5 Key Fixtures for Real Madrid Fans to Focus on in 2016-17 La Liga Season
La Liga has announced the fixtures for the upcoming 2016-17 season, providing some interesting opening-weekend encounters for fans across Spain and the rest of the world to look forward to.
Barcelona against Real Betis and Granada hosting Villarreal are two particularly intriguing games, while Real Madrid will open their season at the Anoeta Stadium against Real Sociedad, the scene of one of Gareth Bale's late-season, match-winning displays last campaign.
Beyond the opening day, there is much more for Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane and the club's fans to relish, and here we identify five fixtures of particular importance for Los Blancos.
Deportivo Alaves, Estadio Mendizorroza, 29-30 October
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Deportivo Alaves away might not seem a particularly obvious eye-opener, but consider this: Real finished last season just a single point behind title-winners Barcelona, yet they dropped four points across the season against newly promoted opponents.
Draws at Sporting Gijon and Real Betis cost Los Blancos in the end, matches in which they would have expected three points each time.
This year, the promoted trio is comprised of Alaves, Osasuna and Leganes; while Real's first match against any of them is the third gameweek at home to Osasuna, it is on the road where they failed to take maximum points last year against the supposed weakest teams and where they need to improve this time.
The trip to Alaves' Estadio Mendizorroza comes in October, the 10th game of Real's league season.
Atletico Madrid, Vicente Calderon, 19-20 November
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Unsurprisingly, Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid could be a bit tasty this year.
Until the final two weeks of the season, Atleti led Real in La Liga's standings, were comfortably the better and more consistent side and had battled through a tougher route to the UEFA Champions League final than Real—yet they still finished up third in the league, behind Real, and lost out in the European final on a penalty shootout.
A big summer of adding quality almost has Atletico looking in perfect shape for the 2016-17 campaign, barring a new striker, but there's no question Real have the squad to reassert their dominance over their rivals if performance levels match Los Rojiblancos for effort as well as quality.
The first derby of the season comes in November at the Vicente Calderon, the final such fixture to be played at the famous old ground before Atleti move to their new stadium next term.
Can Real make the memories bittersweet ones for the home team? They failed to beat Atleti in 90 minutes—or, indeed, 120—in three attempts last season.
Sevilla, Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, 14-15 January
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One of the critical yet unknown quantities for the upcoming season for Real Madrid is Zinedine Zidane.
Yes, he's an inspirational, influential figure in the dressing room as a club legend, and he has an aura and a confidence that comes from immediately lifting the Champions League. In game-to-game situations, though, that's largely a sideshow to being able to alter the flow of any given match in his team's favour.
The growth and development of Zidane will be tested enormously this season, particularly on a tactical level, and perhaps most of all when he comes up against experienced winners, managers who are hands-on in altering their lineup on a regular basis and who break outside the confines of 4-2-3-1 (and variations) on a regular basis.
Step forward, Jorge Sampaoli, the new head coach at Sevilla, and an array of attackers at his disposal who look set to make the Andalucian club a different prospect to the stodgy, predictable nature of Sevilla in La Liga last season under Unai Emery.
Sampaoli—and Diego Simeone, Eduardo Berizzo, Pako Ayesteran and others—will undoubtedly hand lessons to Zidane; how quickly the French boss takes them on board and adjusts his own side accordingly will be critical in determining whether Real Madrid can win La Liga this term.
Sevilla vs. Real Madrid, the second league match of 2017. Mark it in your diaries.
Barcelona, Santiago Bernabeu, 22-23 April
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Naturally, El Clasico will be one of the first fixtures fans look for, both as a one-off spectacle and as a mechanism to determining who might win the title.
The most important one from both points of view should be the second of the season, with Real hosting Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu in late April, with just a further five league games to be played afterward.
Mistakes could be costly in terms of silverware and points, but a hero in the match could also tilt the balance of the title itself.
The Bernabeu version of the fixture is also important, however, because Real must look to improve markedly on their ineptitude in the same game last season: they were slow, the lineup was all wrong, tactically they were all over the place and Barca ran riot, winning 4-0 and silencing their home fans with some terrific football.
Rafa Benitez oversaw just a further six league games as boss after that. Zidane might be able to withstand such pressure for longer, but it would severely damage his reputation as an immediate winner and could easily restart dressing room unrest.
Malaga, Estadio La Rosaleda, 20-21 May
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A league title is rarely won or lost due to a single game in isolation, with the entire season ultimately defining whether a team has done enough across the 38 games, but it can certainly come down to a last-day performance to determine who lifts the trophy.
Two of the last three Liga seasons have seen the destination of the title secured on the final day, and if Real Madrid are to be involved in such a close-fought race once more, they'll need to fare far better against their opponents in 2016-17 than they did last term: Malaga, at the Estadio La Rosaleda.
Malaga were comfortably the better side last year and, if not for some profligate finishing by Duje Cop and Juanpi, they would have deservedly taken all three points instead of a 1-1 draw. Toni Kroos was exposed and overrun in midfield, there was little link-up play in attack for Real, and Zidane showed little inclination or ability to change things on the touchline.
That was back in February, though, and both the head coach and the team have improved tactically and individually since then—fast forward to the final game of 2016-17, and maybe they'll be showing just how much they have improved as a group.
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