Weekend Boxset: Finally

By Graham Sibley May 22, 2026

Weekend Boxset: Finally

We've made it to the end of the season and we have seven great finals for your weekend viewing.

It’s the last Sound of Football Weekend Boxset of season 2025/26.

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All times are UK

Saturday

A-League Grand Final: Auckland v Sydney

09.10 on TNT Sports 2 and HBO Max
And so the A-League reaches its climax with grand final battle between (checks notes) the third and fifth best teams in the competition, after Sydney saw off table toppers Newcastle on penalties in what was a classic semi-final, while Auckland were just too strong for second place Adelaide. If the latter wasn’t a surprise — the New Zealanders are more than capable of beating any team in the competition on the day — Sydney holding firm against an excellent Newcastle side certainly was. There’s two ways you can look at Sydney’s somewhat fortuitous path to the final. The first is that the Sky Blues have been poor for much of the season and only finished in a finals spot due to the deficiencies of the teams around them. The second is that Sydney are a good team who made the right call in jettisoning Ufuk Talay for Patrick Kisnorbo, with the former Socceroo defender yet to lose a match. Either way, this should be quite an atmosphere as the title decider heads over the ditch for the first time in the history of the A-League. Auckland are one of the best supported clubs in the league and Go Media Stadium creates one hell of an atmosphere, while matches between these two sides have been entertaining and tight affairs, with Sydney looking the better team but conceding easy goals. Home advantage and a superior defence should see Auckland lift a maiden title, but Kisnorbo seems to have got the measure of all his opponents in his short stint in the Sydney dugout. Extra time wouldn’t be a surprise, which, to be frank, would be a pain in the arse for this writer who has tickets to see Mogwai that starts bang on the final whistle. Please let this be over by half time. GA

Women’s Super League Play-off Final: Charlton Athletic v Leicester City

12.30 on BBC Two & iPlayer, Sky One and Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event
Play-offs come to the WSL! A post-season knock-out has been introduced to help ambitious WSL2 sides get promoted. In recent seasons only one team has gone up (and usually came straight back down again). As this season sees the top flight expand from 12 to 14 teams, the top two in the WSL2 have been promoted while the side finishing third gets to go up against the bottom side of the WSL. From next season it will be second from bottom in the WSL playing second from top in the WSL2. An advantage is given to the WSL2 side who get to play this single leg tie at home. Though given how abject both sides have been recently, how much advantage this gives is debateable. WSL wooden spooners Leicester have lost every game they’ve played in 2026. Charlton meanwhile, looked assured of promotion at the spring international break; unbeaten and nine points clear of their nearest rival with just six games remaining. They managed just a point from those remaining games but still managed to go into the final round of fixtures at the top of the table, though had to play their nearest rivals, Birmingham — and lost. Both sides have a chance of redeeming themselves. Well, I guess someone has to win it. GS

Championship Play-off Final: Hull City v Middlesbrough

15.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
The more you read about Southampton’s rule-breaking, both before the semi-final against Middlesbrough and other regular season games against Ipswich and Oxford, the harder it becomes to feel that the decision to kick them out of the play-offs was harsh. I think it’s tough on the players whose career prospects have been seriously dented for something of which they are blameless. So too are the fans although the spectators that dressed up in spy gear for the home leg of the Boro game may now be reflecting on their lack of seriousness. It was easy to think that this whole caper was a bit of a laugh but the EFL’s independent panel did not agree and both Southampton FC and their promising young manager face uncertain futures. Boro may not see their inclusion in this final as a reprieve but they’re kidding themselves if they don’t. They had enough of both games to have won the tie and will need to be absolutely on it if they’re to be a Premier League side next season. The good news for manager Kim Hellberg is that Hayden Hackney should be fit to start the match. The Championship player of the season missed most of the climax of the season and is a big part of the reason his team dropped into the play-offs in the first place. Hull meanwhile are looking to pull off a minor miracle by getting promoted from sixth place. They state that they have carried out four training sessions with Southampton in mind which are now wasted and are threatening legal action themselves. Owner Acun Illicali believes that there is a case to be made for Hull to be automatically promoted. Depending on the result, the consequences of Southampton’s action may run well into the summer. TD

Alternative viewing: As a result of the rescheduled kick-off of the play-off final, the Scottish Cup Final, Celtic v Dunfermline, has been bumped from the Boxset. This writer will have this one streaming on his cheap Android tablet. Can Neil Lennon deny his former club an extraordinary league and cup double and win the Pars their first cup since 1968? No.

