It’s not just the Premier League that’s back, European football leagues are also awakening from their summer slumber with Serie A and the Greek Super League the only major leagues not back in action just yet.
We’ve already put together our Premier League preview, which you can read here, but if you preview a European adventure this weekend we’ve picked out the standout games from Germany, France and Spain for your viewing pleasure. Fun Fact: European Football VPN is one of the most searched terms on Google.
Our European Football VPN articles are brought to you in partnership with EPL Index, and Dave Hendrick – host of the Two Footed Podcast, offering FREE podcasts to football fans.
UK TV and video streaming rights for 2021/22 season (excludes unofficial IPTV streaming services who will show footage from other broadcasters):
- Premier League – Sky Sports, BT Sport & Amazon Prime
- Bundesliga – Sky Sports
- Ligue 1 – BT Sport
- Serie A – BT Sport
- La Liga – Amazon Prime & La Liga TV
- SPFL – Sky Sports & BT Sport
⚽ Borussia Monchengladbach vs Bayern Munich
🇩🇪 Bundesliga
📅 Friday 13 August 2021
⏰ 1930 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ Sky Sports Live Streaming
The Bundesliga returns with Champions Bayern Munich setting off in search of a tenth successive title, with Borussia-Park in Monchengladbach to venue for their first game. Both sides come into the season with new managers, Adi Hutter who swapped Eintracht Frankfurt for the task of rebuilding the Colts, and Julian Nagelsmann who had previously done such an impressive job at Hoffenheim and then RB Leipzig taking over from Hansi Flick in Munich.
Neither club have been massively busy in the transfer market with left back Luca Netz the only arrival for Borussia, while Bayern’s only notable first team addition has been Dayot Upamecano. For Bayern, it’s not much of an issue. They have world class players all over the pitch and will be expected players like Alphonso Davies and Leroy Sane to bounce back after disappointing seasons. For Borussia though, the failure to add will put pressure on Hutter to maximise the squad he inherited. It’s not a bad squad but does lack options in both attack and defense. The effects of the Covid Pandemic have been felt in the pockets of clubs all over Europe and Monchengladbach, a big club but not a cash rich club, have had to adapt their plans to cope with the losses suffered.
Bayern will be strong favourites to win this game but they have had a very poor pre-season, winless in four games with only a draw against Ajax representing a somewhat positive results and saving the embarrassment of a clean sweep of defeats. One of those defeats came at the hands of this weekend’s opponents so a manner of swift revenge will be on the agenda for the Bavarian giants.
⚽ PSG vs Strasbourg
🇫🇷 Ligue 1
📅 Saturday 14 August 2021
⏰ 2000 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ BT Sport Live Streaming
The Lionel Messi era begins in Paris as PSG welcome Strasbourg to the Parc de Princes. Following his historic move to the French giants, interest in Ligue 1 has risen massively because of the draw of Messi. Every available ticket will sell out for every PSG game this season, home and away. TV viewership is expected to see a huge rise, which will please Amazon who purchased a large portion of the rights for the next few seasons at a bargain price.
Messi is one of five arrivals at the club, as PSG look to bounce back from a terribly disappointing season which saw them fail again in Europe while also losing their grip on the Ligue 1 title. It was compounded when Thomas Tuchel, sacked by PSG mid-season, went on to win the Champions League with Chelsea. There is huge pressure on Mauricio Pocchetino after Tuchel had such success last season, and then his side landed Messi along with Gini Wijnaldum, Gigi Donnarumma and Sergio Ramos on free transfers and spent close to £60mil on rampaging right back Achraf Hakimi.
While PSG’s minimum task this season will be to win Ligue 1, Strasbourg will merely be hoping to stay in the division. Last season they finished in 15th and they have been hit hard by the pandemic with the collapse of the previous, far more lucrative, tv deal that Ligue 1 had negotiated as well as big hits in terms of sponsorship and match day income.
This game may not be very competitive, PSG should win comfortably, but it could be historic. Potentially the first game of Lionel Messi’s PSG career.
