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Jurgen Klopp assures Liverpool fans that there will be no exodus of players when he leaves the club at the end of the season. (0:54)
This is where the rubber meets the road. After a January full of (often delicious) cup matches, endless rumours of moves (most of which went nowhere) and plenty of cold rain, February raises the stakes, especially in Europe.
The UEFA competitions return — the respective first legs of the Champions League round of 16 come in the middle of the month — and from England (first-place Liverpool at third-place Arsenal) to Germany (second-place Bayern Munich at first-place Bayer Leverkusen) to Spain (first-place Girona at second-place Real Madrid) to Italy (second-place Juventus at first-place Inter), we’ve got a lot of enormous league matches popping up in a short amount of time. And if that’s not enough, the chaotic-as-ever Africa Cup of Nations is reaching the final rounds as well.
– ESPN Stream: LaLiga, Bundesliga and (USA)
That’s a lot, so let’s skip five (more or less) matches to watch in the main country/competition.
February 13: Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig (Champions League)
Feb. 14: Bayern Munich at Lazio (Champions League)
February 20: Atletico Madrid vs Inter (Champions League)
21 February: Arsenal at Porto (Champions League)
February 21: Barcelona visits Napoli (Champions League)
In fact, the Champions League is back, and the round of 16 of the Europa League and Europa Conference League will also begin on February 15. Obviously, you pay attention to the 8 UCL round of 16 matches, but some may be more appealing than others. .
Manchester City is the overall tournament favorite and should handle Copenhagen with relative ease, but two secondary favorites — Real Madrid and Bayern — could find things awkward with road tests. RB Leipzig has been all over the map in 2023-24 and needs to recover from some dismal recent form but boasts plenty of upside; Lazio, meanwhile, has taken 13 points from its last five league matches to rise to within two points of a top-four spot. Bayern hasn’t really seen fifth gear in a while either.
The second series of Champions League matches, on February 20 and 21, will include the most desirable R16 fixtures (Atletico-Inter and Barça-Napoli) plus, in Porto, some other possibility for a loser to make a first statement at home. There’s a lot to follow here, but you probably didn’t want me to tell you.
February 4: Liverpool vs Arsenal
Feb. 11: Manchester United visit Aston Villa
February 24: Newcastle United visit Arsenal
February 25: Liverpool vs Chelsea (EFL Cup final, on ESPN)
Feb. 28: Maidstone United at Sheffield Wednesday/Coventry City (FA Cup)
This coming Sunday comes one of the biggest remaining matches of the Premier League campaign. The computers and oddsmakers consider the EPL title race a two-teamer between Manchester City and Liverpool — Opta’s power ratings give the former a 59% chance at the title, the latter a 37% chance, and the other 18 teams in the league a combined 5% chance. Arsenal’s odds took a major nosedive with the Gunners’ back-to-back December losses to West Ham and Fulham, but they still only trail Liverpool by five points and have time to either insert themselves back into the race or, with matches against Liverpool and City (Mar. 30) remaining, decide who gets to win.
Liverpool enters February with a shot at lifting four trophies in Jurgen Klopp’s final four months as manager, but the picture could change significantly by March. The Feb. 4 trip to the Emirates Stadium will have a huge impact on the Reds’ EPL title odds, and in four days late in the month they’ll play in both the EFL Cup final against Chelsea and the FA Cup fifth round against either Watford or Southampton. They’ll be favored in both matches, but this will be a pretty defining month in the final chapter of the Klopp-Liverpool story.
– O’Hanlon: Here’s who Liverpool sign after Klopp (E)
And of course, let’s not forget everyone’s new favorite club, Maidstone United. The Stones took down second-division Ipswich Town last weekend to become the first sixth-division club to reach the fifth round since the 1970s, and they’ll face another second-division side, either Wednesday or Coventry, at the end of the month.
February 6: VfB Stuttgart vs Bayer Leverkusen (DFB Pokal, on ESPN)
Feb. 7: Borussia Mönchengladbach in Saarbrücken (DFB Pokal, on ESPN)
February 9: Freiburg vs Borussia Dortmund (live on ESPN)
February 10: Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen (live on ESPN)
February 24: RB Leipzig vs. Bayern Munich (live on ESPN)
The first 10 days of the month are enormous in Deutschland. First, we’ve got the last two quarterfinals of what has been a truly chaotic DFB-Pokal. Two second-division teams – Fortuna Dusseldorf (which defeated St. Pauli via penalties on Tuesday) and either Kaiserslautern or Hertha Berlin (they play Wednesday, live on ESPN+) — are already guaranteed semifinal bids, and the only two top-of-the-first-division teams left in the field, first-place Leverkusen and third-place Stuttgart, play each other next week.
Meanwhile, third-division Saarbrucken, which has already taken down both Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt, tries to keep its miraculous run going against a Gladbach team that is worse than both Bayern and Eintracht. Major “magic of the cup” vibes in Germany.
Just 4 days after hosting Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen will play an even more important game and, honestly, it may be the most important game left of the Bundesliga campaign. Bayern arrive in town with just two previews from the Werkself, and while the German giants will have to face the dreadful Gladbach side next weekend, it’s fair to say that if Leverkusen wants to stay at the top of the title race, they want a pretty bad result.
