Looking forward to the weekend!

Well, first of all I hope the New Year is treating everyone nicely! We have quite a few games to look forward to with action in Portugal catching the eye on Saturday: there, Sporting Lisbon play host to table leaders Porto. While Sporting are in 3rd, the home field advantage and the hope of at least cutting the lead between the top 2 and themselves to 3 points makes this a must-see! Benfica, who are in 2nd, are tied on points with Porto and may actually be cheering their city rivals on! Meanwhile in Italy on Saturday Inter Milan who are currently in 5th will welcome 13th placed Parma to Milan for a match that many only see going one way: an Inter victory. The other Italian match will take place between Siena and Lazio with the hosts probably hoping for a draw as they are in 17th place compared to Lazio's 4th position. Nevertheless, every now and then a David does defeat Goliath so we'll have to see how this one ends up. In the last of the major leagues, Spanish top dogs Real Madrid will welcome mid-table Granada into a death-trap of a match before Malaga and Atletico Madrid play. Before these two games however, Real Sociedad and Osasuna will also be facing off at the same time as Racing and Zaragoza play. Levante v.s. Mallorca round out the day in Spain. There is also action in Greece, Turkey, and Israel so make sure you check those games out! Last but not least, the Sunday games! This time I would like to start in Spain where 2nd place Barcelona are guests at 8th position Espanyol. While Barca will be favored, nothing can really be taken for granted and the Catalan side are operating under a lot of pressure! Meanwhile, 17th place Villarreal must face 3rd place Valencia as the team above them, Rayo, face 6th position Sevilla. Getafe and Athletic also play Sunday with the likes of Betis and Sporting Gijon rounding out the list of ties. On to Portugal now where Sunday has a host of games - though the largest is sure to be Benfica's away game to 13th place Leiria. As long as the Lisbon side can take the 3 points, they will be ready no matter the result in the Sporting v.s. Porto game the day before. Gil Vicente and Nacional play before them as do Maritimo v.s. Olhanense and Rio Ave v.s. Pacos de Ferreira. Vitoria SC and Feirense is the last match-up of the day! Finally, In the Italian Serie A Atalanta and Milan play with the mid-table side looking for at best a draw against the joint-league-leaders AC Milan. Bologna and Catania play at the same time with the visitors marginal favorites to win despite their visitor status. Cagliari and Genoa are another match-up for Sunday with the visitors once more slightly favored. Lecce v.s. Juventus is another game that continues along this "visitors are favored" guideline with the chance to go outright to the top of the table so very close. Novara and Fiorentina play at the same time as the previously mentioned clashes while Palermo v.s. Napoli battle later in the day. Many see Napoli as the ones to claim the 3 points but you can never rule Palermo out at home. Udinese v.s. Cesena is another late game with the home side looking large favorites after such a great start to the season. Last but certainly not least is Roma's game against Chievo which is one of the earlier games. The Roman side will be favored to win this bout. Enjoy the weekend!