Top 5⃣ stories: Fermín renews, Copa semis set, Barrios out

The news never stops in the world of football, and to kick off the weekend, we bring you the five stories you can't miss.

Here we go...

'Habemus' Copa del Rey semifinals

📸 Juan Manuel Serrano Arce - 2026 Getty Images

The Copa del Rey semifinals were drawn this past Friday. As always, these semifinals will be played in two legs to determine who advances to the final.

Atlético de Madrid and Barcelona will face each other again, just like last year, in an exciting semifinal. Meanwhile, after last week's controversy, Athletic Club and Real Sociedad will feature in a high-voltage Basque derby.

Fermín López renews with Barcelona

There have always been rumors surrounding the future of Fermín López, who has fought hard to be the starting attacking midfielder for FC Barcelona.

The Barça player turned down Chelsea to stay at Can Barça, and it has not only worked out well for him football-wise but also contractually, as he has renewed until 2031.

In his words, he expressed that his dream is to be the captain of Barça, which speaks to Fermín López's happiness wearing the blaugrana colors.

Barrios gets injured

Atlético de Madrid played their best match of the season at La Cartuja against Real Betis Balompié with a great 0-5 performance.

But not all news was good for Atleti, as Pablo Barrios got injured and will be out for a month, missing an important part of the season.

The World Cup has a TV broadcaster in Spain

We have known for some time that RTVE will broadcast the 2026 World Cup in Spain, but not in its entirety, only the most important match of each day, some round of 16 matches, some quarter-finals, the semifinals, and the final.

However, the complete World Cup package, of the 104 matches, was left open after GOL released it, so DAZN took the opportunity and acquired the rights to the entire tournament.

An exciting football weekend

After Celta 1-2 Osasuna opened the La Liga matchday, Rayo-Oviedo (14:00), Barcelona-Mallorca (16:15h), Sevilla-Girona (18:30h), and Real Sociedad-Elche (21:00) will continue this Saturday in Spain.

📸 Rafa Babot - 2025 Getty Images

Meanwhile, in England, Manchester United-Tottenham, the match of the day in the major leagues, will open the day in the Premier League (13:30), with Arsenal and Chelsea playing afterward against Sunderland and Wolves, respectively.

In Italy, Napoli wants to keep up with the Milan teams and must win against Genoa at the Ferraris (18:00h).

📸 CARLO HERMANN - AFP or licensors

Moving north, Olympique Lyon with Endrick plays at Nantes in Ligue 1 (21:05h), and Lens seeks the lead against Rennes (17h).

And finally, further north, in the German Bundesliga, there's an exciting Wolfsburg-Borussia Dortmund match (15:30), and the Saturday matchday concludes with Borussia Monchengladbach-Bayer Leverkusen.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.