European Football Matchday: City, Liverpool lock horns in potential title-decider; Barcelona eye seventh straight LaLiga win

A look at what’s happening in European football on Sunday: England Manchester City and Liverpool meet in the biggest game in the Premier League this season with the destination of the title perhaps riding on the result. City leads second-place Liverpool by one point with eight games remaining and a win at Etihad Stadium would make the defending champions the big favorites for a sixth title in 11 years. Liverpool can move into a two-point lead with a first victory at City since 2015, markedly improving its improbable ambition of a quadruple of trophies. Liverpool is on a 10-match winning run in the league. Two of the bottom three teams clash when Burnley visits last-place Norwich, while Brentford hosts West Ham and Leicester is at home to Crystal Palace. Spain Barcelona visits Levante seeking a seventh straight win in the LaLiga that it needs to keep alive its very slim hopes of catching runaway leaders Real Madrid. A victory would lift Barcelona back level on points with Sevilla, currently in second place. Barcelona was held 1-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday. Barcelona’s Gerard Pique and Memphis Depay will miss the trip due to injury. Levante is in second-to-last place.

🔐 Locked in for #LevanteBarça pic.twitter.com/JPRQYKuvet

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 9, 2022

Julio Velázquez will make his debut as coach of Alavés when it visits Osasuna. Alavés is in last place with just one win in its last 17 games across all competitions. Real Sociedad is at Elche aiming for three points that will keep it in the running for a Europa League spot and more ambitiously a top-four finish and Champions League berth. Espanyol hosts Celta Vigo in a meeting between midtable teams. Italy Serie A leader AC Milan needs to find its scoring prowess again if it is to end its 11-year wait for the title. Milan visits Torino, days after a 0-0 draw against Bologna where the Rossoneri had 33 shots on goal. Milan has only scored four goals in its last six matches in all competitions, from 103 attempts. Milan is one point ahead of Napoli which hosts Fiorentina earlier in the day. Fiorentina is chasing a European spot as are Atalanta, Lazio and Roma, with just four points separating the four teams. Atalanta visits Sassuolo while Roma and Lazio play sides in the bottom three in Salernitana and Genoa, respectively. Venezia is also in the relegation zone and hosts Udinese. Germany Leipzig and Freiburg resume their tussle for the Bundesliga’s last Champions League spot with games against Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt, respectively. Leipzig is one of the league’s in-form teams since Domenico Tedesco took over from Jesse Marsch as coach in December. Tedesco’s side grabbed a 4-1 win at Borussia Dortmund last weekend and is unbeaten in seven games since its narrow loss at Bayern Munich in February. Visiting Hoffenheim hasn’t won in three games after a four-match winning run. Freiburg dropped three points behind Leipzig after its loss to Bayern last weekend and will hope to get back on track at Frankfurt. Frankfurt has been inconsistent this season and could be distracted by its Europa League quarter-final match against Barcelona. Frankfurt plays the return leg in Camp Nou on Thursday after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. Also Sunday, Gerardo Seoane’s Bayer Leverkusen team will aim to consolidate third place with a win at midtable Bochum. France Marseille looks to move back into second place when it hosts Montpellier in the French league. Jorge Sampaoli’s team will be high on confidence after stretching its winning streak to six games in all competitions by beating PAOK Thessaloniki 2-1 in the Europa Conference League on Thursday. In the race for Europe, fourth-place Strasbourg can extend its unbeaten run in the league to nine games against an inconsistent Lyon side, which drew 1-1 with West Ham in the Europa League on Thursday. Fifth-place Nice needs a win at Lens to revive its hopes of a Champions League spot. Nice’s slide in the standings has coincided with the poor form of Amine Gouiri, who hasn’t scored or made an assist in the last eight league games. Defending champion Lille will be without midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa against Angers. Ben Arfa has been dropped from the squad after a verbal spat with his coach and teammates in the dressing room following a goalless draw with Bordeaux last weekend.