Bill ConnellyMar 12, 2026, 11:41 AM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.Follow on XMultiple Authors
play2:25Laurens: Tudor should have resigned after Atletico Madrid defeatGab & Juls slam Igor Tudor’s decisions in Tottenham’s 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
play3:14Ryan Reynolds & Rob Mac not fans of VAR after Wrexham defeatESPN spoke with Wrexham F.C co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac after their 4-2 defeat to Chelsea in the FA cup.
play2:11Have Arsenal lost their creative spark?Craig Burley questions Arsenal’s attacking threat after their 1-1 draw to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
play1:33Moreno: Valverde has elevated himself to ‘legendary status’ at Real MadridAlejandro Moreno reacts to Federico Valverde’s hat trick that led Real Madrid past Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League matchup.
play1:44Moreno: PSG result is embarrassing for ChelseaAlejandro Moreno believes Chelsea should have done better to manage the game vs. PSG in the Champions League
Teams involved: Middlesbrough, Millwall, Ipswich Town, Hull City, Wrexham, Derby County, Southampton
Teams involved in Belgium: Union Saint-Gilloise, Club Brugge, Sint-Truiden, basically the new heavyweights, the old heavyweights and the upstarts
Teams involved in Greece: AEK Athens, PAOK, Olympiacos, aka three of the country’s four heavyweights
Teams involved: Bochum, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Nurnberg, Arminia Bielefeld, Dynamo Dresden, Preussen Munster, Eintracht Braunschweig, Greuther Furth, Holstein Kiel, Magdeburg … why yes, I just listed over half the league
Marcotti ‘really disappointed’ in Guardiola’s tactics vs. Real Madrid (2:25)Gab & Juls react to Man City’s 3-0 loss to Real Madrid in the first leg of their round of 16 Champions League clash. (2:25)
Laurens: Tudor should have resigned after Atletico Madrid defeatGab & Juls slam Igor Tudor’s decisions in Tottenham’s 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Gab & Juls slam Igor Tudor’s decisions in Tottenham’s 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Ryan Reynolds & Rob Mac not fans of VAR after Wrexham defeatESPN spoke with Wrexham F.C co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac after their 4-2 defeat to Chelsea in the FA cup.
ESPN spoke with Wrexham F.C co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac after their 4-2 defeat to Chelsea in the FA cup.
Have Arsenal lost their creative spark?Craig Burley questions Arsenal’s attacking threat after their 1-1 draw to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Craig Burley questions Arsenal’s attacking threat after their 1-1 draw to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Moreno: Valverde has elevated himself to ‘legendary status’ at Real MadridAlejandro Moreno reacts to Federico Valverde’s hat trick that led Real Madrid past Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League matchup.
Alejandro Moreno reacts to Federico Valverde’s hat trick that led Real Madrid past Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League matchup.
Moreno: PSG result is embarrassing for ChelseaAlejandro Moreno believes Chelsea should have done better to manage the game vs. PSG in the Champions League
Alejandro Moreno believes Chelsea should have done better to manage the game vs. PSG in the Champions League
Teams involved: West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United
Teams involved: Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Brentford, Everton
Teams involved: Hoffenheim, Stuttgart, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen
11-13. Jupiler Pro League title, Super League Greece title and Austrian Bundesliga title
Teams involved in Austria: Sturm Graz, Salzburg, LASK, Austria Wien, Hartberg, Rapid Wien, basically six teams within five points of each other at the top
Teams involved: Real Oviedo, Levante, Elche, Deportivo Alaves, Mallorca, Sevilla, Girona
Bayern Munich lead Borussia Dortmund by 11 points in the Bundesliga and are nearly on pace for a record point total. Inter Milan lead AC Milan by seven in Serie A. Arsenal lead Manchester City by seven in the Premier League (though City have a game in hand), and Barcelona lead a particularly fragile Real Madrid by four in LaLiga. PSG only leads Lens by one in Ligue 1, but odds are still dramatically in favor of another title for the defending European champs.
One way or the other, however, we can always count on soccer’s superpower: depth. Be it a title race, the hunt for a spot in a European competition or a good, old-fashioned relegation scrap, there’s always something worth following. And with a little over two months remaining in the 2025-26 season, we should have plenty of thrills and anxious moments to come.
Here are 15 particularly interesting races to follow. I do a list like this each spring, and this one has a particularly English feel.
When Heart of Midlothian surged to the top of the table in the Scottish Premiership early in the season, it was easy to write it off as a fun side effect of epic struggles from both Celtic and Rangers. Surely it wasn’t going to last. After all, no one but Scotland’s two giants have won a top-division title since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen did it twice — while also winning the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup — in the mid-1980s.
