Champions League, Premier League, USMNT: Top November games

With the haves so consistently dominating the have-nots in high-level European soccer, and with money so correlated to success, it’s admittedly important to set the bar pretty low. But it’s also pretty fun to point out that as we enter November — meaning wer’re more than a quarter of the way through the 2023-24 season — none of the defending top-division champions in Europe’s top 10 soccer countries (England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Turkey, Czech Republic) are currently leading their respective leagues this time around.

That’s not to say parity reigns, but as we inch toward the winter months, all the heavyweights still have loads of work to do.

November brings us yet another international break on both the men and women’s side, and it’ll also provide quite a bit of clarity regarding who’s advancing in the Champions League and the other UEFA competitions. It will also tell us about the staying power of early-season bright lights like Tottenham Hotspur, Bayer Leverkusen, Girona, and Aston Villa. Oh yeah, and the Women’s Champions League gets rolling in earnest as well, and the field is loaded.

There’s a ton to follow, so as we do each month, let’s lay out the five biggest matches in a number of different categories. Here’s what you should be watching in November.

UEFA competitions

– Nov. 7: Newcastle United at Borussia Dortmund (Champions League)
– Nov. 28: Newcastle United at PSG (Champions League)
– Nov. 28: Atletico Madrid at Feyenoord (Champions League)
– Nov. 29: Manchester United at Galatasaray (Champions League)
– Nov. 30: Brighton at AEK Athens (Europa League)

There are eight Champions League groups, and about half of them seem to be unfolding as planned. Real Madrid and Napoli are unbeaten against everyone but each other in Group C, as are Real Sociedad and Inter in Group D, Manchester City and RB Leipzig in Group G, and Barcelona and Porto in Group H. In the other four, there might still be a few more plot twists.

Arsenal’s shock loss to Lens left the Gunners with some work to do, but they’re still first in Group B, while Manchester United’s upset loss to Galatasaray at home has put them third in Group A. After André Onana saved them from a nearly disastrous draw against Copenhagen, they’ll get a chance to work back into second with a win in Istanbul. Galatasaray is one of the hottest teams in Europe, however, so this will be easier said than done.

A couple of frustrating draws have left Atletico Madrid in a vulnerable position in Group E, which Feyenoord currently leads, and Group F, the proverbial most difficult group in the competition, is a mess: PSG has six points, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle each have four, and AC Milan has managed two draws despite going scoreless in three matches. Every Group F match is important, though if Newcastle can’t get a win in Dortmund, things could get dicey for the Magpies.

The Europa League and Conference League are as delightfully messy as ever — no tournaments are more perfect for whip-around, wall-to-wall goal coverage — but for the teams from the major leagues, things are mostly going according to plan. Brighton’s opening loss to AEK Athens, however, plus a draw at Marseille, have left them third in Europa League Group B. That hasn’t been quite as difficult of a group as anticipated thanks to Ajax’s overall collapse, but now that they’ve got a few European matches under their belt, Brighton has some work to do to get in position to advance.

English Premier League

– Nov. 4: Arsenal at Newcastle United
– Nov. 6: Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur
– Nov. 12: Manchester City at Chelsea
– Nov. 25: Liverpool at Manchester City
– Nov. 26: Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur

There are two ways to look at Chelsea’s reasonably easy slate thus far. On one hand, they’re already 11th in the table, and they have yet to play five of the top eight teams. (And they’ve managed just two points against the three they’ve played.)

That seems bad. But on the other hand, there’s opportunity! Chelsea has been almost unsustainably bad in the finishing department — they’ve scored 13 goals from shots worth 18.5 xG — and if they can begin to progress toward the mean as teams like Tottenham (Nov. 6), Manchester City (Nov. 12), Brighton (Dec. 3) and Manchester United (Dec. 6) show up on the schedule, they could move up the table a decent amount in a short amount of time.

At least, that’s how Mauricio Pochettino has to look at the coming weeks. If the shots continue to avoid the net, 11th place could become something much darker by mid-December too. Chelsea’s got a couple of particularly big matches in November, but all the primary teams have at least one headliner, starting with Arsenal’s trip north to Newcastle on Saturday. And the month closes with two upstarts, Spurs and Villa, battling it out as well.

