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Spanish League Kicks off with Barcelona Wanting to Keep its Momentum and Madrid Aiming to Reset 

Barcelona players pose with their trophy after winning the 60th Joan Gamper Trophy football match between FC Barcelona and Como 1907 at Johan Cruyff Stadium in Barcelona on August 10, 2025. (AFP)
Barcelona players pose with their trophy after winning the 60th Joan Gamper Trophy football match between FC Barcelona and Como 1907 at Johan Cruyff Stadium in Barcelona on August 10, 2025. (AFP)
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Spanish League Kicks off with Barcelona Wanting to Keep its Momentum and Madrid Aiming to Reset 

Barcelona players pose with their trophy after winning the 60th Joan Gamper Trophy football match between FC Barcelona and Como 1907 at Johan Cruyff Stadium in Barcelona on August 10, 2025. (AFP)
Barcelona players pose with their trophy after winning the 60th Joan Gamper Trophy football match between FC Barcelona and Como 1907 at Johan Cruyff Stadium in Barcelona on August 10, 2025. (AFP)

The Spanish league begins with the top teams arriving with different expectations.

Defending champion Barcelona wants to keep its momentum and show it will be the team to beat again in Spain. Real Madrid is aiming to reset after a lackluster last season and with the arrival of coach Xabi Alonso. Atletico Madrid hopes a revamped squad will help keep pace with its rivals.

Here’s what to know about the upcoming season:

Barcelona’s momentum

Barcelona is coming off one of its best seasons in years, having won the league, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. It also went deep in the Champions League, reaching the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

In its second year under coach Hansi Flick, the Catalan club will try to add to its success from last season by boosting its squad with English forward Marcus Rashford, who will be teaming up with Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski in an attacking front that was one of the best in Europe last season. It led the scoring charts both in the Spanish league – with more than 100 goals – and in the Champions League.

Leaving the team are veteran defender Iñigo Martínez, who has signed with Saudi club Al-Nassr, and Ansu Fati, who went on loan with Monaco after not playing much last season. The club also added former Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García.

Barcelona will make its open its season at Mallorca on Saturday.

Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid

Madrid is coming off a disappointing season by its high standards, losing the Spanish league title to Barcelona and failing to reach the final in the Club World Cup and the Champions League. It also lost all four “clasico” matches it played against its Catalan rival.

It all led to a coaching change, with Carlo Ancelotti taking over the Brazil job and former player Alonso arriving as widely expected.

The coach couldn’t do much to help Madrid at the Club World Cup, with the team losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals.

The attack will again be led by Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior, but the defense – which struggled last season because of a series of injuries -- was boosted by the signing of young Spain central defender Dean Huijsen and right back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is joining English countryman Jude Bellingham.

Luka Modric left to join AC Milan after more than a decade with the Spanish club. Lucas Vazquez also departed, and there were still doubts about whether Rodrygo would return.

Madrid’s first match is at home against Osasuna on Aug. 19.

Revamped Atletico

Atletico Madrid had great expectations last season, but it couldn’t make a run for the Spanish league title, finishing behind Barcelona and Madrid, and again was eliminated by the city rival in the Champions League.

Coach Diego Simeone shook up the squad in the offseason, with the departures of players such as Ángel Correa, Rodrigo de Paul, Axel Witsel, Rodrigo Riquelme and César Azpilicueta. Among those arriving are Álex Baena, Johnny Cardoso, Thiago Almada, Giacomo Raspadori, Matteo Ruggeri, Marc Pubill and Dávid Hancko.

The team will still be led up front by Antoine Griezmann and Julián Alvarez.

Atletico kicks off at Espanyol on Sunday.

Other clubs

The teams that made good runs last season and will try to stay near the top again include Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal and Real Betis. Levante, Elche and Oviedo were the teams promoted this season, replacing demoted Leganes, Las Palmas and Valladolid.

Injuries

Barcelona and Real Madrid are among the teams that won’t be at full strength to begin the season. The Catalan club starts without veteran goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen because of surgery for lower back problems. The goalkeeper was at odds with the club about his recovery time. He was provisionally stripped of his captaincy for refusing to sign a medical report about the injury, but he and the club eventually reached an agreement that restored his role as captain.

Veteran striker Robert Lewandowski also wasn't expected to play early on because of a muscle issue.

Madrid won’t have Bellingham for the first few rounds after undergoing surgery to address a recurrent dislocation of his left shoulder.

Real Betis playmaker Isco is expected to miss the first few months of the season after fracturing his leg in a friendly against Malaga.

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Verona Prepares its Ancient Arena for the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday

A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
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Verona Prepares its Ancient Arena for the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday

A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A city forever associated with Romeo and Juliet, Verona will host the final act of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday inside the ancient Roman Arena, where some 1,500 athletes will celebrate their feats against a backdrop of Italian music and dance.

Acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle has been rehearsing for the closing ceremony inside the Arena di Verona this week under a veil of secrecy, along with some 350 volunteers, for a spectacle titled “Beauty in Motion," which frames beauty as something inherently dynamic.

“Beauty cannot be fixed in time. This ancient monument is beautiful if it is alive, if it continues to change,” said the ceremony's producer, Alfredo Accatino. “This is what we want to narrate: An Italy that is changing, and also the beauty of movement, the beauty of sport and the beauty of nature."

