La Liga Preview: Can Surging Athletic Upset Real Madrid in Blockbuster Weekend?

Following a round that featured goals, goals and more goals, one tends to feel that there's an inevitability for the next act to underwhelm. After all, how could La Liga back up a round that featured scorelines of 7-1, 6-1, 5-0, 4-0 and 3-2, the last of which occurred three times? Well, it's going to give it a good crack. 

In a way that feels far too convenient to be random, the fixture gods have given us a jornada of bumper proportions.

Barcelona's trip to Mestalla to face Valencia on Saturday is the first big encounter on the card. Next up is the Galician derby between Celta Vigo and Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday morning. After that, third-placed Sevilla welcome league leaders Atletico Madrid. Finishing it all off is the grand old fixture of Real Madrid against Athletic Bilbao. 

But that's not all. If you're among the quirky-minded, Villarreal and Las Palmas will contest the yellow-shirted derby on Sunday. Real Sociedad and Alaves, and Malaga and Leganes, will meet in two blue-and-white-stripes affairs. Granada and Sporting Gijon will tackle one another in the red-and-white edition, while Espanyol and Eibar will contest the E derby, which shouldn't be anywhere near as illicit as it sounds. Ready for a weekend on the couch? That's where La Liga wants you.

This is the season of Spanish football's entry into a bold new world, one in which it is aggressively seeking an international audience at any cost to tackle the gobble-up-everything Premier League. 

The scheduling of Barcelona's trip to face to Valencia at 4:15 p.m. local time on Saturday is not an accident. Like the looming Clasico that's been slated for the same time—controversially blanking out a British audience because of the UK's TV blackout on Saturday afternoons—the big-name clash at Mestalla is being pitted head-to-head with the Premier League's often lesser fixtures at that time slot.

The message is: "Hey, America. Hey, Asia. Do you want to wash down your morning coffee/evening tea with Barcelona or Sunderland?"

There's more too. The on-screen presentation of La Liga this season has taken a big jump forward, the league has rebranded itself and directives have gone out to clubs to ensure the stand within view of the main TV camera is at least 75 per cent full. Fines will be given to those that don't manage it. 

If only there were a local focus. Bolstering your TV product is fine, but what about not doing it so artificially? Filling the stands would be better than pretending to fill them, scheduling remains unfriendly for fans, the criminalisation of those supporters is still ridiculous and ticket prices are prohibitively high for many. 

"I wouldn't pay €70 to watch the derby," Depor's Raul Albentosa recently said in a press conference, pointing at the cheapest ticket available at Balaidos on Sunday. "It's ridiculous. I'd watch the game in a bar." If he did, he'd be watching it on a TV, and La Liga would be just fine with that. 

Speaking of TVs, if Athletic manager Ernesto Valverde were sat in front of his on Tuesday night, he might have shuddered a little when catching the scoreline for his side's looming opponents. Real Madrid 5-1 Legia Warsaw, it read at the Santiago Bernabeu. 

For Athletic, those numbers have been painfully regular in this fixture. In four of the Basques' last seven trips to the Bernabeu, they've conceded five; in three of them, the scoreline has read 5-1.

More than a decade has passed since Athletic last won in Chamartin, but more than that, more than a decade has passed since they weren't hammered there. Only once in their last 12 visits have they conceded fewer than three goals, and the aggregate scoreline across those meetings reads 46-11. What hope do they have this time, then? Actually quite a bit. 

Madrid's performance against Legia was emblematic of who Zinedine Zidane's team become when Casemiro and Luka Modric aren't around. In a shape that entertainingly drifted toward being a 2-1-7, the hosts won through firepower but did so with the balance of an elephant on the three-metre springboard.

"We took a few risks, but the positive thing is that going forward we created a lot of chances," Zidane said afterward to reporters. "It'll be another match on Sunday, another plan and other players. ... We worked very well, even if the defensive balance was slightly delicate today." 

From Zidane, it was a polite way of saying: "We were a bit crap at the back."

But that wasn't a one-off. Madrid's defence has been alarmingly shaky this season. In 12 games in all competitions, they've kept only two clean sheets and have conceded in their last six outings.

On a collective level, there have been issues with structure, but the struggles of individuals have been pronounced. Sergio Ramos' ongoing evolution into a caricature of himself is becoming problematic, Raphael Varane isn't kicking on, Keylor Navas hasn't hit the heights of last season and Marcelo is still Marcelo.

A surging Athletic might fancy their chances. They've won five of their last six games in the league, and with Casemiro and Modric set to be missing again for the hosts, Valverde's men will have the blend of aggression and polish capable of unsettling Madrid. On the flanks, Inaki Williams and Iker Muniain are a dynamic combo, while Aritz Aduriz and Raul Garcia—who could find some argy-bargy at a children's petting zoo—are always a handful. 

Athletic's biggest challenge will be at the other end. For Sunday night's marquee clash, defenders Inigo Lekue, Eneko Boveda, Oscar De Marcos and Yeray are all carrying injury concerns. The visitors will also have to deal with a Cristiano Ronaldo, who's bound to explode sooner or later and whose face has long terrified them. In fairness to them, that face terrified us all this week:

Key for Athletic will be the way they tread the line between intensity and recklessness.

In their high-pressing style, the Basques possess the physicality to get under the skin of a Madrid side that isn't all that fond of being hassled. You can bet Valverde's men will hound Toni Kroos in midfield like hyenas, and the desire will be to force Pepe and Varane to spend more time on the ball than Zidane will want. Raul Garcia will ensure they don't look pretty in the mirror afterward. 

The issue for Athletic, though, is their tendency for whipping themselves into an uncontrollable frenzy. Few sides in Spain present a physical challenge in the way they do, but few are more adept at boiling over, either. Going punch for punch with Madrid can only end badly, placing a premium on picking their moments and targeting weak spots. Because there are some there. 

Not to Be Missed

• When Mario Suarez is scoring braces, you know your luck is changing a little. Three wins from four have shifted the mood at Valencia somewhat, the last of them against Sporting. But Sporting are not Barcelona, whom Valencia tackle on Saturday and who brushed aside Manchester City on Wednesday, even while stuck in third gear. 
  
  The Catalans have issues at the back with Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique injured, sure, but Valencia just have issues at the back full stop. That Barcelona front line should have some fun. 

• The table says Sevilla are flying, but the sensations say something else. The Andalusians might be third, but their football under boss Jorge Sampaoli remains rather disjointed.
  
  The schedule to this point has been rather kind too. On Sunday, that stops: Atletico are in town, and they might be the best team in Europe. Yet we all know what Sevilla are capable of at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

• It's a shame the Galician derby keeps falling on weekends featuring other blockbusters, denying it some time of its own in the limelight. Last season, the clashes between Celta and Depor coincided with the Clasicos, and this time, it's sort of being lost amid a cluster of heavyweight clashes.
  
  Still, tune in early on Sunday if you want to get a taste for a heated regional affair that's up there with the best of them in the Spanish top flight.

• Osasuna vs. Real Betis on Friday night looks huge for the latter's boss, Gus Poyet. Watch this space. 

• With their neat football, strong philosophies, distinctive kits and likeable identities, Villarreal vs. Las Palmas on Sunday will be football-hipster heaven.

Follow @TimDCollins