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El clasico 2021 – 2022

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Messi
How will Leo Messi’s absence affect the 2021-2022 El clasico?

The traditional rivalry between Spain’s football giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, often referred to as “El clásico”, is a must for all football lovers. Every year the two clubs face each other in La Liga, and if we are lucky in the Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) and / or in Champions League. They usually also meet in the Spanish Super Cup (Supercopa de España), which is a tournament with four teams: the winner and runner up of La Liga, and the finalists of the Spanish Cup.

In this post, we present the dates for El classico for the 2021 – 2022 season. If the teams will meet each other in any additional contexts, we will add them to the table below.

DateHome – AwayVenue Competition
24 Oct 2021Barcelona – Real MadridCamp NouLa Liga
12 Jan 2022Real Madrid – BarcelonaKing Abdullah Sports CitySpanish Super Cup
20 Mar 2022Real Madrid – BarcelonaSantiago BernabeuLa Liga
El clasico 2021-2022

El clasico: previous results

Of a total number of 270 matches, Barcelona has on 115 and Real Madrid 102 (62 ties). This year, Real Madrid has the chance to catch up on Barcelona. Barcelona has a bit of a crisis after loosing super star Leo Messi to Paris SG, and they are not performing great in La Liga.

At the time of writing, Real Madrid is placed third in La Liga and Barcelona at 7th place. This may generate consequences for future editions of the Spanish Super Cup with other teams involved than the usual clubs.

In the Champions League, Real Madrid has two wins and one loss at the group stage, while Barcelona has two losses and one win. We’ll see if they manage to reach the play offs, and if the two clubs are drawn to play against each other!

Winners of the European domestic football leagues 2016

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Chicken Swedes have followed Europe’s biggest domestic football leagues during the season 2015-16: in the summer of 2015 when we studied the odds and gave you some predictions. After that we have made a post every now and then with some status updates. I this post we present the winners of Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A.

Premier League

We, and most of the predictors and book makers were wrong about this year’s winner of Premier League. In August 2015, the small club of Leicester tops the league with three straight wins. No eyebrows raised, it was early in the season and favorites Chelsea or any of the teams from Manchester would soon wake up. We had tipped Arsenal as a winner. In November Leicester’s Jamie Vardy first player to score in eleven straight games. In December, Leicester is once again at the top of the league after three more consecutive wins. The success story continuous in 2016. April 10, Leicester secures a place in the 2016-17 Champions League. Even though Vardy gets a red card and two matches suspensions, Leicester still manages to defeat Swansea 4-0. With three rounds remaining they are seven points ahead of Tottenham in second place. After a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, Leicester will be the champions if Tottenham fails to defeat Chelsea. The game ends with a 2-2 draw. Leicester has won the 2015-16 Premier League, to an odds of 5000 times the stake. This can be compared to the odds of finding Elvis Presley alive 2000x, evidence of the Loch Ness monster’s existence, 500x and similar long shots. We look forward to following Leicester in the 2016-17 Champions League and as reigning champions of the Premier League!

Former champions in the Premier League

20 Wins: Manchester United (latest: 2013)
18: Liverpool (1990)
13: Arsenal (2004)
9: Everton (1987)
7: Aston Villa (1981)
6: Sunderland (1936)
5: Chelsea (2015)
4: Newcastle (1927), Sheffield Wednesday (1930) and Manchester City (2014).
3: Huddersfield (1926), Wolverhampton (1959), Leeds (1992) and Blackburn (1995).
2: Preston (1890), Portsmouth (1950), Burnley (1960), Tottenham (1961) and Derby (1975).
1: Sheffield United (1898), West Bromwich (1920), Ipswich (1962), Nottingham (1978), Leicester (2016).

Ligue 1

The French league 2015-16 was about as exciting as watching drying paint. This question was really just whether Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paris SG would succeed in the Champions League. However, they got eliminated in the quarter finals against Manchester City. PSG won Ligue 1 in March 13. Ibrahimovics last match in Ligue 1 was a brilliant show by the Swedish attacker. He scored two goals against Nantes and got the scoring record in the league. After his second goal, his sons entered the field with shirts reading “King” and “Legend”. A suitable finish for the “Zlatan-era” in Ligue 1.

