By Toby Prince
The Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A seasons get underway this weekend, two weeks after the English Premier League returned to the delight of men and collective sigh of wives.
We take a look at two of Europe’s biggest leagues below.
Spain
Champions Barcelona will be hoping to put a rather worrying start to the season behind them.
Scraping past Sevilla in the Uefa Super Cup and then losing the Spanish Super Cup to Athletic Bilbao while shipping a total of 10 goals in the process was not in the script for Luis Enrique’s star-studded side.
Barcelona won’t have to wait long to try to correct the errors that saw them lose the Spanish Super Cup to Athletic as they return to San Mames on Sunday in their La Liga opener.
Fellow Spanish titans, Real Madrid, begin life under Rafael Benitez away to newly promoted Sporting Gijon.
Los Blancos have had a less than impressive pre-season, adding to doubts over whether Benitez was the right man to replace the popular Carlo Ancelotti after a season in which Madrid failed to win a major trophy.
“I saw plenty of positives and if we play like that I will be happy, but we still have plenty of margin to improve which is positive,” said Benitez after Marcelo’s late winner saw off Galatasaray in their final friendly in midweek.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid host new boys Las Palmas at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, eager to start the new season with three points after ending the last campaign without a win in their last four games.
Diego Simeone’s men look well prepared to launch another bid for the title thanks to the signings of Jackson Martinez and Luciano Vietto from Porto and Villarreal respectively to complement Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres in attack.
Italy
Serie A also throws open its doors for another season this weekend, with champions Juventus hosting Udinese. While Carlos Tevez has returned to Argentina, the arrival of Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala should see the Old Lady lose little in the way of attacking power.
The Turin giants are opening-day specialists, having won more games (53) and scored more goals (182) on matchday one than any other Serie A side.
Last season’s runners-up Roma ended the campaign a whopping 17 points behind champions Juventus. Rudi Garcia’s side, now with the added firepower of Edin Dzeko, will be desperate to get closer to the Turin giants this time around, with a win away to Verona as good a way to start as any.
After yet another disappointing campaign in 2014-15, the pressure is on new AC Milan boss, Sinisa Mihajlovic, to deliver success, particularly after a summer of big spending. A tricky away trip to Fiorentina will provide the new-look Milan with a stern test, with the Viola having won each of their last three season openers played at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
