A cracking weekend of fixtures on Planet Football starts at the King Power Stadium when Leicester faces up to Leeds under the tutelage of Jesse Marsch for the first time.
The action then takes us to Soweto in South Africa for the continent’s biggest derby clash and back to Europe for a tantalising meeting between two of the Bundesliga’s most enterprising teams, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen.
Here’s how we see it shaping up. Use our booking code 1E32859 to auto-fill your slip with our nine-leg multi.
🌊 Saturday 06 March
🇿🇦 Orlando Pirates vs Kaizer Chiefs
The Buccaneers have been South Africa’s draw specialists this season, with 11 of their 21 league encounters ending in stalemates, including each of the last two. None of the last seven meetings between these sides has ended all square but that sequence has to come to an end sometime, right?
🔑 TIP: Draw
🇩🇪 Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
The champions have notched a club record of 63 goals after 24 league outings, and their last 10 matches have produced a total of 48 goals. Leverkusen has kept just a solitary clean sheet in their last 12, and they’re not going to keep one here, but they do have the attacking quality of Moussa Diaby and Florian Wirtz in their ranks to help them contribute to a high-scoring encounter.
🔑 TIP: Over 4.5 goals
🇮🇹 Roma vs Atalanta
La Dea snapped a five-game winless run in the league with a 4-0 win last time around and have the incentive of provisionally moving into the top four with a win in Rome. Their recent defeat at Fiorentina made them the last side across Europe’s top five leagues to lose on the road this season, and they’ve scored in every single Serie A H2H away to Roma since October 2012. Gasperini’s men will be quietly confident they can get a positive result against Jose Mourinho.
🔑 TIP: Both teams to score
🏴 Liverpool vs West Ham
The Reds’ strength in depth was on display against Norwich in the FA Cup, where they made 10 alterations to the starting side that won the EFL Cup final against Chelsea, with only skipper Jordan Henderson retained. They’ll be back to full-strength here and that spells trouble for a West Ham side that shipped three in a midweek FA Cup exit at Southampton. The Hammers are good value in attack though so we expect goals at both ends.
🔑 TIP: Liverpool win & BTTS
🇫🇷 Nice vs PSG
Nice is unbeaten in their last three matches across all competitions, keeping clean sheets in all three. They’re also the only side in Ligue 1 yet to concede 2+ first-half goals in a match so far this campaign. This leads us to believe that PSG will have to work hard if they are to come away from the Allianz Rivera with three points.
🔑 TIP: Under 2.5 goals
🇪🇸 Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad
Real Madrid’s 1-0 derby win at Rayo Vallecano last weekend ensured that Los Blancos remained six points clear at the summit of LaLiga and that they kept a fourth consecutive clean sheet. Sociedad has won both of their last two league outings to nil and they’ll arrive at the Bernabeu aiming to make life difficult for their more illustrious opponents.
🔑 TIP: Real Madrid win & under 3.5 goals
🌞 Sunday 07 March
🏴 Man City vs Man United
The last six meetings between these sides have all seen at least one side fail to find the back of the net. Man United’s eight-game unbeaten run has kept them in Champions League contention, despite the fact that they’ve dropped points against Southampton and Watford at home. That sequence looks like coming to an end as Man City looks to spread their wings after a shock defeat to Spurs and a narrow 1-0 win at Everton. March is going to be difficult to navigate for Ralf Rangnick’s Red Devils.
🔑 TIP: City win & over 2.5 goals
🇮🇹 Napoli vs Milan
A top-of-the-table clash in Serie A pits Napoli against Milan at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. Both sides have scored in each of Napoli’s last five across all competitions, a sequence that includes three 1-1 draws. Milan’s last two Serie A matches have ended in score draws and a similar outcome would be music to the ears of Inter, who will be watching this with interest.
🔑 TIP: Both teams to score
🇪🇸 Real Betis vs Atlético Madrid
Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis side is playing some swashbuckling football. Since the turn of the year, they’ve hit the back of the net 30 times across all competitions in 13 matches. With both sides scoring in each of their last four domestic matches, we can see that outcome landing against an Atletico side struggling for consistency.
🔑 TIP: Over 2.5 goals
What a weekend in store.
Before that, get stuck into our Friday betting cheat sheet.
Follow Leicester vs Leeds at the start of it all.
