So, are you ready to go?
We are certainly all set here at SBOBET and can’t wait for La Liga to restart in what could be a thrilling conclusion to the 2019-20 campaign.
What’s more, there are potentially La Liga highlights galore to come with so many matters yet to be determined and so many questions requiring answers.
Can Barcelona retain the title, can Real Madrid prove consistent enough to be ready to pounce, are Atletico Madrid going to qualify for the Champions League (through the league), can Getafe produce one of Spanish football’s biggest surprises in recent decades, will Espanyol pull off the great escape?
Between now and July 19, all will be revealed
Even before the coronavirus hit, this was the weirdest of La Liga seasons, with Granada (now ninth) topping the table in October and Atletico good enough to eliminate Liverpool from the Champions League by winning both legs but only for sixth in their domestic table.
Aside from the unpredictability, when football returns, there will also be lots more to get used to.
For example, there will be no yellow cards for spitting or hugging, while the technical committee for referees has applied common sense by deciding it won’t punish players for hugging during goalscoring celebrations.
Elsewhere, players will be kept apart on the substitutes’ bench and will be expected to maintain standard social-distancing precautions (why when opposing players will be challenging and tackling each other is beyond me).
There will also be no handrails for players to hold on to whilst waiting in the tunnel, and there will be no handshakes between players and officials before kick-off.
All 20 teams in the league have 11 matches to play and the head of La Liga, Javier Tebas, says there will be matches played every day in Spain until the season is completed.
Tebas has also given details of a planned tribute to the victims of the pandemic, with audio recordings of fan applause transmitted into each stadium and broadcast on TV in the 20th minute of each game.
The changes don’t end there.
With the use of 3D technology, empty stadiums will be filled with images and sounds of virtual fans.
Most of the match feed will come from the main camera, showing the pitch as normal, rather than additional pitchside cameras which are initially banned to limit the number of people inside the stadium.
This will allow the broadcasters to set up a system where a virtual crowd – taken from the FIFA 20 video game – can be seen in the stands alongside the real-life action.
Furthermore, it will all be accompanied by crowed noise recorded from previous matches inside each individual stadium, which rises at moments of excitement.
Who’d have thought it!
With just a few days until the season resumes, leaders and reigning champions Barcelona are growing increasingly worried about the threat of injuries in their squad.
During the lockdown, Barca players were given exercises to do as part of their preparations for the rest of the campaign, but in the first few days back in training, five members of Quique Setien’s squad succumbed to injury.
Of course, this is a concern that exists at every club up and down the country, indeed across Europe, who are returning to action after such a long break.
The immediate spotlight will be on the title race where Setien believes his team will have to try and take maximum points from their remaining 11 games if they are to retain the top prize.
As for arch-rivals and second-placed Real Madrid, they appear to have a tougher run of games, although perhaps that will count for little given that Real Sociedad, Granada and Athletic Bilbao are particularly strong in front of their own fans and this time won’t have that backing (in person anyway).
Manager Zinedine Zidane is leaving nothing to chance either. He organised a full game at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, where Real will play their home matches, splitting his squad into two to get them used to play at their temporary new home and in front of so fee spectators.
In the hunt for the Champions League places, it seems as though third-place Sevilla and Valencia, currently in the seventh spot, have the easiest run-ins, but I still expect Atletico (in sixth) to come through and secure one of the places ahead of Real Sociedad and surprise package Getafe.
At the bottom, Celta Vigo and Real Valladolid can count themselves lucky that their run-in appears kinder than those also battling for survival.
But would you bet on them both staying up SBOBET fans?
This will all unfold in just over the next month.
Whatever happens, the return of football is good news in a country which was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
For a while, a return seemed unthinkable when thousands were dying a day. Most looked at football in a recreational light, not as an economic industry that could collapse like any other.
Hopefully, those days are now gone for good.
La Liga is nearly back.
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