Welcome back to On the Continent. Another weekend of European football awaits us, but before we can go even an inch further, we need to take a collective moment and appreciate the two-legged Champions League affair Bayern Munich and PSG just gave us. The Parisian outfit booked their spot in the final at the end of the month, eliminating Bayern 6-5 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw fueled by the question of, “Does anyone actually know what a handball is anymore?” Vincent Kompany’s Bavarian warriors found themselves on the opposite side of two rough handball decisions in the contest, and it will spark controversy until the final itself, when history-maker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia clashes with Mikel Arteta’s Gunners in what will be a European finale worthy of 70mm IMAX screens.

ii. Now then, as it’s Thursday, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled weekly selection of Europe’s biggest matches, players and stories:

iii. If you’re looking for a good read today, be sure to check out our friend Rory Smith’s new piece on José Mourinho’s potential return to football’s biggest soap opera. You can find that here. 📖

iv. On a somewhat related note, can you guess which huge European club has the potential to go undefeated this season… and still not win a league title? 👀

v. For all the jersey heads out there: Please enjoy Barcelona and Real Madrid’s best and worst Clásico kits. There are some true gems in there. 👌

Also: If you weren’t able to view the radiant Cosmos third kit mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, you can check that out here. 😰

Cheers,
Tommy Stewart, Jacob Schneider & Max Bonem

P.S. This is amazing, give Sean Dyche his own food and travel show. 👏

Lazio vs. Inter Milan (Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

After coming tantalizingly close to a quadruple before ending up empty handed under Simone Inzaghi last season, Inter Milan’s Serie A victory with three games to play has been a cakewalk. It was serendipitous that the Scudetto was confirmed when Cristian Chivu’s side won 2-0 on Sunday against Parma, the club he learned his trade at when he saved them from relegation last year. Those who thought this job came too soon for the former Nerazzurri player have been silenced, because his team have spent over half of the season at the pinnacle of Serie A, which they currently lead by 12 points.

For Chivu and Maurizio Sarri, this match is technically a dead rubber, but in reality, it’s the early hands of a long game of poker that properly kicks off in next Wednesday’s Coppa Italia final. Do they field second-string XIs and nonchalantly bluff their way through 90 minutes while resting key players, or do they go gung-ho and try to land a psychological blow ahead of the big one?

The Fatal Four-Way for Two UCL Spots

Only three points separates Juventus, Roma and Como in fourth, fifth and sixth in Serie A, but based on third-placed AC Milan’s spiraling form and the ascendance of those around them, the Rossoneri could get dragged out of the Champions League places. Having spent most of the season chasing their neighbors’ tails in second, Max Allegri’s side have only won one of their last five and face a tough test against Atalanta on Sunday. Cesc Fàbregas’ Como have superseded all expectations this season and are only two points behind Gian Gasperini’s Roma and arguably have the easiest set of remaining fixtures. Whatever happens, they’re likely to be playing European football for the first time in their history next season.

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Depending where your loyalties lie, Barcelona has the chance to do the funniest thing of all time at the Camp Nou on Sunday. With four fixtures remaining, should Hansi Flick’s side avoid defeat against Real Madrid, they will lift the La Liga trophy in front of their ultimate adversary for the first time in history. While the injured Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé will both likely miss this genuinely historic El Clásico, the Spanish teenager will surely be circling around the French captain’s eyes with a bottle reserved for his tears. 

It’s a just reward for Barça, who under Flick’s stewardship, have been a relentless juggernaut, scoring 312 goals in 113 games and winning their last 10 La Liga matches. Real Madrid, on the other hand, have stuttered and stumbled during the same period with three defeats and two draws against relatively meager opposition. Between training ground bust ups, Mbappé’s controversial Italian holiday and players laughing behind his back, the wheels have fallen off for Álvaro Arbeloa, who hasn’t exactly cut the figure of the inspirational general Real Madrid need during this trying time. Step in the man who, for good or bad, taught him everything he knows: José Mourinho.

More: Despite scoring 85 goals in 100 games since joining Los Blancos, over a million Madridistas have signed an “Mbappé Out” petition. 🤯

Sevilla vs. Espanyol (Saturday, 10:15 a.m. ET, ESPN+)

Not only is 37-year-old Alexis Sánchez still playing top-tier football, but he’s also scoring crucial goals in Sevilla’s shock relegation fight. The former Arsenal and Barcelona forward came on as a substitute and bagged the winner before taking a bump to the head in a vital 1-0 win against Pellegrino Matarazzo’s still-hungover Real Sociedad on Monday. The seven-time Europa League champions are a point above Alavés in 18th and host a winless-since-last-December Espanyol, who they can drag into the relegation scrap on Saturday with a win.

