Sports

Weekend European Leagues’ Fixtures & Previews

March 7, 2025

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Nottingham Forest play host to Manchester City

Two Premier League teams battling for a top-four finish lock horns at the City Ground on Saturday lunchtime as third-placed Nottingham Forest play host to fourth-placed Manchester City.

The Citizens are looking to complete the double over the Tricky Trees for the second successive season after securing a comfortable 3-0 victory in the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium in early December.

After fighting to avoid relegation last season, not even the most ardent of Nottingham Forest supporters would have envisaged their side battling for a top-four finish this term as well as being just one game away from reaching Wembley in the FA Cup.

A return to winning ways for Forest is not a given on Saturday, as they are winless in their last nine league encounters against Man City (D2 L7) since securing a 3-2 victory at Maine Road in the second tier back in December 1997.

Pep Guardiola‘s side are the bookmakers’ favourites to win the FA Cup, but they will now shift their focus back to the Premier League and their battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League; they can consolidate their place in the top four and are guaranteed to end the weekend in third place if they beat Forest in Saturday’s early kickoff.

Man City have had almost a full week to rest and gain some valuable time on the training ground and will hope to have a refreshed side firing against a well-organised Forest backline.

Credit: sportsmole.co.uk

Manchester United welcome Arsenal in big clash

Manchester United host Arsenal on Sunday in what is always a monster clash in the Premier League calendar. But with United in the bottom half of the table, expectations levels will be low amongst the home faithful at Old Trafford as Ruben Amorim continues to struggle to implement his ideas and injuries have hit the Red Devils hard.

With their season hinging on the UEFA Europa League and their last 16 ties against Real Sociedad coming up either side of this game against Arsenal, will Amorim rotate? He really doesn’t have that many options off the bench due to injuries.

Arsenal aren’t really in the title race anymore after a damaging week saw them cough up five points and Liverpool accelerated away from them. Still, Mikel Arteta’s side are coming off the back of a huge 7-1 win at PSV in the UEFA Champions League in midweek and that will give them some extra confidence in attack.

Arteta has the luxury of knowing Arsenal are basically already in the Champions League quarterfinals given their thumping win at PSV in midweek, so he will go with his full-strength side and aim to control the tempo in midfield. We could see Jorginho start instead of Partey in midfield but more likely is that Arteta will go with Odegaard, Partey and Rice from the start and that trio have been so good in recent weeks.

Arsenal will hope to score early and keep the pressure on United as they’ll plan for their entire midfield and attack to move up the pitch seamlessly just like they did in midweek.

Credit: nbcsports.com

Barcelonatackle Osasuna to stay top of La Liga table

Barcelona‘s pursuit of the La Liga title will continue on Saturday evening, with Osasuna their opponents at EstadiOlimpic Lluis Companys.

Blaugrana have been victorious in each of their last six fixtures in Spain’s top flight, with a total of 57 points leaving them at the top of the La Liga table, while Osasuna, who are winless since the start of February, occupy 11th position.

Barcelona are unbeaten across all tournaments since December 21, and it could be an incredibly successful end to the campaign for the Catalan giants, who are looking strong in each of the three competitions that they are involved in.

Barcelona are on a six-game winning run in the league, including a 4-0 success over Real Sociedad last weekend, while they have only conceded three times in La Liga this year, with the team looking incredibly strong.

The Catalan outfit will enter this match off the back of a 1-0 victory over Benfica in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash in Portugal, with Flick’s team in a strong position to reach the next round.

Osasuna are a quality side, and there is enough attacking talent in their squad to cause Barcelona problems, but it is difficult to overlook the Catalan giants, who have so many players in excellent form.

Credit: sportsmole.co.uk

Inter Milan faceoff with relegation-bound Monza

Defending champions Internazionale are chasing the treble this season with the Nerazzurri performing well ahead of relegation-bound Monza making the short trip to San Siro this week.

Inter defeated Feyenoord by two goals to nil in a professional and impressive display in the first-leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie at De Kuip thanks to a goal in either half from each member of their strike partnership Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.

The Nerazzurri could have gone well clear at the top-of-the-table last weekend but they were pegged back to a 1-1 draw by Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona thanks to a late equaliser from Philip Billing.

They face a Monza side that most recently suffered a 2-0 loss at home to Torino last week with Salvatore Bocchetti, who replaced Alessandro Nesta in January, overseeing a side that begin this weekend’s round of fixtures sitting rock-bottom in Serie A and nine points adrift of safety. A comfortable Inter victory is to be expected at San Siro this weekend.

Ahead of the trip to Milan this weekend, Monza are dealing with a few key doubts for this one with long-term absentees Roberto Gagliardini and Stefano Sensi still likely to be sidelined alongside winter signings Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro and Gianluca Caprari.

Credit: thestatszone.com

Premier League

Saturday 8th March

Nottingham Forest 12:30 Manchester City

Brighton 15:00 Fulham

Crystal Palace 15:00 Ipswich Town

Liverpool 15:00 Southampton

Brentford 17:30 Aston Villa

Wolverhampton Wanderers 20:00 Everton

Sunday 9th March

Chelsea 14:00 Leicester City

Tottenham Hotspur 14:00 Bournemouth