When these two teams last met before the international break, Brøndby goalkeeper Mads Hermansen went viral with an amazing triple save. Unfortunately for Brøndby, it didn’t help as they lost 2-1 anyway.

The tigers are second in the Superliga after losing 2-1 away to Copenhagen last weekend. Nordsjælland are thus under pressure now if they want to win the club’s second ever championship, and they now need to pick up three points at home against Brøndby on Monday evening.

This should be entirely possible, Nordsjælland was by far the best side on the pitch when the two teams met in March, and they could easily have won with more than 2-1. The Tigers are great at home, where the astroturf makes it difficult for any visiting team.

Brøndby started the spring well under new head coach Jesper Sørensen, but the yellow-blues have come back down to earth recently. Brøndby have lost three of their last four Superliga matches and suffered an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at home to Viborg last weekend.

The club is in a state of chaos, as the fans are refusing to support the team during the games in protest against the new owners, and the performance against Viborg was a new low point. After Viborg’s 3-0 goal, almost half of the spectators left the stadium, and there is only negativity surrounding the club at the moment.

Nordsjælland haven’t been on the same level as in the autumn, but they recently showed that they are a significantly better football team than Brøndby, and we expect them to pick up yet another victory at home. Odds 1.90 is a great price on the FCN victory here at Betfair Sportsbook.

There is a lot of excitement and anticipation surrounding the return of Brann back to the Eliteserien. They cruised to the 2nd tier OBOS Ligaen last year with a record number of 81 points and won an incredible 26 out of 30 fixtures, suffering only one defeat. Brann are one of the biggest clubs in Norway and won the Eliteserien back in 2007.

They were silver and bronze medallists as recently as 2016 and 2017 respectively. It was no surprise they bounced back quickly, and manager Eirik Horneland has done a great job here in Bergen. Brann are priced up around 5th or 6th favourites to win this league this year and are expected to compete well.

They start things off with a home match against a Haugesund side who have been treading water for several years. It looked like it might finally bite them last season after a shocking start to the campaign, but they managed to drag themselves out of danger. The squad is quite thin and if they suffer injuries then it could be a long campaign for Jostein Grindhaug’s men.

Team news is favourable for the visitors with only midfielder Bruno Leite ruled out. Brann attacker Niklas Castro is doubtful to play, along with left back Thore Pedersen who has ironically just transferred from Haugesund.

These two teams met each other in the Norwegian Cup one month ago and Brann easily won 3-1. They could and should have won by a bigger margin that day and it would be a surprise if they didn’t get off to a winning start in the league.

They have a lot of momentum from their promotion, a settled squad and are going to be roared on by a passionate home crowd. They can be backed at 1.40 to win which looks like an obvious and safe bet for round one.

After a 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Real Madrid at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night, Barcelona will react in one of two ways: a wobble which puts their LaLiga domination at risk, or a complete obliteration of their next opponent. So, Barça fans will be relieved to read that their next opponents are Catalan neighbours Girona.

With 84 goals in 27 games for Girona this season, no side has seen more goals scored either in favour or against in their matches, and they have the remarkable record of the split being right down the middle with 42 scored and 42 conceded. Away from home, they have conceded an average of 1.8 goals per game, and that will have Barcelona licking their lips.

There is also reason to believe that Barcelona’s defensive collapse to Real Madrid is not something we’re likely to see repeated. Barcelona conceded four to Los Blancos, just as they conceded two to Manchester United at home and three to Bayern Munich on their visit to Barcelona, but they have only conceded two goals in 13 home games in LaLiga all season. In the league, they are incredibly hard to score against. Before the Copa del Rey semi-final, they had conceded just one goal in their last five matches.

Since their first promotion to LaLiga in 2017, Girona have faced Barcelona five times and suffered four defeats and one draw, with Barça netting 14 across those games and Girona just three. Their goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga has insisted that the visitors “will go to Camp Nou to play our game, be brave and play well”, which means that they are expected to stick to Míchel’s open style. That could allow Barcelona to open the floodgates.

