Good Morning ☀️,

It’s Lucas here, your Chief Predictions Officer at What Are the Odds?

Today’s Friday. And that only means one thing — all the best top-flight football for the week’s about to get underway. So let’s get right into it.

What’s ahead in today’s edition of What Are the Odds?:

• This weekend’s full European top-flight match schedule. 🗓️

• Our top three picks for the weekend ahead. ✅

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This weekend we’ve got a great series of matches coming up across all of Europe’s top leagues. (Note: all dates and times are in CEST)

🇫🇷 Ligue 1

28 Aug Friday

• 20:45 — Lille vs PSG

29 Aug Saturday

• 17:15 — Strasbourg vs Lens

• 20:45 — Auxerre vs Angers

• 20:45 — Brest vs Toulouse

• 20:45 — Lorient vs Troyes

• 20:45 — Lyon vs Le Havre

30 Aug Sunday

• 15:00 — Paris FC vs Nice

• 17:15 — Rennes vs Le Mans

• 20:45 — Monaco vs Marseille

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League

28 Aug Friday

• 21:00 — Crystal Palace vs Man City

29 Aug Saturday

• 13:30 — Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest

• 16:00 — Bournemouth vs Everton

• 16:00 — Coventry City vs Hull City

• 18:30 — Tottenham vs Newcastle

30 Aug Sunday

• 15:00 — Chelsea vs Brighton

• 15:00 — Leeds vs Brentford

• 15:00 — Sunderland vs Fulham

• 17:30 — Man Utd vs Ipswich

🇪🇸 La Liga

27 Aug Thursday – Round 1

• 20:30 — Celta Vigo vs Osasuna

• 21:00 — Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao

28 Aug Friday

• 19:00 — Racing Santander vs Elche

• 21:30 — Alaves vs Villarreal

29 Aug Saturday

• 17:00 — Levante vs Real Betis

• 19:00 — Real Sociedad vs Espanyol

• 21:30 — Sevilla vs Atletico Madrid

30 Aug Sunday

• 17:00 — Real Madrid vs Malaga

• 19:30 — Deportivo La Coruna vs Valencia

• 21:30 — Celta Vigo vs Athletic Bilbao

🇮🇹 Serie A

28 Aug Friday

• 20:45 — AC Milan vs Venezia FC

29 Aug Saturday

• 18:30 — Fiorentina vs Frosinone

• 18:30 — Sassuolo vs Torino

• 18:30 — SSD Monza vs Udinese

• 20:45 — Juventus vs Parma

30 Aug Sunday

• 18:30 — Napoli vs Como

• 20:45 — Cagliari vs Inter Milan

• 20:45 — Lazio vs Genoa

🇩🇪 Bundesliga

28 Aug Friday – Round 1

• 20:30 — Bayern Munich vs Stuttgart

29 Aug Saturday – Round 1

• 15:30 — FC Cologne vs Hoffenheim

• 15:30 — RB Leipzig vs Borussia Monchengladbach

• 15:30 — Mainz vs SC Paderborn 07

• 15:30 — SV Elversberg vs Bayer Leverkusen

• 15:30 — Union Berlin vs Eintracht Frankfurt

• 18:30 — Borussia Dortmund vs Hamburg

30 Aug Sunday – Round 1

• 15:30 — Freiburg vs Werder Bremen

• 17:30 — Augsburg vs Schalke 04

Want to get the best odds on these matches?

⚽ Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao
🏟️ Spanish La Liga
📅 Friday 28 August; 21:00 (CEST)

• Top 3 Stats:

  • Athletic Bilbao hasn’t beaten or even seriously challenged Barcelona in over five years, with six consecutive defeats in which they conceded 17 goals while only scoring just once.

  • Barcelona sit 1st in La Liga off the back of 2 wins with 7 scored and 0 conceded. Athletic sits dead last with 2 defeats with just 1 goal scored against 5 conceded.

  • Barcelona averaged 2.5 goals scored per league match on their way to 94 points and the title last season.

• CXSports says: When one team has beaten the other six straight times by a combined 17-1, it’s hardly even worth bothering with any sort of analysis. Particularly when the team that’s been consistently defeated is also sitting dead last in the league while the other’s sitting on top with a run of clean sheet victories. And in case you’re wondering which team’s which here, Barcelona’s the one that’s been doing all the winning, while Athletic’s the one doing all the losing.
  
  With that said, the La Liga season’s only 2 rounds down by this stage. So, we could make the case that the current table imbalance is nothing more than early season volatility. That is, were it not for the fact that Barcelona averaged 2.5 goals scored per league game over a full 94-point championship in the last season. And in that same season, Athletic finished with less than half the points and a -15 goal deficit. And let’s not forget that Barcelona is also unbeaten in 15 straight home games against Athletic, which is probably relevant here since they’re at home in this one.
  
  Of course, to be fair, none of this means Athletic will just roll over and die by default. They did, after all, still manage to find the in their 3-1 loss to Sevilla, which is something. So who knows — maybe a little pride + desperation + a full contingent of eleven men (something they haven’t had in their last two matches) might count for something, even if that “something” has next to no chance of being “enough.”
  
  So here’s how we see this playing out. Between the head-to-head history, the home advantage, and the overall league performances, it’s clear Athletic loses this one. And probably by more than one goal. However, we’re not going to be surprised if they do manage to sneak one in at some point along the way.

