Spanish league kick off review

The Spanish La Liga kicks off tomorrow Friday with Malaga facing Sevilla by 19:30pm, before the defending champions Barca meet Bilbao for the third in two weeks.

  
Barcelona begin their bid for a sixth La Liga title in eight years at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday knowing that fellow heavyweights Real Madrid could, unusually, be just one of several challengers for their crown. Real Madrid new coach Rafa Benitez is desperate to recover from a 2014-15 season when they failed to win major silverware and will be looking to Fifa Ballon d'Or holder Cristiano Ronaldo to break more scoring records and hoping world record signing Gareth Bale can rediscover his best form.

Atletico Madrid proved they are genuine contenders by winning Spain's top flight in 2013-14 and inspirational Argentine coach Diego Simeone has overseen some canny business in the latest transfer window, including luring Colombia striker Jackson Martinez from Porto."In Spain we don't just have Barcelona there is Atletico, Valencia, Sevilla, who are all performing very well” Benitez told daily El Pais this week. “But it's true that Barcelona are the champions and the reference point” he added.

Bilbao showed Barca are vulnerable when they thrashed them 4-0 in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup last week, going on to seal a 5-1 aggregate success in the return on Monday, and the pressure on the Catalan club to match last term's haul of Champions League, La Liga and King's Cup titles will be immense. Much will depend on the form of talismanic forward Lionel Messi, who with strike partners Neymar and Luis Suarez rattled in a Spanish record 122 goals in all competitions last term.

Here are the fixtures for week 1
Fri 21st August
Malaga vs Sevilla Sky 19:30GMT
Sat 22nd August
Deportivo La Coruna vs Real Sociedad 17:30GMT
Espanyol vs Getafe 17:30GMT
Atletico Madrid vs Las Palmas 19:30GMT
Rayo Vallecano vs Valencia 21:30GMT
Sun 23rd August
Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona 17:30GMT
Sporting Gijon vs Real Madrid 19:30GMT
Levante vs Celta Vigo 21:00GMT
Real Betis vs Villarreal 21:30GMT
Mon 24th August
Granada vs Eibar 19:30GMT

Who gets the Pichichi? Messi, Cristiano or Griezmann? Let us know your thoughts.