Looking Ahead to La Liga

This upcoming season in Spain promises to be an exciting one with FC Barcelona aiming to dethrone the two-time defending champion’s Real Madrid. Last season Madrid ended up finishing 18 points ahead of third-place Barcelona and the two games this season will go a long way to seeing if the new Barcelona can close the gap.

After the first match at the Camp Nou on Dec. 14 (Buy FC Barcelona - Real Madrid Tickets December 14), the two clubs will meet again at the Bernabeu on May 3 (Buy Real Madrid - FC Barcelona Tickets May 3rd). After the May 3rd game each team will have four more league games to play a pivotal role in this year’s Championship race.

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• Real Madrid Tickets

This is not the only important game that each team will play in the final run-in this season. Games against Sevilla, Valencia and last season’s runner-up Villarreal all sandwiched around the  May 3rd clash.

Most of the clubs expected to challenge for the league trophy will close out their seasons on the road on May 31. Barcelona is at Deportivo La Coruna, Villarreal plays at Mallorca, Sevilla is at Numancia and Madrid plays Osasuna - where it clinched the title last season. Atletico Madrid hosts Almeria and Valencia hosts Athletic Bilbao.

The beginning of the season does not get any easier for Real Madrid. They open up on August 31st away to Deportivo, where it hasn’t won since 1991, then travels to Racing Santander before their home opener against promoted Numancia. Will they have wrapped up the  signing of Ronaldo or Kaka by the beginning of the season?

The other big matches in La Liga include the Spanish capital derby between Athletico Madrid and Real Madrid starts at the Vicente Calderon stadium on October 19th (Buy Atletico Madrid - Real Madrid Tickets October 19th) with the return match coming March 8th (Buy Atletico Madrid - Real Madrid Tickets March 8th).

Another great derby is Real Betis vs. Sevilla which will be played on September 21st with the return match at Sevilla’s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium on February 2nd.
The Spanish League enjoys a two-week winter break over the Christmas period, with players off from Dec. 22 to Jan. 3