home matches.
Recent matches between the two sides have been close - two 1-1 draws and one 2-1 triumph (for Panathinaikos) - which suggests it'll be another tight one this weekend.
