La Liga is back tonight — with just two matches

Sevilla v Rayo and Alavés v Getafe get the season under way on Saturday 15 August. No Barcelona, no Real Madrid, no Atlético — and matchday one won't finish until 27 August. Here's why, and what it means for your predictions.

La Liga 2026-27 begins today, Saturday 15 August, and it does so in the strangest way anyone can remember: with just two matches. Sevilla host Rayo Vallecano at the Sánchez-Pizjuán, and Alavés take on Getafe at Mendizorroza. No Barcelona. No Real Madrid. No Atlético. If you opened the La Liga 2026-27 fixture list expecting a normal opening weekend, brace yourself — matchday one will not be finished until Thursday 27 August, a full twelve days after the season starts.

The two matches opening La Liga 2026-27

The Sánchez-Pizjuán gets the honour of staging one of the two openers. Sevilla and Rayo Vallecano begin a campaign with a genuine novelty attached: they are playing when almost nobody else is. Over in Vitoria, Alavés and Getafe provide the other curtain-raiser, the sort of tight, scrappy fixture usually settled by fine margins — except this time there is a bonus. For a few days, their points will be among the only ones on the board.

Three more games follow on Sunday and Monday, and that is where the real romance of this opening weekend lives: two newly promoted clubs who have waited a very long time for this — fourteen years for Racing Santander, eight for Deportivo La Coruña.

• Sevilla v Rayo Vallecano (Saturday 15 August, Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán)
• Alavés v Getafe (Saturday 15 August, Mendizorroza)
• Racing Santander v Villarreal (weekend of 15-17 August, El Sardinero)
• Espanyol v Levante (weekend of 15-17 August)
• Deportivo La Coruña v Elche (weekend of 15-17 August, Riazor)

Why five matches are missing: the World Cup hangover

There is one culprit here, and it is the 2026 World Cup. The tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico did not finish until 19 July, when Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in the final through a Ferran Torres goal in extra time — a second world title for La Roja. That finish date landed far too late for La Liga to open in the usual fashion.

The collective agreement with the players' union, the AFE, is unambiguous: anyone who goes deep into the tournament is entitled to three weeks off after their final match, plus another three weeks of pre-season. Clubs with players in the World Cup semi-finals simply did not have a squad to put on the pitch in mid-August. So four matchday-one fixtures were pushed back:

• Atlético Madrid v Málaga: Wednesday 19 August
• Valencia v Betis: Tuesday 25 August
• Real Madrid v Real Sociedad: Wednesday 26 August
• Barcelona v Athletic Club: Thursday 27 August
• Celta v Osasuna: Thursday 27 August (for an entirely different reason)

Balaídos: the fungus that postponed Celta

The fifth postponement has nothing to do with the World Cup at all. Celta v Osasuna was scheduled for Sunday 16 August, but a fungus found in the Balaídos pitch — made worse by a fierce Galician summer — forced the game back to 27 August.

The club told LaLiga the surface was not in a fit state to host a top-flight fixture, and the league agreed to move it. It is a far more mundane reason than a World Cup, but the effect on the calendar is identical: one game fewer this week, and one more gap to fill at the end of August.

What this means if you are predicting results

A season that opens in three separate waves has very real consequences for anyone trying to forecast it. The most obvious one: for almost two weeks, the La Liga table will be meaningless. Some clubs will have played twice, others not at all. Any read on form based on the standings in that window is pure noise.

• The teams playing this weekend arrive with a full pre-season behind them — fewer excuses, sharper legs.
• The heavyweights starting later will field internationals who have only just rejoined training.
• Home advantage counts for more than usual in isolated August fixtures, with heat and half-full stadiums.
• With so few top-flight games available, the coupon leans heavily on Segunda División, where draws have always been more common.

Racing, Depor and Málaga: a more nostalgic top flight

Beyond the fixture chaos, there is an excellent reason to pay attention to this opening stretch. Racing Santander are back in the top division fourteen years on, having sealed promotion with a 4-1 win over Valladolid at El Sardinero. Deportivo La Coruña return to Riazor as a first-division club eight years after going down in 2018, and Málaga complete the promoted trio. Three grounds that were once shorthand for elite Spanish football are back on the map — while Mallorca, Girona and Real Oviedo dropped into Segunda.

Barcelona, incidentally, are the reigning champions, having won their 29th league title last season. They will not begin defending it until late August, which produces a genuinely odd image: the champions watching the opening round on television.

If you fancy following this peculiar start with a bit more than pride at stake, quiniPrats lets you set up a prediction league with friends in a couple of minutes and call the results round by round. With matchday one stretched over twelve days, seeing who can get the whole thing right should be good fun. No rush, though — there is a long season ahead.