• Score prediction: 3-1 for Barcelona

Bet Option #1

• Bet: Barcelona Victory 

• Odds Range: 1.20-1.43

Bet Option #2

• Bet: Over/Under (Over 2.5)

• Odds Range: 1.15-1.50

⚽ Real Madrid vs Malaga
🏟️ Spanish La Liga
📅 Sunday 30 August; 17:00 (CEST)

• Top 3 Stats:

  • Real Madrid has only lost once to Malaga in 29 head-to-heads — a single game played 13 years ago.

  • Real Madrid are scoring 3 goals per game while conceding 1 so far this season. Malaga are conceding 1.5 per game while only scoring 0.5.

  • Malaga failed to score in 2 of their last 5 meetings and never scored more than once in any single one of those games.

• CXSports says: This one’s simple. Real Madrid have won 8 of the last 10 head-to-heads in this fixture and hasn’t lost a single one of them. Malaga’s only victory in the fixture’s history happened in December 2012. Everything since has been the same story on repeat: Real Madrid controlling the game, Malaga struggling to even take a shot worth remembering. And given the fact this keeps happening over and over and over and over again, it’s pretty much impossible to claim any of this is by coincidence or a bit of good luck.
  
  The current form also tends to line up neatly with what the history in this fixture suggests. This season, Real Madrid are averaging 3 goals scored and 1 conceded per game. What’s more, those goals are coming from Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, and Carlos Espí, meaning they’re spread at least somewhat across multiple players and aren’t reliant on one man’s form holding up. Malaga, meanwhile, are averaging 0.5 goals scored and 1.5 conceded per game. They’ve also won zero of their first two matches. So this really doesn’t look like the kind of squad that’s ready to finally break the lifetime curse of constant defeats against this opponent. Even more so when they’re being asked to do it on Real Madrid’s home turf.
  
  As such, Real Madrid’s only real obstacle here is themselves. But these are minor niggles. Namely, the defensive absences (Militao, Mendy, Asencio, Rodrygo) — arguably, a team missing that much of its backline might accidentally give their opponent something they wouldn’t normally deserve. However, Malaga’s attack, based on the last two games, doesn’t even look capable of taking advantage of that kind of opening even if it’s offered up on a silver platter. So expect Real Madrid to dominate this one.

• Score prediction: 3-0 for Real Madrid

Bet Option #1

• Bet: Real Madrid Victory

• Odds Range: 1.06-1.15

Bet Option #2

• Bet: Both Teams to Score (No)

• Odds Range: 1.53-1.75

⚽ Man United vs Ipswich
🏟️ English Premier League
📅 Sunday 30 August; 17:30 (CEST)

• Top 3 Stats:

  • Ipswich are unbeaten in their last five (across all competitions), including their Premier League opener.

  • Manchester United’s defense has been leaking goals for months, with 9 conceded against 6 scored over their last 5.

  • The last time these two met (last year), United defeated Ipswich 3-2.

• CXSports says: At first glance, the head-to-head record in this fixture looks like Manchester United’s clearly dominant — 30 wins from 59 meetings. However, most of it’s ancient history by now — besides a 3-2 victory for United in 2025 and a 1-1 draw in 2024, every other game is more than a decade old. And if we look at those recent results — a draw and a single-goal victory in a 5-goal game — they hardly look like total dominance. So, at least based on that, it’s probably fair to say that Ipswich looks like it should be competitive here.
  
  And the case for Ipswich only starts to look even better once we start to pull in recent form. Across their last 5 games (in all competitions), Manchester United has 1W/2D/2L and an aggregate score of 6-9. And, let’s not forget that those results include their opening Premier League game — a 0-2 loss against freshly-promoted Hull City. Meanwhile, Ipswich Town arrive at this game towing five victories from five (they’re actually on a 6-game winning streak now) in which they managed to pull an aggregate score of 13-4.
  
  With that said, to be totally fair, many of United’s recent matches have been against the likes of Milan, PSG, and Atletico Madrid. So maybe there’s a case to be made that their apparent bad form isn’t quite so bad… that is, until we remember that the other two games were against Leeds (a 1-1 draw) and Hull City (a 0-2 loss).
  
  So where does that leave us? Well, there is one thing running in United’s favor here — they’re at home, so they’ll be playing at Old Trafford’s with what will likely be a capacity crowd of roughly 74,000, which might be enough to simply overwhelm Ipswich in their first away game after being freshly promoted to the top flight. And, given United’s the team that finished 3rd in the Premier League last season, it’s hard to write them off completely, particularly against a newly-promoted side.
  
  But here’s the thing — it’s hard for us to look past United’s poor form in recent matches. So while we’re going to slightly favor them here given the pedigree and home advantage, we’re not going to rule out the possibility of this one ending in a draw.

• Score prediction: 2-1 for Man United or 1-1 Draw

Bet Option #1

• Bet: Double Chance (Man United / Draw)

• Odds Range: 1.07-1.13

Bet Option #2

• Bet: Both Teams to Score (Yes)

• Odds Range: 1.65-1.86

Make your sportsbook work for you!

That’s a wrap for today, and for the week. We’ll be back after the weekend as we take a look at some of the mid-week football action that’s coming up.

Until then, enjoy the football.