Red Devils buzzing ahead of Manchester derby

1 Heavyweight bouts across the continent
How will moods have changed following those final, dramatic few minutes at the Allianz Stadium as Juventus and Manchester United prepare for huge league games?

Spirits must be soaring at Old Trafford following their late smash-and-grab in Turin which has not only revived United's Champions League campaign but also given them a massive lift going into the Manchester derby.

As for Juve, they’re the team who simply can’t stop winning – or that was the case until United came a-knocking. Now they need to pick themselves up at Milan of all places.

Vying for top billing around Europe this weekend is the heavyweight scrap between Bundesliga pacesetters Borussia Dortmund and perennial champions Bayern Munich, a match which will go a long way to telling us how realistic a Dortmund title charge is.

Bayern, despite all their issues, remain clear favourites at Signal Iduna Park.

2 Arch rivals do battle for Copa supremacy
The Observer newspaper once wrote “Derby day in Buenos Aires makes the Old Firm game look like a primary school kickabout”.

And it’s true, the showdown between eternal rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate is indeed a grudge match like no other.

You might think the stakes when Boca and River collide could never get any higher but they have actually been upped again this weekend when they clash with the Copa Libertadores on the line, the first time these sworn enemies have met in the final of South America’s premier club cup competition.

Their previous meeting in this tournament was a round-of-16 showdown in 2015. The match at La Bombonera – Boca’s seething pit of a stadium – was abandoned at half-time when River’s players were tear-gassed leaving the tunnel.

Reports have emerged this week of a row between two friends over who will win the first leg on Saturday. The spat ended with one of them burning his pal’s house down.

Away fans have been banned for both legs and the bookmakers reckon it’s a toss-of-a-coin who wins.

3 Seconds out, round one
It's the first round of the FA Cup this weekend and, as ever, it won’t be dull.

Thirty-two non-league teams have survived this far with three of them – Haringey, Hitchin and Metropolitan Police – rising from tier seven of the pyramid. And all three have home ties.

Ten former winners are in action with only two of them, Bury and Barnsley, at home.

The dug-outs at York Road will house two former FA Cup finalists as Alan Devonshire, a winner with West Ham in 1980 and now manager of Maidenhead, prepares to go toe-to-toe with Kenny Jackett, the Portsmouth boss and a runner-up with Watford in 1984.

You can have 8-1 that the Magpies stun the Sky Bet League One leaders, but the big outsiders of the weekend are Dover, 10-1 shots at Bury.

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