Week 14 Preview: Manager trouble in Rome if Roma lose derby?

Another week, another NordicBet preview of the domestic leagues across Europe. We’ve got some interesting games across the continent, including a big Rome derby in Italy. Read on for more highlights from the upcoming weekend.

We had a number of surprise results over the last weekend with a fair few favourites and leading teams dropping points across the top leagues. Friday was an interesting start as Lazio suffered defeat at the hands of Bologna and Atletico Madrid surprisingly lost at Las Palmas. Elsewhere there were wins for Paris SG and Bochum as well as Galatasaray. On Saturday, Sheffield United recorded their first win of the season, getting the better of Wolves and there were wins for Manchester United, Manchester City and Newcastle amongst others. Two goalless matches in France meant it was an uneventful day but Bayern Munich were in unstoppable form as they thrashed Dortmund 4-0. In Italy, AC Milan suffered a home loss to Udinese whereas Inter and Napoli both managed to secure wins. Liverpool were held to a surprising draw by Luton and Real Madrid dropped two points at home to Rayo Vallecano before the weekend ended with an exciting London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea which went the way of the team in blue following two red cards for Tottenham and multiple VAR checks and disallowed goals. 

This upcoming weekend is the last one before the final International break of the year, so teams will be wanting to go into the break on the back of a positive result. There aren’t many clashes between major teams this time around with highlights being Real Madrid at home to Valencia, Chelsea hosting Manchester City and Lazio against AS Roma. 

There is no PL match on Friday evening so the first match of the weekend is lunchtime on Saturday which sees Wolves host Tottenham. Both these teams suffered defeat last weekend with Wolves going down to Sheffield United and Tottenham losing their first match of the season, to Chelsea. Later in the day, Arsenal are home to Burnley and Manchester United host another struggling team, Luton. Newcastle face a long journey to play Bournemouth in the late kick off. On Sunday, Aston Villa host Fulham in the first of five matches with Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham all at home before the final, and most important, match of the weekend as a buoyant Chelsea host leaders Manchester City. 

Bayern made a big statement last weekend in the Bundesliga as they beat Dortmund 4-0 in their own backyard. This time around they face an easier task as they are back in Munich against Heidenheim, a match they will expect to win easily. Dortmund will hope to get back to winning ways at Stuttgart whereas leaders Bayer Leverkusen play against Union Berlin who are having a very different season to last time out as they now find themselves in the bottom three. The final game of the weekend is RB Leipzig, currently in the top four, against Freiburg, who have aspirations of finishing there. 

Ligue 1 leaders Nice kick us off in France as they look to continue their good run and hold off a resurgent PSG when they travel to Montpellier on Friday. The Parisian giants play on Saturday at Reims, the team in fourth place. Third place Monaco also play on Saturday, against Le Havre. The game of the day on Sunday is the last one scheduled between Lens and Marseille, two teams who are stuck in mid-table but have aspirations of being much higher up the table. 

There is one standout fixture in the Serie A this weekend and that is the Rome derby between Lazio and AS Roma that takes place on Sunday. With just one point between the two teams after eleven matches there is much at stake for both teams as they look to catch up to the top teams in the league. Elsewhere, AC Milan will look to get back to winning ways against Lecce and Juventus will be hoping another three points will allow them to keep pace with leaders Inter who play mid-table Frosinone in the last match of the weekend. Defending champions Napoli are home to Empoli in the early match on Sunday. 

Girona’s amazing start to the season continues as they moved back to the top of the table following their win last weekend. They play on Saturday against Rayo Vallecano, the team that held Real Madrid to a goalless draw last time out. Real Madrid themselves are in action in the late game on Saturday against Valencia, who continue their solid season in eighth place. Barcelona moved to within two points of their rivals from the capital and they play against Alaves on Sunday before Sevilla take on Betis and the final match of the weekend is Atletico Madrid against Villarreal. 

The most notable match from the other leagues around Europe comes from Portugal where Benfica host Sporting Lisbon on Sunday evening. This is a clash between the top two with Sporting currently holding a three point lead over Benfica and FC Porto a further three points behind them. 

Saturday 11/11

Wolves vs Tottenham

Wolves’ decent run of form of late came to a surprising end last weekend as they were beaten by Sheffield United. Their four game unbeaten run was ended by a controversial penalty decision from VAR, just one of the recent decisions that have drawn attention and complaints. That defeat leaves them in fourteenth place in the table but they do still have a six-point gap ahead of the relegation zone. Their recent record against Tottenham is a good one, winning two of the last three encounters and they have improved on the goalscoring with only West Ham scoring more than them out of the teams in the bottom half of the table. 

