The holiday season is over and everyone is back to their routine mundane life. However, sports offer you relief on the weekends and football fans this time do not have to wait that long to be entertained as the midweek fixtures provide all the excitement you need, with the Carabao Cup witnessing a match-up between eternal rivals, Manchester United and Manchester City.
The Indian Super League, on the other hand, continues with its amazing fixture list as the week has in store for us several anticipated games, the cream of which we shall talk about.
Bengaluru FC vs Jamshedpur FC
Two of the recently established teams in the ISL take on each other this week and the match-up is all sorts of exciting. The third-placed team faces off against the fifth-placed team but on paper, the fixture is one to look to forward to.
Bengaluru FC, for long the only unbeaten side in the league, have suffered two losses in their last four games, while Jamshedpur have not won a game in their last five. Both are desperate to get some sort of momentum back in the season.
Bengaluru look to have a slight edge as they come off the back of a win over second-placed FC Goa but do not discount Jamshedpur, who demolished their next opponents 5-1 last season.
Watch out for:
Sunil Chhetri: An expected name on this list, the Indian captain has not let his age come in the way of what he does best- score goals for fun. He has put the ball in seven times in 10 games, and scored both goals in Bengaluru’s win over Goa last time out. Expect him to be a pest in the opposition box as usual.
Manchester United vs Manchester City
The big game of the week, and it truly stands out in European football because Napoli take on Inter and Valencia face Real Madrid in other headline-grabbing midweek fixtures.
However, this time the Manchester teams face off in the first leg of the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, a seemingly low priority tournament for the blue half of the city. They have the Champions League and Premier League, albeit they look defeated in the latter.
On paper, City are clear favourites, with United losing against Arsenal and drawing with Wolves in the FA Cup. However, it seemed the same when the teams met each other in the league last month, and United ended up unlikely 2-1 winners, so you never know what might happen.
Watch out for:
Marcus Rashford: For the second week running, Rashford is the most threatening player to look forward to in a fixture. The young Englishman is enjoying the best goal-scoring season of his career and has a strange knack to turn up in big games, having played his best games against the top six. Also, he loves a City game, having scored last time out and also famously ending Martin Demichelis’ top-flight career back in 2016 in the same fixture.
Wondering what to do next? Head to Sportsbet.io to select your picks.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Lindsey Parnaby
