Football diary
AFTER last weekend’s goal feast in the Premiership and also in other leagues, plus some intriguing midweek action in the major European competitions, we have some more vitally important matches to look forward to over the Easter period.
There are two FA Cup semifinals and plenty of league action with several teams pushing for both honours and places in next season’s European competitions, as well as trying to avoid relegation.
The first Cup semi-final takes place tomorrow when Manchester City once again face Liverpool (just six days after their exciting 2-2 Premiership draw) and then on Sunday, Chelsea (who last Saturday whipped Southampton 6-0 in the Premiership) take on Crystal Palace in a London derby. Both of these games will be played at Wembley Stadium.
In the Premiership tomorrow we have Southampton v Arsenal, in-form Spurs (4th) v Brighton, out-of-sorts and goalshy Manchester United against Norwich, and struggling Watford v Brentford, while on Sunday much-improved Newcastle face Leicester City and West Ham, fighting for a European place, meet relegationthreatened Burnley.
Tomorrow’s games in the Championship include secondplaced Bournemouth v Middlesbrough; Derby v championselect Fulham; Huddersfield v QPR, who’ve lost five games on the bounce; Luton v Nottingham Forest, who are on a run of five successive victories; Peterborough v inconsistent Blackburn; play-off chasing Sheffield United v Reading; and WBA v Blackpool. And then on Bank Holiday Monday, we have Blackburn v Stoke, Bristol City v Sheffield United, Cardiff v Luton, Coventry v Bournemouth, Middlesbrough v Huddersfield, Nottingham Forest v WBA and QPR v Derby, while Fulham play Preston next Tuesday.
Ipswich Town oppose two of the top three teams in the Football League First Division over Easter. They travel to Rotherham United today and then welcome leaders Wigan Athletic to Portman Road on Monday, while the Football League Second Division pacemakers Forest Green Rovers play two struggling teams - Barrow away tomorrow and Oldham Athletic at home, 48 hours later.
And I must mention what’s happening in LaLiga… on Sunday, Sevilla play leaders by 12 points Real Madrid; secondplaced Barcelona meet Cádiz on Monday; Osasuna then take on Real Madrid next Wednesday, and 24 hours after that we have Real Sociedad v Barcelona and Levante against Sevilla.