LaLiga announces the calendar for the 2023-24 season: this is how El Clásico and related matches will be played

It will not be the return of Lionel Messi in LaLiga, who finally managed to go to Miami, but he ventured anyway as a new and exciting release in which the two giants of Spanish football begin to name the favourites.

The last time Barcelona won both El Clasico titles in the league (2018-2019 season), they won the title, two seasons later (2020-21) Real Madrid won both matches… But the title went to them, led by Atlético. . In the last two campaigns (each team won the cup once) the victories have been shared.

Ancelotti’s Real Madrid goal against this new league that has been withdrawn on Thursday will be to snatch the trophy won by Barcelona, ​​which is why it has already been marked in red on October 29 when it visits the champions at Stade Montjuïc. , as the Barcelona team will have to play their matches until November 2024 and that this will mark the first duel between the two teams … and the first Clasico in history to be played in the Olympic building. In this way the standings of last season when the first round was played in Madrid will change.

It will be this confrontation, on Matchday 11, that will be preceded by the third date of the UEFA Champions League group stage that will start on September 19 and which, depending on the results of both teams in the previous ten matches (the first Madrid derby will already be played) could set the trend until the Christmas break. .

The Merengue team will start in the league with the great new Jude Bellingham, without the presence of Karim Benzema after 14 years, and it will be seen if the reference number 9 is merged to replace the French star or with the only one. A novelty in attack by Joselu, another footballer who performed at the Bernabéu with young Brahim Diaz, who returned after three successful seasons at Milan.

A new Real Madrid will be hungry after a season in which he won three titles (the Club World Cup, the European Super Cup and the King’s Cup) that ended with the bitter taste of elimination in the Champions League at the hands of Manchester City and his early resignation from the league from which he said goodbye in March, when he fell in Camp Nou (2-1) and with 12 games to go, were 12 points away from the already unreachable hypothetical champions, Barcelona.

The second leg will be held at the Bernabéu this time closer to the end of the tournament compared to the previous season. If then, at the Camp Nou, it was played in the 26th round, this time it will be in the 32nd round, on April 21st, with six dates left until the end of the tournament … and four days after the end of the match. I played! The second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals! The last time FC Barcelona visited their great rivals in the second round, they won 4-0… And in the last ten times the Bernabéu have hosted El Clásico in the second part of the season, Barcelona have only won six times. Three riyals.

Xavi will have the presence of Ilkay Gundogan in his team as the main player, at the moment, new and waiting to find the heir of Sergio Busquets, another big absentee in the league after he was a regular in the Barcelona team for the last time. Fifteen seasons. The challenge for Barcelona, ​​of course, is to win the second championship in a row and become the protagonist once again in the Champions League, after many years of trouble and two final seasons to forget.

Arriving on April 21st with an advantage in the standings may not be decisive, but it is transcendental for the current champion, who could give the championship a knock-on effect in hostile territory… though trust in a teammate like last season (when he played domestically) Very unlikely.

El Clásico will be the first duel in the league, but it will not be the only point of interest, far from it, in the tournament, which will start on the weekend of August 12-13 with an even more exciting confrontation at San Mamés, where Athletic Bilbao will host Real Madrid.

The third in the competition, Atletico del Cholo Simeone, who once again presents Antoine Griezmann at the spearhead, will soon face the Madrid derby, and will meet Real on the sixth date, on September 24, in a duel that will follow with particular interest. Barcelona and that he will play immediately after the premiere of the big three (plus Sevilla and Real Sociedad) in the Champions League.

The Madrid derby will be held from the second round in the 23rd round, on February 4, after the King’s Cup quarter-final matches and before the start of the Champions League round of 16.

As for the bilateral duels between Atletico and Barcelona, ​​it is expected that the first match, which will not take place until December 3, on the 15th and three weeks before the Christmas holidays, with the second match, which will be much more, on the day of the 29th round, in March 17, immediately after the Champions League round of 16 was decided, and three dates before the second El Clasico, so it will be Real Madrid, out of indirect interest, that will follow up on its decision with special interest.

LaLiga 2023-24 started walking on Thursday as the calendar was rolled out. Two favorites (and oddly enough that doesn’t come as a surprise) already have their way to the title on the table. The party begins…

other parties

Some of the most relevant matches will be played as follows:

Seville derby: Round 13, Seville-Betis, November 12. (Day 33) Betis – Seville April 28th.

Basque derby: Matchday 8, Real Sociedad Athletic, November 1. Round 20, Athletic – Real Sociedad, January 13th.