{"id":70158,"date":"2026-08-13T15:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/70158\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:25:10","slug":"la-liga-kicks-off-without-real-madrid-and-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/70158\/","title":{"rendered":"La Liga kicks off without Real Madrid and Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Less than a month after Spain won the World Cup<\/a>, La Liga is the first of Europe\u2019s big domestic leagues to kick off this weekend, though in muted fashion.<\/p>\n

One game has been postponed and defending champion Barcelona and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s Real Madrid won\u2019t play until the following weekend because they had players return later from the World Cup.<\/p>\n

A fungus outbreak<\/a> on the field caused Celta Vigo\u2019s home opener against Osasuna on Sunday to be postponed to Aug. 27.<\/p>\n

Barcelona, chasing a third straight Spanish league title, will visit Elche on Aug. 23. Real Madrid, revamped under Mourinho after a second consecutive season without a major title, will start at Espanyol on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

Serial top-four finisher Atletico Madrid hosts promoted Malaga on Wednesday while enduring uncertainty about the future of forward Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez, who wants to leave.<\/p>\n

The European season officially started on Wednesday when Paris Saint-Germain defeated Aston Villa 2-1 in the UEFA Super Cup final.<\/p>\n

Weekend slate<\/p>\n

Alaves hosts Getafe to get the games going on Saturday, then Sevilla welcomes Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n

Sunday marks Racing Santander back in the top flight after a 14-year absence. It hosts Villareal, the third-place finisher last season behind Barcelona and Madrid. Levante also visits Espanyol.<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s title defense<\/p>\n

Barcelona will go after the three-peat with many of the players who helped Spain secure its second World Cup title, including Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Gavi, Pedri and Pau Cubars\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Not likely to return is forward Ferran Torres, who scored Spain\u2019s winning goal in extra time in the World Cup final against Argentina. Torres is reportedly negotiating a move to PSG.<\/p>\n

Hansi Flick\u2019s team has been boosted by the signing of England forward Anthony Gordon, who will help to make up for the departure of veteran Robert Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

Mourinho\u2019s Real Madrid<\/p>\n

Hoping to avoid yet another disappointing season, Real Madrid brought back Mourinho to take charge of a squad that has been largely revamped.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and Jude Bellingham remain, while the new signings include World Cup champion Marc Cucurella, Ibrahima Konat\u00e9, Denzel Dumfries, Bernardo Silva and Yan Diomande.<\/p>\n

Among the veterans who left the squad were Dani Carvajal and David Alaba.<\/p>\n

Atletico Madrid\u2019s changes<\/p>\n

Atletico had three players in Spain\u2019s World Cup squad \u2014 Marcos Llorente, Marc Pubill and \u00c1lex Baena.<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvarez also was in the final, with Argentina, and during the tournament he asked to be transferred. Interest in him has come from Real Madrid and Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Atletico has said it does not intend to sell the forward, who has returned to training. But doubts about \u00c1lvarez\u2019s future remain.<\/p>\n

Manager Diego Simeone has already lost Antoine Griezmann, Thiago Almada, Nahuel Molina and Cl\u00e9ment Lenglet.<\/p>\n

Additions include Alejandro Grimaldo, Morten Hjulmand and Lee Kang-In. Cristian \u201cCuti\u201d Romero is also set to arrive.<\/p>\n

New ball technology<\/p>\n

La Liga says it will be the world\u2019s first league to roll out \u201cconnected ball\u201d technology on a large scale. The ball carries a radio-frequency sensor that \u201ccontinuously and accurately\u201d transmits real-time information on the ball\u2019s position and the exact moment of each contact. <\/p>\n

The data generated by the sensor is captured via a network of about 12 antennas installed in each stadium and integrated into the technological ecosystem that the league uses.<\/p>\n

Promoted clubs<\/p>\n

The three teams coming from the second division are Racing Santander, Malaga and Deportivo La Coru\u00f1a, the former champion<\/a> that spent eight seasons in the lower divisions.<\/p>\n

The relegated teams from last season were Mallorca, Girona and Oviedo.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Less than a month after Spain won the World Cup, La Liga is the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4211,9573,1459,92,1252,27519,7840,939,13384,2965,3652,1455,66,223,934,728,4297,91,9362,301,27514,82,24048,7980,1416,2900,22643,2042,4611,664,27520,27518,83,935,1743,396,2899],"class_list":["post-70158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-alejandro-grimaldo","tag-anthony-gordon","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-barcelona","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-clement-lenglet","tag-cristian-romero","tag-dani-olmo","tag-daniel-carvajal","tag-david-alaba","tag-denzel-dumfries","tag-diego-simeone","tag-europe","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-ferran-torres","tag-gavi","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-julin-lvarez","tag-la-liga","tag-lee-kang-in","tag-madrid","tag-malaga-cf","tag-marc-cucurella","tag-marc-pubill","tag-marcos-llorente","tag-morten-hjulmand","tag-nahuel-molina","tag-paris-saint-germain-fc","tag-pedri","tag-racing-de-santander","tag-rc-deportivo","tag-real-madrid","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-thiago-almada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}