Photo by Ben Queenborough/ISIPhotos.com
By JUSTIN FERGUSON
A busy Saturday in the world of soccer kicks off with a slate of seven matches in the Premier League, which includes a London clash with serious implications in the battle for Champions League spots.
Fourth-place Arsenal, winners of seven of their last nine league matches, travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham. The Gunners could put some pressure on Chelsea and Tottenham with a victorious jump back to third place on Saturday. Fulham have only lost once in Arsenal’s last four visits to the Cottage, and they will surely remember rallying from two goals down to draw 3-3 at the Emirates earlier this season.
Also in England, two teams desperate for points in their fight to stay up will meet at Loftus Road. Queens Park Rangers, now 10 points away from safety, will have to win at least four out of their five matches to have a chance at survival—and they have a solid chance at victory this weekend against Stoke City. The Potters, who have fallen all the way down to just three points above the drop zone, have not recorded a win in their last seven league matches.
Later, Barcelona and Real Madrid will have one final tune-up before next week’s Champions League semifinal matches. While league leaders Barcelona will most likely start another youth-filled lineup for their match Saturday against struggling Levante, Real Madrid will face a tougher league challenge ahead of next week’s trip to Borussia Dortmund. Los Blancos host European hopeful Real Betis, who rallied from three goals down last weekend to get a draw against rival Sevilla.
The day will end with some intriguing Liga MX matches, including first-place Tigres’ match against Pachuca. Tigres lost their first match of the season last week at Pumas, and now they will return home with just a one-point league lead over Atlas. A loss to Pachuca could be highly problematic for the league leaders as they begin a tough stretch of matches to close out the Clausura campaign.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):
9:30am – GolTV – Hannover 96 vs. Bayern Munich
10am – ESPN2 – Fulham vs. Arsenal
10am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Norwich City vs. Reading
10am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Queens Park Rangers vs. Stoke City
10am – Fox Soccer Channel – Sunderland vs. Everton
10am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Swansea City vs. Southampton
10am – Fox Soccer Plus – West Bromwich Albion vs. Newcastle United
10am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – West Ham United vs. Wigan Athletic
10am – beIN Sport en Español – Granada vs. Real Valladolid
11am – Univision Deportes – Olympique Marseille vs. Brest
12pm – beIN Sport – Real Madrid vs. Real Betis
12:30pm – GolTV – Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg
2pm – beIN Sport – Barcelona vs. Levante
4pm – beIN Sport en Español – Valencia vs. Málaga
7pm – Univision Deportes – Atlas vs. Guadalajara
8pm – UniMás – Tigres UANL vs. Pachuca
9pm – Univision Deportes – América vs. Pumas UNAM
Where are the MLS game times?
Looks like Stuart Holden’s loan to Sheffield Wednesday is over. Bolton has lost some players to injury recently so perhaps we’ll see what they have planned for him soon.
Jozy got deadlegged early in the 2nd, couldn’t really shake it off, subbed in the 54th for Johannsson. :
Quakes/MLS have come down on 1906…
http://m.sjearthquakes.com/news/2013/04/statement-club-regarding-1906-ultras
Man, I missed West Ham vs. Wigan. So depressed. It reminds me of the time I forgot to watch Swindon vs. Scunthorpe.
In Rome….heading to the olimpico tomorrow to watch Mikey Bradley. Anyone else here?
Be careful. But have a blast. Wish I was there.
Hoping Bradley gets the start. He’s looked deserving, but would be a shame for him not to.
apparently the next match Cherundolo will be Hannover’s record Bundesliga appearance maker
So with Gulati being elected to the FIFA executive committee, does that mean he resign as US President?
Good question! You would think there would be a conflict of interest but that type of ethical question doesn’t seem to bother FIFA too much.
No, he can do both.
Jozy dedicating today’s match to the Boston area.
Jozy never misses a moment to show what a class guy he is. His Sandy Hook tribute will forever keep him on the list of great firckin’ guys
hoffenheim are playing like they don’t even care anymore. or are they just that bad? it looks like they’re trying to throw the game for some reason, but i wouldn’t think they’d be that obvious about it.
AZ v. PSV is on ESPN3 at 2:45. FYI.
Good call, thanks Jon!
Cherundolo is just a few matches away from being the the Hannover player with the most record Bundesliga appearances. Beautiful
and is it me or does Bayern have 3 of the best strikers in Germany at their club
Stefan kiessling and lewandowski might disagree with you.
The irony being that the Bayern President was saying he doesn’t want Germany to become a duopoly, yet…
They took Gomez from Stuttgart.
They took Mandžukić from Wolfsburg.
They took Pizarro from Werder Bremmen
All within the last couple years. Quit raiding the other Bundesliga top players and maybe those teams won’t drop in form.
It is not Bayern’s reponsibility to help other Bundesliga clubs keep up.
If they they can’t keep up f**k them.
Then Bayern can stop complaining about there not being a lot of competition.
It’s like drinking all the beer in your friend’s refrigerator and then complaining that he doesn’t have beer like your house does.
Then don’t invite him over. Bayern are bullies. Always have been. Either shut them up or get used to it.
Maybe he wants it to be a monopoly instead of a duopoly
come on Jozy, score a hat trick today
Go Everton!!!!