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Madrid, May 27 (Ians) In an attempt to maintain fair competition, all matches from the penultimate round of games in La Liga will kick off simultaneously on Sunday evening, as teams vie for qualification into European tournaments and to avoid relegation.

Real Sociedad, just one win away from cementing their place in next season’s Champions League, face a formidable challenge visiting Atletico Madrid without David Silva, who is sidelined with a calf injury. Atletico, after surrendering a 3-0 lead to Espanyol in midweek, are vying for second place in the league and unlikely to show mercy, reports Xinhua.

Villarreal, needing victories in their remaining games and Real Sociedad’s losses to finish fourth, are visiting a lackadaisical Rayo Vallecano under the leadership of in-form Nicolas Jackson.

Betis could secure their Europa League spot with just a draw with Girona. However, Girona are still within reach of seventh place and a...

Madrid, May 24 (Ians) The final two matches in the 36th round of games in La Liga will be played on Thursday night, with Mallorca at home to Valencia and Osasuna entertaining Athletic Bilbao.

Mallorca are safe from relegation on 44 points, but need to recover from a 3-0 thrashing to Almeria last weekend, while Valencia still have some work to do to ensure their top-flight survival.

A 1-0 win at home to Real Madrid which was overshadowed by racist insults aimed at Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr gave Valencia 40 points, but if Espanyol and Getafe both win their matches on Wednesday, they would be only two points from the bottom three and with work still to do to survive, a Xinhua report said.

Coach Ruben Baraja has benefited from giving a chance to youngsters Javi Guerra and Diego Lopez, with Lopez scoring the winner against Madrid, and they do have the...

Madrid, Feb 28 (Ians) Osasuna entertain Athletic Club Bilbao in the first leg of the first semi-final of the Copa del Rey knockout competition in their El Sadar Stadium on Wednesday night.

The game will be played in front of a packed house, with the home side who have never won the cup looking to take a step towards their first final since 2005.

Athletic Club are looking to end a 39-year period without winning the cup, after qualifying for and losing finals in 2009, 2012, 2015, 2020 and 2021 although the last two matches were both played in April 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a Xinhua report said.

The two sides are next to each other in La Liga, with Osasuna currently eighth, while Athletic lie ninth, just a point below them. Osasuna will go into the game with their morale sky high after a 3-2 win away to Sevilla whom they defeated in the quarter-final on Sunday night.

Madrid, Oct 24 (Ians) Fc Barcelona remain three points behind Real Madrid at the top of La Liga after a 4-0 win at home to Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night.

One of Barca’s best performances of the season coincided with Bilbao’s worst as Barca led 3-0 at the break thanks to Ousmane Dembele’s 12th-minute header, followed by Sergi Roberto’s 18th-minute shot, which took a slight deflection to lift it over Athletic keeper Unai Simon.

Robert Lewandowski added a third in the 22nd minute and Bilbao weren’t helped by Ander Herrera limping off injured, reports Xinhua.

Herrera’s replacement Dani Garcia also had to go off injured in what was a relatively tepid second half which saw Ferran Torres score Barca’s fourth following a pass from Dembele.

Atletico Madrid moved third after a 2-1 win away to Real Betis thanks to two goals from Antoine Griezmann.

Madrid, Oct 18 (Ians) There is no respite in La Liga this week as Spain’s top-flight clubs move quickly into a round of midweek fixtures on Matchday 10.

The first game will be played on Tuesday night when Sevilla, who appears to be improving since the arrival of Jorge Sampaoli, entertain Valencia.

Valencia are a much more attacking side with Gennaro Gattuso in their dugout and this promises to be an end-to-end affair with plenty of chances, reports Xinhua.

Valencia were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Elche on Saturday, while Sevilla won away in Mallorca, thanks partly to an exceptional display from goalkeeper Bono.

Athletic Club Bilbao aim to recover from their slightly unfortunate home defeat to Atletico Madrid in their visit to Getafe.

Central defender Yeray Alvarez will miss out with a slight muscle problem, with Dani Vivian replacing him, while Ander Herrera is likely to start...

