Can't Miss: Serie A, LaLiga in the Spotlight
Scorching hot action puts Serie A and LaLiga in the spotlight with Barcelona and Alaves giving us a mouth-watering dress rehearsal for the Copa del Rey final.
by Tim Stannard
SATURDAY
DEPORTIVO ALAVES v BARCELONA – Live on beIN SPORTS from 10:05AM ET / 7:05AM PT.
An early dress rehearsal for the Copa del Rey final
Well, who’d have thunk it.
A match that may not have raised the eyebrows of attention of Barcelona fans, never mind followers of La Liga is suddenly a beacon of attraction. Alaves against Barcelona would perhaps have been expected to be a tight away win for the Camp Nou club, a revenge mission for a shock home defeat to the Vitorians back in September that still has some local fans sitting in the stands wondering what happened.
But the rise and rise of Alaves through the Copa del Rey ranks in January to plonk themselves into the final in May against Barca means that this La Liga affair is now a stand-out fixture, as the northern club looks to do a season’s double over Barcelona.
The last team to manage that was Bayern Munich in 2013. Rather like the final itself, Saturday’s game is by no means an easy fixture for a Barcelona team trying to gain ground on Real Madrid. The talent pool and resources of Alaves are dwarfed by their visitors, but a stubborn back-four and even more stubborn midfield, sees the Basque outfit as hard to break down but able to grab a winner on the break.
However, Barca have been consistently consistent in La Liga of late, and unbeaten in their last 14 league games. One player in particular will enjoy the affair, as Leo Messi has never played in Mendizorroza before. Let’s see if he christens the stadium with a goal.
OSASUNA V REAL MADRID – Live on beIN SPORTS from 2:35PM ET / 11:35AM PT
Real Madrid return to action after free fortnight
Real Madrid. Remember them?
Last played a couple of weeks ago, indeed, so quiet have Madrid been of late due to a Copa del Rey knockout and a postponement that Barcelona have played three matches, whilst the players have kicked balls about and Cristiano Ronaldo posted more casual topless photos of himself.
Funny work 👌 A photo posted by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Feb 8, 2017 at 12:42pm PST
But Madrid are back in action and on paper it should be a smooth restart after a mini-winter break. Osasuna have managed the remarkable feat of being worse than Granada this season with just the single win all year in La Liga, and that was away from home. And that is unusual for the Pamplona team which has traditionally had its ground as a fortress with a penchant of making life uncomfortable for the big teams.
Unfortunately, this season Osasuna are fragile and flimsy and heading for a swift return to La Segunda. But they will want to take at least one scalp with them on Saturday.
MONDAY
LAZIO V MILAN – Live on beIN SPORTS from 2:40PM ET / 11:40AM PT
Lazio aim to make life more miserable for Milan
Just when Milan had hit rock bottom of a big, old hole, the up-and-down San Siro outfit found a rope and climbed out. Despite being down to nine men, statistically one of the dirtiest teams in Europe used a bit of assist magic from the on-loan Gerard Deulofeu to grab a late 1-0 win away at Bologna and prevent a run of four defeats on the trot in Serie A. Despite that, it has been a sorry start to the second half of the campaign for Milan.
Lazio have been all with the zesty in contrast with the team enjoying their joint best campaign since 2003/04 and on quite the high after pasting Pescara 2-6 last weekend. Strong and combative, Lazio fancy their chances of a Champions League finish this season despite competition from Napoli and Roma. A good start to achieving that goal would be making life very uncomfortable indeed for visiting Milan in the Italian capital.