Can't Miss: The Weekend Means War
A fiery reception is in the works for Napoli's least favorite person, PSG look for redemption, and an old-school LaLiga rivalry braces itself for a new chapter.
By Tim Stannard
Saturday
COUPE DE LA LIGUE - MONACO V PSG - Live on beIN SPORTS from 3:00PM ET / 11:55AM PT
Unai Emery with small chance of redemption after Barcelona debacle
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Time to go all the way back to the days of yore before the international break - a gap that feels like a good four years - and remember the vibe around PSG, the team that blew a 4-0 lead against Barcelona in the Champions League. Remember that? Good.
That crushing 6-1 loss saw PSG losing one of the four crowns it was chasing this season - the most challenging, to be fair - but a title nonetheless. Saturday's Coupe de La Ligue affair would ordinarily have been a given for the capital city club, considering the superiority PSG has had in France in recent years.
But even this domestic title is not even a given with the opponents being Monaco, the remarkable team that are currently sitting at the top of the French league with 87 goals scored and everyone's granny's favorite side after schooling Manchester City in the Champions League.
Make no mistake, PSG remain an ambitious club and for Unai Emery to lose Saturday's final and start April with 50% of his sporting targets having been missed and the remaining two by no means certain, would see the Spanish import sitting on quite the pressure cooker of calamity.
Sunday
LA LIGA - VALENCIA V DEPORTIVO: Live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 12:30PM ET / 9:30AM PT
A history lesson from La Liga from two clubs facing uncertain future
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Some fifteen years ago, this would have been the kind of game to stop Europeans in their tracks. And even soon-to-be ex-Europeans like the Brits. Sorry, UK.
Valencia v Deportivo would have been a huge battle between behemoths that won La Liga and made Champions League finals. But a new regime is ruling in La Liga and both clubs have spent miserable respective decades suffering relegations and endless managerial changes (Deportivo) and endless managerial changes and Gary Neville (Valencia).
Neither side are likely to be booted out of the Primera this season despite their best efforts at times but Sunday's game will still be a classic old encounter between a Valencia team that swings between vaguely passable and entertainingly abysmal and a Deportivo outfit that is reacting rather well to Pepe Mel taking over at the helm.
The clash may not be a title decider or have fancy dans like Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch but rather like an episode of Real Housewives, it's a chance to see a couple of golden oldies past their best going at it, with just as much drama and tears.
SERIE A - NAPOLI V JUVENTUS: Live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT
The less than friendly homecoming for Higuain has arrived
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It's the 26th July 2016 and Gonzalo Higuain has just left Napoli to sign for title rivals, Juventus, for nearly $100m. The shirt burning, name-cursing, and general threats as to what will happen to the Argentinean striker when the sides next meet in the city are being made long into a drunken night.
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It's the 2nd April and that day has finally arrived, a day that, barring a sudden late knee twinge from the footballer, would have been circled on Higuain's calendar with the same sense of fear and trepidation as when the local pizza emporium was closed for stock-taking.
The traitor is going back to the Stadio San Paulo and there will be no Juventus fans allowed their either to lend any kind of support.
To be fair, the clash didn't need any more spice added to it. North v south, order v chaos, defense v attack, separate beds v car keys in a bowl every Saturday night. But the return of Higuain has made the clash literally unmissable, and that's ignoring the purely football spectacle of two of the most solid sides in Europe going toe-to-toe.
Napoli v Juventus is going to be a sensory overload. Especially for Higuain who will be bombarded from all sides with all manner of challenges both physical and mental. Should be fun.