Newcastle Meet Liverpool in the League Cup Final

Laurence McKenna joins the show ahead of a trip to Wembley Stadium.

There’s a Super Sunday on the horizon, with tasty matches back-to-back all day long. Arsenal-Chelsea, title clashes in Italy and Spain, and then there’s a trophy up for grabs: LIVERPOOL vs NEWCASTLE at Wembley Stadium, vying for the League Cup.

It could be a nice tonic for the Reds after their untimely exit from the Champions League in midweek, while a trophy — any trophy — would be extremely timely for the Magpies. Newcastle United have not won a piece of major silverware since 1969, and that victory in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup came a month before the moon landing.

Here to preview this one is Laurence McKenna, Liverpool fan and sharp football observer across all kinds of platforms, not least his channel on YouTube. You can find him on the socials @Lozcast.

Get yourself ready ahead of kickoff at 12:30pm ET/4:30pm UK on Sunday:

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Or check it out on APPLE PODCASTS🍎

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LONG READS

⚽︎ Laia Cervelló Herrero explores “the 25-foot screen powering Hansi Flick’s Barcelona revolution” in The Athletic. Does TFW need a bigger TV?

⚽︎ In the Guardian, Sid Lowe takes us through Atlético Madrid’s “nightmare they can’t wake up from” — which is, of course, Real Madrid in the Champions League.

⚽︎ On Substack, Clive Tyldesley tempts fate with a declaration that “Anfield is not the same anymore.”

⚽︎ Jonathan Wilson is on the same platform exploring how “football’s just a branch of culture,” with a particular emphasis on the parallels with architectural design.

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MORE MATCHES

MAN CITY vs BRIGHTON

Sat @ 11am ET, 3pm UK

Here’s a proper Top Five scrap, with both of these clubs in the mix for Champions League football next season. City’s fixture list over the final 10 league games is relatively kind, but Fabian Hürzeler’s team will be a significant hurdle and the Etihad is no longer the fortress of old. Brighton have rattled off four wins in a row to sneak up to just a point behind the Citizens, and they might back themselves to strike yet another hammer blow against Pep Guardiola that could leave the Catalan clutching at his own head in a now familiar self-embrace.

BOURNEMOUTH vs BRENTFORD

Sat @ 1:30pm ET, 5:30pm UK

Here’s another one with Top Five implications. Andoni Iraola has Bournemouth in a good position, even if they’ve taken just four points from the last 15 available. They’ve put together a better defensive record than anybody outside Arsenal, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, and (yes) Crystal Palace, and they’re scoring goals, too. They’re ninth, but they’re also three points off Manchester City and the UCL ticket the Sky Blues currently hold. The South Coast side are in the mix, in other words, but Thomas Frank’s Brentford are the kind of side to come to town and unravel the grandest ambitions.

ARSENAL vs CHELSEA

Sun @ 9:30am ET, 1:30pm UK

Here’s a London derby that nearly always combines technical quality and genuine spite. As an Arsenal fan of a certain age, it’s pretty much my top priority to beat Chelsea twice a season, and in this case it holds the dual appeal of shoring up second place for the Gunners and sending Chelsea spinning out of the Champions League places.

Mikel Arteta will likely have to settle for something less than the 5-0 destruction of the Blues he oversaw at the Emirates last season — in fact, in the current strikerless conditions, a 1-0 might do just fine. Enzo Maresca, meanwhile, will be scheming his head off to engineer a win of his own to keep pace with the many horses in the Champions League stakes.

ATALANTA vs INTER

Sun @ 3:45pm ET, 7:45pm UK

Serie A has been serving up a steady diet of tasty matches thanks to the healthy parity at the top of the division, and this one should be no exception. Atalanta are three points behind the league-leading visitors coming into this one with Napoli perched between them. This title tilt could truly go any which way, not least because they’re both dropping points at the moment.

Atalanta haven’t lost in seven matches, and they dismantled Juventus 4-0 in Turin last weekend, but somehow they haven’t won at home in the league since December. Inter have won only three of their last seven in Serie A as their crowded fixture list takes its toll, and they’ve also lost some big matches, including a 1-0 away at Juventus last month.

Pull up a chair — Italy is putting on a show.

ATLÉTICO MADRID vs BARCELONA

Sun @ 4pm ET, 8pm UK

Diego Simeone was apoplectic at the VAR decision that sent Atlético Madrid spiraling to penalty shootout defeat this week against the old enemy, Real Madrid. It looked to me like Julián Alvarez touched the ball twice on his spot kick, which is technically illegal, though it does feel harsh that it’s simply ruled a miss rather than a re-take. You’ve got to think Simeone’s reaction has roots in all the past Champions League disasters at Carlo Ancelotti’s hands, but he’s got little time to sulk.

There’s a title clash in La Liga on deck, with Barcelona en route to take Real Madrid’s place in the away dressing room at the Metropolitano. If Simeone’s in search of a silver lining, unlike the other two in Spain’s title race, Atléti can now be solely focused on the league. Well, they’ve also got the Copa del Rey, and a semifinal second leg against Barcelona (again) next month in a tie that’s beautifully poised at 4-4. Forget Italy — maybe Spain’s is the most interesting game around.

These three at the top seem to play each other every couple of weeks now, duking it out for major honors each and every time. They’re back at it again here, and Simeone will hope to pull off another masterclass like he did in the first league meeting with the Catalans this season, when Atléti smash-and-grabbed all three points away from home in the 96th minute.

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GEAR

👕 However you might feel about the geopolitics, this is a frankly glorious early ‘90s Northern Ireland kit over at Classic Football Shirts. It seems to embody the transition from the 1980s to the new decade — and for $222, it better!

👕 FSV Mainz are out with a 120th anniversary kit that’s beautifully simple with a River Plate-style sash and a logo throwing it back to the Wheel of Mainz, a symbol of the city that by one theory goes back to a local archbishop in 975.⚽︎