DAY 15
Thursday 29 December
17:00 Girona – Rayo Vallecano
7.15pm. Betis – Athletic Club Bilbao
21:30 Atletico Madrid vs Elche
Friday 30 December
17:00 Getafe – Mallorca
19:15 Celta de Vigo – Seville
19:15 Cadiz – Almeria
9.30pm. Valladolid-Real
Saturday 31 December
14:00 Barcelona – Spanish
16:15 Real Sociedad – Osasuna
16:15 Villareal-Valencia
The league is back, club football is back in the middle of Christmas with teams recovering from a 49-day break in World Cup competition in Qatar. comes the time to evaluate if the forces have changed or if Barcelona and Real Madrid will continue to command with an iron fist in the championship standings.
The Barça team went to rest like a coup, with five consecutive victories and at the top of the table. We return without Robert Lewandowski, who has been sanctioned, and without Gerard Piqué, who has already retired of professional football. He will do it in the Catalan derby against Espanyol (Saturday, 14:00), who closed that first part of the championship with a completely opposite dynamic, with five consecutive defeats.
Looking for it will be Real Madrid, who was caught in the World Cup in the midst of a losing streak. Appropriate time-out for the bianconeri, who will try to cut the two points that separate them from Barça in the match against Valladolid (Friday, 21:30) at the José Zorrilla.
Duels for the Champions League to resume the championship
La Liga will return this Thursday, however, without its first two swords, but with three of the first six classified up for grabs, with Betis-Athletic as star party (Thursday, 7.15pm), in a Champions League duel between two teams level on points on 24 who went to half-time in sixth and fourth place respectively.
The third in contention, also with 24 points, is Atlético de Madrid, who walks fifth with the desire to straighten the course after their erratic first phase of the league, who finished before the World Cup with two defeats and one draw. He will do it at home against Elche (Thursday, 21:30), bottom of the table with just four points in the locker room and with his fourth coach of the journey sitting on the bench, Pablo Machín. His counterpart at Atlético, Diego Simeone, has taken responsibility for his team’s progress: “The team is good, what must fail is the coach.”
Simeone: “We have important players and I have to improve” – watch now
Also on Thursday, in the match that will start the day, Rayo Vallecano visits Montilivi (Thursday, 17:00) caressing the European stands and with the expected arrival of Raúl de Tomás just around the corner. The Catalans will try to forget the bad experience in the cup, where they were eliminated by Cacereño.
Real Sociedad and Seville, opposite paths
Among the other great protagonists that the League left us before its breakup we find the Real Sociedad and Sevilla, with contrasting trajectories. While the citizens of San Sebastian have signed a solvent start to the league that places them in third place, the Sevillians have not raised their heads and left the league in relegation.
The Real Sociedad will receive Osasuna in a direct duel for European positions (Saturday, 4:15pm). The rojillos have not won in ‘txuriurdin’ territory for 17 years while Real will try to maintain their privileged position on the podium in the league.
Sevilla, for its part, are forced to start their comeback in the league and he will look for the impetus in his brilliant world champions: Acuña, Montiel and ‘Papu’ Gómez, even if he is still injured. They will play in Balaídos against a Celta (Friday, 19:15) who precede them in the standings by just one point.
The fight to exit the championship well will also be played in Cadiz-Almería (Friday, 19:15) while Villarreal and Valencia will play a regional duel (Saturday, 16:15) separated by just two points with the common goal of getting closer to the European area. Getafe and Mallorca (Friday, 17:00) complete the day, in a cross between the blue troubles and the good aftertaste that Mallorca left before the World Cup.