So that’s that, right? Time for the Old Firm to take over? Nope! After losing two of three in February (including 4-2 to Rangers), Hearts have won their last two league matches, while Rangers and Celtic each dropped points for two straight weeks. Hearts continue to play stalwart defense, getting just enough goal-scoring oomph from Claudio Braga and company, and through 29 matchdays, we’re looking at this at the top of the table:
There are four matches left before the league gets split into two, and the top six teams all play each other one more time. In other words, the work is far from over. But if you haven’t started paying attention yet, it’s time to. You don’t want to miss it if Hearts actually pull this off.
Laurens: Tudor should have resigned after Atletico Madrid defeat
While Wolves appear interested in pulling the greatest escape act ever — they’ve taken eight points from their past five league matches after managing just eight in their first 25 — they’re still in a 12-point hole and almost guaranteed to go down. Burnley, meanwhile, are in a nine-point hole. But the fight to avoid 18th place is becoming the most morbidly fascinating race in Europe.
15. Leeds United – 31 points, minus-11 goal differential 16. Tottenham – 29 points, minus-7 17. Nottingham Forest – 28 points, minus-15 18. West Ham United – 28 points, minus-19
On paper, this battle has a clear hierarchy. Opta’s supercomputer gives West Ham a 48.8% chance of going down, while Forest’s at 25.8%, Spurs 18.1% and Leeds 7.8%. But that ignores a pretty incredible trajectory. West Ham have lost only two of their past 11 games in all competitions, having rallied beautifully in 2026 under Nuno Espirito Santo.
It’s easy to think that things can’t possibly get worse following Tuesday’s Champions League implosion against Atletico Madrid, but it’s unfathomable that such a well-monied club has allowed things to get this bad, and there’s no obvious fix at the moment.
Since Arsenal are 16 points ahead of third-place Manchester United and Manchester City are nine points ahead, it’s safe to assume that those two clubs will end up in next year’s Champions League. (It’s also safe to assume that England will comfortably end up with a fifth spot in the Champions League, as we’ll discuss below.) That means that there are three spots remaining for basically these six teams:
3. Manchester United – 51 points, +11 goal differential 4. Aston Villa – 51 points, +5 5. Chelsea – 48 points, +19 6. Liverpool – 48 points, +9 7. Brentford – 44 points, +4 8. Everton – 43 points, +1
Granted, Brentford and Everton are off the pace a bit and have only a 10.9% chance and 1.9% chance, respectively, of finishing in the top five per the Opta supercomputer. But even if or when the long shots fall short, one of the other four will, too. Who might it be?
There are 10 remaining head-to-heads between the six teams above, starting with Manchester United at Aston Villa (Sunday) and Everton at Chelsea (March 21). Two of the teams play Manchester City, too.
Right now it feels like Germany and Spain have the inside track, but every result from here could end up mattering quite a bit.
Ryan Reynolds & Rob Mac not fans of VAR after Wrexham defeat
We thought we had everything figured out. Teams promoted into the Premier League were going straight back down with increasing regularity, and teams dropping back into the Championship were more likely than their second-division peers to get promoted again soon. The money differences were too stark, and inter-division parity in England appeared nonexistent.
Coventry’s win on Wednesday sent them nine points ahead of third place, so their odds of avoiding the four-team promotion playoff are solid at the moment. But in one direction or the other, nine teams are within five points of the playoff with nine to 10 matches remaining.
2. Middlesbrough – 37 games, 69 points, +22 goal differential 3. Millwall – 37 games, 68 points, +10 4. Ipswich Town – 36 games, 65 points, +26 5. Hull City – 37 games, 63 points, +6 6. Wrexham – 36 games, 57 points, +8 7. Southampton – 36 games, 54 points, +11 8. Derby County – 37 games, 54 points, +6 9. Watford – 36 games, 52 points, +4 10. Swansea – 37 games, 52 points, +0
Among last year’s relegated Premier League teams, Ipswich have rebounded from a poor start to jump back to fourth; Southampton, meanwhile, have overcome a couple of different funks and have gone eight league games unbeaten. They’re back to within three points of the top six. But all of the teams involved are in solid form at the moment.
There’s a lot of new blood involved here, too, and while Wrexham will occupy a lot of the oxygen because, well, they’re Wrexham, there are a lot of exciting stories here. Coventry finally back in the Premier League? Derby County, less than five years after massive financial issues? Millwall? Sign me up.