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Sports

Saturday August 29, 2009

Ronaldo, Kaka all set to strut their stuff in La Liga opener

New stars take stage

MADRID: Real Madrid fans are tingling with excitement at the prospect of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and company strut their stuff as their new-look ‘Galactico’ team host Deportivo La Coruna today in the curtain-raiser to the 2009/10 Spanish league season.

It has been an unforgettable summer with Real splashing around €250mil to build a star-studded team and there are likely to be a number of debutants against Depor with Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso, Karim Benzema, Raul Albiol all expected to start.

Showtime in Spain: ALL eyes will be on Real Madrid when they kick off their La Liga campaign against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday. Having splashed euro 250mil to buy Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso, Real fans can’t wait for the action to begin. Picture shows New Galacticos: Real Madrid stars (clockwise from top left) Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi.

French striker Benzema has been firing in the goals in pre-season while Ronaldo has been installed as chief free-kick taker as he was at Manchester United.       

It will also be Manuel Pellegrini’s first competitive game in charge of Real and everyone will expect the former Villarreal coach to have Real playing attractive winning football.

“We have to play a game of two or three touches to play attractive football,” explained Pellegrini. “We have to take it a game at a time but a club of Madrid’s stature has to aspire to win all the competitions.”

Pellegrini will be without centre-back Pepe who is suspended for the first four matches as his 10-match ban for stamping is carried over into the new season.

Depor will hope to gatecrash the first outing of the Galacticos and Real should be wary as they lost the opening fixture of last season 2-1 against Depor at their Riazor Stadium.

Due to European Super Cup commitments treble winners Barcelona begin their title defence on Monday at home to Sporting Gijon.

The big game of the opening weekend is tomorrow when Valencia host Sevilla in a duel between two teams aiming for a top-four finish.

Valencia had a disastrous finish to last season missing out on the Champions League but managed to hang onto Spanish internationals David Villa and David Silva amid strong interest from Europe’s top clubs.

Sevilla, third last season, should test Valencia’s suspect backline with striker Alvaro Negredo giving them more firepower following a €15mil move from Real Madrid.

Hot Benz: Karim Benzema is among the new-look Galactico in Real Madrid. — AFP

Atletico Madrid go into the new season with wind in their sails after defeating Panathinaikos 5-2 on aggregate in their Champions League qualifiers.

Atletico travel to Malaga tomorrow as they start their bid for a first piece of silverware since 1996.

Villarreal begin a new era after losing coach Pellegrini to Real and his replacement Ernesto Valverde makes his bow tomorrow at Osasuna.

Elsewhere Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura is poised to make his debut for Espanyol in tomorrow’s match at Athletic Bilbao.

Nakamura, 31, has arrived on a free transfer from Celtic and Espanyol fans can look forward to some spectacular free-kicks from the dead-ball specialist. — AFP

EUROPEAN ACTION THIS WEEKEND

FRANCE

TODAY: Lens vs Rennes, Nice vs Montpellier, Sochaux vs Monaco, Lorient vs Le Mans, St Etienne vs Grenoble, Boulogne vs Auxerre, Lyon vs Nancy.

TOMORROW: Paris St Germain vs Lille, Toulouse vs Valenciennes, Marseille vs Bordeaux.

GERMANY

TODAY: VfB Stuttgart vs Nuremberg, Schalke 04 vs Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen vs VfL Bochum, Hanover 96 vs Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt vs Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich vs VfL Wolfsburg.

TOMORROW: Hertha Berlin vs Werder Bremen, Hamburg vs Cologne.

ITALY

TODAY: AC Milan vs Inter Milan, Bari vs Bologna.

TOMORROW: Atalanta vs Genoa, Cagliari vs Siena, Chievo vs Lazio, Fiorentina vs Palermo, Napoli vs Livorno, Parma vs Catania, AS Roma vs Juventus, Sampdoria vs Udinese.

SCOTLAND

TODAY: Aberdeen vs Motherwell, Dundee United vs Falkirk, Kilmarnock vs St Mirren, Rangers vs Hamilton.

TOMORROW: Hibernian vs Celtic, St Johnstone vs Hearts.

SPAIN

TODAY: Real Madrid vs Deportivo La Coruna, Real Zaragoza vs Tenerife.

TOMORROW: Malaga vs Atletico Madrid, Real Mallorca vs Xerez, Racing Santander vs Getafe, Osasuna vs Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao vs Espanyol, Valencia vs Sevilla, Almerma vs Valladolid.

MONDAY: Barcelona vs Sporting Gijon


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