Tag Archives: ligue1

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

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.

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.

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.