UEFA Women’s Champions League Final: Barcelona v Lyon

17.00 on BBC Two & iPlayer and Disney+
This is Barcelona’s sixth consecutive Champions League final — a new record — and it’s their fourth against the eight times winners Lyon. The most recent final they played against each other was in 2024, which is the only time Barcelona have ever got the better of Lyon. Haiti’s Melchie Dumornay was the difference for Lyon in their semi-final against Arsenal. An unused substitute in the first leg defeat at the Emirates, in the return leg she won an early penalty and in the late stages laid on the decisive goal for Jule Brand. Barcelona saw Bayern off in their semi-final, a side they had beaten 7-1 at the start of the league phase. Having surprisingly lost last season’s final to Arsenal, Barcelona will not be in any mood to mess around, so expect them to go at Lyon from the start. Both sides have the talent to win, they also the nous to spoil their opponents game. There are a number of players for whom this could be their last game for their club, most notable of which is double Ballon D’or winner Alexia Putellas. Mapi Leon is confirmed to be leaving and could also be joined by Ona Batlle and Selma Paralleulo. For the many French and Spanish internationals in both sides this match will be followed by their first summer off in five years. GS

Sunday

League One play-off Final: Bolton Wanderers v Stockport County

13.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
No spying here, just a good old fashioned battle between two old northern sides looking to return to former glories after periods where it wouldn’t have been a shock to see either club collapse. Stockport last graced the second tier in 2002 and have dropped as far as the National League North, while it’s been a while since Bolton graced Europe with their distinct brand of Allardyceball. Both sides come into the final off the back of relatively comfortable semi-final victories, with Stockport dispatching bogey side Stevenage and Bolton seeing off Bradford 2-0 on aggregate. There’s not been a huge amount to separate these two sides this season either. Two points separated the two clubs in the final table, while their most recent meeting in April ended in a draw, although County have had the edge over the Trotters in recent meetings. Even their stats for the season — average possession, xG, goals from open play, you name it - are nearly identical, although Bolton have a slightly more miserly defence. Even the bookies are offering near identical odds on either side to win. All this suggests that the match will be won by very fine margins: one mistake, one moment of genius, one long throw that causes a goalmouth melee. In some respects, this is exactly what the play-offs should be about — two evenly matched teams who both deserve a shot at the division above. The stats point to potential penalties, but a last minute winner also feels likely. This is the hardest of all the play-off finals to call. GA

Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur v Everton

16.00 on Sky Sports Main Event & Ultra
With the title race decided and only the UEFA pie-sharing left to be decided at the top of the table, all right-thinking neutrals and haters should turn their minds and TV remotes to the final relegation question. Will it be Tottenham or West Ham in the Championship next season? Spurs have the advantage, realistically needing a single point to maintain their top-flight status. Their opponents, Everton, have nothing to play for except the honour of delivering what might be the killer blow. A betting man would bank on inappropriate post-match celebrations in the still unsponsored Tottenham Hotspur stadium. More broadly there is a sense of chickens coming home to roost about Tottenham’s project. The newish stadium sits smack bang in one of the poorest areas of London. The regular stream of football, NFL and music concerts has brought a lot of money into the club but left the local residents with disruption and little else and this is despite the club promising material improvements to its neighbours. You could say that the club are closer to being a privately owned hypermarket rather than a community asset and you could say the same about many other clubs. Relegation to the Championship may if anything force the club to look to its community for support as the Premier League money dries up and that support may not be forthcoming. As I say, Tottenham will probably survive this on field crisis and in the coming seasons may stabilise under new manager Roberto De Zerbi. However, their current situation should be seen as structural as well as sporting and act as a warning to others. TD

Other matters: All the games are being shown live on Sky’s channels. Sky Sports Premier League is where you need to flick to see what’s happening in West Ham v Leeds. The title-winning party, Crystal Palace v Arsenal is on Sky Sports Premier League. In the chase for Champions League places, Sky Sports Tennis has Brighton v Manchester United and Sky One has Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth. Remember, sixth place gets a Champions League spot ONLY if Aston Villa finish fifth. That scenario would NOT give an extra place for whoever finishes ninth.

Serie A: Cremonese v Como

19.45 on TNT Sports 2, HBO Max and DAZN
With almost everything sorted in Serie A, this game finds both sides entering the final round with something to play for: needing a win but requiring results elsewhere to go their way. Jamie Vardy scored early in Cremonese’s away trip to Udinese last weekend and it looked like it would be enough to lift them out of the relegation zone, but a very late winner from Nikola Stulic for Lecce at Sassuolo pushed them back below the dotted line. Now their hopes of staying up rest on Lecce not beating Genoa at home. In the event of a Cremonese draw and Lecce loss, both sides will finish level on points, which will trigger a relegation play-off. It would be the second time this has happened since the play-off tie-breaker was reintroduced to Serie A in 2022. Under head coach Cesc Fabregas, Como are already assured of a first season in European competition with a place in the Europa League but can upgrade that to the Champions League should either Milan lose or Roma fail to win in their respective games at home to Cagliari and away to Verona. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great summer.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary