The Euro Preview: Real Madrid flying high, Bundesliga relegation battle heats up

Just when Barca looked to run away with the Liga title, here come a surging Real Madrid led by Gareth Bale and a group of up-and-coming youngsters.

La Liga

The Champions League returned this past week and Real Madrid enter this weekend in the same type of form that helped them win the continental title over the past three years. In La Liga, after a slow start, the work of manager Santiago Solari, who took over in October following the sacking of Julen Lopetegui, seems to finally be paying off.

Real are now just six points behind league leaders Barcelona, winners of just two out of their last seven league matches, at a point of the season where games become more frequent and clubs of this caliber have to battle on multiple fronts. Whether Real can catch their rivals remains to be seen. Just when the Liga race appeared over, here come Real Madrid surging into second.

Real Madrid host 17th-place Girona on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu, while Barcelona are in action the previous day, also at home, against 15th-place Valladolid. Both Real and Barca appear poised to win this weekend, although the league has been filled with shock results this season.

Led by veteran striker Gareth Bale and 18-year-old forward Vinicius Junior, Solari has unlocked the right combination of experienced talent and up-and-coming stars. Los Blancos were ninth when Solari took over. After a lineup shakeup and a change in mentality in the Real camp, there is a title race again.

In other matchday 24 games, third-place Atletico Madrid play away on Saturday against Rayo Vallecano, while Valencia host Espanyol, in a game pitting two fallen giants, the following day.

Bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich may be tangled in a title race (with first-place Dortmund five points ahead, while Borussia Monchengladbach and RB Leipzig are also in the top four), but the race at the bottom of the table is even more intense.

Four teams — Nurnberg, Hannover 96, VfB Stuttgart and Augsburg — are battling to avoid the drop. The relegation battle could involve even more teams, as many as six, should results continue to go against former title contenders Schalke and Freiburg.

Augsburg, sucked into the relegation zone, host Bayern on Friday, while BVB face Nurnberg on the road on Monday. This crisscrossing of title contenders and relegation candidates should make for a riveting matchday 22.

In what may be the biggest game of the weekend in Germany, Schalke host Freiburg. The loser of this contest in Gelsenkirchen could very well find themselves desperately trying to avoid the drop come spring.

Serie A

League leaders Juventus start things off on Friday, hosting 19th-place Frosinone at the Allianz Stadium. Second-place Napoli, meanwhile, are at home Sunday at the Stadio San Paolo against eighth-place Torino.

The Juve match could be another chance for Cristiano Ronaldo to add to his league-leading 18 goals this season, two better than Sampdoria’s Fabio Quagliarella. After a slow start to the season, the Portuguese striker is now on top of the scorer’s table in Italy as the Bianconeri look to add another Italian league title to their trophy case.

In other key games this weekend: Atalanta host AC Milan on Saturday as both teams battle for top four position, while Sampdoria travel to the San Siro the following day to take on an always-inconsistent Inter Milan.