The football matches you can’t miss… At least we hope…
Football is well and truly back. The blockbuster European leagues at least. Here at Football Tripper we’ll readily profess we struggled to keep up with the cross footy drive known here in the UK as ‘project restart’, let alone the other leagues across the world. But for you loyal Tripper fans out there, we’re willing to share our understanding of what you can look forward to. Read on for facts, partial fictions, and the odd theory which are in no way conspiracies.
*Note: our legal team have mandated that we make clear all theories herein are strictly CONSPIRACY theories & should be treated as thus.
OK let’s get the bad news out of the way first. The top flight leagues that haven’t returned include: Scottish Premiership, Ligue 1, Eredisie (Netherlands), and Pro League (Belgium). Elite women’s league football has also been sadly cancelled. The leagues that have restarted include the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Primeira Liga (Portugal), Superliga (Denmark), and the illustrative Premier League where we’ve already seen Liverpool crowned champions. I’m going to put it out there, the deciding match could’ve easily been missed. Quite literally. Just like the anti climatic moment when Leicester won the league via Chelsea beating Spurs in 2016, Liverpool won the title this year when Chelsea beat Man City.
The English Football League has also returned which brings us to our first set of matches you can’t miss: the Championship play-offs. These matches are not yet cancelled and if you are looking to bet, checking the football betting odds might help you a lot. The semi finals will be played in late July but if there’s only one date you can remember it should be Tuesday August 4th when the play off finals are scheduled. Leeds & West Brom look certain to grab the automatic promotion spots of first & second so don’t expect to see them playing in that match. Instead it’ll likely be one of the teams currently sitting in the third to sixth spots: Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Cardiff. Chasing that pack are some big names in Derby County, captained by Wayne Rooney, along with Preston North End. Swansea City, Millwall and Blackburn Rovers fans can hope they’ll make the cut but it will be a tall ask.
And with every promotion comes relegation so be sure to tune into the final day of the season in the Premier League on the 26th July. The big one in the relegation battle will likely be West Ham vs. Aston Villa. They’re both currently on 27 points, the former just out of the drop zone and the latter sitting 19th. At the other end of the table will be the teams scrapping for Champion League & Europa League spots. This has been made interesting by City currently being banned from Europe next year for breaching financial fair play rules. As City are firmly in the top four, 5th may see a route into the Champions League. On that last day of the season keep an eye on Chelsea, Wolves, and maybe Spurs. The match we’re holding a lot of hope out for is Leicester City vs. Manchester United. Each have had hiccups in the league both before & after project restart but United have found a bit of form meaning that game could decide who gets Champions League football next year if Wolves continue their great form.
If you’re looking for final game day drama that could decide a league winner your best chance is La Liga. Some great form from Real Madrid along with a couple of recent draws from Barcelona currently leaves Real trailing them by a point with a game in hand. Final game day there is Sunday 19th July where they’ll both play teams occupying the bottom half of the table. If Real & Barca are within each other’s reach we can only hope for some nerves, upsets, and drama a la that magical Premier League moment: AGUEEROOOOOOOO.
And if those tasty fixtures don’t quench your football thirst look no further than the cup competitions. The FA Cup has resumed with some cracking drama this weekend with Man United’s Maguire seeing redemption day after his recent defensive error against Spurs in the league when he lost his man Bergwijn. An extra time winner against Norwich saw him secure United a semi final clash against Chelsea on July 18th. Of course the big cup competition this year is the Champions League and the good news is it will be going ahead for both the men’s and women’s sides. The male team’s matches from the quarter-finals will be played in August as a straight knockout tournament in Lisbon. Stick final day in your calendar for the 23rd August 20:00 BST / 21:00 CET.
So there you have it, the matches you can’t miss in the coming months. You should be left with no disappointment unless you were hoping to read some partial fictions & conspiracy theories in this article… Unless the partial fiction is that there was going to be some conspiracy theories… Or that the partial fiction is the conspiracy. 😳