Competition: | La Liga |
Winners: | Atlético Madrid 11th title |
Relegated: | Huesca Valladolid Eibar |
Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Atlético Madrid Real Madrid Barcelona Sevilla Villarreal (as Europa League winners) |
Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Real Sociedad Real Betis |
Matches: | 380 |
Total Goals: | 953 |
Best Player: | Jan Oblak |
League Topscorer: | Lionel Messi (30 goals) |
Best Goalkeeper: | Jan Oblak (0.66 goals/match) |
Highest Scoring: | Barcelona 5–2 Real Betis (7 November 2020) Levante 4–3 Real Betis (29 December 2020) Huesca 3–4 Celta Vigo (7 March 2021) Real Sociedad 1–6 Barcelona (21 March 2021) Celta Vigo 3–4 Sevilla (12 April 2021) Barcelona 5–2 Getafe (22 April 2021) |
Longest Wins: | Atlético Madrid (8 matches) |
Longest Unbeaten: | Barcelona (19 matches) |
Longest Winless: | Eibar Elche (16 matches) |
Longest Losses: | Eibar (5 matches) |
Prevseason: | 2019–20 |
Nextseason: | 2021–22 |
Season: | 2020–21 |
The 2020–21 La Liga season, also known as La Liga Santander due to sponsorship reasons, was the 90th since its establishment. The season began on 12 September 2020 and concluded on 23 May 2021.[1] The fixtures were announced on 31 August 2020.[2] [3]
Real Madrid were the defending champions, after winning a record 34th title in the previous season. Huesca, Cádiz and Elche joined as the promoted clubs from the 2019–20 Segunda División. They replaced Espanyol, Mallorca and Leganés, who were relegated to the 2020–21 Segunda División.
Exceptionally, this season the five substitutions were maintained in a maximum of three rounds per team, adopted in May 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]
Atlético Madrid clinched their eleventh La Liga title on the final matchday of the season, after a 2–1 comeback win against Valladolid. It was their first title since 2013–14. Barcelona and Real Madrid were the only other teams to have won the title since Atlético Madrid last did so.[5]
A total of twenty teams contested the league, including seventeen sides from the 2019–20 season and three promoted from the 2019–20 Segunda División. This included the two top teams from the Segunda División, and the winners of the promotion play-offs.
The first team to be relegated from La Liga were Espanyol, after a 0–1 loss to city rivals Barcelona on 8 July 2020, ending their 26-year stay in the top tier.[6] The second team to be relegated were Mallorca, following a 1–2 home defeat against Granada on 16 July 2020, suffering an immediate return to the second division.[7] The third and final team to be relegated were Leganés, after drawing 2–2 against Real Madrid on 19 July 2020 in their final game of the season. This ended Legas four-year stint in the first tier.[8]
On 12 July 2020, Cádiz became the first side to mathematically be promoted, assured of a return to the top flight after a fourteen-year absence following Oviedo's 4–2 win against Zaragoza.[9] The second team to earn promotion were Huesca, following their 3–0 win against Numancia on 17 July 2020. This marked an immediate return to the first division after a season away.[10] The final team to achieve promotion were Elche on 23 August 2020, following a 1–0 aggregate victory over Girona in the final of the promotion play-offs, sealing a return to La Liga after a five-year absence.[11]