Madrid, Oct 9 (Ians) Real Madrid returned to the top of La Liga on Saturday night thanks to a narrow 1-0 win away to Getafe. Eder Militao’s header from a corner in the third minute of the game was enough to give Carlo Ancelotti’s side all three points ahead of Fc Barcelona’s home match against Celta Vigo on Sunday night.

The Var overturned a decision to award Real Madrid a penalty for a supposed foul on Vinicius Jr and ruled out a ‘goal’ from Rodrygo.

The arrival of coach Jorge Sampaoli as the replacement for Julen Lopetegui looked as if it would bring an immediate result for Sevilla as Oliver Torres opened the scoring in the third minute of their 1-1 draw at home to Athletic Club Bilbao, reports Xinhua.

However, after withstanding a tough opening 15 minutes, Athletic dominated the rest of the match and Mikel Vesga’s...

Madrid, Sep 9 (Ians) Matchday five of La Liga gives no let-up for some of the big teams with European commitments, while two coaches’ jobs could well be on the line in the case of a heavy defeat.

The weekend begins on Friday night with newly-promoted Girona and Valladolid going head-to-head.

Saturday’s first game sees a much-changed Valencia visit Rayo Vallecano’s Vallecas Stadium.

Valencia have a totally different attitude to the team that looked to foul and time-waste their way to results last season under Jose Bordalas, and the positive attitude under new coach Gennaro Gattuso was evident as they thrashed Getafe 5-1 last weekend, reports Xinhua. Jose Luis Gaya is also back for Valencia after missing the start of the season through injury.

Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui survived a Board meeting after his side’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester City on Tuesday. That defeat followed a 3-0 loss to Barca,...

Madrid, Sep 2 (Ians) The fourth round of matches in La Liga kicks off the day after the summer transfer window closes and marks the start of an intense fortnight with four games for teams playing in Europe.

The weekend gets under way in Vigo on Friday night as Celta take on Cadiz, who are rock bottom of the table with three defeats in three games and without a goal following their 4-0 defeat at home to Athletic Bilbao on Monday.

The teams in Champions League action all play on Saturday, with Sevilla’s home game against Fc Barcelona one of three fascinating matches.

Barca travel after morale-boosting wins against Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid, while Sevilla have just one point from their first three games of the campaign, and pressure is starting to mount on coach Julen Lopetegui.

While Xavi Hernandez isn’t likely to make many changes to the...

Paris, Aug 28 (Ians) Ander Herrera has returned to Athletic Bilbao after the club agreed a loan deal with Paris Saint-Germain.

Although the loan is initially for only the 2022-23 season, Athletic have the option to extend his stay for an extra year or make the arrangement permanent in 2023.

Herrera, 33, was born in Bilbao and spent three years at Athletic from 2011 after coming through Real Zaragoza’s academy, reports Dpa.

The experienced midfielder signed for Psg in 2019 after his Manchester United contract expired and made 95 appearances, winning Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions twice each, while also lifting the Coupe de la Ligue.

However, Herrera was never a regular starter for Psg and had been linked with a move away for much of the transfer window, with Christophe Galtier yet to call upon him this season.

Recent media reports suggested Herrera was likely to leave Psg on a free transfer,...

Paris, Feb 22 (Ians) A patched-up Paris Saint-Germain lost to Monaco for the second time this season, as a 2-0 home defeat against Kylian Mbappe's former club handed title rivals Lille a four-point lead in the Ligue 1 standings. It was Mauricio Pochettino's second defeat since taking charge of the defending Ligue 1 champions.

Sofiane Diop's header opened the scoring for the visitors in the sixth minute, and Guillermo Maripan doubled the lead with a side-footed finish in the second half after Ander Herrera failed to clear the ball, Xinhua news reports.

"I think we were chasing them, we conceded after five minutes and we didn't create enough chances. We were not good enough and that is why we lost the game," said Pochettino, who was short-handed as key players including Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Marco Verratti were injured.

Niko Kovac's Monaco side had already beaten the capital giants at...