Bundesliga

In the German league Bayern Munich dominated from start to finish. The fans expected success in the Champions League where Bayern got eliminated by Atletico Madrid in the semifinals.

La Liga

The Spanish league are usually a showdown between Real Madrid and Barcelona. An exception was in 2014 when Atletico Madrid won La Liga. The 2015-16 season began with injury problems for Barcelona’s big star Lionel Messi. His comeback was successful, however, and the three amigos, Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez placed Barcelona in the driver’s seat. They also won the season’s first El Clásico against Real Madrid. Real replaced their coach, which would prove to be a successful move. They won the season’s second El Clásico and 2016 became an exciting league race when Barcelona lost some more points surprisingly. Before the last round differed only 1 point between the giants, with Atletico trailing in third place. Both Real and Barcelona did their duties in the final matches, which meant that Barcelona was defending champions. Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick in the last match against Granada and made sure the Catalonians defended their title from 2015.

Serie A

The question before the 2015-16 Serie A season was whether Juventus would win their fifth consecutive Italian league? The answer was eventually yes, but it too a while. As Chelsea in Premier League, Juventus got a rough start. However, they raised their game and got the decisive victory April 25th. Juventus won Serie A 2016 9 points before second placed Napoli.

The old lady has awakened

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English football

In this post, we check the status of Europe’s biggest football leagues: Spanish La Liga, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga.

La Liga

In La Liga, we find last year’s champions Barcelona at the top. Their main rivals, Real Madrid is at third place, having sacked coach Rafael Benitez, replacing him with former French superstar Zinedine Zidane. The main focus in media has been on the two giants and El Clásico, however, at second place in La Liga Atlético Madrid has sneaked up, just 1 point behind Barcelona after 20 matches played.

Barcelona 48p
Atlético Madrid 47p
Real Madrid 43p

Premier League

This season’s biggest surprise, Leicester is still at the top of Premier League. Manchester City and Arsenal are trailing three points behind. The English league is one of the most exciting and tight national football leagues this season. Chelsea were favourites before the season started. We placed our earnings on Arsenal which is still a good bet. However, the Gunners also have the Champions League playoffs to worry about were they are put up the toughest opposition ever in the Round of 16: Last year’s winners Barcelona FC.

Leicester 47p
Manchester City 44p
Arsenal 44p

Serie A

As we wrote in the title: The old lady has awakened! Hopelessly trailing after the first months, last year’s Serie A champions Juventus are now at second place, just 2 points behind Lazio. Inter is chasing at third place. Juventus are also put up against tough opposition in the Champions League: They will face German giants Bayern Munich in the Round of 16. Our guess is that they will top Serie A but be eliminated from Champions League before March 2016 is over.

Napoli 44p
Juventus 42p
Inter 40p

Ligue 1

Ligue 1 is pretty much decided. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paris SG is dominating at the top with 19 wins and 3 draws. However, this season is not about the national titles for PSG: They are aiming to advance in the Champions League where they are once again put against Chelsea in the play offs.

Paris SG 60p
Nice 36p
Monaco 36p

Bundesliga

Bayern Munich is Germany’s answer to Paris SG. Everyone is expecting them to win the national titles but the fans demand more: They want another Champions League title. Last time they lifted the trophy was in 2013. In Bundesliga, Bayern have 16 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Dortmund is at second place and the team from the capital, Hertha Berlin, is having a good season and can be found at the third place.

Bayern Munich 49p
Dortmund 41p
Hertha Berlin 33p

State of Euro football, December 2015

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English football

As usual, in the beginning of each month we check the status of the biggest football leagues of Europe: German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1, English Premier League and Italian Serie A. Some of you might wonder why we don’t write about the Swedish league (Allsvenskan). The reason for this is that the quality of the league is somewhat low and the best Swedish players are playing in the European Leagues. For example, our superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic is playing in Paris Saint Germain in the French league. Also, the Swedish league is not played at the same time as the other leagues. Allsvenskan ended about a month ago with Norrköping as champions. At Chicken Swedes, we do follow Swedish teams and player in Europe. The last two years we have had the pleasure of reporting from Malmö FF’s matches in Champions League. Anyway, below are reports from the domestic leagues of Europe:

Bundesliga

Nothing new here, really. As in our reports from October and November, Bayern Munich is in a clear lead at 40 points, followed by Dortmund at 32 points. For Bayern, this season is all about Champions League. Together with Barcelona, they are the team that have impressed most on us, especially when they defeated Arsenal 5-1. They will continue to defeat the opposition in Bundesliga and the question is not if, but with how many points they will win the league.

