At the dawn of August 14th, the new La Liga season officially kicked off, with Valencia beating Getafe by a slim 1:0 margin at home in the first match. Immediately afterward, the two giants of La Liga, Real Madrid and Barcelona, will also make their debut one after another.
Despite Barcelona losing Lionel Messi and Real Madrid yet to bring in Mbappe, what challenges will these two lost sides from last season face in the new season?
Barcelona to face Real Sociedad
August 16th, 2:00 am Beijing time
The kickoff time for this match is much earlier than the previous 3:00 or 4:00 kickoffs. In the past, fans used to stay up until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. to watch Barcelona matches, but now that the time is earlier, I wonder how many fans are still willing to stay up late to watch the match?
The impact of Messi's departure on Barcelona is undoubtedly huge, with sales of jerseys and season tickets going down considerably, but these are only short-term effects. After all, even with Messi in the team, Barcelona's financial situation has not improved dramatically, so why would they now be saddled with a debt of more than a billion euros?
Economic loss is only part of it, athletic, the previous two seasons, Barcelona once four big empty, once the La Liga and Champions League results hit Messi Barcelona career low. Even if the new season is not performing well, I'm afraid it won't be so bad that the first Champions League group exit, and then lose the Champions League qualification to the point.
Real Sociedad is not an easy enemy to deal with, once led the La Liga table in the first half of last season, but eventually missed out on Champions League qualification due to lack of strength and finished in fifth place.
In pre-season warm-up matches, Barcelona had a moderate record of 4 wins and 1 loss in 5 matches, with the only loss coming away from home against Salzburg with 1:2. And in the recent Gamba Cup, Barcelona beat Crowe-led Juventus 3:0.
Real Sociedad has won 4 and lost 2 out of 6 matches against weak opponents, with their most recent match at home against Osasuna, a mid-tier La Liga team, 1:3.
The last 10 meetings between the two teams, Barcelona 8 wins and 2 draws to remain undefeated, occupying an absolute advantage. Last season in La Liga, Barcelona double killed Real Sociedad 2:1 at home and 6:1 on the road.
Messi has traveled to Paris, but Laporta took over is still a mess, need to clean, need to reduce the salary of a large number of players, the team has no development to speak of. At present, Barcelona is urgently for Depay, Garcia two new recruits for registration formalities.
Barcelona's forward line is facing difficulties with Messi leaving, Aguero injured, Depay waiting to be registered, Fathi not recovering from his injury, Dembele and Coutinho in poor form, and Griezmann and Braithwaite struggling to perform satisfactorily.
But in pre-season preparations, Koeman has gotten used to not having Messi, this competition, we can still maintain confidence in the overall strength of the far superior opponents of Barcelona, the home win is not in doubt, a small victory.
Alaves vs Real Madrid
August 15, 4:00 a.m. Beijing time
At the end of last season, Real Madrid four big empty, Zinedine Zidane resigned, good old Ancelotti back to Real Madrid. When Zidane was at Real Madrid, he was still under the assistant coach Ancelotti, these years have not been as good.
When Florentino welcomed back Zidane, he promised a reinforcement budget of 300 million euros and delivered. Ancelotti returned, Real Madrid only focus on one side of the sale of players to make money, reinforcement, in addition to the early exemption of Bayern center back Alaba, and then no movement.
After losing 1:2 away to Rangers in the warm-up match, Carlo Ancelotti said: you have to buy a striker, and if the budget is not enough, Richarlison will do.
Florentino said: to buy a striker to buy a fierce, our goal is Mbappe! But the matter did not make substantial progress, the Parisian newspaper said that Real Madrid is ready to 120 million euros offer Mbappe, reporter Galletti then reported that Real Madrid will open 150 million euros offer for Mbappe. But to complete the transfer deal this summer, the difficulty will not be more than before Chelsea introduced Harland, and now Manchester City introduced Kane small.
When he was at AC Milan, Carlo Ancelotti was used to being diligent and using whatever players the boss gave him. Now at Real Madrid, it is also the same, the new season is approaching, Ancelotti said, has been restored to health of Azhar is the best attraction this season!
Alaves in the West basically is the level of relegation team, the team's total value of only 80 million euros, but not enough for Real Madrid to buy Azar. The two teams nearly 10 meetings, Real Madrid 8 wins and 2 losses in the advantage, but last season did not get any bargains, home 1:2 loss, away 4:1 win, each winning one.
Ramos, Varane two main center backs left the team, replenished Alaba, the front line is not reinforced, the only can rely on only Benzema, hope has been looking forward to not on the Azar, obviously not reliable. This competition, I favor the home team undefeated.
