La Liga, the first division of professional soccer in Spain, will return starting on June 11. The league has been on hiatus since March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the soccer leagues resuming play elsewhere in the world, La Liga matches will take place without fans in the stands. The first match will be the Seville derby on June 11, as Real Betis and Sevilla will square off. Barcelona will head to Mallorca on Saturday, June 13, and then Real Madrid will take on Eibar on Sunday. Barcelona was just two points clear of Real Madrid atop the La Liga standings, with Sevilla seven points behind Real Madrid in third place, when play stopped. There are eleven matches left in the season, and the teams will play those in shortly over a month, as the season is set to finish by July 19, to allow the eligible teams to advance to the Champions League and Europa League, which would begin their first rounds in August. We have the current standings for you as well as thoughts about some of the contenders along with La Liga Odds for the games.
Soccer Betting: La Liga COVID-19 Status & Return Date
Barcelona remains atop the league, but this has not been a dominant year for them. They had a major quarrel between star Lionel Messi and the team’s sporting director, along with a weird social media imbroglio. They lost to a Valencia team that really had no business beating them, but then they dismantled Eibar — and Real Madrid coughed up a match against Levante, and Barcelona took first place.
Basically, Barcelona has played with flashes of brilliance, interrupted by moments of incompetence. They remain the betting favorites to hold on and win La Liga — and to win the Champions League. Barcelona loves to dominate possession in the game, and their offense goes through one of three progressions: a set piece that finds Messi, Messi creating a scoring chance for himself, or ball movement that ends up with a tic-tac-toe sequence — that puts the ball in the net. No team tries fewer crosses or aerials, and they are second from the bottom in headers for shots.
With that said, they are only on target for 83 or 84 points, and no team has won La Liga since 2007-08. They permit 1.16 goals per match, just seventh in La Liga, and they are on pace to surrender 44. The last time they permitted that many was 2002-03, when they permitted 47. So there are cracks forming, but Real Madrid has not shown the consistency to demonstrate that they are ready to take the La Liga mantle, at least not yet. Real Madrid did deal Barcelona 2-0 loss on March 2, but do they really have the balance to move past Barcelona and win the title? The furious pace of 11 matches in a month will certainly show us.
