Editors' Picks: European football back with a bang in France, Spain and England
This week sees the return of the Premier League, LaLiga and Ligue 1 - as such, we’ve picked a match from each of those leagues' openings weekends to get the feature started in style and get you back into the swing of the madness that is the European football season.
Saturday, August 12th:
PSG - Lorient (21:00 CET)
Another season, another nine months or so of wondering if PSG can truly step into the ‘elite club’ category in a footballing sense.
The perennially disappointing Qatar-backed club have waved goodbye to Lionel Messi (36) and they might yet lose other stars, too. However, they’ve recruited well and appointed Luis Enrique as their manager. Another roll of the tactical dice roll in Paris then! It seemed like a shrewd appointment... but then, so did all the others.
For PSG, winning the league is a must which is why a mid-table club like Lorient (10th in 2022/23) is such a potential banana-skin. If the Parisians win, their performance is dissected to death anyway. If they lose - well, that’s an unmitigated disaster, especially in the first match of the season.
Lorient beat PSG the last time these two met in the league back in April. The match finished 3-1 to the Bretons and, impressively, it was played in Paris as is this one.
That recent result will give the underdogs a nice bit of confidence going into this weekend's clash and, crucially, they still have nothing to lose. As for PSG, quite the opposite, as always! Excuse my schadenfreude, but it's kind of fun when they fail... just a little bit.
Athletic Bilbao - Real Madrid (21:30 CET)
Up until 2011, the so-called El Viejo Clasico (the old Clasico) was the most-played match in Spain's top flight. Suffice it to say, these are two storied clubs albeit in two different stratospheres of football these days.
Athletic Bilbao are no pushovers, however - they snatched a draw at the Bernabeu in the sides' previous meeting back in June, the last match of the 2022/23 season. That helped the feisty Basque side finish 7th but they tailed off towards the end of the campaign by and large.
They won just one of their final eight league games and lost the Copa del Rey semi-final to regional rivals Osasuna who, adding insult to injury, also finished two points above them in the league to claim the final European spot. Their pre-season form hasn't been great either.
Real Madrid’s narrative for the coming season is simple - they didn’t win the league last time and so they’ll be expected to get the job done this season.
Their fans and board alike expect the team to win it every year and they have made a massive statement purchase in England's Jude Bellingham (20) to signal their intent to that end. Along with him, they’ve signed a few handy squad players but have lost Karim Benzema (35). Can Vinicius Jr. (23) and Rodrygo (22) rise and thrive in a new diamond formation? If it clicks, their season could be off to a belter in Bilbao.
Sunday, August 13th:
Chelsea - Liverpool (17:30 CET)
The new Premier League season kicks off on Friday with holders Manchester City playing newly-promoted Burnley but the undoubted match of the round has been saved for the back end of the weekend. On Sunday evening, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool travel to London to play a Chelsea side that are desperate to reinvent themselves under the keen eye of new boss Mauricio Pochettino.
Incredibly, the last four league meetings between these teams have all finished level and the last two cup meetings were decided on penalties.
For the hosts, last season represented their worst league finish since 1994 and was a downright disaster on the whole. Their shambolic campaign had fans simply hoping it would wrap up with minimal damage. Players (and a few managers) came in and out of the club like nothing else seen before and they failed to find top gear at any point. Further sweeping changes have been made and lots of money spent over the summer. Is their stacked squad about to turn a corner or has the meltdown only just begun?
Liverpool, although finishing in a respectable fifth place last term, suffered a stuttering start to their 2022/23 campaign as well. Theirs was a season that would go on to represent the last hurrah for some midfield stalwarts - Jordan Henderson (33), James Milner (37) and Fabinho (29) have all left the club. Enter stage right: Dominik Szoboszlai (22) and Alexis Mac Allister (24) and with them, it's hoped, a bit of magic to reignite what has looked like a stale team.
It's fair to say that both these Premier League heavyweights have pivotal seasons ahead, and starting on the right foot will be key to keeping the pressure from mounting too quickly.
