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