El Clasico is two weeks away, but La Liga leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid cannot get lost in the drum-up toward the league's biggest match. Both face formidable opponents on Sunday, as Barcelona welcomes Villarreal to Camp Nou while Real Madrid travels to Sevilla.
Barcelona will look to the their dynamic duo — Neymar and Luis Suarez — to continue their goal-scoring spree since Lionel Messi’s injury last month. Neymar leads La Liga with nine goals, while his Uruguayan colleague sits right behind him with eight.
Villarreal has their own formidable attacking duo of leading scorer Cedric Bakambu and Roberto Soldado. Soldado, who is tied for the league lead with four assists, has pivoted to the role of playmaker in his first season back in La Liga after a spell at Tottenham in England. All of the action from Camp Nou can be seen on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. EST on beIN Sports.
Real Madrid may be out of sorts when they take the pitch at Sevilla after a week that saw keeper Keylor Navas break the Champions League record for longest spell of scoreless play after another clean sheet against PSG.
That celebration was tempered by news out of France where striker Karim Benzema was arrested for allegedly being part of a blackmail attempt against Mathieu Valbuena. Benzema is recovering from a hamstring injury that would likely keep him out of Real’s starting eleven for the weekend, but it is unknown how his legal troubles will effect the focus of Los Blancos.
Madrid still have Cristiano Ronaldo, though, and hope that fellow speedster Gareth Bale will have recovered enough from his thigh injury to see his first substantial action for the club since September.
Sevilla, 11th in La Liga, will look to shake off their early season problems and ascend into the top half of the table with a positive result. The Sevillistas are lead by leading scorer Kevin Gameiro and midfield playmaker Yehven Konoplyanka. All of the action from the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan can be seen on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. EST on beIN Sports.
The Best of the Rest for the Weekend
In England, league leaders Manchester City travel to Birmingham to face bottom of the table Aston Villa on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. EST on NBCSN.
Second place Arsenal host their North London neighbors, Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. EST on NBCSN. F
inally, Chelsea look to build off their midweek Champions League victory when they visit Stoke City on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. EST on NBC. The Blues will be without “The Special One” as Manager Jose Mourinho will serve a one-game suspension from the FA for his actions at West Ham two weeks ago.
In Italy, the game of the week is the Derby della Capitale between Roma and Lazio from the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Roma, one point out of first in Serie A, will look to Mohamed Salah to keep his fantastic form. All of the action from the Italian capital can be seen on beIN Sports on Sunday at 9:00 a.m. EST.
The Ligue 1 leaders, PSG, will look to shake off the midweek loss at Real Madrid when they host Toulouse on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. EST on beIN Sports.
In Germany, Bayern Munich will look to get back to their winning ways in the Bundesliga after dropping their first points of the year last week in a 0-0 tie to Eintracht Frankfurt; Bayern welcome Stuttgart to the Allianz Arena on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. EST on Fox Sports 1.
Chicharito, who scored again during the midweek, will look to stay red hot when Bayer Leverkusen plays host to Koln on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. EST on Fox Sports 2.
Heading west, in Mexico, Chivas, winners of the Copa MX, will look to build off of their first trophy in nine years when they face last placed Dorados on Saturday at 10:00 p.m. EST on ESPN Deportes. First place Pumas look to lock up the league’s regular season top spot when they play Queretaro on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST on Univision Deportes.
In the States, the MLS Conference Semifinals will conclude with their second legs. The New York Red Bulls up 1-0 after the first leg welcome DC United to the Red Bull Arena on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. EST on ESPN.
That will be followed by the second leg of the Columbus Crew and Montreal Impact matchup where the Impact lead 2-1 after the first leg on ESPN at 5:00 p.m. EST.
Dallas will look to makeup a 2-1 deficit against the Seattle Sounders when the two meet for the second time at 7:30 p.m. EST on Fox Sports 1.
Finally, Vancouver and Portland finish off the day as either side will look to break a 0-0 aggregate deadlock. The action from British Columbia can be seen at ESPN at 10:00 p.m. EST.