, VERSUS | |||||
(interim) | |||||
1. On the back of shirt.
2. On the sleeves.
3. On the shorts.
Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Villarreal | Javier Calleja[31] | Sacked | 20 July 2020 | Pre-season | Unai Emery[32] | 23 July 2020 |
Alavés | Juan Muñiz[33] | End of contract | Pablo Machín[34] | 5 August 2020 | ||
Real Betis | Alexis Trujillo[35] | End of interim spell | Manuel Pellegrini[36] | 9 July 2020 | ||
Valencia | Voro[37] | Javi Gracia[38] | 27 July 2020 | |||
Barcelona | Quique Setién[39] | Sacked | 17 August 2020 | Ronald Koeman[40] | 19 August 2020 | |
Elche | Pacheta[41] | Resigned | 25 August 2020 | Jorge Almirón[42] | 26 August 2020 | |
Celta Vigo | Óscar García | Sacked | 9 November 2020 | 17th | Eduardo Coudet | 12 November 2020 |
Athletic Bilbao | Gaizka Garitano | 3 January 2021 | 9th | Marcelino[43] | 4 January 2021 | |
Huesca | Míchel[44] | 12 January 2021 | 20th | Pacheta[45] | 12 January 2021 | |
Alavés | Pablo Machín[46] | 16th | Abelardo[47] | |||
Elche | Jorge Almirón[48] | Resigned | 12 February 2021 | 19th | Fran Escribá[49] | 14 February 2021 |
Alavés | Abelardo[50] | Sacked | 5 April 2021 | 20th | Javier Calleja[51] | 5 April 2021 |
Valencia | Javi Gracia[52] | 2 May 2021 | 14th | Voro (caretaker)[53] | 3 May 2021 | |
See main article: Pichichi Trophy.
Rank | Player | Club | Goals[56] |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 30 |
2 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 23 |
Gerard Moreno | Villarreal | ||
4 | Luis Suárez | Atlético Madrid | 21 |
5 | Youssef En-Nesyri | Sevilla | 18 |
6 | Alexander Isak | Real Sociedad | 17 |
7 | Iago Aspas | Celta Vigo | 14 |
8 | Antoine Griezmann | Barcelona | 13 |
Rafa Mir | Huesca | ||
José Luis Morales | Levante |
The Zamora Trophy was awarded by newspaper Marca to the goalkeeper with the lowest goals-to-games ratio. A goalkeeper had to have played at least 28 games of 60 or more minutes to be eligible for the trophy.[57]
Rank | Player | Club | Goals against | Matches | Average | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jan Oblak | Atlético Madrid | 25 | 38 | 0.66 | |
2 | Thibaut Courtois | Real Madrid | 28 | 38 | 0.74 | |
3 | Yassine Bounou | Sevilla | 28 | 33 | 0.85 | |
4 | Álex Remiro | Real Sociedad | 38 | 38 | 1.00 | |
5 | Marc-André ter Stegen | Barcelona | 32 | 31 | 1.03 |
See main article: List of La Liga hat-tricks.
Player | For | Against | Result | Date | Round | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carlos Soler | Valencia | Real Madrid | 4–1 (H) | 8 November 2020 | 9 | |
Youssef En-Nesyri | Sevilla | Real Sociedad | 3–2 (H) | 9 January 2021 | 18 | |
Youssef En-Nesyri | Sevilla | Cádiz | 3–0 (H) | 23 January 2021 | 20 | |
Rafa Mir | Huesca | Valladolid | 3–1 (A) | 29 January 2021 | 21 | |
Alexander Isak | Real Sociedad | Alavés | 4–0 (H) | 21 February 2021 | 24 | |
Gerard Moreno | Villarreal | Granada | 3–0 (A) | 3 April 2021 | 29 | |
Kike García | Eibar | Alavés | 3–0 (H) | 1 May 2021 | 34 | |
Carlos Bacca | Villarreal | Sevilla | 4–0 (H) | 16 May 2021 | 37 |
Month | Player of the Month | Reference | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Club | |||
September | Ansu Fati | Barcelona | [61] | |
October | Mikel Oyarzabal | Real Sociedad | [62] | |
November | João Félix | Atlético Madrid | [63] | |
December | Iago Aspas | Celta Vigo | [64] | |
January | Youssef En-Nesyri | Sevilla | [65] | |
February | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | [66] | |
March | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | [67] | |
April | Fernando | Sevilla | [68] | |
May | Jan Oblak | Atlético Madrid | [69] |