It’s a bumper weekend of football action with several leagues entering into their final day but with most of the major champions decided the focus will be down the bottom with relegation.
Sports Pundit’s Game of the Weekend
English Premier League, Sunday, 4pm (Central European Time)
English champions Manchester United will officially claim the Premiership trophy on Sunday evening but Blackpool boss Ian Holloway is hoping it’ll be a double celebration at Old Trafford.
The Tangerines are thick in a relegation battle, sitting 18th heading into the final day. They really need to claim a result to have any hope of survival which won’t be easy given they’re meeting the champions. But United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will field a weakened team which may offer Holloway and co hope. They won’t forget they threw away a two-goal lead against the Red Devils earlier in the season, before eventually losing 3-2.
More than anything, it’ll be a day of drama so it’ll be interesting to monitor the games going on simultaneously particularly Wolverhampton-Blackburn, Tottenham-Birmingham City and Stoke City-Wigan.
French Ligue 1, Saturday, 8pm (CET)
Lille are all but champions in France but a result in the capital will make that official. Lille lead Ligue 1 by six points with two games to play, while fourth-placed PSG have plenty to play with a place in the UEFA Champions League up for grabs.
In fact, Lille can do the league and cup double on Saturday, having defeated PSG 1-0 last weekend in the Coupe de France final at the Stade de France. Ludovic Obraniak’s free-kick won the day there and he’ll be important along with topscorer Moussa Sow.
Spanish La Liga, Saturday, 9pm (CET)
The reality is, the entire Spanish relegation battle is particularly intriguing, so flicking between channels we be the order of the evening. Going into the final day, Almeria and Hercules are relegated but one spot is yet to be decided.
Zaragoza, currently occupying that final spot in 18th, host Levante who are just safe, which may offer the hosts some hope of getting the result they need. Elsewhere, 17th-placed Deportivo are only a point ahead of Zaragoza and face a tough home game against Valencia, while 16th-placed Getafe entertain 14th-placed Sociedad and 15th-placed Osasuna welcome Villarreal.
German DFB-Pokal Final, Saturday, 5pm (CET)
Second-tier Duisburg head into the final of the German Cup against Schalke 04 at Berlin’s Olympiastadion as major underdogs but anything can happen in a one-off game.
Duisburg, who finished the 2.Liga season in eighth with Srdjan Baljak their topscorer, progressed to the final after a decent run of victories over Energie Cottbus, Kaiserslautern and FC Koln. Schalke have had it much more tough, knocking off Bayern Munich, FC Nurnberg and promoted FC Augsburg. And after a poor league campaign, Schalke will be looking for some silverware to salvage their strange season, which also saw them reach the UEFA Champions League semi finals.
Italian Serie A, Sunday, 7.45pm (CET)
It’s the final day of the season in Italy and while the champions and who will be relegated has been decided, the fourth and final Champions League spot has not. Udinese, currently fourth, are in the box seat, but they face champions Milan on a day they’ll celebrate ending a drought-breaking successful season.
Udinese’s only rival for the Champions League spot is fifth-placed Lazio who travel to Lecce, who confirmed their top flight status last weekend and have little left to play for. Antonio Di Natale and Alexis Sanchez have been exceptional this season for the Zebrette and will be keen to finish off the job.