If you watched the Netflix docuseries Sunderland ‘Til I Die, you saw a famous old English club that looked like dying. Two straight relegations for the Black Cats put these giants of the Northeast in a precarious position, and the man often tasked with guiding the viewer through all this tumult and heartbreak was Nick Barnes. As the Sunderland commentator for BBC Newcastle, he calls every game for radio, but he’s also covered this club through thick and thin, many managers and even many owners. He’s seen it all.

And he’ll see one more thing this Saturday, when Sunderland travel to Wembley to face Sheffield United in the Championship playoff final — the $200 million game. Whoever wins will play Premier League football next season and travel to Anfield, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, the Emirates Stadium. Whoever loses will be back in the Championship, going to Swansea.

Either way, Barnes will be along for the ride. But first he joins The Football Weekend to take stock of it all.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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The FA Cup final is no longer the capstone to the English football season, the last match on the calendar with a weekend all its own. This one will have to share real estate with the Premier League, the promotion playoffs in the Football League, and of course everything going on beyond the shores of Great Britain.

But this remains a showpiece match nonetheless, and this edition has its narratives. There’s MANCHESTER CITY in their third-straight final, looking to salvage something from a season that’s been almost unbelievably poor by Pep Guardiola’s high standards. And then there’s CRYSTAL PALACE, a club without a trophy in its history besides the hardly major Full Members’ Cup. Twice the South Londoners have appeared in this final, and both times the Eagles took the lead. Both times, they ultimately lost to Manchester United.

Now they’ve got a chance at redemption against the other Manchester side, and here to preview it all ahead of kickoff on Saturday (11:30am ET, 4:30pm UK) is Jon Champion, who will be calling the game for ESPN in the United States.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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It’s a game that needs no introduction, but there’s plenty of narrative coming into this one. BARCELONA just lost the greatest cup tie of all time to Inter Milan in a Champions League semifinal. REAL MADRID are enduring a horror season by their standards, culminating with a Copa del Rey final defeat to their Catalan enemies that had them going ballistic on the referee.

That makes the two contestants in El Clásico a pair of wounded animals, though Barcelona have the consolation of that cup final victory and a very good chance to wrap up La Liga with a win here. Madrid have no such comfort, and all they can do is beat their greatest rivals to keep the title race alive. Which of these two can shake off the emotional baggage in time to win the biggest match in club football?

Here to help us answer that question ahead of kickoff on Sunday (10:15am ET, 3:15pm UK) is Dan Hilton of The Barcelona Podcast.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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The Basque region is in northern Spain — well, a bit of it’s French — but most folks there just wish they were their own thing. It’s home to a distinct language, culture, and football tradition, the last of those most prominently represented in two teams from two different cities: ATHLETIC CLUB of Bilbao and REAL SOCIEDAD of Donostia-San Sebastián.

This rivalry, the Basque derby, has had its nasty periods. The late 1980s and early 1990s in particular were a time of discontent. But for the most part, this is a family feud, a sibling rivalry. They’ll fight amongst themselves, but when outsiders knock on the door, they band together against the common enemy. That’s true in football, and in heavier things. The Basque region was decimated under the regime of Spain’s longtime dictator, Francisco Franco, and in the most difficult times, these folks came together in opposition to the Generalissimo and his thugs.

Here to trace all that before the match kicks off on Sunday (3pm ET/8pm UK) is Christopher Evans, author of Los Leones: The Unique Story of Athletic Club Bilbao.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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It was crushing defeat in the Coppa Italia this week for Internazionale, and to next-door neighbors A.C. Milan no less. With that semifinal exit, the treble that Inter were loudly pursuing this season has evaporated. Now there are merely two competitions they’re in a good position to win: the Champions League — if they can get past Barcelona in the semifinal — and Serie A.

The latter is where they’ll meet Roma this weekend for another highly difficult encounter, even at the San Siro. The visitors have not lost a league match since December, an incredible turnaround from a frankly disastrous opening period of the season, and they’ve zipped up the table to compete for a Champions League place. At the heart of it all is Claudio Ranieri, the 73-year-old Roman who came out of retirement to manage his hometown club for one final chapter (maybe) of a lifelong football romance.

Here to get into all that ahead of kickoff is Alasdair Mackenzie, Rome-based writer for TNT Sports, Destination Calcio, Total Italian Football and more.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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It’s the German clásico, Der Klassiker, though Borussia Dortmund are not having a classic season. After a recent uptick in form, they’re still eighth and just trying to get a ticket — any ticket — to Europe next season. Come to think of it, a 4-0 thrashing from Barcelona in their Champions League quarterfinal first leg this week might have put them off the whole business!

And then there’s Bayern Munich, back to being Bayern domestically. They’re six points clear of current adversaries Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the Bundesliga, and they seem to be on pace to secure Harry Kane his first career trophy. But there are still questions swirling around manager Vincent Kompany, and a recent spate of injuries — especially to thrilling young star Jamal Musiala — might have just created an opening for Dortmund here.

Joining the show to chat about all that and more is Markus Fjørtoft, a former professional footballer who now hosts The Fussball Podcast with his dad, Jan Åge Fjørtoft, who himself was a pro in the Bundesliga. Get the lowdown before it all kicks off at 12:30pm ET/5:30pm UK on Saturday.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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It’s the Manchester derby, UNITED against CITY, but it’s certainly a strange one. Both of these clubs are in a bad way, though that means something different to each of them. City have fallen from champion grace but are still battling for a Champions League place. United, on the other hand, are 13th in the league with eight matches left to play.

It’s an incredible state of affairs for one of Europe’s true superclubs, and on this week’s show, the brilliant Carl Anka of The Athletic suggests that United are becoming something like the Dallas Cowboys: a giant global sporting institution that’s lost its magic. We got into how the Red Devils spent their way into this mess, how City have become a team with a soft underbelly, and why this Sunday’s encounter may be a meeting of the legless midfields.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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The international break is over, and club football returns with the Gran Derbi: REAL BETIS vs SEVILLA.

This is one of the most vibrant rivalry matches in world football, Spain's greatest local spat, a true expression of Seville's colorful culture: the freewheeling social scene fueled by ubiquitous outdoor dining and Sevillanos who are impressively direct with one another; the searing heat of Andalusia; the close quarters in which the two sets of fans live, including in split households; and a rich history featuring the Romans, the Moors, Christian kings of all stripes, and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War.

This derby has boiled over at times, but more than anything it's defined by the (mostly) good-natured banter of the street, known as guasa, and a stubborn refusal from both sides to drift towards the corporatism that has come to define the modern game. They're desperate to beat each other and, perhaps as importantly, see each other suffer. In recent years, Sevilla have become the Europa League masters, seven times champions since 2006, in what is a considerable shakeup of the dynamic here. For a while, neither of them won much of anything, and the whole ethos of Real Betis is built around manque pierda — something like, "even when they lose." Betis are the better off this season, though, gunning for European football next season year behind the talismanic talents of Isco, who not so long ago had a short and disastrous spell at Sevilla. He could be the difference-maker this Sunday, though this week's guest predicts Betis could still fall prey to their own inferiority complex in this fixture.

That guest is Colin Millar, news writer for The Athletic and author of The Frying Pan of Spain, a book on the history of this rivalry. He lived in Seville himself and has all kinds of insight into what this one means.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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