MADRID, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- La Liga returns to Spain this weekend with the ninth round of matches of the current season with FC Barcelona facing a difficult away game and an interesting match in the Wanda Metropolitano between Atletico Madrid and Valencia.
The round of matches opens on Friday with Granada against Osasuna - two sides that are both enjoying positive returns to the top-flight - to such an extend in Granada's case that a win would temporarily lift them into second place.
That could be short-lived however, as FC Barcelona are first into action on Saturday as they visit Eibar's Ipurua Stadium.
Barcelona travel north on Thursday to avoid a general strike in the Catalan region and will train at Alaves' on Friday. Barca coach Ernesto Valverde is without the suspended Ousmane Dembele and Gerard Pique, while Leo Messi will look to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his debut in style.
Atletico Madrid and Valencia is the next game to kick off and promises to be a fascinating contest as Diego Simeone's side look to get back onto the goal trail. Atletico have scored just twice in their last four league matches, with both of those coming in a 0-0 draw away to struggling Mallorca.
Valencia meanwhile have only lost once since Albert Celades was named as coach, although that was a 5-2 thrashing in the Camp Nou.
Bottom of the table Leganes look for their first win of the season in the 'Derby of the South' when they make the short trip to face neighboring Getafe, where defeat for Leganes could leave Leganes coach Mauricio Pellegrino facing the sack.
Saturday ends with Real Madrid visiting Mallorca without the injured Luka Modric, Tony Kroos and Gareth Bale. Meanwhile Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane will have to decide whether Alphonse Areola continues in goal or if Thibaut Courtois returns ahead of next week's vital Champions League tie away to Galatasaray.
Alaves face Celta in Sunday's first game with home coach Asier Garitano needing a win to make his position a bit more secure, before Real Sociedad look to bounce back from consecutive defeats when they entertain a Real Betis side that has been very inconsistent at the start of the season.
Betis will be without midfielder William Carvalho who had a back operation on Wednesday and will be sidelined for several weeks.
Pablo Machin makes his debut as the new Espanyol coach after replacing David Gallego at the Barcelona based club and he will be optimistic of getting a winning start to climb out of the bottom three as his side entertain Villarreal, who have lost their last two away matches.
Athletic Club Bilbao play at home to Valladolid with Gaizka Garitano's men looking to end a run of two games without scoring before the weekend finishes with Sevilla entertaining Levante.
A run of three defeats from four matches has seen Julen Lopetegui's side slip down to sixth in the table and the former Spain coach needs a good result in order to restore confidence. If that win came thanks to a goal from Luuk de Jong, who has had more shots at goal than anyone in LaLiga without scoring, that would make things even better for Lopetegui.