La Liga

Barcelona has the grip of the top position in La Liga after defeating Real Madrid in the first El Clásico of the season. With one match lesser played, they are at a comfortable 3 point lead before Real. Atlético Madrid is chasing one point behind their Madrid rivals.

Ligue 1

The French league is pretty much already decided with Paris SG at the top with a 15 point lead before Angers. As with Bayern Munich, the fans are expecting progress in Champions League this year.

Premier League

Premier League is a more open history this season. Before the season started, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea was favourites but have had a miserable season so far. Instead, Leicester(!) is at the top after 15 rounds of play. However, only 3 points differ between team 1 and 4 (Leicester, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United) and the league is a nail biter so far.

Serie A

Similar to Premier League, 4 points differ between the top four teams: Napoli, Inter, Fiorentina and Roma. Also, Juventus has awakened and is chasing the top four, one point behind.

The next report comes in 2016. Then we have a new year and the teams will have to focus on both the Round of 16 in Champions League as well as winning their weekly matches in the national leagues. A football season is a marathon and the teams that can endure the longest will win. Stay tuned as we continue to report from the best football leagues in the world.

State of Euro football, November 2015

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Fotbolls-EM

It’s been a month since we looked at the standings in the European football leagues. In this post we will look at the top teams of Europe’s biggest football nations: German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1, English Premier League and Italy’s serie A.

Bundesliga

Nothing new here. Bayern Munich are still at the top with 11 victories and 1 draw. Dortmund is 5 points behind. At spot 3 and 4 we find Wolfsburg and Schalke at 21 and 20 points. Unless something totally unexpected happens, Bayern will win the Bundesliga this season as well. However, the fans require that they also advances in the Champions League. They are playing Arsenal on November 3rd.

La Liga

A month ago, both Barcelona and Real Madrid were struggling in the Spanish football league. However, now they are at the top at 24 points each. Maybe it will take an El Clásico to separate the two teams? The next El Clásico is played Saturday, November 21. Celta Vigo is third at 21 points and Atlético Madrid 4th at 20 points.

Ligue 1

Nothing to see here folks. Paris SG is still at the top, as expected. The fans require them to win every title in France, but the question is how they will do in Champions League? They played a goalless tie against Real Madrid last round. Lyon, Angers and St Etienne are all at 22 points, 10 points behind PSG.

Premier League

In Premier League, Chelsea keeps disappointing and the question is not if, but when Jose Mourinho will get fired. In the last match against Liverpool, Chelsea got the early go ahead goal, but in the end of the day they lost by 1-3. At the top of the league we find Manchester City and Arsenal, both at 25 points. Leicester is at third place at 22 points, 1 point before Manchester United. I guess we could some this up so far by stating that Chelsea and Leicester is the biggest surprises so far.

Serie A

This is perhaps the most even league among the big five. Fiorentina and Inter are at the top with 24 points each. Roma is chasing behind at 23 points and Napoli at 22 points. Last season’s champions Juventus are struggling at 10th place.

We will be back in December with another report from the best football leagues of Europe. However, before then we will focus on Champions League and the Euro 2016 play off qualifiers.

State of Euro football, October 2015

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Most of Europe’s football leagues have been going for about a month now. In this post we will take a look at the top of the leagues versus the pre-season predictions. We will cover French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A, English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga. Let’s take a look at the top four.

La Liga

Last year’s champions Barcelona is struggling in the Spanish league. They lost their last match away against Sevilla. Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta injured. After 6-7 matches we find Villareal at the top of La Liga at 17 points. In second place Celta Vigo (with Swedish striker John Guidetti) is chasing at 15 points. Barcelona is third, also at 15 points. Real Madrid is at fourth place, with one match lesser played. While the top four teams have a couple of draw results each, Barcelona is the only among the four that have two losses. We will see if the Catalonians can turn the tide. There is also a political struggle in Spain which can result in Barcelona being excluded from La Liga: If Catalonia is declaring its independence from Spain, they won’t be a part of a) Spain b) The European Union or (perhaps worse) c) La Liga.

