Three things to look out for this weekend

1 Plenty of passion in the Madrid derby

It’s the second stop on a three-match road trip which is going to define Real Madrid’s season.

Wednesday night saw Santiago Solari’s side emerge from Camp Nou proudly clutching a 1-1 draw from the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final against Barcelona.

On Wednesday they are off to Amsterdam to endeavour to stifle a jaunty Ajax side as Champions League football returns.

And in between there’s the small matter of a trip to the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano for a La Liga scrap against their bitter cross-city rivals Atletico.

Atletico, 7-5 favourites, boast the last unbeaten home record in Spain this season, though it’s telling that the home team haven’t won any of the last seven Madrid derbies.

2 Squeaky-bum time for Fergie

Doncaster versus Peterborough is a big game given where both teams are in the Sky Bet League One table, although the identity of the men in the dugouts has given this fixture even more spice.

For new Posh boss Darren Ferguson, Saturday’s trip to the Keepmoat is the first time he has been back since quitting Rovers in the summer after three successful seasons.

Aiming to ruin his return is the man who succeeded him, Grant McCann, himself a former Peterborough gaffer who was fired by that club just 12 months ago.

Throw in the fact that seventh-placed Donny can leapfrog their sixth-placed visitors to move back into the playoff places with a win and all the ingredients are there for a tasty encounter.

Doncaster have failed to win any of their last eight showdowns with Peterborough, five of which have ended in draws.

3 Pressure is on for goal-shy Inter Milan

Inter are going through some kind of binary meltdown in Serie A which is making Champions League qualification less inevitable than it looked a few weeks back.

It’s three league games without a goal for Luciano Spalletti’s men, who followed up a 0-0 draw with Sassuolo with a pair of 1-0 losses at the hands of Torino and Bologna.

Stats fans will delight in the fact Inter have now chalked up a remarkable ten 1-0 scorelines in their 22 matches, but Inter fans are more concerned that Mauro Icardi and pals have forgotten where the net is and that a team who were 1-12 for a top-four finish just three weeks ago are out to 1-3.

And that’s not the worst of it, either. Apparently they are in talks to bring Jose Mourinho back to the club.

To put that questionable fate on hold they could do with beating a Parma side who last week drew 3-3 at Juventus – Juve hadn’t conceded three goals at home to an Italian team since 2012.

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