A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Wednesday:
ENGLAND
With the Premier League’s top two — Arsenal and Manchester City — inactive this week, third-place Tottenham will look to take advantage when the team heads to Manchester United for the standout match of the midweek round. Tottenham would climb above City into second place, a point behind north London rival Arsenal, with a win. Liverpool looks to back up its victory over City on Sunday with another home win against West Ham. West Ham manager David Moyes has called a match under lights at Anfield the hardest test in soccer. Chelsea protects an unbeaten record under recently hired manager Graham Potter when it heads 5 miles west to Brentford while Newcastle hosts Everton and Southampton visits fellow south-coast club Bournemouth.
SPAIN
Real Madrid will look to defend its three-point Spanish league lead when it visits last-place Elche, the only winless team so far. Madrid is coming off a home win against Barcelona in the first “clásico” of the season. Elche has drawn two in a row, including at Valencia over the weekend. Fourth-place Real Betis visits second-to-last-place Cádiz, which has drawn three consecutive games. Fifth-place Real Sociedad hosts Mallorca, which is winless in three games. Relegation-threatened Valladolid hosts midtable Celta Vigo.
GERMANY
Bayern Munich heads to local rival Augsburg in the second round of the German Cup. It’s a potentially tricky game for Bayern, which has lost its last two away games at Augsburg, including a 1-0 defeat in the league last month. Bayern is without Leroy Sané, who has a hamstring injury, and coach Julian Nagelsmann has opted to leave out goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who has pain in his shoulder, for a third straight game. Among the other games, Borussia Dortmund visits second-division Hannover 96, surprise Bundesliga leader Union Berlin takes on Heidenheim, and Freiburg hosts St. Pauli.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
