With a slight delay compared to most La Liga sides, Atletico Madrid will officially begin their new competitive campaign this Wednesday at 10:00 PM. Newly promoted Malaga will visit the Metropolitano in one of the rearranged fixtures from the opening round of the Spanish championship.Atletico head coach Diego Simeone will not have his strongest squad available for the match. Due to their involvement in the World Cup in North America and their participation in the latter stages of the tournament, Julian Alvarez and Thomas Lemar missed a large part of pre-season.Today’s the day ❤️🤍Our 26/27 season kicks off tonight 👊 pic.twitter.com/9x4W5WbSEQ— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) August 19, 2026 As a result, both players, along with Obed Vargas and Bonar, have been training separately from the rest of the squad in recent days as they look to regain their fitness as quickly as possible.Neither the Argentine nor the Frenchman will be included in the squad to face Malaga. However, despite all the transfer speculation surrounding Alvarez this summer, it is realistic to expect him to be on the bench next weekend against Villarreal. Simeone’s plan is to carefully manage his minutes at the start of the season and gradually prepare him for the most important challenges later in the autumn.According to Spanish media reports, one of Atletico’s assistant coaches has put Alvarez through an especially demanding training regime in recent days. His regular exercises were repeatedly interrupted by sprint intervals, all as part of a plan to have him ready for a potential impact role off the bench next weekend.##EDITORS_CHOICE##There will be plenty of time to discuss that game, though. For now, Atletico’s priority is avoiding a slip-up against newly promoted Malaga, who secured their place in La Liga through the play-offs. The last time these two sides met in Madrid was almost nine years ago, when the capital club claimed a narrow 1-0 victory.Between 2015 and 2018, when Malaga were regular members of the top flight, meetings between the two teams were rarely high-scoring affairs. Four of their last six encounters ended 1-0, with Atletico winning three of those matches. One finished 2-0, while Atletico also recorded a 4-2 victory in another.🚨 BREAKING! 💣Diego Simeone announces that Julián Álvarez will STAY at Atlético Madrid pointing at the club’s decision. 🇦🇷“If the club owner has expressed himself so firmly, there’s not much more to add. It’s like in court: there’s no longer any room for doubt.” 🤝 pic.twitter.com/6NWi3m9uza— Polymarket FC (@PolymarketFC) August 18, 2026 During pre-season, Simeone’s side defeated Getafe 4-1 and Marseille 2-1 in their final warm-up, while suffering defeats against both Manchester clubs — losing 2-1 to United and 3-1 to City.Malaga, meanwhile, have recorded just one victory in their preparations, beating Al Arabi 4-2. They lost 2-1 to Ceuta and drew with Leicester 3-3, Al-Ittihad 2-2 and Fulham 2-2 in their final pre-season fixture.##NAJAVA_MECA_9902119##
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