World Cup semifinals delay Barcelona’s, Real Madrid’s La Liga starts

From Lamine Yamal to Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, many Barcelona and Madrid players will be involved in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinals.La Liga has pushed back Barcelona’s and Real Madrid’s opening matches for the coming season due to the number of players from both clubs involved in the FIFA World Cup semifinals.France face Spain in the first of the last-four matches on Tuesday while England take on Argentina in Wednesday’s clash.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Best birthday present for Yamal? World Cup semifinal win over Francelist 2 of 4‘Kylian is fine’: France ready, full-strength for Spain World Cup semifinallist 3 of 4Argentina war vets urge focus on football for England World Cup semifinallist 4 of 4World Cup Day 34: Semifinals begin as France face Spain in Dallasend of listAmong the key Barcelona players involved in the World Cup semifinals are Spain’s Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo as well as England’s Anthony Gordon.Madrid’s talisman Kylian Mbappe is joined by Los Blancos midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni in the France side while Real playmaker Jude Bellingham has proved the pivotal player of England’s campaign.France’s Kylian Mbappe, left, and Spain’s Lamine Yamal are to face off in the first 2026 World Cup semifinal [Franck Fife and Etienne Laurent/AFP]The Spanish top-flight season begins on the weekend of August 15-16. Defending champions Barcelona initially were scheduled to face Athletic Bilbao at home to kick-start their title defence.After La Liga’s decision on Tuesday, however, Barcelona will start their season at Elche on August 23 with their original opener against Bilbao delayed until August 27.Madrid were due to host Real Sociedad on the opening weekend, but the league has moved that game to August 26.That means manager Jose Mourinho‘s first La Liga game in charge of Madrid in his second spell at the club will be away at Espanyol on August 22.Atletico Madrid’s Argentinian pair of Julian Alvarez and Nahuel Molina, however, will both be required to kick off against Malaga on August 19 as originally scheduled.