What to watch in international soccer this weekend
The German Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1 are still on winter break but there will be some big games played in the rest of Europe this weekend, with the race for the Serie A title heating up in Italy and two of England’s longest-running rivals meeting in an FA Cup match.
Serie A: The top four teams in Italy’s tightly-bunched Serie A standings will all play on TV this weekend. Third-place Inter Milan, which has had a tough go lately, winning just once since Nov. 26, gets thing started Friday when it travels to Florence to meet mid-table Fiorentina (BeIN Sports, 11:45 a.m. PST). On Saturday, league-leading Napoli, which has lost just once this season, hosts Hellas Verona, which is one spot out of last pace (BeIN Sports, 6 a.m. PST), while Juventus, a point back in second place, visits Cagliari (BeIN Sports, 11:45 a.m. PST). Also Saturday fourth-place Roma, in need of points to close a nine-point gap with Napoli, will host Atalanta (BeIN Sports, 9 a.m. PST)
EPL: The Premier League holiday schedule was a bruising one for both Everton and Liverpool, which each played four times in the last two weeks — albeit with different results since Liverpool was unbeaten and Everton was winless. But while the league is taking the weekend off, these two teams will renew their intercity rivalry, the longest-running top-flight derby in England, in the third round of the FA Cup (Friday, 11:45 a.m. PST, FS1). The FA Cup may not offer the cache and the financial reward of the EPL but, at 146 years, it is the oldest soccer tournament in the world.