Spanish LaLiga

– Nov. 4: Barcelona at Real Sociedad
– Nov. 5: Rayo Vallecano at Real Madrid
– Nov. 11: Valencia at Real Madrid
– Nov. 12: Real Betis at Sevilla
– Nov. 26: Athletic Club at Girona

Girona has never finished higher than 10th in LaLiga, and lord knows the season is long enough for them to eventually fall back to earth. But they have refused to fall thus far. They responded to a humbling 3-0 loss to Real Madrid on Sept. 30 by winning all three league matches in October, and while there are plenty of huge matchups on the near horizon — Athletic Club on Nov. 27, at Barcelona on Dec. 10, at Real Betis on Dec. 20 — they charge through the season’s third month still second in the table, tied with leader Real Madrid on points.

Girona’s underdog exploits aside, the biggest match of the month might come this Saturday. Barcelona is slowly getting key pieces back from injury, but must respond to the weekend’s frustrating 2-1 home loss to Real Madrid with a trip to San Sebastian to face fifth-place Real Sociedad. It’s a big one for La Real, too: While they wait for Girona to fade a bit and work their way back into the race for the top four, they are also nine points behind Girona. They can’t afford to drop too many more right now.

German Bundesliga

– Nov. 4: Bayern Munich at Borussia Dortmund
– Nov. 11: Borussia Dortmund at VfB Stuttgart
– Nov. 12: Union Berlin at Bayer Leverkusen
– Nov. 12: SC Freiburg at RB Leipzig
– Nov. 25: VfB Stuttgart at Eintracht Frankfurt

Few European clubs face a bigger month than Borussia Dortmund. BVB beat Newcastle last week to resurrect its chances of advancing in the Champions League, and they’ll both host Newcastle and play at AC Milan in November.

They’ve got a brutal run in league play, too. After a delightful (to the neutral observer) 3-3 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday, they enter November fourth in the table, four points behind Bayer Leverkusen, and by Dec. 9 — they’ll have played second-place Bayern, third-place Stuttgart, first-place Leverkusen (Dec. 3) and fifth-place RB Leipzig (Dec. 9). As with Chelsea, there’s massive opportunity there. There’s also massive danger. And it begins with what is currently the biggest match in German soccer, Der Klassiker against Bayern on Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+

The rest of the top teams face reasonably navigable schedules this month. The second-biggest story, then, might be Union Berlin. Eisern Union has now lost an incredible 11 matches in a row in all competitions and stands 15th in the table, just one point out of the relegation zone. They still have three more Champions League matches to go, but the league schedule remains unrelenting: They get Frankfurt on Saturday, Leverkusen on Nov. 12 and Bayern on Dec. 2.

Italian Serie A

– Nov. 4: Inter Milan at Atalanta
– Nov. 12: Roma at Lazio
– Nov. 25: Napoli at Atalanta
– Nov. 25: Fiorentina at AC Milan
– Nov. 26: Inter Milan at Juventus

There aren’t too many surprises in the Serie A table at the moment. Defending champion Napoli remains off the pace a bit, seven points behind leader Inter and one point outside the top four. But they’re still within range, and wingers Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Matteo Politano have established solid form — after a slow start for both, they each have three goals and three assists in their last seven matches.

Elsewhere, slow starters Lazio and Roma have begun to rally, too: They’re currently in seventh and ninth place, respectively, three and five points outside of the top four. That the league is led by Inter, Juventus and AC Milan certainly feels about right.

Inter and fourth-place Atalanta probably face the biggest November. The two will play in Bergamo on Saturday, and in the last weekend of the month, Atalanta will host Napoli in a potential “winner’s in the top four” match, while Inter visits hated Juventus. Fiorentina, also just two points out of the top four, has a big trip to San Siro that weekend as well. The Viola have rallied after a slow start in the Conference League, but they also finished October with league losses to 18th-place Empoli and Lazio.

Elsewhere in Europe

– Nov. 2: Volendam at Ajax (Eredivisie)
– Nov. 5: Club Brugge at Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgian Pro League)
– Nov. 11: Porto at Vitoria Guimaraes (Portuguese Primera Liga)
– Nov. 25: PSV Eindhoven at Twente (Eredivisie)
– Nov. 26: AS Monaco at PSG (Ligue 1)

Two shocking bottom-dwellers begin the month with opportunities for positivity. Ajax, currently last in Eredivisie, hosts 16th-place Volendam on Thursday, and Lyon, last in Ligue 1 by a healthy margin (they have just three points in nine matches), hosts 16th-place Metz. The extent of their struggles has become one of the most eye-catching stories in Europe in the early going.

If you enjoy upstarts more than disappointments, however, there are still plenty of intriguing stories to follow. Vitoria Guimaraes hasn’t finished in the top three in Portugal since 2007-08 but has won three straight matches to stay within three points of the country’s big three; they’ll face third-place Porto right before the next international break.

