Matchday 3 Preview with our experts

All teams are still able to achieve direct qualification for the Finals, but some have it more uphill than others

After a Matchday 2 that equaled the middle of the table, Matchday 3 of eFootball.Pro League is uncertain and open. All the teams still have the possibility of qualifying directly for the Finals, although some will have to work harder than others to achieve it.

Yos Sonneveld, our pundit and professional PES player, highlighted the match between FC Barcelona and Celtic FC (Saturday 23 February, 17:40 CET) as the match of the day without any doubt, due to the expected clash between the world champions of CO-OP: Alex Alguacil, representing Barça, and ETTORITO97 and Ildistruttore-44, wearing the colors of the Scottish squad. But beyond that, this match will face the only team that has achieved all the points possible in the league at the moment (six out of six), Celtic, and a Barcelona that needs to add points after the defeat in the last matchday against Schalke 04.

The first match of the day (Saturday, February 23, 16:00 CET) will see a Boavista FC, which is thirsty for points, take on AS Monaco, one of the teams that has shown the best performance in the competition. Lotfi was chosen MVP of the last Matchday by the fans of the eFootball.Pro League, although his and his partner’s (Usmakabyle) levels are very close. This match also has the lure that it faces French players only, since the Portuguese team is, like the Monegasque, entirely formed by Gallic men. This also happened in Matchday 2, and left us with one of the most emotional moments so far in the competition: the exchange of shirts between AS Monaco’s Usmakabyle and Aazbabysk from FC Nantes.

Finally, FC Schalke 04 and FC Nantes will face each other (Saturday, February 23, 16:50 CET) to try to demonstrate the importance (or not) of many years of playing and training together. The French team formed their line-up shortly before the start of the eFootball.Pro League with Alex GRD and Aazbabysk, who barely knew each other at the beginning of the league. But in two matchdays, and although they have only added 1 point, they have shown sufficient understanding to stand up against any team of the competition. The Germans, on the other hand, have competed together on countless occasions, and have shown their strength in recent games. The three points at stake on Saturday can be decisive for both teams: Schalke 04 would be close to the Finals while Nantes would be given wings to dream for the direct classification.