{"id":148084,"date":"2025-08-15T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148084\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:05:11","slug":"2025-la-liga-season-preview-predictions-for-how-the-top-3-teams-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148084\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 La Liga Season Preview: Predictions for how the top 3 teams finish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/personalities\/doug-mcintyre\" class=\"contributor-wrapper pd-t-b-10 flex\" data-v-d8ab971f=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/doug-mcintyre-727x727.jpg\" alt=\"Doug McIntyre\" class=\"contributor-headshot\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" data-v-d8ab971f=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Doug McIntyre<\/p>\n<p>Soccer Journalist<\/p>\n<p> <\/a>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">With the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/fifa-world-cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> under a year away, many eyes will be on the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/la-liga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">La Liga<\/a> campaign, which kicks off today with two matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">La Liga is home to some of the biggest and brightest stars in world soccer, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/lamine-yamal-nasraqui-ebana-player\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lamine Yamal<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/jude-bellingham-player\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jude Bellingham<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/kylian-mbappe-2-player\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/vinicius-junior-player\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">Last year, Barcelona brought home the trophy with Real Madrid just four points behind. How will this year&#8217;s season work out? Check out the predictions below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> League positions reflect last season&#8217;s finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content ranking-content power-rankings-1 expanded last-ranking-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">Baca was just seconds away from reaching the UEFA Champions League final last season under first-year manager Hansi Flick. This season, the Blaugrana are looking to go at least one step further. Who says they can\u2019t? Eighteen-year-old Lamine Yamal is on his way to becoming the world\u2019s best player \u2014 if he isn\u2019t already. Fellow Ballon d\u2019Or candidate Raphinha had 34 goals in all competitions in 2024-25, doubling his previous career-best. Robert Lewandowski, who turns 37 on Aug. 21, remains an elite striker. Pedri runs the show behind them. The rest of the regulars return, too, with forward Marcus Rashford the marquee summer addition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content ranking-content power-rankings-2 expanded last-ranking-content\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">The record 15-time European champs are coming off what, by their standards, was a dreadful 2024-25, with no major titles secured. But Los Blancos still boast one of the deepest, most expensive squads on Planet F\u00fatbol. And Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 &amp; Co. are now led by one of the sport\u2019s great up-and-coming coaches in former Real Madrid captain Xabi Alonso, who replaced the legendary Carlo Ancelotti in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content ranking-content power-rankings-3 expanded\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\">Can Atleti end their four-year title drought and beat Barcelona and Real Madrid to La Liga glory this season? Occasionally, Madrid\u2019s other\u00a0team outlasts Spain\u2019s double-headed monster. Longtime manager Diego Simeone will be hoping his team is due after a strong summer transfer window which saw $185 million-worth of new talent arrive \u2014 including former Villarreal attacker \u00c1lex Baena, USMNT midfielder Johnny Cardoso and Argentine World Cup-winner (and Atlanta United alum) Thiago Almada.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content ranking-content power-rankings-3 expanded\" data-v-57f930c8=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/personalities\/doug-mc-intyre\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Doug McIntyre<\/a> is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/united-states-men-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United States<\/a> men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ByDougMcIntyre\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ByDougMcIntyre<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n        What did you think of this story?\n      <\/p>\n<p>       <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LaLiga.vresize.160.160.medium.0.png\" alt=\"LaLiga\" class=\"team-logo\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\"\/> Get more from the LaLiga Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more     <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug McIntyre Soccer Journalist With the 2026 FIFA World Cup under a year away, many eyes will be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-148084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115033402545189563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}