La Liga Matchday 20 preview: Top three all playing in Madrid

The 2024/25 La Liga season is at the halfway mark, and Atlético Madrid currently leads the way, holding a narrow one-point advantage over city rivals Real Madrid.

This weekend, Diego Simeone’s charges will be on the road but still playing in the Spanish capital, as they’ll pay a visit to CD Leganés. That’s just one of the many games to look out for this weekend.

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The first fixture of Matchday 20 is the Friday night duel between two sides currently in the relegation zone, as 18th-placed RCD Espanyol host 19th-placed Real Valladolid. These two clubs came up from La Liga Hypermotion last summer and plan to stay in the top tier, so this is a huge match as they fight to achieve that objective.

Girona FC vs Sevilla FC is the first of four fixtures on Saturday, and the Catalan side arrive in good form. They’ve won five of their past eight league fixtures, including their past two, so they’ll hope to keep that momentum up against a team they’ve already defeated this season.

At 4.15pm CET on Saturday, league leaders Atlético Madrid will hope to keep up their good run of form when they make the short trip to take on CD Leganés. Los Colchoneros have won their past eight in La Liga, so they travel to the Estadio Butarque with all the confidence in the world.

Real Betis and Deportivo Alavés face off on Saturday evening and, given that both these sides lost last weekend in their first league fixture of 2025, they’ll be looking to bounce back. Their past three league meetings have all finished as draws, so this promises to be another tight and competitive encounter.

At 9pm CET, FC Barcelona return to league action and they do so at Getafe CF, just a few kilometres away from where title rivals Atlético de Madrid take on CD Leganés. Barça have collected a meagre five points from their past seven league matches, but they did just convincingly win the Spanish Super Cup and will hope to take confidence from that victory. Los Blaugrana will certainly need confidence if they’re to break down Getafe CF, a team they haven’t beaten on the road since 2019.

There are four more fixtures on Sunday, starting with RC Celta vs Athletic Club. This has been a fun match-up in recent times, with their past four meetings producing zero clean sheets and a total of 17 goals, an average of 4.25 per game.

Real Madrid return to action at 4.15pm CET on Sunday, with a home game against UD Las Palmas. Although the pain of their Spanish Super Cup defeat against FC Barcelona is still fresh on the players’ minds, Los Blancos do enter this matchday just one point behind first place and will know that three LaLiga points can go a long way to getting the season back on track.

The next game is CA Osasuna vs Rayo Vallecano, and it’ll be a special occasion for Los Franjirrojos coach Iñigo Pérez. He hails from Pamplona and spent several years of his career with Osasuna, and this will be his first match as a visiting head coach at El Sadar. He’ll hope to make it a successful visit for Vallecano, who haven’t lost any of their past five league games.

The Sunday night game sees Valencia CF take on Real Sociedad at Mestalla. Los Che have shown signs of improvement under new coach Carlos Corberán, but they enter this matchday in last place and desperately need to convert any improvement into points.

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Then, the final game of the round comes on Monday night, when Villarreal CF and RCD Mallorca meet at the Estadio de la Cerámica. A 94th-minute Ayoze Pérez goal earned El Submarino Amarillo a 2-1 win when these sides met earlier in the season, and another fascinating duel between these two European contenders awaits.   

La Liga fixtures:

Friday

Espanyol vs Real Valladolid (9pm)

Saturday

Girona vs Sevilla (2pm), CD Leganes vs Atletico Madrid (4.15pm), Real Betis vs Alaves (6.30pm), Getafe vs Barcelona (9pm)

Sunday

Celta Vigo vs Athletic Bilbao (2pm), Real Madrid vs Las Palmas (4.15pm), CA Osasuna vs Rayo Vallecano (6.30pm), Valencia vs Real Sociedad (9pm)

Monday

Villarreal CF vs RCD Mallorca (2000)