⚽ Barcelona vs Real Sociedad
🇪🇸 La Liga
📅 Sunday 15 August 2021
⏰ 2000 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ La Liga TV
While PSG prepare for the dawn of the Messi era, his former club Barcelona must begin life after Messi this weekend. They have to dust themselves off after the embarrassment of losing the world’s best player for free due to their own stupidity and misappropriation of funds. They have to discover what they are as a team, and a club, now that he’s taken his considerable talents to Paris.
It’s not just Messi that Barca won’t have this weekend, it’s their other summer signings too. Sergio Aguero has been ruled out through injury but he, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Emerson are all yet to be registered by Barcelona because they have not yet been able to get themselves into a financial situation that satisfies La Liga’s rules on spending. Unsurprisingly, nobody wants to pay them much money to take on overpaid, underperforming flops like Ousmane Dembele, Phil Coutinho or Antoine Griezmann. Highly paid players like Samuel Umtiti, Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto have not been willing to take massive paycuts, because why would they? Barca dug themselves a massive hole over the past five years as they chased the Champions League but they spent poorly on new signings and made terrible decisions when it came to contract renewals.
Real Sociedad by comparison are a model club. The pandemic’s impact on their finances has meant that the only new addition is a back-up goalkeeper in Mat Ryan who arrives from Brighton, but they’ve been able to keep hold of their stars. Mikel Oyarzabal and Aleksander Isak were subject of much speculation but they remain in Basque country where the team from San Sebastian will look to go one better than last season’s 5th placed finish and secure a place in the Champions League. With ageing wizard David Silva pulling the strings behind the likes of Oyarzabal, Isak, Carlos Fernandes and Ander Barrenetxea, La Real are one of the most enjoyable teams in Europe to watch. Imanol Alguacil has done a fantastic job since taking over in December 2018, crafting a well balanced side who play attractive football while remaining defensively solid. His side beat their great rivals Athletic Bilbao in the 2020 Copa Del Rey final, which was delayed a year until last season in the hopes of having fans back, and brought home their first silverware since 1987. More of the same please, is the message from the masses.
With these and plenty of other games taking place around Europe this weekend, there’s no shortage of football available if you decide you’d rather not watch Premier League games outside those of your own club, or indeed at all. For alternative ways to watch them online, Liberty Shield can help you. Click here and find out how.
How to watch every European Football match from anywhere…
European Football VPN matches for the 2020/21 season will be streamed live between BT Sport, Sky Sports and La Liga TV, as well as their respective apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Smart TV, Now TV, FireTV etc.
But these streaming services are not available to everyone, for example when you load BT Sport in the USA, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Dubai, Canada etc. you will get an error message.
Sorry, this video is not available in your country.
This is basically because their streaming services are geoblocked based on the IP address being used to access it. You must be a UK domestic web user to access BT Sport and BBC Sport live tv streaming.
- Get a UK IP address.
- If you want to watch on your Windows PC, Mac, FireTV, iPhone, iPad or Android then you can get a UK Proxy or VPN Apps from Liberty Shield, FREE for 48 hours and then from only £8.99 per month..
- Prefer to watch on supported media streaming devices like Now TV, Smart TVs, Apple TV, Xbox, PS4, Roku etc? You’ll need a UK configured VPN Router setup as British, available from only £9.99 with Worldwide Shipping available.
How can I watch BT Sport 2021/22 season matches live?
As well as the FA Cup VPN, BT Sport has the rights to just over 50 Premier League fixtures during the 2020/21 campaign, and will also carry coverage of the UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League until 2024. Subscribers can watch BT Sport on their computers as well as their various apps on connected devices. They do offer a Monthly Pass with no contract, which will give customers access to the BT Sport mobile app. BT Sport Box Office will no longer show the matches via the now scrapped pay-per-view offering, but is it too late and have customers already moved towards illegal streams and IPTV providers?
Remember that BT Sport also features coverage from the Ligue 1, and holds rights to Moto GP, UFC and WWE coverage as well. After a long delay the BT Sport app is now available on several models of Smart TV as well as Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Furthermore; BT Sport isn’t the only geographically-censored streaming services a VPN or Proxy will allow you to access. Other UK services like Sky Sports, Now TV, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, ITV Hub, All 4 and BritBox are available. Plus with the option to switch to our USA service whenever you like, you can access Hulu, HBO GO, Netflix and Pandora. Essentially you can access international content from virtually anywhere!
