Spain

Football supporters groups from around Europe have criticized attempts to liven up matches in empty stadiums by using artificial crowd noise, describing it as a rebuke to match-going fans.

The fans said that the recent return of football following the coronavirus stoppage, with matches behind closed doors, had shown that supporters were "the lifeblood of the game" and their contribution should be recognized by leagues and clubs.

Real Madrid showed no rust as Los Blancos dusted off their pristine white kits to sweep aside Eibar 3-1 in both clubs’ return from a three-month hiatus on Sunday at Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium. If anything, the necessary COVID-19 interruption helped reinvigorate the Merengues, who looked sharp from the opening kick.

Diego Costa scored an equalizer to give Atlético Madrid a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao as both teams returned to play for the first time in three months on Sunday. More importantly, Costa paid a special tribute to a player on the Atleti women’s team, Virginia Torrecilla.

Atlético went behind in the 37th minute to a well-taken shot from Iker Muniain but didn’t trail long. Two minutes later, Costa kept his composure in the box to fire past Unai Símon to even things up at 1-1.

MALLORCA — LaLiga's organising body has said it is filing for criminal action against the man who ran on to the pitch during Real Mallorca's behind-closed-doors match against Barcelona on Saturday to try to get a photo with Lionel Messi.

The fan, wearing an Argentina shirt with Messi's name and number 10 on the back, breached strict security measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus by going onto the pitch early in the second half.

Lionel Messi set up two goals and scored one himself as Barcelona returned to the pitch and returned to the win column on Saturday. Three months after LaLiga halted play due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Blaugrana had few problems beating relegation-threatened Mallorca 4-0.

Messi was in the middle of three of the four goals and debuted his adorable new quarantine haircut.

Espanyol defender Bernardo Espinosa and forward Wu Lei scored either side of the break to hand the relegation-threatened side a 2-0 LaLiga home win over Alaves, who had goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco sent off early in Saturday's contest.

Victory in their first match on the league's resumption after the COVID-19 stoppage took basement team Espanyol to 23 points from 28 games, three points off the safety zone.

The LaLiga season resumes on June 11 and then — with 11 match weeks still to be played — goes off on a tear with games every day until July 17. This means that clubs will be playing matches every three to four days until the season’s over, and with players lacking match fitness, squad depth will be tested over the coming weeks with young players given a chance to shine. 

LaLiga will use virtual images of stands in television broadcasts with added “fan audio,” produced by the makers of the FIFA video game, when it returns to action on Thursday.

Domestic broadcasters in Spain will offer their viewers the choice of a “natural” broadcast of games played behind closed doors with no fans but the international audience will receive only the enhanced broadcasts with added audio and graphics.

BARCELONA — After an almighty push by all parties concerned, Spain's LaLiga roars back into action next week after a three-month pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with matches taking place every day and with everything to play for.

The season resumes on Wednesday in bizarre circumstances with the second half of a Segunda Division match between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete that was abandoned in December due to offensive chanting.

It’s been a tale of two halves for Schalke 04 this season. 

The arrival of Jürgen Klopp protégé David Wagner was hailed as a progressive step forward after a disastrous 2018-19 campaign that saw the club flirt with relegation, and that excitement was thoroughly justified through 18 games as Schalke climbed as high as fifth in the Bundesliga.