| Competition: | La Liga |
| Season: | 2018–19 |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Barcelona Atlético Madrid Real Madrid Valencia |
| Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Getafe Sevilla Espanyol |
| Matches: | 380 |
| Total Goals: | 983 |
| League Topscorer: | Lionel Messi (36 goals) |
| Best Goalkeeper: | Jan Oblak (0.73 goals/match) |
| Longest Wins: | 8 matches Barcelona |
| Longest Unbeaten: | 23 matches Barcelona |
| Longest Winless: | 16 matches Huesca |
| Longest Losses: | 7 matches Rayo Vallecano |
| Highest Attendance: | 93,265 [1] |
| Lowest Attendance: | 3,652 |
| Attendancecalc: | 10234693 |
| Prevseason: | 2017–18 |
| Nextseason: | 2019–20 |
| Winners: | Barcelona 26th title |
| Relegated: | Girona Huesca Rayo Vallecano |
The 2018–19 La Liga season, also known as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons,[2] was the 88th since its establishment. The season began on 17 August 2018 and finished on 19 May 2019.[3] Fixtures for the 2018–19 season were announced on 24 July 2018.[4] This was the first La Liga season to use the VAR.[5]
Barcelona were the defending champions, and they secured a second consecutive title with three games to spare following victory over Levante on 27 April.[6] Huesca, Rayo Vallecano and Valladolid joined as the promoted clubs from the 2017–18 Segunda División. They replaced Málaga, Las Palmas and Deportivo La Coruña, who were relegated to the 2018–19 Segunda División.
This is the first season since 2008–09 that did not feature the league's all time second-highest scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 311 goals in 293 La Liga matches.
Several clubs made managerial changes before the start of the season. Among them were Real Madrid, when Zinedine Zidane resigned following the club's third consecutive UEFA Champions League victory. He was replaced by Julen Lopetegui, who was managing the Spain national team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at the time of announcement and was dismissed from that job as a result.[7] Other incomers included Pablo Machín at Sevilla, who was hired after his success with newly promoted Girona the previous season.[8]
In the transfer window, the biggest deal saw Real Madrid lose Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus for a fee of €112 million; the Portuguese forward had scored 450 goals in 438 games during his nine years in the Spanish capital.[9] Real Madrid's additions included Belgium international goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for €35 million from Chelsea, and striker Mariano returned to the club from Lyon for €22 million.[10] [11] Defending champions Barcelona added Clément Lenglet to their defence, Arturo Vidal to midfield, and spent over €40 million on Brazilian forward Malcom.[12] Players exiting Barcelona included Andrés Iniesta at the end of a successful 16-year-spell, as he signed for Vissel Kobe in Japan.[13]
Veterans Gabi and Fernando Torres also left Atlético Madrid for new teams in Asia,[14] while the same club welcomed in the likes of World Cup-winning French midfielder Thomas Lemar and Portugal's Gelson Martins.[15] After a successful previous season, in which the team finished fourth and returned to the Champions League, Valencia made permanent the loan signing of Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from Paris Saint-Germain and Geoffrey Kondogbia from Inter Milan. Forward Simone Zaza and midfielder João Cancelo both left to Italy, while Kevin Gameiro arrived as replacement.[16] Athletic Bilbao sold Kepa Arrizabalaga to Chelsea for €80 million, a world record fee for a goalkeeper.[17]
The tenth round of matches featured the first El Clásico of the season, which Barcelona won 5–1 at home against Real Madrid with a hat-trick by Luis Suárez. The result put Madrid into 9th place,[18] and led to the dismissal of Lopetegui after only five months.[19] Other early pace-setters included Sevilla with their prolific strike partnership of André Silva and Wissam Ben Yedder,[20] Alavés who were briefly league leaders in mid-October,[21] Espanyol, and Valladolid who had been taken over by former Brazil international Ronaldo.[22]
A total of 20 teams will contest the league, including 17 sides from the 2017–18 season and three promoted from the 2017–18 Segunda División. This will include the two top teams from the Segunda División, and the winners of the play-offs.