Wolfsburg vs. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Kompany’s side are still Bundesliga champions, and that’s an accolade that can’t be taken away from them, but the hangover of yesterday’s Champions League defeat will be a storyline to watch as Wolfsburg look to avoid a relegation fight. Unbeaten in their last three, Dieter Hecking’s men need six points from their final two matches - and a bit of luck from those in the table above them - to climb out of the bottom three and avoid potential demotion to the second division. If they lose to Bayern, they will remain in the danger zone of either straight relegation or in a spot of relegation qualification where they would play a two-legged playoff with the third-placed Bundesliga 2. side.

More: Relegation playoffs? What? It’s OK, it’s confusing – read up on it here.

The erm… Other Fatal Four-Way for Two UCL Spots

Don’t worry, you’re not experiencing Déjà vu. Like Serie A, the Bundesliga has four Champions League spots for the taking, and with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund already secure, the tussle for the other two places is even tighter than Italy’s. With only two matches to play, RB Leipzig should be safe on 62 points, but in fourth, fifth and sixth, Bayer Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim are all level on 58! That makes Saturday’s clash between Stuttgart and Leverkusen at the Neckarstadion (9:30 a.m. ET, ESPN+) absolutely gigantisch.

More: The potential repercussions of Stuttgart and Leverkusen’s massive match.

Barcelona are on the verge of winning La Liga, while the Bundesliga and Serie A are done and dusted, but there are still plenty of titles to claim across the continent. Manchester City and Arsenal continue to play hot potato in the Premier League, the SPL is putting on the most intoxicating title race in Europe and PSG can win Ligue 1 next Wednesday should they beat second-placed Lens. With two games to play, Fenerbahçe trail Galatasaray by four points in the Turkish Süper Lig, and in Denmark, AGF can win a first Superliga title in 40 years should they defeat one of their biggest rivals, Brøndby, in their own back yard on Sunday. 

Here’s a look at some of the other 2026 titles claimed across Europe:

🇳🇱 Eredivisie: PSV Eindhoven won their 27th and third-straight Dutch title on April 5, marking the earliest victor in competition history.

🇵🇹 Primeira Liga: Porto claimed their first league title since 2022, being led by the Gandalf of football, Thiago Silva, and celebrated by honoring the late Diogo Jota.

🇨🇭 Swiss Super League: FC Thun won the Swiss title on Saturday, completing a 2016 Leicester City-esque feat to do so. Promoted to the top division at the start of the season, they claimed their first title in their 128-year history and proved that the underdog story is still alive and well in 2026.

🇧🇬 Parva Liga: Levski Sofia claimed their first Bulgarian title in 17 years, and celebrated emphatically.

🇸🇲 Campionato Sammarinese: San Marino, a country surrounded by Italy with a population of 34,000, has a full 16-team football league. Cool, right? Tre Fiori, a club located in the extremely picturesque town of Fiorentino, ended the season with their ninth title.

🇩🇪 Guess who's back, back again, Schalke’s back… in the Bundesliga! Congrats to Edin Džeko and Loris Karius’ squad on their return to the top division after a few seasons down in 2. Bundesliga.

Norway’s 21-year-old left winger Antonio Nusa plays in the shadows of Erling Haaland, Martin Ødegaard and Alexander Sørloth, but his "Norwegian Neymar” moniker makes him impossible to ignore. He’s efficient on and off the ball, creating space in which others around him can thrive, but also extremely fun to watch, using his pace, skillful spontaneity and low center of gravity to regularly skip past opponents. 

Nusa has nine goal contributions for RB Leipzig this season, who are third in the Bundesliga, and while his name was probably already on a lot of top European club’s wishlists, the winger’s solo masterpiece against Italy during UEFA qualifying last summer, defined his season. Without him, Norway’s historic World Cup return might not have been secured so convincingly, and while defenders focus their energies on Haaland, Nusa can be Norway’s lethal secret weapon.

Congratulations to last week’s winner, Jeanette Discala, who was the first to correctly answer that Messi, Suárez and Neymar are the top-scoring front three in the history of European football with 131 goals in the 2015/16 season. Your patch is in the post, Jeanette!

👋 We’ll see you again tomorrow. In the meantime, you can send us your stories, questions or theories to [email protected].

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