The WhoScored Tipster is back for another weekend of European action, and with another instalment of El Clasico on Saturday, the focus of Sunday's games will generally be on a key North London derby in the race for Champions League football, while Atletico look to consolidate their hold on second place in La Liga and Bayern Munich continue their march towards the Bundesliga title. With WhoScored.com also covering the crucial 3rd vs 2nd clash between Besiktas and Fenerbahce on Sunday with live, detailed statistics, we also focus our attentions on Istanbul.
Bitter rivals Spurs and Arsenal meet at White Hart Lane with 4 points separating the sides in the table and the 3 points available here more important than ever. Spurs will be keen to exact revenge for the consecutive 5-2 defeats they have suffered at Arsenal, and tensions will be extremely high come Sunday afternoon.
There has been a huge deal of talk this week about just how good Gareth Bale is and how reliant Spurs are on their star man. Arsene Wenger has also stated that he will not make special plans to deal with the Welshman, instead concentrating on his side's strengths. It is impossible to bet against Bale at the moment, though at evens to score anytime he does not represent great value. Instead, at 3.50 to be Spurs' last goalscorer - as he has been in each of their last 4 Premier League games as well as the Europa League win at home to Lyon - Bale is a rather tempting punt.
While the outcome of these games is rather unpredictable, what you can usually rely on is plenty of goals. To be precise, there have been 28 goals in the last 5 North London derbies - that's an average of 5.6 goals per game. While there is unlikely to be quite so many this time around, over 2.5 is tempting at 1.66, but arguably more worth it is over 3.5 goals at odds of 2.62. Another decent shout is for the second half to have more goals than the first at 1.95, with Spurs the top scoring team in the second half of Premier League games this season, and Arsenal not far behind with 30.
17 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, the title is all but sealed for Bayern even though they still have 11 games to play. They travel to 2nd bottom Hoffenheim this weekend, still boasting an incredible away record, having scored 27 and conceded just once in 11 league games on their travels this season. They have won 10 of those matches 'to nil', and with Hoffenheim boasting the worst defensive record in the league, shipping 48 goals in 23 games so far, there is good reason to bet on Bayern to win without conceding yet again, at decent odds of 1.83.
Jupp Heynckes' will be even more confident following recent wins over Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund as well, and won't really have to worry about the second leg against the Gunners this week as they already have a near unassailable 3-1 lead. Their relaxed mood could lead to another rout - only last March they beat Hoffenheim 7-1 - and they are fantastic value at 2.87 to win with a handicap of -2.
Although Malaga cannot qualify for European competition next season due to financial reasons, they will still be keen to finish as high up the table as possible, and face a tough tie against Atletico Madrid this coming Sunday. As Atleti look to hold off the challenge of Real Madrid in the race for 2nd place, they will hope that their recent 3-0 win at Valladolid will start a run of good results on the road 5 games without a win on the road. They have also kept a clean sheet in their last 2 games at La Rosaleda and stand an outside chance of becoming the first team this season to shut Malaga out at their home ground.
However, if Atletico continue their poor run on the road, Malaga may well manage a second consecutive clean sheet. Both teams have scored in only 1 of their last 6 meetings and we could well see another shut-out this time around, with decent odds of 1.83 on at least one to fail to score (NO on both teams to score).
Galatasaray are starting to pull away at the top of the Super Lig, and with the leaders having reinforced heavily in January this Istanbul derby might just be important in the race for second. Nonethless, that fact will not dampen tensions in this clash, which is traditionally one of the most feisty games in Turkish football.
Fenerbahce have hit form, winning 4 of their last 5 game, including each of their last 3 overall and their last 3 on the road. Besiktas, meanwhile, have won only 3 of their last 9 matches and only 1 of their last 5 on home soil. It might therefore come as something of a surprise that the home side are the bookies' favourites to win. Going against the odds, you can place a wager on Fenerbahce to win at 2.80, which is fantastic value for a team that are 2nd in the table and on a good run of form.
