FRIDAY 

LIGUE UN - NICE 1, LYON 0 

Battle of Ligue Un hotshots as Lyon visit undefeated league leaders 

Mario Balotelli may be wearing the Ligue Un flavor of the month, goal-getting crown these days after his flying start to his French footballing career, but the former wearer would quite like it back. 

That snatch-back attempt could well be on Friday in the Allianz Riviera in the idyllic climes of Nice when the surprise league-leaders host fifth-placed Lyon. The striker oozing to win his spot in the limelight again is Alexandre Lacazette who got off to a flying start to his league campaign 

with six goals in five appearances before succumbing to a hamstring injury that saw the French forward sidelined for a month. 

Lyon coach, Bruno Genesio, was preaching caution though in giving Lacazette a soft landing ahead of the visit south to Club Med, but a loss to the still undefeated Nice would leave Lyon 10-points from the top of the table, a heck of challenge to overcome, especially with PSG yet to get into its stride. 

SATURDAY

Napoli 1 Roma 3 

Before the Match 

Napoli face life without Milik in return against Roma 

There may well have been some rather fruity language muffling out from behind the office door of Maurizio Sarri this week. 

That potty-mouthed moment would have struck when the Napoli manager heard that his goal-getting forward, Arkadiusz Milik, had suffered an ACL injury on international duty with Poland that could sideline the striker for up to six months.

Although there is still poaching power in the team with Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens who have seven Serie A goals between them, Milik was seen as the inspirational choice to replace the departed Gonzalo Higuain. "We have a big squad and we've got solutions," said an optimistic Pepe Reina. 

Despite this enforced cheerfulness, the loss will certainly rock a Napoli side that had gotten off to a flying start to the season, sitting in second place with just one league loss. That position could well be in jeopardy on Saturday with the visit of a Roma team just one point and a spot behind Napoli and holding no sympathy for their opponent's unfortunate loss. 

Real Betis 1 Real Madrid 6

Before the Match: 

Real Madrid desperate to avoid another bore draw against Betis 

Betis are the kind of team that Big Two supporters and La Liga watchers in general find more than a little irritating. 

The Seville side can be flakey and disinterested against much of the riff-raff of Spain's top flight, but when the glamor games come along, Betis and its ilk suddenly play like world-beaters. 

As a matter of fact, just like Eibar a fortnight ago in the Santiago Bernabeu to force Real Madrid into its third consecutive league draw to hand Zinedine Zidane his first real 'crisis' of his managerial tenure at the club. 

That crisis increased with the news that Sergio Ramos had picked up a knee injury whilst playing for Spain and would miss the next month of action. Although what the defender doth taketh in penalties to the opposition the former Sevilla man doth giveth with heart, inspiration and sheer bloodymindedness to win - three qualities lacking of late in a distinctly flat Madrid side. 

Madrid drew the corresponding league fixture back in January. A repeat performance against Gus Poyet's Andalusian side would not be good at all for Zizou's stuttering side.