10 Players to Watch in World Football This Weekend of May 9-11
We're approaching the end of major domestic seasons in Europe and just cranking into gear in much of the Americas, which makes this coming weekend one to look forward to regardless of your favourite leagues or teams.
Ahead of the fixture-filled days of Saturday and Sunday, we've taken a thorough look at all the biggest and most important games and selected the players we think will bear watching, be it for reasons of form, tactical importance or other factors.
Here are our 10 players to watch this weekend.
Diego Alves, Valencia
1 of 10
We'll start in Spain with a match of huge importance in La Liga: Real Madrid vs. Valencia.
Real are fighting for the title and Los Che are still pushing to seal fourth, so neither can afford to drop points. Real's attack needs no introduction, so it will be down to Diego Alves, comfortably La Liga's best goalkeeper this season, to keep them at bay.
The Brazilian has been immense this term, but he's made a couple of blunders during the past two matches, including one which led directly to a goal against Rayo Vallecano. This time, he can't afford to slip up; against the world's best, he needs to be his best.
Steven Gerrard, Liverpool
2 of 10
Into the Premier League. Chelsea, the new champions, host Liverpool on Sunday.
Everywhere you look at this game, there seems to be references to Steven Gerrard, the Reds' captain. He almost moved to Chelsea a number of seasons ago, and Blues boss Jose Mourinho has been a huge admirer of his for some time. He scored an own goal in a cup final against them and slipped at a vital moment last season to concede a goal that ultimately signaled the end of his own team's title hopes.
Now on the verge of his Liverpool exit, Gerrard faces the team he has struggled against perhaps more than any other down the years in the knowledge he must give them a guard of honour for winning the title he never won. He has looked desperate to make a big impact for his team before leaving, perhaps overly so at times, and this is his last big game.
Which way will it go for him after scoring a late winner—and missing a penalty—in his previous match?
Max Kruse, Borussia Monchengladbach
3 of 10
To the Bundesliga in Germany, where a terrific battle is going on between Wolfsburg, Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen for second, third and fourth place. The higher-placed two will automatically go into the Champions League groups next term, while fourth takes a play-off spot.
At present they are separated by just four points, but Gladbach are at home to Leverkusen on Saturday, so it could all get an awful lot tighter—or B04 could fall off the pace with a defeat.
Max Kruse has been the big man for BMG over the last few games, netting a priceless last-minute winner against Wolfsburg recently and scoring the opener in a 2-1 win at Hertha Berlin last time out. It took him to double figures for the season, but his finding the net again in this game could be worth so much more in financial and sporting terms.
Marco Parolo, Lazio
4 of 10
In Serie A, Lazio hosts Inter Milan in the eye-catching fixture of the weekend. Lazio needs to get back some winning consistency to ensure they finish a tremendous season with Champions League football.
With one win in their last four, they have dropped back into third and Napoli are now just four points behind—and playing bottom club Parma on Sunday—so a victory is an absolute must for the capital club.
Marco Parolo has been key to their success this season, driving forward from his central-midfield role to net plenty of goals and be involved in their build-up play. His ability to get between the lines will be crucial again for Lazio.
Aymen Abdennour, Monaco
5 of 10
In Ligue 1 in France, the big clash sees AS Monaco travel to Olympique de Marseille—third against fourth.
With only the top three getting Champions League places in France, the emphasis is on Marseille, five points behind, to go for the victory, which perfectly suits the styles of both teams. Marcelo Bielsa would go all-out attack anyway, and Leonardo Jardim will want his team to sit deep, defend stoutly and attack on the break.
Monaco will happily soak up any aerial threat with the monstrous Aymen Abdennour ready to repel all danger, and his clash with Andre-Pierre Gignac could be one of epic proportions. Avoid defeat here and, with 19th-placed Metz and 15th-placed Lorient left to play, Monaco would be all but there in sealing third.
Elias, Corinthians
6 of 10
We'll shift outside of Europe now and firstly to Brazil, where the state championships have come to an end and the big clubs are straight back into action with the 2015 season of their Serie A.
The campaign opens with Cruzeiro and Corinthians facing off Sunday, the teams who finished first and fourth, respectively, last year. Corinthians were within minutes of finishing third and sealing an automatic Copa Libertadores spot until two late Internacional goals pushed them down to fourth.
They qualified anyway and central midfielder Elias has been immense for them in that competition so far, scoring four goals in nine and looking like a pivotal part of the team as they seek to improve upon last year.
David Villa, New York City
7 of 10
To MLS now and a first New York derby, as Red Bulls host City on Sunday night.
The two Eastern Conference sides have not been in particularly good form recently, with Red Bulls taking two points from their last three games and only one win from five, while City have lost three in a row and won just once all season so far.
With recent criticism of song sheets being handed out to fans at Yankee Stadium not making a first season for New York City any smoother, they'll be desperate to find some form and need David Villa to make a big impact against their rivals to do so.
Dame N'Doye, Hull City
8 of 10
For our last three players, we're going to look at some crucial relegation battles in three different top flights, starting with the Premier League.
Hull City host Burnley on Saturday, with the home team having taken two wins recently to push them out of the bottom three—but only by a single point. They simply have to keep winning, but the same can be said of bottom club Burnley, who need to take all nine points from their three remaining games.
Draws are no good for Hull, who have more chance of staying up, so goals from Dame N'Doye are simply priceless.
Benjamin Leroy, Evian TG
9 of 10
At the bottom of Ligue 1, Evian Thonon Gaillard are battling Stade de Reims, with one place, one point and the all-important dotted line separating them at present—with Evian the team currently below it.
The stakes couldn't be higher in this one, and it's so close to call. Neither has been tremendously impressive, but looking at the goals conceded column, Evian will hope they have the edge. Reims have the worst defensive record in the league, so all eyes will be on Benjamin Leroy in the Evian goal to keep a rare clean sheet.
If he does and the attack makes the most of Reims' leaky back line, we'll see a vital switch in positions just two games before the end of the season.
Youssef El-Arabi, Granada
10 of 10
In Spain, it's all-or-nothing time for Granada.
They are at home to relegated Cordoba needing to find another victory to pull themselves level on points with Eibar, who are in 17th and safe at present.
Granada have scored just 11 goals at home all season, winning just three times. They really need star forward Youssef El-Arabi, who scored both in a 2-1 win at Getafe last time out, to come up trumps and force the relegation battle to go all the way to the final week.
With a loss against the only team below them in the table, Granada could easily fall four-plus points from safety with only two games left to play.
