What to watch in international soccer this weekend
This weekend’s top televised action from Europe will feature Manchester City trying to rebound from its first league loss Saturday against Everton and Liverpool seeking to remain unbeaten and protect its spot atop the EPL table when it hosts City’s crosstown rival, Manchester United, on Sunday. In Italy, unbeaten Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo travel to Torino, a place where the team has had great success.
EPL: Manchester City’s loss to Chelsea on Saturday not only left Liverpool as the Premier League’s lone unbeaten team, it also vaulted the Reds to the top of the table by a point. The teams could switch places again if City beats Everton at home in Saturday’s early game (NBCSN, Universo, 4:30 a.m. PST) and Liverpool gets anything other than a win at home against Manchester United on Sunday (NBCSN, Telemundo, 8 a.m. PST). Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who had a hat trick in his team’s win over Bournemouth last week, shares the EPL scoring lead with 10 goals in 16 games. The Reds have given up a league-low six goals.
Serie A: Juventus is clearly the class of the Italian league, with only a draw blemishing its record 15 games into the schedule. But that only scratches the surface in explaining the club’s dominance. Juventus hasn’t given up a goal in league play in more than a month and has the top offensive player in Ronaldo, who has 10 goals and five assists in 15 games. That has given the seven-time defending champion an eight-point gap at the top of the table and that doesn’t figure to shrink Saturday when Juventus travels to sixth-place Torino (ESPN+, 11:30 a.m. PST). Torino has lost more league games against Juventus — 69 — than any other team in Serie A.