Celta signed a sponsorship contract with Abanca to rename their stadium as Abanca-Balaídos.[26]
On 16 August 2018, La Liga signed a 15-year agreement with Relevant Sports (owners of the International Champions Cup) to schedule one match per season within the United States. This would mark the first time ever that an official La Liga league match would be held there.[47] [48] The match between Girona and Barcelona, to be played on 27 January 2019, was selected to be played in Miami, but it required the approval of the Royal Spanish Football Federation.[49] On 21 September 2018, the Spanish Football Federation denied approval of the match being held in Miami.[50] On 26 October 2018, following a request for guidance from the Spanish Football Federation, US Soccer and CONCACAF, the FIFA Council discussed La Liga's proposal. At the end of the meeting, the FIFA Council stated that "Consistent with the opinion expressed by the Football Stakeholders Committee, the Council emphasised the sporting principle that official league matches must be played within the territory of the respective member association".[51] On 13 December 2018, Barcelona left their disposition to play the match in Miami without effect.[52]
| Alavés | |||||
| , HiKOKI | |||||
 Francisco | Huesca La Magia, DISA, Bodega Sommos, Grupo Cosehisa, El Dorado, Ambar 0,0 | ||||
| Cuatro Rayas, Junta of Castile and León, Integra Energía, Cultura y Turismo Valladolid | |||||
1. On the back of shirt.
2. On the sleeves.
3. On the shorts.
4. On the away jersey.
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celta Vigo | Juan Carlos Unzué | Sacked | 21 May 2018[56] | align=center rowspan=9 | Pre-season |  Antonio Mohamed | 22 May 2018[57] |
| Girona | Pablo Machín | Signed for Sevilla | 28 May 2018[58] | Eusebio Sacristán | 7 June 2018[59] | ||
| Real Madrid |  Zinedine Zidane | Resigned | 31 May 2018[60] | Julen Lopetegui | 12 June 2018[61] | ||
| Real Sociedad | Imanol Alguacil | align=center rowspan=2 | End of contract | 30 June 2018[62] | Asier Garitano | 24 May 2018[63] | |
| Huesca | Rubi | 30 June 2018[64] | Leo Franco | 28 May 2018[65] | |||
| Sevilla | Joaquín Caparrós | align=center rowspan=2 | End of caretaker spell | 30 June 2018[66] | Pablo Machín | 28 May 2018[67] | |
| Espanyol | David Gallego | 30 June 2018[68] | Rubi | 3 June 2018[69] | |||
| Leganés | Asier Garitano | Signed for Real Sociedad | 30 June 2018[70] | Mauricio Pellegrino | 2 June 2018[71] | ||
| Athletic Bilbao | José Ángel Ziganda | Mutual consent | 30 June 2018[72] | Eduardo Berizzo | 31 May 2018[73] | ||
| Huesca | Leo Franco | Sacked | 9 October 2018 | 20th | Francisco | 10 October 2018[74] | |
| Real Madrid | Julen Lopetegui | 29 October 2018 | 9th | 30 October 2018 | |||
| Celta Vigo | Antonio Mohamed | 12 November 2018 | 14th | 12 November 2018 | |||
| Athletic Bilbao | Eduardo Berizzo | 4 December 2018 | 18th | Gaizka Garitano | 4 December 2018 | ||
| Villarreal | Javier Calleja | 10 December 2018 | 17th | Luis García | 10 December 2018 | ||
| Real Sociedad | Asier Garitano | 26 December 2018[75] | 15th | Imanol Alguacil | 26 December 2018[76] | ||
| Villarreal | Luis García | 29 January 2019[77] | 19th | Javier Calleja | 29 January 2019 | ||
| Celta Vigo | 3 March 2019 | 17th | Fran Escribá | 3 March 2019[78] | |||
| Real Madrid | Santiago Solari | 11 March 2019 | 3rd | Zinedine Zidane | 11 March 2019[79] | ||
| Sevilla | Pablo Machín | 15 March 2019[80] | 6th | Joaquín Caparrós | 15 March 2019[81] | ||
| Rayo Vallecano | Míchel | 18 March 2019[82] | 19th | Paco Jémez | 20 March 2019[83] | ||
Roger Martí for Levante against Real Betis (17 August 2018)[84] Pablo de Blasis for Eibar against Barcelona (19 May 2019)[85]| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[86] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 36 |
| 2 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 21 |
| Luis Suárez | Barcelona | ||
| 4 | Iago Aspas | Celta Vigo | 20 |
| 5 | Cristhian Stuani | Girona | 19 |
| 6 | Wissam Ben Yedder | Sevilla | 18 |
| 7 | Borja Iglesias | Espanyol | 17 |
| 8 | Antoine Griezmann | Atlético Madrid | 15 |
| 9 |  Charles | Eibar | 14 |
| Raúl de Tomás | Rayo Vallecano | ||
| Jaime Mata | Getafe | ||
| Jorge Molina | Getafe |
| Rank | Player | Club | Assists[87] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 13 |
| Pablo Sarabia | Sevilla | ||
| 3 | Santi Cazorla | Villarreal | 10 |
| Jony | Alavés | ||
| 5 | Wissam Ben Yedder | Sevilla | 9 |
| José Campaña | Levante | ||
| Antoine Griezmann | Atlético Madrid | ||
| 8 | Jordi Alba | Barcelona | 8 |
| 9 | Moi Gómez | Huesca | 7 |
| Brais Méndez | Celta Vigo | ||
| Dani Parejo | Valencia | ||
| Sergi Roberto | Barcelona | ||
| Arturo Vidal | Barcelona |
The Zamora Trophy is awarded by newspaper Marca to the goalkeeper with the lowest goals-to-games ratio. A goalkeeper has to have played at least 28 games of 60 or more minutes to be eligible for the trophy.
