Real Madrid and Barcelona ready for battle with La Liga set to restart

Before everybody stopped looking, their attention drawn to graver issues, the great collective pastime of Spanish life was full of ebb and flow. In mid-February, Real Madrid topped La Liga. A week later, Barcelona climbed above them. Madrid then won the 'clasico' to leapfrog their rivals in front of a Bernabeu that belonged to another epoch: it was full and raucous that day. Stadiums will not feel like that one did, for a while, nor look like Camp Nou on March 7 when Barcelona, beating Real Sociedad , slipped back to the top of what calls itself the most star-studded domestic league on the planet. Spanish football ceased three months ago, and Spaniards were abruptly thrust into a rigorous lockdown, when the idea that sport could meaningfully resume seemed distant. Galvanised by the example of the Bundesliga, La Liga on Thursday joins the caravan of major competitions that are restarting, allbeit under a new guise. Although there is a lobby, notably in the Canary Islands – where coronavirus has claimed fewer lives than on the mainland – for some grandstands to be opened to the public, Spanish football will follow the now-standard protocol: matches behind closed-doors, ‘biosecure’ environments for the players and staff. Their work will be intense. There are 110 top-flight matches still to play in the 20-club Primera Division, and just five and half weeks scheduled to squeeze them all in. When Sevilla take on Real Betis on Thursday, in a derby deprived of the decibels that usually make it heard far and wide across Seville, 92 days will have passed since the season was postponed for a public health crisis that affected Spain as severely as anywhere in continental Europe. La Liga will acknowledge with an important gesture that it is returning to a society transformed. Matches usually available only on subscription are to be televised free into care homes, institutions that have suffered most from Covid-19’s devastating grip on the old. ________________________________________________ They will see La Liga, as ever looking to assert itself as the natural home of individual excellence, its flag-bearer Lionel Messi, his support acts stars whose careers have been built around an aspiration to end up playing in Spain. Two of them are entitled to regard Project Restart as almost a fresh start: Back in March, Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez were out of action. Both say they are raring to go again. Barcelona’s Suarez, at 33, remains the greatest ally Messi has ever known. His recovery from what had been a long-term knee problem means Barca, who could move five points ahead of Madrid with a win at Real Mallorca on Saturday, can approach the title race armed with their first-choice front three – Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Suarez. Madrid, who signed Hazard last summer, meanwhile, see a practical advantage in the Belgian having used the last three months to complete his rehabilitation from an ankle injury that had threatened to curtail his campaign. Back in March, Barcelona were undone in the clasico by a Madrid galvanised by the teenaged Vinicius Junior, a livewire down their left flank. Their options there have since swelled, not only with Hazard’s fitness but also the readiness of the gifted Marco Asensio to play some part in a season that he had been all but ruled out of because of ligament damage. A fit and in-form Hazard and Asensio would likely reduce Vinicius, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Rodrygo and Lucas Vazquez to secondary roles. That list gives an indication of Madrid’s attacking strength-in-depth, a valuable asset in taut timetable of fixtures ahead, and perhaps one reason why, in the empty months, Madrid has seemed calmer than the capital of Catalonia. ________________________________________________ From Camp Nou there were unseemly squabbles about the level of pay cuts required to weather the economic damage of the coronavirus crisis;. At the Bernabeu, there was quiet negotiation and a purposeful use of time to carry out work on the stadium. Real will play their crowd-free home games this month and in July at the compact Alfredo Di Stefano arena, on their training site. If the Bundesliga model is a guide, home advantage will in any case count for less without spectators. If Spain follows the German example, there may also be greater opportunity for up-and-coming starlets, with coaches more inclined to field teenagers without the pressure of a baying crowd. Barcelona’s Ansu Fati, a sensation as a 16-year-old debutant back in September, is closer to 18 than 17 now. He has 11 games to show off his maturity. As does Joao Felix, the 20-year-old, €120 million (Dh498m) striker signed by an Atletico Madrid who find themselves alarmingly placed outside the top four. Atletico need to harness the momentum that took them past Liverpool at Anfield in the Champions League in March. But they know that, while La Liga will again be won by either Real Madrid or Barcelona, the joust for the places beneath looks tight and compelling. Sevilla, Real Socieded, Getafe and Valencia are all ready to argue that in no domestic league in the world are overall standards higher than in Spain’s top division.

Real Madrid and Barcelona ready for battle with La Liga set to restart

After three months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Spanish football's top-flight is poised for a thrilling season finale