Tottenham will be looking to bounce back from what ended up being a heavy defeat at the hands of Chelsea on Monday. It was certainly an eventful game with Spurs having to contend with two red cards and injuries. A win here will see Tottenham return to the top of the table, albeit until Manchester City play. They will certainly be without Romero and Udogie, who are suspended as well as their star player so far this season, James Maddison and others including van der Ven and Richarlison, so this will be a test for their squad. They are searching for their third successive away win.

Last season both encounters between these two ended in narrow 1-0 home wins. Both teams have four wins from the last ten meetings. 

Reims vs Paris SG

Fourth take on second in this important match from Ligue 1 on Saturday afternoon as Reims welcome mighty PSG. Reims have been impressive this season, making their best ever start to a season after eleven games since 1974/75 and they set themselves up for this match with a 1-0 away win at Nantes last weekend. Should they win this match they will be just one point behind their opponents in the table. They have struggled somewhat against the so called ‘bigger teams’ this season though, losing against top six sides Brest and Monaco. 

Paris SG will be hoping to get back to winning ways following their defeat in Milan in the CL in midweek and will also be wanting to get three points from an opponent that they failed to beat last season, managing two draws. They are in good form in the league though, having won their last four matches in a row and scoring three goals on each occasion. Paris SG have been excellent away from home with their last loss coming all the way back in February but the one thing they will be looking to improve on is their recent clean sheet record away from home. 

Six of the last ten meetings have been wins for Paris SG with Reims managing two wins from the last ten.

Real Madrid vs Valencia

Real Madrid got back to winning ways with a comfortable 3-0 win over Braga in the CL. This was a much needed win following their goalless draw last weekend against Rayo Vallecano. Prior to that, they had another goalless draw, which means that they go into this match behind surprise leaders Girona. The team from the capital will go into this match hoping to continue on their recent excellent home record, they are undefeated in fourteen matches at the Bernabeu and the last five of those matches have come with a clean sheet, so their defence has certainly been playing its part this season. 

Valencia themselves are having a far better season this time around and sit in a comfortable eighth place and are on a five-match unbeaten run. They have not lost in any of their last four league matches and this is their best start to a season since 2017/2018. The last time they visited Madrid they won 1-0 back in May, a result they will look to in order to give them a confidence boost. The last time Valencia won in Madrid was a long time ago though, back in 2008.

The home team have seven wins in the last ten meetings whereas Valencia have only managed two.

Sunday 12/11

Chelsea vs Manchester City

Chelsea are in a buoyant mood having beaten leaders Tottenham on Monday and they will return to Stamford Bridge on Sunday to take on Manchester City with more hope than they might have had a few weeks ago. Recent meetings between these two have not gone Chelsea’s way so they will probably need to score first here to gain a foothold in the game, something that they have been unable to do in their last two league victories. They have failed to score in three of their last four home matches this season and have not scored in any of their last six meetings against Manchester City, going all the way back to their 2-1 win over City in the CL in 2021.

Manchester City find themselves in a familiar spot going into this weekend, they are in first place in the league following Tottenham’s defeat at the hands of Chelsea. They carried on their good form with a straightforward 3-0 win over Young Boys in Europe and will be hoping that their recent good record against Chelsea continues. They have scored fifteen goals in their last four matches, including six in their last league win over Bournemouth.  

Manchester City have won the last six meetings between these two teams, without conceding a goal and have seven wins from the last ten overall. Last season’s 4-0 win for Manchester City in the FA Cup was the only time either team has beaten the other by more than two goals since February 2019.

Lazio vs AS Roma

There is very little to choose between these two teams when it comes to picking a favourite to win this match with the visitors being given a slightly bigger chance of winning. Both these two have had somewhat underwhelming starts to their league season and neither of them currently occupy a place in the top six. Lazio lost to Bologna last weekend, a result which ended a recent good run of three wins in a row so they will be hoping to return to winning ways here. Goalscoring has been an issue for them with only thirteen scored so far this season. The home team can look back to last season for encouragement as they won both league fixtures by a solitary goal to nil. 

AS Roma played in Prague on Thursday evening so it’s another short turnaround for Jose Mourinho’s men going into this hotly contested derby match. Their recent form has been up and down although they won their last match against Lecce courtesy of two stoppage-time goals. Only two teams, Inter and Napoli, have scored more goals than Roma this season so they will feel somewhat unlucky to be down in seventh spot but their defending will need to improve as they have the second-worst defensive record out of the top ten teams. 

Lazio have won five of the last ten meetings with AS Roma winning three. Five out of the last ten matches have seen three or more goals scored. 

Enjoy!