Lacen optimistic over Madrid test

Madrid, which last season ended Barcelona's three-year dominance in La Liga with a record-breaking campaign, was held 1-1 by Valencia at the Bernabeu last weekend despite taking a 10th-minute lead through Gonzalo Higuain.

The disappointment of that home draw was then compounded by arch rivals Barca – which Madrid meets in the first leg of the Spanish Supercopa tonight (Friday morning AEST) – later winning its opening fixture 5-1 against Real Sociedad.

Jose Mourinho's men now face a potentially tricky trip to local rivals Getafe, and Lacen believes his side is more than capable of causing an upset having last season beaten the likes of Barca, Valencia, Sevilla and Atletico Madrid at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez.

"Last year we won here against a lot of big teams and we want to continue like that. I have very good feelings about the game against Madrid. It will be difficult but hopefully we can get the three points," he said.

"We have a team to be at the top and we've started without injuries. This will help us."

The Algeria international, whose side lost its opening fixture 2-1 at Sevilla, is not expecting it to be easy, though, adding: "They will be more dangerous. They dropped points at home and they will come here with the attitude that they cannot lose any more."

Barca also has a difficult-looking away trip this weekend as it travels to Osasuna.

The Catalan giants thrashed Osasuna 8-0 at the Nou Camp last September but were then beaten 3-2 at the Estadio Reyno de Navarra in the return meeting in February.

Like Getafe, Osasuna also started this season with a defeat after going down 2-0 at promoted Deportivo La Coruna and winger Sisi knows it will need to do better to get anything against Tito Vilanova's men.

"We have to look at what we did badly [against Depor]. Work day by day knowing that our next opponent is Barca and that we need to have a good game if we want to win," he said.

Depor's hopes for the season will face a stern examination when it travels to a Valencia side that has finished third in the past three seasons and gained that morale-boosting draw at the Bernabeu.

There is a repeat of May's Europa League final at the Vicente Calderon on Monday night where Atletico Madrid plays host to an Athletic Bilbao side facing plenty of problems at the start of the campaign.

Athletic, which lost 3-0 to Atletico in that final, is facing the prospect of losing star duo Fernando Llorente and Javi Martinez before the close of the transfer window, while it was humbled 5-3 at home by Real Betis in its opening league match.

In other games, Malaga and Real Mallorca will be looking to build on opening-weekend victories when they meet at La Rosaleda, while Betis hosts Rayo Vallecano in another match involving sides boasting winning starts.

Sociedad and Celta Vigo both go in search of their first points when they clash on the weekend, and it is the same story at Estadi Cornella-El Prat where Espanyol takes on Real Zaragoza.

Also, Sevilla goes to Andalusian rivals Granada and promoted Real Valladolid takes on Levante in the round's other fixture.