| Rank | Name | Club | Goals against | Matches | Average[88] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan Oblak | Atlético Madrid | 27 | 37 | 0.73 | |
| 2 | Marc-André ter Stegen | Barcelona | 32 | 35 | 0.91 | |
| 3 | David Soria | Getafe | 34 | 37 | 0.92 | |
| 4 | Neto | Valencia | 34 | 34 | 1 | |
| 5 | Iago Herrerín | Athletic Bilbao | 32 | 31 | 1.03 |
See main article: List of La Liga hat-tricks.
| Player | For | Against | Result | Date | Round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-value="Ben yedder" | André Silva | Sevilla | Rayo Vallecano | 4–1 (A) | 19 August 2018 | 1 | |
| data-sort-value="Silva andre" | Wissam Ben Yedder | Sevilla | Levante | 6–2 (A) | 23 September 2018 | 5 | |
| data-sort-value="Aspas, Iago" | Iago Aspas | Celta Vigo | Eibar | 4–0 (H) | 27 October 2018 | 10 | |
| data-sort-value="Suarez, Luis" | Luis Suárez | Barcelona | Real Madrid | 5–1 (H) | 28 October 2018 | ||
| data-sort-value="Messi, Lionel" | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | Levante | 5–0 (A) | 16 December 2018 | 16 | |
| data-sort-value="De Tomas, Raul" | Raúl de Tomás | Rayo Vallecano | Celta Vigo | 4–2 (H) | 11 January 2019 | 19 | |
| data-sort-value="En Nesyri, Youssef" |  Youssef En-Nesyri | Leganés | Real Betis | 3–0 (H) | 10 February 2019 | 23 | |
| data-sort-value="Messi, Lionel" | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | Sevilla | 4–2 (A) | 23 February 2019 | 25 | |
| data-sort-value="Ben Yedder, Wissam" | Wissam Ben Yedder | Sevilla | Real Sociedad | 5–2 (H) | 10 March 2019 | 27 | |
| data-sort-value="Messi, Lionel" | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | Real Betis | 4–1 (A) | 17 March 2019 | 28 | |
| data-sort-value="Benzema, Karim" | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | Athletic Bilbao | 3–0 (H) | 21 April 2019 | 33 |
Álvaro (Villarreal) Éver Banega (Sevilla) Mario Gaspar (Villarreal)
Luis Advíncula (Rayo Vallecano) Álvaro (Villarreal)
Abdoulaye Ba (Rayo Vallecano) Éver Banega (Sevilla) Gustavo Cabral (Celta Vigo) Óscar de Marcos (Athletic Bilbao)
Bernardo Espinosa (Girona) Jorge Pulido (Huesca) Rubén Rochina (Levante)| Month | Player of the Month | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Club | |||
| September | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | [90] | |
| October | Luis Suárez | Barcelona | [91] | |
| November |  Tomáš Vaclík | Sevilla | [92] | |
| December | Antoine Griezmann | Atlético Madrid | [93] | |
| January | Iñaki Williams | Athletic Bilbao | [94] | |
| February | Jaime Mata | Getafe | [95] | |
| March | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | [96] | |
| April | Iago Aspas | Celta Vigo | [97] | |