MADRID, 1 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The month of October arrives loaded with football, with hardly any respite before the start of the World Cup on November 20. Every week there will be football, and of all competitions, already with decisive matches that can mark the future of many teams, which will have to distribute forces and minutes among their footballers to get the most out of a calendar that will squeeze the clubs before the break .
This weekend the domestic championship returns after the international commitments of the players with their national teams. A starting line of the marathon of meetings to the finish line that marks the break prior to the World Cup event. In October, only on Friday 21 there will be no football, with up to six days in just four weeks.
In this tangle of matches, there will be three days of the group stage of the Champions League, which will only stop the week of 18-19 when there will be a weekday in LaLiga Santander and which has to complete its first phase before the Cup of the World, so it will end a month earlier than usual, at the beginning of November with the last day of the group stage between 1 and 2.
Real Madrid will experience (5) the visit of Shakhtar, to which it will also pay a visit (11), in addition to playing at Leipzig (25); FC Barcelona will have a double confrontation against Inter (4 and 12) and will host Bayern (26); Atlético visits Bruges (4) and receives (12) the Belgians and Bayer Leverkusen (26); and Sevilla will play their most demanding duels against Borussia Dortmund (5 and 11) and Manchester City (25).
In the midst of these European clashes, also in the Europa League and the Conference, the Bernabéu Classic will be played between Real Madrid and Barça, on Sunday, October 16, at 4:15 p.m. The Whites will arrive at the important game of their meeting in Warsaw against the Ukrainian team that same week, while the Azulgranas will have played a complicated duel against Inter at the Camp Nou. On that same day there will be an Athletic-Atlético, and only three days later they will already be immersed in day 10, which will be during the week.
The weekend of October 22-23 will see matchday 11, in which Real Madrid will have a demanding match at home against Sevilla. Later, the whites’ commitments will be against Girona (October 30), Rayo Vallecano (November 5-6) and Cádiz (November 8-9-10), before that break for the World Cup.
Before Qatar 2022, FC Barcelona, in addition to the Clásico, will host Celta (October 9), Villarreal (20), Athletic (23) and Almería (November 5/6) in the League, while they will have to visit Mallorca (October 1), Valencia (29-30) and Osasuna (November 8-9-10) on the last league match that will be during the week.
Atlético will also have, with this Saturday against Sevilla, eight league duels in just over a month, with complicated rivals such as Athletic, Rayo or Betis, with their European qualification at stake, and with the aim of not lose too many points to come back and improve a more than discreet start in the League.
In addition, to complete the complex calendar that forces the World Cup to be put together, when the League stops on November 9, there will be time for the Copa del Rey to premiere on November 12 and 13, after which, ahead of the big event football in Qatar, FIFA will force that as of Monday the 14th no country will host official club matches. That first round of the KO tournament will not be played by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Betis and Valencia, exempt for playing in the Spanish Super Cup.
After the World Cup, and with the unknown of what the physical condition of the participating soccer players in Qatar will be, national soccer will return on New Year’s Eve and not on Christmas, with the entire day 15 in the final days of 2022, to close the first third of season tighter than normal due to the World Cup, which disrupts football calendars around the world.