Other headlining Italian artists include singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte, whose hits could be heard blasting from the Arena during rehearsals this week.

Inside a tent serving as a dressing room, seamstresses put the finishing touches on costumes inspired by the opera world as volunteers prepped for the stage, The Associated Press reported.

“It’s really special to be inside the Arena,” said Matilde Ricchiuto, a student from a local dance school. "Usually, I am there as a spectator and now I get to be a star, I would say. I feel super special.”

The Arena has been a venue for popular entertainment since it was first built in 1 A.D., predating the larger Roman Colosseum by decades. Accatino said the ancient monument will produce some surprises from within its vast tunnels.

“Under the Arena there is a mysterious world that hides everything that has happened. At a certain point, this world will come out," Accatino said, promising “something very beautiful."

The ceremony will open with athletes parading triumphantly through Piazza Bra into the Arena, which once served as a stage for gladiator fights and hunts for exotic beasts.

The closing ceremony stage was inspired by a drop of water, meant to symbolically unite the Olympic mountain venues with the Po River Valley, where Milan and Verona are located, while serving as a reminder that the Winter Games are being reshaped by climate change.

While the opening ceremony was held in Milan, the other host city, Cortina d’Ampezzo, nestled in the Dolomite mountains, was considered too small and remote to host the closing ceremony. Verona, in the same Veneto region as Cortina, was chosen for its unique venue and relatively central location, said Maria Laura Iascone, the local organizing committee's head of ceremonies.

“Only Italians can use such monuments to do special events, so this is very unique, very rare," Iascone said of the Arena.

She promised a more intimate evening than the opening ceremony in Milan's San Siro soccer stadium, with about 12,000 people attending the closing compared with more than 60,000 for the opening.

Iascone said about 1,500 of the nearly 3,000 athletes participating in the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history are expected to drive a little over an hour from Milan and between two and four hours from the six mountain venues.

The ceremony will close with the Olympic flame being extinguished. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona to protect animals from being disturbed.

The Verona Arena will also be the venue for the Paralympic opening ceremony on March 6. For the ceremonies, the ancient Arena has been retrofitted with new wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms along with other safety upgrades. The six Paralympic events will be held in Milan and Cortina until March 15.

Sports

Arsenal Blows 2-goal Lead at Wolves to Boost Man City's Premier League Title Chances

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
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Arsenal Blows 2-goal Lead at Wolves to Boost Man City's Premier League Title Chances

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn

Arsenal blew a two-goal lead at last-place Wolves on Wednesday to give a huge boost to Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title.

The league leader was held to a surprise 2-2 draw at Molineux, having led 2-0 in the second half.

Teenage debutant Tom Edozie scored in the fourth minute of added time to complete Wolves' comeback.

“There was a big difference in how we played in the first half and the second half. We dropped our standards and we got punished for it,” Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka told the BBC.

The draw means Arsenal has dropped points in back-to-back games and leaves it just five ahead of second-place City, having played a game more.

With the top two still to play each other at City's Etihad Stadium, the title race is too close to call.

“(It's) time to focus on ourselves, improve our standards and improve our performances and it is in our control,” Saka said.

Arsenal has led the way for the majority of the season and one bookmaker paid out on Mikel Arteta's team winning the title after it opened up a nine-point lead earlier this month.

But Wednesday's result was the latest sign that it is feeling the pressure, having finished runner-up in each of the last three seasons. It has won just two of its last seven league games.

Having blown a lead against Brentford last week, it was even worse at a Wolves team that has won just one game all season.

Victory looked all but secured after Saka gave Arsenal the lead with a header in the fifth minute and Piero Hincapie ran through to blast in the second in the 56th.

But Wolves' fightback began with Hugo Bueno's curling shot into the top corner in the 61st.

The 19-year-old Edozie was sent on as a substitute in the 84th and his effort earned the home team only its 10th point of a campaign that looks certain to end in relegation.

While it did little for Wolves' chances of survival, it may have had a major impact at the top of the standings.

“Incredibly disappointed that we gave two points away,” Arteta said. "I think we need to fault ourselves and give credit to Wolves. But what we did in the second half was nowhere near our standards that we have to play in order to win a game in the Premier League.

“When you don’t perform you can get punished, and we got punished and we have to accept the hits because that can happen when you are on top."

Arsenal plays Tottenham on Sunday. Its lead could be cut to two points before it kicks off if City wins against Newcastle on Saturday.

Sports

Sinner Sees off Popyrin to Reach Doha Quarters

Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Sinner Sees off Popyrin to Reach Doha Quarters

Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)

Jannik Sinner powered past Alexei Popyrin in straight sets on Wednesday to reach the last eight of the Qatar Open and edge closer to a possible final meeting with Carlos Alcaraz.

The Italian, playing his first tournament since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals last month, eased to a 6-3, 7-5 second-round win in Doha.

Sinner will play Jakub Mensik in Thursday's quarter-finals.

Australian world number 53 Popyrin battled gamely but failed to create a break-point opportunity against his clinical opponent.

Sinner dropped just three points on serve in an excellent first set which he took courtesy of a break in the sixth game.

Popyrin fought hard in the second but could not force a tie-break as Sinner broke to grab a 6-5 lead before confidently serving it out.

World number one Alcaraz takes on Frenchman Valentin Royer in his second-round match later.