The Real Madrid and Atletico league matches scheduled for Sunday have been postponed. The reason is the World Cup qualifiers in South America, which will be played very shortly before the matches.
For Real Madrid, the home match against Athletic Bilbao would have been on Sunday, Atletico would have been guests in Granada. Both matches were officially postponed by the league at the end of September. The new dates for the two matches have not yet been set.
“This postponement is due to the fact that FIFA has extended the CONMEBOL association’s international break until the night of 15 October. The two clubs concerned will also have to play in the Champions League again as early as Tuesday,” a statement from the federation said.
The matches between Argentina and Peru and Brazil against Uruguay are scheduled for Friday night (CET). With the Argentines Rodrigo de Paul and Angel Correa as well as the Uruguayan Luis Suarez, three Atletico players are in action there. Real also still have two players who could be on the ball that night in Uruguayan Fede Valverde and Brazilian Vinicius Junior (Eder Militao already left injured).
Champions League on Tuesday
So there would have been very little recovery time for these players. Against the background that both Real (in Donetsk) and Atletico (against Liverpool) are already challenged again in the Champions League on Tuesday, this decision is quite understandable.
While the Rojiblancos have picked up four points in two games in the top flight, Real in particular need to make amends after their embarrassing defeat to Sheriff Tiraspol.
