As we enter into the final throes of the 2022-23 European football season, it’s crunch time across Europe’s top leagues. The battles for domestic titles, European qualification and mere survival are attracting plenty of interest in the best football tips for today, and it will be interesting to see how things pan out between now and the end of the campaign.
Leaving the Premier League aside for now, let’s take a look at four of the biggest European leagues and dissect the goings-on at the top and bottom of their respective tables.
La Liga
A seismic edition of ‘El Clasico’ saw Barcelona claim a last-gasp victory over Real Madrid, meaning the Catalans have one hand on the La Liga title. Franck Kessie’s late winner set the Camp Nou into raptures, and Barcelona’s 12-point lead at the top of the table, still only conceding nine goals, looks unassailable.
At the other end, Valencia’s top-flight status is looking precarious, hovering in 18th place ahead of Almeria and Elche. It’s tight at the bottom though, with a whole raft of teams in danger of being sucked into the relegation dogfight, including Sevilla, who are having a torrid campaign.
Serie A
In the last few seasons, Serie A has risen to become one of Europe’s most exciting and competitive leagues. Although Napoli are running away with the title this season, holding a mammoth 19-point lead over second-place Lazio at the time of writing, the Neapolitans winning Serie A will mean the Italian top flight has seen four different winners in the last four seasons.
The battle for top four is interesting too, with Roma, Atalanta and Juventus still hoping to usurp one or all of Lazio, Inter and AC Milan.
At the bottom end of the table, Verona, Sampdoria and Cremonese are somewhat adrift, and it will take some markedly improved performances if they are to escape the clutches of relegation.
Bundesliga
Normally at this stage of the campaign, you’d expect to see Bayern Munich cantering away with the Bundesliga title, but they aren’t exactly having things their own way this season. At the time of writing, Borussia Dortmund are a point ahead of Bayern at the summit of the Bundesliga, with a thrilling title race in store. Union Berlin and Freiburg aren’t too far behind either.
Down at the bottom, Stuttgart are propping up the rest of the division, while Schalke are in danger of another relegation to the second tier. Hertha Berlin occupy the play-off spot at the time of writing, with a few more teams in danger of being sucked in to the relegation playoff match that makes Germany’s top tier so unique.
Ligue 1
Unsurprisingly, Paris Saint-Germain have a comfortable seven-point lead at the top of Ligue 1, but it’s fair to say that the Parisians haven’t exactly been flying this season under Christophe Galtier. Marseille are in second and will still have hopes of raining on PSG’s parade.
At the time of writing, Auxerre, Troyes, Ajaccio and Angers make up the bottom four, with Strasbourg and Brest still in danger of getting dragged into the muddy waters of relegation too.
