Real Madrid 2025-26 fixture list analysis: Key dates, El Clasico and the Madrid derbies | OneFootball

Real Madrid now know their fixtures for the coming La Liga season, as Xabi Alonso opens the curtain on a new dawn for Los Blancos, after four years under Carlo Ancelotti. Here’s what Alonso is facing in the 2025-26 season.

Los Blancos are due to open the season at home to Osasuna on the 17th of May, but already there is doubt over whether that game might be postponed. If Alonso’s side get past Borussia Dortmund and reach the Club World Cup semi-finals, then the minimum amount of rest required by the Spanish Player’s Association (AFE) would likely require the game to be shifted, otherwise leaving Los Blancos with just two weeks of preseason.

Non-European build-up until headline fixtures

Real Madrid’s opening six games will see them face two promoted sides in Real Oviedo (A) and Levante (A) before they get into the thick of it. Three of those sides finished in the bottom half in Real Sociedad, that away trip perhaps their most difficult of the opening stanza, and RCD Mallorca and Osasuna, who finished 10th and 9th last season.

Image via Twitter / X / La Liga

Madrid derby and El Clasico

Real Madrid then face a difficult run of games spanning from the end of September to mid-November. That begins on the 28th of September (all dates are the Sunday of the weekend before final times are confirmed) with the Madrid derby at the Metropolitano. After Atletico Madrid, Los Blancos host Villarreal, travel to Getafe and then host Barcelona in the first Clasico on the 26th of October. Valencia (H) and Rayo Vallecano (A) follow in their most difficult run of the first round.

It is worth remembering that Jude Bellingham is likely to miss the Madrid derby due to shoulder surgery. The good news is that he should be fit for the first Clasico.

Seville giants either side of the turn of the year

The final game of 2025 for Los Blancos will be at home against Sevilla on the 21st of December in Matchday 17, and they return to action on the fourth of January 2026 against Real Betis in MD18. As the Champions League first phase wraps up, trips to Athletic, Club, Villarreal, Valencia and Osasuna stand out as tricky, occurring in the space of seven matchdays, alternating with home games against Levante, Rayo and Real Sociedad.

Image via Diario AS

The title-deciding phase

Before the final international break, Real Madrid face Atletico Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on the 22nd of March in MD29, and off the other side of the international break, travel to RCD Mallorca. As the Champions League knockout stages progress into the final rounds, Real Madrid then have Girona (H), Real Betis (A), Alaves (H), and a double header in Barcelona against Espanyol (A) and the second Clasico on the 10th of May at Camp Nou (MD35).

Real Madrid finish out after the Clasico with Real Oviedo (H, midweek round), Sevilla (A) and Athletic (H). Overall, there are three runs that stand out as tricky on paper, although that means little before the season starts. The middle stage of the first round, followed by seven weeks across January and February, and a month-long run in April-May look as if they could be the most heavy-going for Alonso, who also has new fitness staff working with the side, led by Israel Carmenforte.