Last season Borussia lost the fight to Bayern for the title, finally losing chances after losing in a face-to-face meeting at the end of the season. Lucien Favre’s team started the new season quite solidly. They managed to score 15 points in six matches. Such a reserve allows them to take second place in the table and the Bumblebees are lagging behind the leader of Bayern only due to additional indicators. Borussia have already crossed paths with Bayern this season. The Bumblebees fought in the Super Cup, but ended up losing 2:3 in Munich. As for the Bundesliga, Borussia made a mistake only once, losing to Augsburg 0:2 away and managed to win all the other matches. In the Champions League, Borussia also had one mistake. In the first round there was a 1:3 defeat in Rome against Lazio. However, this did not prevent the Bumblebees from becoming the leaders of the group following the results of three rounds. Thanks to a 3:0 victory over Club Brugge in the last round, they scored six points and are now one point ahead of Lazio.
This season Newcastle confirms its status as a strong middle peasant in the Premier League. The team skillfully takes advantage of the opponents’ weaknesses. In the last round at home, the magpies slammed the bloodied Everton (2:1), moving the butterscotch from the first position in the championship. For Steve Bruce’s charges, the victory in the match against Everton was already the third in seven rounds of the current championship and they lost to rivals only twice. They lost at home to Brighton (0:3) and Manchester United (1:4). But on the road they regularly replenish their spectacled luggage. So, on fields of opponents they managed to achieve success in the match with West Ham (2:0), as well as take points away from Tottenham (1:1) and Wolverhampton (1:1). So far, Bruce’s wards manage to wipe their nose with skeptics, because due to the breakdown of the deal with the Arabian sheikhs on the eve of the start of the season, they were predicted to fight for survival. Now Newcastle has 11 points on its balance sheet and is 11th in the standings. Jonjo Shelvey, Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gale and Martin Dubravka will miss the match due to injuries.