In the Netherlands, Twente is one of the teams taking advantage of the Ajax void: They’re two points ahead of Feyenoord in third, and both Twente (vs. PSV) and second-place AZ Alkmaar (at Feyenoord on Nov. 12) have marquee November matches.

Meanwhile, in their third attempt to score a first Belgian title since the 1930s, after falling short in heartbreaking fashion the last two years, Union Saint-Gilloise is off to another bright start, four points up on the field. They host a semi-desperate Club Brugge (sixth place, nine points back) on Sunday.

And then there’s France, where PSG is attempting to reel in first-place Nice. They’re within a point now, but face pretty big matches at fifth-place Reims (Nov. 11) and against always-entertaining Monaco, currently in third, two weeks later.

Women’s European matches

We’re making two lists here: One for domestic play and one for a delightful Champions League slate. The latter first.

– Nov. 15: Roma at Bayern Munich (Champions League)
– Nov. 15: Chelsea at Real Madrid (Champions League)
– Nov. 22: Barcelona at Eintracht Frankfurt (Champions League)
– Nov. 23: Bayern Munich at PSG (Champions League)
– Nov. 23: Paris FC at Chelsea (Champions League)

The women’s club game is ready to handle further Champions League expansion. This is the third go-round for a 16-team tournament with group stages, and while there are plenty of heavy hitters in the field — enough so that Bayern Munich, PSG and Roma all landed in the same group — Juventus and Manchester United were left behind in qualification.

The same was said for 2023 Champions League finalist Wolfsburg and semifinalist Arsenal, both of whom were taken down by Paris FC. (Paris’ reward: a group with Chelsea and Real Madrid.) At the very least, expansion to 24 teams wouldn’t dilute the quality here much.

Regardless, this has given us a loaded 16-team field, and November will give us everyone’s first two group-stage matches. Bayern and Chelsea will both need particularly strong starts to position themselves to advance.

– Nov. 5: Wolfsburg at Bayern Munich (Frauen-Bundesliga)
– Nov. 5: Lyon at Paris FC (French Division 1 Féminine)
– Nov. 5: Manchester City at Arsenal (Women’s Super League)
– Nov. 19: Real Madrid at Barcelona (Spanish Liga F)
– Nov. 26: Tottenham Hotspur at Manchester City (Women’s Super League)

Before Bayern can worry about Roma and PSG, they will have to handle their business in the closest thing to a Women’s Der Klassiker. A day after the men play Borussia Dortmund, the women host Wolfsburg, which has carved out an early two-point lead in the table. On the same day, French giant Lyon plays at a torrid Paris FC — not only did Paris beat two heavyweights in Champions League qualification, but they’ve also started league play with five straight wins — and Arsenal will host Manchester City.

What a way to start a huge month.

Men’s international matches

– Nov. 16: Trinidad & TobagoUSA (Concacaf Nations League)
– Nov. 17: Albania at Moldova (Euro qualification)
– Nov. 20: USA at Trinidad & Tobago (Concacaf Nations League)
– Nov. 20: Italy vs. Ukraine (Euro qualification)
– Nov. 21: Argentina at Brazil (World Cup qualification)

Because we somehow still haven’t switched to a longer and less frequent international breaks structure yet, nearly half of November will be interrupted by yet another break on the men’s side, just as September and October were. It knocks the club schedule off-rhythm, but at least there are pretty big stakes in this break.

The U.S. plays in its first matches of at least minor consequence since its B-team fell to Panama in the summer’s Gold Cup semis. Six of eight teams in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals will qualify for next summer’s Copa America in the U.S., so if the USMNT messes around and falls to Trinidad & Tobago, they will have to win a playoff against another quarterfinal loser in March. (The other quarterfinals: Costa Rica-Panama, Canada-Jamaica, and Mexico-Honduras.)

Elsewhere, World Cup qualification grinds on in South America — everyone will play two more matches in this break, then there’s a pause until next September – and Brazil has a chance to rebuild some momentum after a frustrating run. After four matches, they’re closer to qualification failure than they are to table-leading Argentina, and they just lost Neymar to a long-term injury. Fernando Diniz, a proselytizer for a style commonly referred to as relationism (an alternate to Pep Guardiola’s positional play), has brought Fluminense to the Copa Libertadores final, but his interim work with the national team has been scattershot thus far.

(They’ll still qualify.)