The situation
“See you soon”, the Bernabéu will say after Cádiz, welcoming -at the same time- what will be 80 days of drought . Two months and 19 days without hosting a football match, the time that will elapse from this Thursday… until January 29 , when the Real Sociedad plane will land in the capital. A long time and two simple justifications: the 2022 World Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. Tandem of competitions that, almost consecutively, will affect the white calendar. Regarding the first, little news: from November 20 to December 18 there will be no other ball than Al-Rihla (the name that Adidas gave to Qatari leather; translation through, means ‘the trip’ in Arabic) . The biggest national team competition in the world will paralyze everything, including LaLiga, which will not return until the shores of New Year’s Eve . There, Madrid will travel to Valladolid (it remains to be seen if on the 30th or 31st), while the following day will be away from home again, traveling to Ciutat to face Villarreal.
Spain Supercup
And here, the second factor appears. Because the next day was set for a Real Madrid-Valencia, but when the Spanish Super Cup was played that week, the match was postponed until further notice . Precisely because in Riyadh the semi-final matchup will be a… Real Madrid-Valencia! League champion, against Cup runner-up, on Wednesday, January 11. There is no other, since one of the two teams, yes or yes, will be in the final of the weekend , so the celebration of the match is impossible. The next game for Ancelotti’s men will be away from home, having to face Athletic in San Mamés on the weekend of January 22. It will be later when -at last- football will return to the Santiago Bernabéu: matchday 19, weekend of January 29. In total, 80 days after this Thursday. More than two months will have passed without football in the white coliseum, a time that the club wants to take advantage of to get the most out of the stadium works .