Big Midweek: Maresca v Mourinho, Barcelona v PSG, Konate v Osimhen and batsh*t Frankfurt

Will Ford 30 Sep 2025 7:13 AM

It's a Big Midweek for Ibrahima konate, Jose Mourinho and Marcus Rashford.

The last manager Enzo Maresca wants at Stamford Bridge right now is Jose Mourinho and we can’t imagine Ibrahima Konate is much more positive about the prospect of Victor Osimhen being the latest quality centre-forward to put him to the sword.

Barcelona hosting PSG should be a cracker and in a Big Midweek otherwise light on quality clashes, if in doubt, watch Eintracht Frankfurt. They’ve gone completely mad.

Game to watch: Barcelona v Paris Saint Germain

For a revamped competition which ensures Bigger Games More Often this is a Big Midweek to test that theory. We feel fairly confident we could predict pretty much every game and wouldn’t necessarily recommend watching any of them, aside from this absolute whopper.

The Champions League holders vs the La Liga champions, they’re arguably the two best teams in Europe, both play beautiful football and four of the top five players in the world play for them according to the recent Ballon d’Or rankings (Ousmane Dembele [1], Lamine Yamal [2], Vitinha [3], Raphinha [5]). It almost makes up for a game week with 95% duds.

PSG stomped all over Atalanta in their first fixture and sit top of Ligue 1, but haven’t quite hit their indomitable stride, losing to title rivals Marseille last week. But they didn’t really get going last year until the end of the group stage.

Barcelona beat Newcastle in their Champions League opener and are the unbeaten leaders of La Liga, having scored 21 and conceded just five in their first seven games of the campaign. And Marcus Rashford – the hero of that win at St James’ Park – has fond memories of PSG clashes, with three goals and two assists in six games, and was excellent for Villa against them in the second leg of their quarter-final last season.

Manager to watch: Enzo Maresca

After a spattering of boos following defeat to Brighton, amid murmurs that the Chelsea chiefs may use the October international break to scour the market for managerial alternatives, the last person Maresca will have wanted to be rocking up at Stamford Bridge is Jose Mourinho.

The Blues fans will allow themselves a love-in as their hero returns as manager of a team that’s not a direct rival and Maresca should brace himself for choruses of his counterpart’s name no matter what happens in the game, but particularly if things don’t go to plan.

It won’t be a case of ‘look at what you could have’ as no right-minded Chelsea fan would be in favour of a third Mourinho stint, but victory or even a draw for their favourite son would make for an all-too-easy parallel to be drawn between Maresca and the man against whom all other Chelsea managers are inextricably compared.

Player to watch: Ibrahima Konate

Before the season started, reports claimed the Liverpool chiefs were understandably concerned about Ibrahima Konate and his refusal to sign a new deal as he enters the final year of his contract. They won’t be anywhere near as bothered now.

Sure, they will miss out on a few quid, more than a few if they fail to get rid of him in January, but he has been a disaster this season, proving that Virgil van Dijk can’t cure all the ills of the centre-back he’s playing alongside and that Marc Guehi would have walked straight into the team had his deadline-day deal not collapsed.

William Saliba’s new Arsenal deal will likely strengthen Real Madrid’s resolve to go after the signing of Konate, who will hope the Los Blancos decision-makers view these weak performances as evidence of a player’s head being turned rather than proof of him actually not being all that.

Jean-Philippe Mateta embarrassed him on Saturday and a trip to Galatasaray offers the enticing possibility of Victor Osimhen becoming the latest top-quality centre-forward to run rings around him, if the Nigerian is fit.

Osimhen has 39 goals in 45 appearances for the Turkish giants, but only managed five minutes off the bench against Alanyaspor on Friday having missed their previous three games with an ankle injury.

Team to watch: Eintracht Frankfurt

One of those games Osimhen missed was the 5-1 battering at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt, who are brilliant fun this season. Of teams in Europe’s top five leagues, only Bayern Munich (28) have scored more than their 27 goals in all competitions, in just seven games.

Teenage midfielder Can Uzun already has six goals and four assists in all competitions from midfield having moved to Frankfurt for £10m from Nuremberg in the summer, while Ritsu Doan and Jonathan Burkardt, the replacements for Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike, have both hit the ground running for a side which is almost as bad at defending as it is good at attacking.

They’ve scored 17 Bundesliga goals – again, second only to Bayern (22) – to help them to fourth in the table, but have also conceded 13, which is the second-most in the division behind Werder Bremen (14) in 15th. They did their best to demonstrate the danger of a six-goal lead on Saturday by conceding four to Borussia Monchengladbach in the last half-hour.

If anything will test Frankfurt’s ability to entertain in all circumstances it’s a trip to take on Antonio Conte’s Napoli, who were beaten 2-0 by Manchester City last week.

EFL game to watch: Middlesbrough v Stoke City

It’s no great indication of Michael Carrick’s capacity to take caretaker charge of Manchester United if/when Ruben Amorim is sacked that his replacement at Boro has taken them straight to the top of the Championship table.

Rob Edwards and his league leaders will welcome Stoke City to the Riverside Stadium on Tuesday, who are third behind Frank Lampard’s exciting young Coventry side, four points behind Boro.

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