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The tentative La Liga calendar for the 2015-16 season was released earlier today. As usual, all eyes were on the dates of the two El Clasico fixtures between Spanish heavyweights Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The two Clasicos have been scheduled for Matchday 12 and Matchday 31 of the League, with the first fixture taking place at the Santiago Bernabeu on the weekend of November 8th, and the return fixture taking place at the Camp Nou on the weekend of April 3rd.
Barcelona and Real Madrid played out two intense games when the teams met last season in the league, with Barcelona losing out 3-1 at the Bernabeu, followed by their 2-1 win at home.
Opening day fixtures
Last season’s treble winners FC Barcelona will have to endure a slightly tough start to the season, when they face Athletic Bilbao on the weekend of 23rd August – their third game against the Basques in a week, after the two teams face each other in a two-legged Spanish Super Cup tie.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have relatively easy opening fixtures in comparison, taking on Sporting Gijón away and UD Las Palmas at home respectively. The Andalusian derby is expected to be the stand-out fixture of Matchday 1, with Sevilla preparing to take on Malaga at the La Rosaleda stadium.
Fixtures to look forward to
Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia are the three best teams in the league besides Barcelona and Real Madrid, and their performances in the crunch matches will dictate how the title race pans out.
Atletico look the most likely of the three to challenge the top two for the title, having already done so in the 2013-14 season when they did win the La Liga. Their race to the title will be decided by their consistency in the crucial fixtures against the top two teams in Spain.
They will play host to Barcelona on the weekend of 13th September, and noisy neighbours Real Madrid on the weekend of 4th October at the Vicente Calderon, with their return fixtures at the Santiago Bernabeu and Camp Nou expected to be on Matchday 22 and Matchday 26 respectively.
Last day fixtures
With at least three top teams expected to fight it out for the title, the Spanish season has often been going down to the wire in the last couple of years. The final day fixtures could prove to be very important in deciding the fate of the title, with Real Madrid travelling to Deportivo La Coruna, Barcelona travelling to Granada, and Atletico playing at home to Celta Vigo on Matchday 38.
You can read the fixture list for the whole season here.