Premier League

The big pre-season favourite in Premier League was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. However, they have had a rough start of the season and are not a part of the top four. Instead, Manchester City is in the lead. They have got 18 points after 8 played matches. Arsenal and Manchester United is second and third at 16 points and Crystal Palace at fourth place with 15 points. The top three teams have 2 losses each. The rest of the Premier League might be hard to predict this year. Beforehand, we advised to consider placing a bet on Arsenal so we will stick with that.

Ligue 1

Many Swedes follows Paris Saint Germain in the French Ligue 1 because of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. PSG is in a clear lead to this date, 20 points, 2 points before second placed Angers, with one less match played. Caen and Rennes is at third and fourth place. Paris has got a good start of both Ligue 1 and Champions League. They will win many titles in French this year, but will they be at the top of the Champions League? Time will tell. The match against Spanish Real Madrid will be a good indicator of exactly how good PSG 2015-16 is.

Serie A

Juventus won serie A 2014-15. This year they lost a number of key players, Andrea Pirlo for example. They have had a rough start with only one win in seven tries so far. At the top we find Inter at 16 points, followed by Fiorentina at 15 points. Both teams have 5 wins in 7 respective 6 matches. Roma and Torino is third and fourth with four wins each. Although to early for any predictions, Juventus might keep struggling this season, having lost the team’s core.

Bundesliga

Bayern Munich was the big pre-season favourite and they are looking to deliver on that prediction. They are at the top of Bundesliga, 8 straight wins, 7 points before second placed Dortmund. Schalke and Hertha Berlin is at third and fourth spot. None of these teams can challenge Bayern for the domestic titles, however the fans are demanding more from Pep Guardiola’s men: They want the champions league where Bayern is currently two for two.

We will be back with another report from Europe’s soccer leagues in a month.

Source: Guardian.

Which team will win La Liga 2014/2015?

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El Clasico

Last year, Atlético Madrid won the Spanish La Liga somewhat unexpected. Thus they broke the dominance of the giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona’s. Atlético were even close to winning the Champions League against Real Madrid but big brother just managed to score the equalizer in stoppage time and win the final game in overtime.

Here we examine the three top candidates for the league title a little bit closer:

Atlético Madrid

Last year’s league-winner has lost some men. Trustworthy goalscorer Diego Costa will be missing and so will the steady goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois be. Atlético has reinforced the team with a couple of offensive players: Mario Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann.

In the 2013/2014 season it was not thanks to a team full of superstars they won La Liga. It was thanks to hard work and an unmatched work ethic. Coach Diego Simeone is this team’s key figure. If he can squeeze out of the same effect from this year’s team as last year, then Atlético Madrid will be a team to be reckoned with in both the Spanish league and the Champions League this year.

However, it will be much tougher season 2014/2015. No one will underestimate the team anymore. The fact that they won the league last year, they will be chased, it will be a scalp to beat Atlético Madrid for all the teams.

FC Barcelona

Barcelona has, as usual, an interesting team when you look at their lineup. Or how about striker Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez? We choose, however, to put a question mark on the team’s midfield. In this summer’s World Cup the Spanish game was brutally run over and by the German style of play. Will Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez deliver? The question is whether FC Barcelona need to re-think their strategies to keep up with the top European football in 2014?

Real Madrid

Just like Barcelona, Real Madrid has a team filled with superstars this year, just like we are accustomed to. In their midfield we find two exciting new acquisitions who both did an excellent football World Cup in Brazil: The German world champion Toni Kroos and Colombian top-goalscorer James Rodriguez. Among the team’s attackers, it is hard not to highlight the superstar Ronaldo. However, if you look at how the teams other players performed in the World Cup it’s a wounded team, especially if you look at the defencemen. Can Sergei Ramos, Pepe and Marcelo recover from their fiascos in Brazil 2014 and reload for a fine season in their club team?

This year’s edition of Real Madrid feels like all or nothing: If you get together a hungry team of superstars will they be lethal. If not, they will at most end up third place in the spanish league and get a travelpass home from the quarterfinals of the Champions League.