Welcome back to On the Continent, your weekly serving of European football's top stories that’s even more palatable than a Valencian paella. With less than a third of the season remaining, buckle up as table-topping big boys across the continent start to make meaningful advances towards their respective league titles:

ii. In local MiB news: Rog’s new book, “WE ARE THE WORLD (CUP),” is officially out! If you’re a seasoned vet of the world’s great footballing spectacle, this book is for you. And if you’re not, Rog’s personal journey with Maradona, Zidane and Messi will certainly make you feel like you are. Grab your copy here. 📚

iii. If you’re in need of a good read today, check out our friend Rory Smith’s most recent piece on Bodø/Glimt’s fairytale and why we should enjoy it while we can. 🇳🇴

iv. Today’s edition of fantastic midweek goals (and almost goals) you might’ve missed starts with a quick trip to the third tier of Italian football. Come for the wondrous overhead kick, but stay for the even more wondrous celly. 🇮🇹

In the Bulgarian First League, feast your eyes on an own goal so comical that you might consider reaching out to Lokomotiv Sofia about goalkeeping opportunities. 🇧🇬

Finally, we don’t always love celebrating huge misses, but sometimes you just need to watch one like this from Liga MX to be amazed and reminded about the mystery of physics. Just… how? 🇲🇽

v. One more request: Help us out by answering a few questions about a project with our good friends at Coca-Cola leading up to this summer’s World Cup. This is so, so important to us, and filling it out gives you a shot at winning a $75 gift card to the MiB Store. Take the survey here. 🙌

Cheers,
Tommy Stewart & Max Bonem

PS - Footballing vistas don't get much more scenic than this. Anyone up for a trip to Italian lake country? 😍

AC Milan vs. Inter Milan (Sunday, 3:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

With only one Serie A representative left in the Champions League and Italy’s cricket team outperforming their famous football team in World Cups, Italian football is a battered and bruised beast. The Derby della Madonnina (gloriously named after the golden Virgin Mary who sits atop the city’s cathedral) is one of the grandest games in global football and could be a good reminder of the sport’s prestige in one of its traditional hotbeds.

While AC Milan have drastically improved under the return of old-school disciplinarian Max Allegri, his side are a mountainous 10 points behind their better-looking younger brothers, who are managed by the guy she told you not to worry about, Cristian Chivu. USMNT captain Christian Pulisic is without a goal or assist this year, so Sunday would be a good time to pick up on the impressive 15 goal contributions he’d surmounted before that. As the away side, Inter will cosplay as strangers in their own home, but even without injured captain and top goalscorer Lautaro Martinez, Serie A’s leaders will be confident of a win that all but seals a 21st Scudetto.

More: AC Milan legend Kaka picks the one player he’d steal from Inter

Napoli vs. Torino (Friday, 2:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

After scoring an emotional injury-time winner against Verona last weekend, the much-missed Romelu Lukaku will want to lay his injury demons to rest and carry that momentum into the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium tomorrow. Roberto D'Aversa smoked Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio 2-0 in his first game in charge of Torino last weekend, but a trip to the city of the sun is a hotter obstacle in his mission to secure Serie A safety.

Also: Elsewhere in Italy, the USMNT’s Yunus Musah scored a last-minute equalizer for Atalanta against Lazio yesterday. Huge goal for Yunus, even huger goal for his club.

Athletic Club vs. Barcelona (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+

You might remember Bilbao’s San Mamés Stadium from such nightmares as last season’s Europa League final, but it's a fine place to eat for Hansi Flick, who’s never lost or conceded there as Barcelona manager. He’s got a good chance of repeating that trick with the rare treat of Marcus Rashford, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha all being concurrently fit. Athletic Club’s season has been relatively scattergun, much like the concerning fitness of “indefinitely injured” Nico Williams, and Ernesto Valverde will want a strong response from his side after getting knocked out of the Copa del Rey semi-finals by Basque rivals Real Sociedad last night.

Celta Vigo vs. Real Madrid (Friday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Following a potentially fatal 1-0 loss to Getafe, Real Madrid trail Barcelona by four points and the vultures are circling around Álvaro Arbeloa, who has now lost two consecutive La Liga matches and is still without injured virtuoso, Kylian Mbappé. Managed by boyhood fan Claudio Giráldez, sixth-placed Celta Vigo continue to punch above their weight, and with a man called “El Panda” (aka Borja Iglesias) leading the line, the Northern side can double up on Los Blancos after beating them 2-0 in December. 

Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach (Friday, 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Harry Kane hit his 50th goal of the season for club and country when the second of his brace vanquished Borussia Dortmund’s fanciful title hopes last Saturday. The Bundesliga trophy is pretty much already in Vincent Komopany’s swag bag, so ahead of next Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Atalanta, some of Bayern’s key men may be rested for the visit of relegation-threatened Borussia Mönchengladbach.

FC Köln vs. Borussia Dortmund (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

While Dortmund lost valiantly to Bayern Munich last Saturday, it’s been a tough week or so for Niko Kovač’s men, who left the UCL in dramatic fashion thanks to Atalanta. With no cups to play for and Bayern 11 points ahead, out-of-form Köln could meet 17-year-old attacker Samuele Inacio on Saturday, who Kovač called “not just the future of this club, but also of Italian football” after he came on as a substitute in Der Klassiker. Not even Paul Atreides knew this sort of pressure.

Considering the financial disparity between the Belgian Pro League and Europe’s “Big Five,” as well as its lack of serious media coverage, no nation is outperforming its reputational XG more than Belgium right now. In the first leg of the Champions League playoffs, Club Brugge went punch for punch with the mighty Atlético Madrid, while Brussels’ Union Saint-Gilloise upset PSV, Galatasaray and Atalanta in their inaugural UCL season.

Over the past decade, Club Brugge have won six domestic titles, but this season, it’s appointment-viewing for Belgians; only three points divides USG in first, Brugge in second, and surprise package, Sint-Truidense V.V. in third. STVV, whose stadium brilliantly doubles up as a match-viewing hotel, have never won the league in their 102-year history, and with only three matches left before the playoffs, they have a chance to finally change that.

French PSG midfielder Warren Zaïre-Emery is only 19, which makes his career redemption arc even more impressive. When he debuted aged 16 in August 2022, he became the Parisians’ youngest-ever player, and a goal on debut for France the following year only heightened the hype.

Perhaps it was all too much too soon, though. After making Didier Deschamps’ Euro 2024 squad, an injury in early 2025 saw Zaïre-Emery slide down the pecking order for PSG and subsequently demoted to France’s under-21s. But this steep learning curve ultimately forged an adaptable player who has made himself undroppable after Luis Enrique called him “incredible.” You’ll only feel futile if you think back to what you were doing aged 19, but Zaïre-Emery recently hit 100 Ligue 1 appearances, and with realistic World Cup ambitions, his career is back on the ascendancy.

Congratulations to last week’s winner, Justin Horner, who was the first to correctly answer that Mario Götze was the player who has scored for both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker. Your patch is in the post, Justin.

🐦‍⬛ We’ll see you again tomorrow. In the meantime, you can send us your stories, questions or thoughts on “In Bruges” to [email protected].

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