Head-to-head battles in Saturday’s big cup finals in Europe

The 2018/19 campaign is almost complete, with only a round of fixtures left in Ligue 1 and cup finals to be played across Europe. On Saturday there is the Copa del Rey final in Spain, the DFB-Pokal final in Germany and Taca de Portugal cup final. Here we run through a key head-to-head battle in each final, with additional information about their Football INDEX share prices.

Taca de Portugal final – Luiz Phellype (Sporting) vs Tiquinho Soares (FC Porto)

Saturday, 17:15 GMT

For one of these two teams this season will ultimately go down as a huge disappointment. Both missed out on the league title to rivals Benfica and one will have to suffer the disappointment of cup final defeat.

This is actually the second meeting between the two teams in the space of a week, with Porto coming out on top in their game played on the final weekend of the season. Porto and Sporting each had a man sent off and shared seven additional bookings, in what proved a fiery affair to close the league season.

Both Luiz Phellype and Tiquinho Soares played instrumental roles in that match. Phellype scored Sporting’s only goal of the game and Soares finished as the WhoScored Man of the Match, assisting Porto’s equaliser and firing off eight shots of his own. The focus will be on both once again this weekend.

Phellype only signed for Sporting in January but has made such an impact that he is even keeping out the fit-again Bas Dost out of the team. For some context, Dost has scored 15 league goals this season and netted 61 times over the two previous league campaigns. Phellype, meanwhile, has scored eight goals in his first nine starts for Sporting.

FC Porto’s job will be to keep him quiet while also getting the best out of their own Brazilian striker, Soares. The 28-year-old finished the campaign as Porto’s top scorer in the league (15 goals).

Phellype Football INDEX share price – N/A

Soares Football INDEX share price - £0.25

DFB-Pokal final – Marcel Halstenberg (RB Leipzig) vs Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)

Saturday, 19:00 GMT

RB Leipzig will aim to finish their remarkably successful campaign with silverware when they take on newly crowned Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Saturday. For Munich, however, they will look to avenge last season’s DFB-Pokal final defeat to Frankfurt. Niko Kovac was the manager for Frankfurt on that occasion, but now leads Bayern, albeit possibly only for one last game.

Bayern are the superior team on paper, but as last year’s final showed, anything can happen in a cup final. Leipzig will have to draw on that for confidence but also have their 0-0 draw with Bayern from the start of this month fresh in their memory.

Nothing could separate the two sides on that day and a moment of individual quality may be required to make the difference on Saturday. In that respect neither side are short of game-changers and it could come from the flanks.

Joshua Kimmich and Marcel Halstenberg, who operate at right and left-back, respectively, have both enjoyed sublime campaigns and head into this weekend’s final in fantastic form.

Germany’s first-choice full-backs played a direct hand in 24 league goals between them this season. Halstenberg finished the campaign as Leipzig’s highest WhoScored rated player (7.56), while Kimmich registered more assists than any other defender in Europe’s top five leagues (13).

Halstenberg’s Football INDEX share price - £0.64

Kimmich Football INDEX share price - £2.53

Copa del Rey final – Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona) vs Goncalo Guedes (Valencia)

Saturday, 20:00 GMT

If reports are to be believed, this could prove Philippe Coutinho’s final game for Barcelona, with the La Liga champions in need of raising money to afford their summer spending spree. Coutinho’s time at Barcelona up until this point has been a relative disappointment.

Barcelona spent an eye-watering £142m to prise Coutinho away from Liverpool and, after a bright start; things have gone downhill quickly, even to the point where Barcelona supporters boo his presence on the pitch. The Brazil international has returned to training just in time for Saturday’s final and is tipped to start, with Ousmane Dembele missing.

Coutinho, you’d imagine, will not be particularly chuffed at the idea he could be sold by Barcelona this summer and this is, you feel, his final chance to try and salvage his future at the club. He only returned five La Liga goals this season – his lowest in a league campaign since 2014/15 (also five).

Barcelona are the favourites heading into Saturday’s contest against Valencia, though they are no where near their best. They still seem to be recovering from their shock Champions League semi-final exit to Liverpool and that certainly gives Valencia hope, especially as both league meetings between these two sides this season were drawn.

Los Che are gunning for their first Copa del Rey trophy in 11 years, when Juan Mata scored in a 3-1 win over Getafe in 2008. On this occasion their hopes are on the shoulders of Goncalo Guedes, who enjoyed a purple patch in form in April. Their big money arrival from Paris Saint-Germain hasn’t quite hit the heights expected, similarly to Coutinho, but both have an opportunity to write their name in history this weekend. 

Coutinho’s Football INDEX share price – £2.03

Guedes Football INDEX share price - £1.01