Soccer on TV: Liverpool and Manchester City in EPL showdown
EPL heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester City meet Sunday for the first time this season, Robert Lewandowski hopes to get Bayern Munich back on track in Germany and a crowded field fights for first place in Spain, highlighting the weekend’s televised soccer from Europe.
EPL: Although Leicester City and Chelsea are still in the hunt, there’s little doubt Liverpool and Manchester City will finish 1-2 in the Premier League. Sunday’s match in Liverpool (NBCSN, Telemundo, 8:30 a.m. PST) could go a long way toward determining which team wins the title. Unbeaten Liverpool (10-0-1) is currently on top, six points ahead of City (8-2-1), the two-time defending league champion. A win Sunday would halve that margin and City has lost just one of its last five EPL games with the Reds. City also leads the league with 34 goals and a plus-24 differential.
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich, coming off a 5-1 league drubbing by Eintracht Frankfurt that cost coach Niko Kovac his job, will try to rebound at home Saturday against second-place Borussia Dortmund (FS2, Fox Deportes, 9:30 a.m. PST). Although Bayern (5-2-3) has dropped points in five of its first 10 league matches, the Bundesliga standings are so bunched that a win over Dortmund (5-1-4) would lift the seven-time defending champions into second in the standings. Lewandowski has scored in all 10 league games this season and has 21 goals in 17 games in all competition.
La Liga: The Spanish first division is the tightest of Europe’s five major leagues, with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad tied for the lead with 22 points and four other teams within a win of matching that. Real Sociedad (7-4-1) has a chance to take sole possession of first, if only for a day, when it faces last-place Leganes (1-9-2) in La Liga’s lone Friday game (BeIN Sports, noon PST). Real Madrid (6-1-4) will visit Eibar (4-5-3) on Saturday (BeIN Sports, 9:30 a.m. PST), 2@frac12; hours before Lionel Messi and Barcelona (7-3-1) play host to Celta Vigo (2-7-3) (BeIN Sports, noon PST).
Ajax defender Sergino Dest and Chelsea midfielder Christian Pulisic top a list of nine European-based players called up Thursday for the U.S. national team.
