La Liga calendar was drawn this morning in Madrid. Los Blancos will travel to La Coruña in the first game to play against Deportivo at Riazor. This first game will be played from the 18th to the 21st of August. After the first two games, La Liga will stop for the international break. This year, La Liga will end in May because the players need to rest before travelling to Russia to play the World Cup.
Apart from the start of the season at Riazor, where Los Blancos thrashed (2-6) their rival last season with an exhibition of the substitutes, another key dates are El Clásico or the derby against Atlético Madrid.
El first El Clásico will be held at Santiago Bernabéu on the 20th of December, only four days after Real Madrid play the final, hopefully, of the FIFA Club World Cup at Abu Dhabi. Los Blancos might ask to postpone this game until Thursday, so they can prepare it better. It will be the last game of the season for both giants. The second leg will be the 6th of May at Camp Nou in the 36th week of the season, so it could be decisive for the title race.
Besides, the first derby against Atlético Madrid will be in the 12 week, on the 19th of November. Real Madrid will visit for the very first time of the history Wanda Metropolitano, the brand new stadium of the city rivals.
Real Madrid will try to win back to back titles in La Liga after winning the trophy in the last game of the season at La Rosaleda in Málaga. Zinedine Zidane and his men will have played three official games before the start of the season because they have to meet Manchester United in the European Supercup and FC Barcelona in the Spanish Supercup.
The first week of La Liga:
Sevilla-Espanyol
Málaga-Eibar
Valencia-Las Palmas
Celta-Real Sociedad
Barça-Betis
Deportivo-Real Madrid
Leganés-Alavés
Levante-Villarreal
Girona-Atlético de Madrid
Athletic-Getafe