When Daniel Sousa took charge of Gil Vicente on November 14, he became the club’s third manager in five months and took charge of a side that, weeks after participating in European football for the first in club history, looked headed for a daunting relegation battle. Gil had lost six in a row in the league and exited the Taça de Portugal via a 4-1 home defeat to Arouca, and had looked irreparably damaged by the departures of key players such as Pedrinho and Samuel Lino as well as manager Ricardo Soares.

Fast forward five months, and Gil Vicente have yet to lose at home under Sousa. They returned from the World Cup break with a 1-0 win against Santa Clara, followed that up with a 2-1 win against Vitória and 1-1 draws to Arouca and Vizela, and opened March with a 2-0 win against Marítimo.

Whilst their away form could use some improvement, it has been far from awful, as evidenced by a 2-1 win at Porto, a 1-0 win at Famalicão and a 3-1 win at Casa Pia this year. Nevertheless, it has been their stellar form in Barcelos that has catapulted the Gillistas from hovering above the drop to sitting 13rd in the table, 11 points above the relegation play-off spot.

Chaves, on the other hand, have enjoyed an impressive return to the Primeira and currently find themselves in 11th place, two points above Gil. They have proven a competitive outfit under Vítor Campelos and look set to remain in the top-flight, but their record away from home leaves plenty to be desired. Apart from a 2-0 at Estoril Praia on March 18 (their sixth straight defeat), Chaves have avoided defeat away from home on just three occasions this year – a 0-0 draw at Vizela on February 10, a 1-1 draw to Boavista on January 23 and a 1-1 draw at Paços de Ferreira on January 8.

Both sides suffered defeat at the weekend – Chaves losing 2-1 at home to Braga and Gil losing 1-0 at Estoril – but Gil nevertheless bounced back on Wednesday with a 0-0 draw at home against Sporting courtesy of a fine display in goal from 22-year-old Andrew Ventura, who made seven saves to nullify a Sporting team that had won five in a row in the league.

Despite losing a boatload of talent in the summer, Gil have assembled a crop of young talent from Andrew to Tomás Araújo (20), who has emerged as a vital cog in central defense following his loan arrival from Benfica, to Fran Navarro (25), whose 13 goals are bettered only by Benfica’s João Mário and Gonçalo Ramos (17) in the league. I’m expecting them to come away with their ninth win of the season and leapfrog Chaves in the table.

Sportivo Ameliano will face the league’s best side Libertad who return triumphant from Brazil with a fine 1-0 win against Atlético Mineiro. For Ameliano it is a chance to recreate their famous victory at the start of the Clausura and try and preserve their recent unbeaten record, seven league games and counting.

The V azulada comes into the game having picked up 13 points from a possible 15, only missing out on the maximum haul against Olimpia who equalized late on. Humberto Garcia has found the right combination up front with Elías Sarquis grabbing four goals in those five matches, he’s well supported by Richard Torales and Fredy Vera.

Libertad grabbed a statement win against Cerro Porteño last weekend to effectively put them out of the title race and with a six point lead over Guaraní it does seem like Garnero will pick up a record-equaling eighth title. Alfio Oviedo led the line in Brazil because four-goal hero Óscar Cardozo was recovering from the shock (no physical injury) of a car crash. Roque Santa Cruz is back from injury and both Diego Gómez and Lorenzo Melgarejo reappeared. The list of big names is frightening and points to the Gumarelo’s strength and depth.

Overall, this promises to be an exciting matchup between two teams playing their best football of the season so far. However, despite the likely changes to the Libertad side they should still have enough to overcome Ameliano. Last year Garnero came out on top in 3 of the 4 clashes with Humberto Garcia, that famous 2-0 win by Ameliano was courtesy of two freak own goals and is unlikely to be repeated.