– Stream the Bundesliga on ESPN throughout the season
That means they’ll have to play more than they have since the league resumed: they needed some overdue magic to close out wins over Augsburg and RB Leipzig, and they came up empty in the magic branch in a 0-0 draw with Gladbach last weekend. They have just come off several key pieces of the Africa Cup of Nations and, as it ends, star striker Victor Boniface will be out for a few more weeks due to injury. They missed him dearly last weekend.
February 4: Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid (live on ESPN)
Feb. 6 and 27: Mallorca vs. Real Sociedad (Copa del Rey) (Live on ESPN+)
February 7 & 29: Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid Athletic Club (Copa del Rey) (live on ESPN)
February 10: Girona vs Real Madrid (live on ESPN)
February 19: Girona at Athletic Club (live on ESPN)
Of course, Barcelona and Real Madrid are still the big names in Spain, but February belongs to Girona and Atletico Madrid. Including a Feb. 3 match against Real Sociedad, Girona will face three of the top six teams in the La Liga table this month. Lately they are in first place, one point ahead of Real Madrid (who have a game in hand), but the strength of Opta has not yet bought what the Gironistas are selling. They give Real Madrid a 93% chance of winning the title. But if Girona come out on top this month, the odds will still have no selection to move a decent sum to the underdogs.
– Stream LaLiga all season on ESPN
Atleti, for its part, is in an attractive position. They have lost to Barcelona, Athletic Club and Girona in recent months, which has left them in a precarious situation, clinging to the top four on just two issues. transparent about Athletic (and points out the problems with a Barça that suffers). But a Copa del Rey victory over Real Madrid has placed them as favorites in this festival: they have only won the trophy once since 1996, beating Real Madrid in extra time in the final. End of 2013, and despite being the loser in the round of 16 of the Champions League against Inter, it is not the least manageable draw imaginable.
Between now and the end of February, this season may differ from a precarious or triumphant environment.
4 February: Juventus visit Inter
4 February: Lazio at Atalanta
10 February: Inter visit Roma
February 11: Napoli vs AC Milan
Feb. 28: Atalanta at Inter
Liverpool-Arsenal is a huge game, but it may not even be the most important game next Sunday. Juventus, unbeaten since September and relieved of the European match, are one point behind Inter in the Serie A race, but Inter have failed to do so either. They have lost in the league since September. The Nerazzurri have a game in hand, but a defeat on Sunday could also change the calculus considerably.
Meanwhile, the race for fourth place is almost as exciting. Certainly, Italy has a forged chance of winning a fifth Champions League next year, but there are still only four at the moment, and the gap between fourth-placed Atalanta and tenth-placed Turin is positioned at just five points. Lazio and Roma are reeling from poor starts, Fiorentina and Bologna still have time to recover from a lackluster January for either of them, and Napoli, stuck in hangover mode for months, remains just five points off most. Sensible 4.
Look at it this way: Serie A has more comings and goings than any other primary European league.
February 3: PSV Eindhoven vs Ajax (Eredivisie) (live on ESPN)
February 4: Marseille visit Lyon (Ligue 1)
4 February: Gent visits Anderlecht (Belgian Pro League)
9 February: Sturm Graz visit RB Salzburg (Austrian Bundesliga)
February 11: Lille vs PSG (Ligue 1)
We’re lacking for gripping title races outside of Europe’s four biggest leagues. PSG leads Nice by six points in France, PSV leads Feyenoord by 12 in the Netherlands and while they’ve failed to seal the deal before, Union Saint-Gilloise currently boasts an eight-point lead over Anderlecht in Belgium.
Granted, PSG’s form remains an interesting topic because of how it might translate to Champions League play — a test against fifth-place Lille could be telling ahead of the round of 16 — but the most interesting February match in France might be between seventh-place Marseille and 16th-place Lyon. It’s one of the most heated derbies in Europe (too heated, actually), and it means even more than usual for both teams. Lyon is still struggling to get its head above water in its relegation scrap; after winning three straight in league play, they allowed three goals in losses to both Le Havre and Rennes. Marseille, meanwhile, sits five points outside of the top four after three consecutive league draws.
PSV play their own fierce rivalry this Saturday, travelling to the Johan Cruyff Arena to face an Ajax side that, despite everything, has managed to bounce back. After a dismal start, they have needed 29 problems in their last 11 league games to go through. to fifth place in the Eredivisie, just 4 points behind third-placed Twente. PSV’s lead in the league is certain, but they could inflict a major setback on Ajax on Saturday.
We have some attractive championship races to follow. Sporting CP leads Benfica by a single point in Portugal (and Porto by four), none of the top three will meet in February. And in Austria, three-time reigning champions RB Salzburg are just two points ahead of Sturm Graz. A defeat on February 9 would make things extraordinarily attractive.
