MADRID (AP) — Barcelona and Atletico Madrid square off in La Liga this weekend in a preview of their series in the Champions League quarterfinals.
It will be the first of three games between Barcelona and Atletico in 10 days. The Spanish rivals will face each other five times in less than two months. They also met in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey in February and March when Atletico advanced to the final 4-3 on aggregate.
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Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's first goal the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Giuliano Simeone controls the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Marcos Llorente, left, controls the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford in action in front of Rayo's Isi Palazon during a La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
The Champions League games will be on Wednesday in Barcelona and on April 14 in Madrid. Barcelona is looking to make it to the Champions League semifinals for the second season in a row and Atletico is seeking to get back to the last four for the first time since 2017.
Saturday's league matchup will see Barcelona trying to remain at least four points ahead of Real Madrid at the top, while Atletico — which trails Barcelona by 16 points — will seek to get back into third place past Villarreal. Atletico sits one point behind Villarreal.
Real Madrid visits relegation-threatened Mallorca earlier on Saturday. Real beat Atletico 3-2 at home in the teams' last game before the international break.
Real Betis on Saturday hosts Espanyol, which has yet to win in 12 games this year.
Sevilla fired coach Matías Almeyda before the international break and visits last-placed Oviedo on Sunday. Sevilla has won only one of its last eight matches.
Barcelona will face Atletico without forward Raphinha, who will be out for about five weeks after injuring his right hamstring while playing for Brazil in a friendly against France.
Raphinha scored twice in Barcelona’s 7-2 rout of Newcastle in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 and is set to miss both matches against Atletico in the last eight.
Real Madrid forwards Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior faced each other in the Brazil-France friendly during the break. Mbappé, La Liga's scoring leader, netted once in France's 2-1 win over Brazil, a result that helped send the French squad back to first place in the FIFA rankings.
Vinícius couldn't find the net and was criticized by many for his lackluster performance for Brazil. He scored twice for Madrid against Atletico in the derby before the break.
Barcelona star Lamine Yamal is coming off a tough match for Spain after Spanish fans repeatedly chanted anti-Muslim chants during the friendly against Egypt on Tuesday in Barcelona.
Yamal, who is Muslim, came out with a statement on Wednesday saying the fan chants at RCDE Stadium were disrespectful and intolerable. He said it didn’t matter that the chants were not directed at him personally.
“I understand that not all fans are like that, but to those who chant these things: Using a religion as a taunt on the field makes you look ignorant and racist,” he wrote on Instagram. “Football is for enjoying and cheering, not for disrespecting people for who they are or what they believe.”
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Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's first goal the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Giuliano Simeone controls the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Marcos Llorente, left, controls the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford in action in front of Rayo's Isi Palazon during a La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to attack even as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated and predicted the war would end soon.
Iran’s strikes on its neighbors along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain planned to hold a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil passes in peacetime, once the fighting is over.
Trump has insisted the strait, which was open to traffic before the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, can be taken by force — but said it is not up to the U.S. to do that. In his address to the American people Wednesday night, he encouraged countries that depend on oil passing through Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”
Iran responded defiantly to Trump’s speech, in which the American president claimed U.S. military action had been so decisive that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”
A spokesman for Iran’s military insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. “The centers you think you have targeted are insignificant, and our strategic military productions take place in locations of which you have no knowledge and will never reach,” Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari claimed.
Just before Trump began his address — in which he said U.S. “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” — explosions were heard in Dubai as air defenses worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage.
Less than a half-hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was also working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech.
Attacks continued across Iran on Thursday, with strikes reported in multiple cities.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon, home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who are fighting Israel, which has launched a ground invasion. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iranian attacks on some two dozen commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
The 35 countries speaking Thursday, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the U.S., as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the countries will discuss “viable diplomatic and political measures” to resume shipping.
But no country appears willing to try to open the strait by force while the war is raging. There is a concern that Iran might limit traffic through the strait even after U.S. and Israeli attacks on it cease.
The idea of an international effort has echoes of the “coalition of the willing,” led by the U.K. and France, that was assembled to underpin Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire in that war. The coalition is, in part, an attempt to demonstrate to Washington that Europe is doing more for its own security in the face of frequent criticism from Trump.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan for a ceasefire, but Trump didn’t say anything in his speech about the diplomatic efforts or bring up his April 6 deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face severe retaliation.
The conflict is driving up prices for oil and natural gas, roiling stock markets, pushing up the cost of gasoline and threatening to make a range of goods, including food, more expensive.
On Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was at $108 in spot trading, up about 50% from Feb. 28 when Israel and the U.S. started the war.
Though the oil and gas that typically transits the strait is primarily sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region joining Thursday's call about the strait. The supply of jet fuel has also been interrupted by the conflict, with consequences for travel worldwide.
Weissert reported from Washington and Rising from Bangkok.
Mourners gather during a funeral procession for Alireza Tangsiri, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and others killed in Israeli strikes in late March, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump walks from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
