The Euro Preview: Barcelona, Bayern threatening to pull away
With World Cup qualifying complete, one has to wonder whether the title races in Spain and Germany could become forgone conclusions should Barcelona and Bayern Munich widen their respective leads.
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La Liga
There’s one big problem when a team such as Real Madrid fail to live up to the hype. It means that Barcelona are likely to run away with the Liga title. That’s the situation in Spain’s top flight as Barcelona have taken a four-point lead over second-place Valencia and an eight-point advantage over third-place Real and Atletico Madrid. Should Valencia fail to keep pace with Barca (there’s no reason to believe they can given how much of a surprise they’ve been this season), then the Catalan giants could wrap up the title race by early spring. Worse still, Barca could take such a commanding lead atop the table by Christmas that the remainder of the schedule becomes a formality.
The weekend will be dominated by two teams seemingly out of the title race. Atletico host crosstown rival Real on Saturday at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano in the Madrid derby. Real coach Zinedine Zidane may have to do without Isco, who was forced to leave Spain’s friendly against Costa Rica this past Saturday due to a leg injury. The striker was subbed out midway through the second half of Spain’s 5-0 victory. He also missed Spain’s friendly against Russia this past Tuesday, which ended 3-3. This comes on top of the injury suffered by goalkeeper Keylor Navas. The Costa Rican international is struggling to recover from a hamstring injury. An injury to Gareth Bale, who has been sidelined with a thigh muscle strain, could also be left off the lineup this weekend.
Barcelona, meanwhile, play on the road at Leganes this Saturday. It’s a game Lionel Messi and his teammates can easily win, and possibly help extend their lead atop the Liga standings, before having to host Valencia on Nov. 26 in a game that could very well decide who wins the league title.
Bundesliga
Germany’s top flight may also once again become the Bayern Munich show. After defeating Borussia Dortmund, Bayern now have a four-point lead over RB Leipzig. Bayern play 10th-place Augsburg on Saturday, while RB Leipzig faces off against Bayer Leverkusen, another mid-table club. It’s another chance for Bayern, who got off to a slow start this season, to pile on more points as they attempt to choke the life out of the title race by the start of winter.
While Bayern are flying high after firing Carlo Ancelotti at the end of September, players continue to talk about the Italian’s time there. Defender Jerome Boateng is the latest player to do so. He was reportedly one of the senior players unhappy under Ancelotti, who was replaced with veteran manager Jupp Heynckes.
Senior Bayern players had been unhappy with Ancelotti’s coaching methods, with claims that injuries occurred in games because of his relaxed regime. Asked about that, Boateng said earlier this week: “It can never be proven that one is linked to the other, but let’s just say we trained differently than how we were used to. As a player, you know whether you are 100 percent or not.”
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Serie A
After Italy failed to reached the World Cup for the first time since 1958, Serie A resumes this weekend under a cloud of tension and sadness. Some of the national team’s best play in Serie A and will have to face the fans at various venues throughout the country. The games where fans are likely to get vocal will be Saturday’s Rome derby between Roma and Lazio at the Olympic Stadium and AC Milan’s trip to league-leaders Napoli the same day.
Many of the national team’s problems can be traced back to Italy’s top flight. Serie A once featured players like Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten and Kaka. Not any more. New blood is much needed after captain Gianluigi Buffon, defender Andrea Barzagli and midfielder Daniele De Rossi announced their international retirements following Italy’s 1-0 aggregate loss to Sweden in the World Cup qualifying playoff.
“It’s time to make choices that perhaps in the past people didn’t have the courage to make,” Italy’s Sports Minister Luca Lotti told The Associated Press. “This world needs to be revised from the youth levels on up to Serie A.”