10 February: PSG at Lyon
11 February: Eintracht Frankfurt at Wolfsburg
February 16: Manchester City vs Chelsea
February 17: Manchester United vs Arsenal
Feb. 18: Levante at Madrid CFF
February doesn’t offer the same stakes in the Champions League on the women’s side: the organisational level ends this week, while the quarter-finals don’t start until mid-March, but that’s okay. There are a lot of things to follow in national races.
PSG desperately want a win in Lyon to have any hope of competing for a name in France, as Lyon have won all thirteen of their league games on aggregate at 51-6 to hold on to what appears to be a bountiful lead (even if PSG have dropped five points). In Germany, Wolfsburg lead Bayern by one point and Eintracht Frankfurt by five at the halfway point, while in England, one game after the halfway point, Chelsea have a three-point merit over Manchester City and Arsenal.
In Spain, there is never a real name race (Barcelona have won all 14 of their league games 65-3 overall), but Real Madrid (33 points), Madrid CFF (31), Levante (31) and Atletico Madrid (30) are in a fierce war for at least second place. This makes Levante vs. Madrid is important.
2-3 February: AFCON and Asian Cup quarter-finals
6 February: Asian Cup semi-finals
7 February: AFCON semi-finals
10 February: Asian Cup Final
Feb. 11: AFCON final
January’s two out-of-window tournaments are coming to an end and they’ve been a lot of fun if you’re into clutter.
In the run-up to the Africa Cup of Nations, the favourites were Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. Of those six, only Morocco and Senegal won their respective organizations, Algeria finished last and failed to qualify, and tournament hosts Côte d’Ivoire finished third in their organization after a horrific 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea. They then sacked their coach and only qualified for the round of 16 when Ghana squandered a two-goal lead against Mozambique in stoppage time in their match. Definitive match at the organizational level. Of course, they beat defending champions Senegal on penalties, becoming the seventh AFCON in a row where the defending champions failed to even triumph in the quarterfinals.
As Egypt lose to the Democratic Republic of Congo on penalties, we take a look at those quarter-final pairings and, incredibly, none of them reached the quarter-finals at the last AFCON in 2021:
February 2: Nigeria-Angola
Feb. 2: Guinea vs. DR Congo
February 3: Cape Verde vs South Africa
February 3: Mali vs Ivory Coast
What happens next is anyone’s guess.
Things were a little more orderly in Qatar, where all the favorites qualified for the round of 16 of the Asian Cup. However, a second place finish in their organization meant that South Korea had to face Saudi Arabia in the round of 16; Although they won on penalties, it opened the door to some attractive matchups in the quarterfinals. They will face another relative favorite, Australia, in one quarter-final, while underdogs Jordan and Tajikistan will meet in another.
Feb. 2: Jordan vs. Tajikistan
Feb. 2: Australia vs. Australia South Korea
February 3: Iran/Syria vs. Japan/Bahrain
Feb. 3: Uzbekistan at Qatar
Could a quarter-final draw make Qatar favourites at this stage?
Out of pure curiosity, I wanted to lay out the matches above in chronological order, just to get a feel for the month ahead. Twenty of February’s 29 days are accounted for with at least one match, and that doesn’t even include the two Thursdays with Europa and Conference League action. Buckle up.
February 2: Asian Cup and AFCON quarterfinals
February 3: PSV Eindhoven in Ajax, Asian Cup and AFCON quarterfinals
Feb. 4: Liverpool at Arsenal, Atletico Madrid at Real Madrid, Juventus at Inter Milan, Lazio at Atalanta, Marseille at Lyon, Gent at Anderlecht
6 February: VfB Stuttgart vs Bayer Leverkusen (DFB Pokal), Real Sociedad vs Mallorca (Copa del Rey), Asian Cup semi-finals
7 February: Borussia Mönchengladbach in Saarbrücken (DFB Pokal), Athletic Club against Atlético de Madrid (Copa del Rey), CAN semi-final
9 February: Freiburg vs Borussia Dortmund, Sturm Graz vs Salzburg
February 10: Bayern Munich vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Girona vs. Real Madrid, Inter Milan vs. Roma, PSG (W) vs. Lyon (W), Asian Cup final
Feb. 11: Manchester United at Aston Villa, Napoli at AC Milan, Lille at PSG, Eintracht Frankfurt (W) at Wolfsburg (W), AFCON finals
February 13: Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig (Champions League)
Feb. 14: Bayern Munich at Lazio (Champions League)
16 February: Manchester City (W) vs Chelsea (W)
17 February: Manchester United (W) vs Arsenal (W)
February 18: Girona against Athletic Club, Levante (F) against Madrid CFF (F)
February 20: Atletico Madrid vs Inter Milan (Champions League)
February 21: Arsenal at Porto (Champions League), Barcelona at Napoli (Champions League)
February 24: Newcastle United vs. Arsenal, RB Leipzig vs. Bayern Munich
25 February: Liverpool-Chelsea (EFL Cup final)
27 February: Mallorca vs Real Sociedad (Copa del Rey)
28 February: Atalanta vs Inter Milan, Maidstone United vs Sheffield Wednesday/Coventry City (FA Cup)
Feb. 29: Atletico Madrid at Athletic Club (Copa del Rey)