Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong is set to miss the team's next match against Athletic Bilbao after the club said in a statement on Sunday he had injured the calf muscle in his right leg.
Dutch international De Jong missed Friday's 0-0 draw away to Sevilla which dented Barca's hopes of winning the Spanish title, with coach Quique Setien saying before the game he was leaving the player out as a precaution.
Real Betis became the first LaLiga club to sack a coach since the season re-started after being halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, firing Rubi who failed to win any of the team's first three matches in their return to action.
Betis lost their first game back 2-0 to Sevilla and drew 2-2 with Granada in mid-week while the final straw proved to be Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Athletic Bilbao, after Sergio Canales missed a late penalty.
In 2010, Andres Iniesta scored the type of goal for which statues are made, netting the winner as Spain claimed its first World Cup title with a dramatic win over the Netherlands. A decade later, that statue is almost ready to be unveiled.
Almost.
Set to be inaugurated on July 10, a day shy of the 10-year anniversary of the goal, we recently got a sneak peak of the Andres Iniesta statue. Except, uh, Iniesta was sculpted in the nude for some reason.
Is there a weirder new normal than what Real Madrid is experiencing? As well as playing behind closed doors, the 13-time European champion's temporary home for the rest of the season is the 6,000-seat Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium, the reserve side's ground.
Located on the sprawling training center in Valdebebas, players don’t arrive to the stadium by bus, they just sort of appear on the horizon at Ciudad Real Madrid and meander over like a high school team.
Celta Vigo’s backup goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez is out for the season with knee ligament damage he suffered in May. Due to Alvarez being out for the season, the Spanish football authorities granted Celta permission to make an emergency signing of another player in LaLiga or a free agent.
With the No. 2 keeper injured, most people would expect the club to sign a player to take his place. Instead, Celta decided that the only way to avoid relegation — only two points separates the club from the relegation zone — is with the signing of its former striker Nolito from Sevilla.
Atlético Madrid hammered Osasuna 5-0 away from home in LaLiga on Wednesday to secure their biggest win of the season and give a huge boost to their chances of qualifying for the Champions League.
Atleti's record signing João Félix put the visiting side ahead by arriving in the box and drilling the loose ball into the top corner in the 27th minute, scoring again soon after the re-start by nudging home a fine pass from Diego Costa.
João Félix First Goal Vs. Osasuna
Football supporters groups from around Europe have criticized attempts to liven up matches in empty stadiums by using artificial crowd noise, describing it as a rebuke to match-going fans.
The fans said that the recent return of football following the coronavirus stoppage, with matches behind closed doors, had shown that supporters were "the lifeblood of the game" and their contribution should be recognized by leagues and clubs.
MALLORCA — LaLiga's organising body has said it is filing for criminal action against the man who ran on to the pitch during Real Mallorca's behind-closed-doors match against Barcelona on Saturday to try to get a photo with Lionel Messi.
The fan, wearing an Argentina shirt with Messi's name and number 10 on the back, breached strict security measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus by going onto the pitch early in the second half.
Espanyol defender Bernardo Espinosa and forward Wu Lei scored either side of the break to hand the relegation-threatened side a 2-0 LaLiga home win over Alaves, who had goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco sent off early in Saturday's contest.
Victory in their first match on the league's resumption after the COVID-19 stoppage took basement team Espanyol to 23 points from 28 games, three points off the safety zone.
Remember playing soccer (or any sport) video games in the late 90s and early 2000s? The graphics weren’t all that great, but we loved them anyway. Almost every resource in the game’s software was put toward making the action on the pitch great, so the crowds and stadiums received little, if any, attention.
As LaLiga returned to action on Thursday after nearly three months because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the broadcast seemed to make a weird homage to those old video games folks like me grew up playing.