By Tim Stannard

A season of promise and a title-charge awaits Atletico Madrid ahead of today's opening round LaLiga match with Sevilla 

The start of the season in any sport is always a thrilling feeling. That unfiltered busy buzz crammed with dreams of glory and success. The leaderboard is level and history means nothing. 'Tis a good day to be alive.

In LaLiga's official calendar, today is matchday 1 for Atletico Madrid and the kick-off is a corker with the Europa League champions of Sevilla coming to the Wanda Metropolitano - a fixture that was initially scheduled as a box-office season opener, but had to be pushed back due to both teams' post-lockdown continental commitments.

Everyone even seems to be over the fact that snowdrifts surround the stadium, admittedly rare for the balmy times when a season starts. 

Indeed, it was this snow that saw Diego Simeone's team unable to train together for four days, before Monday. But Simeone is not willing to give in so easily. "There are no excuses, you have to keep moving forward in the circumstances," declared Simeone ahead of the match that is live on beIN SPORTS today from 3:20PM ET. 

Sports Burst predicts a bright future ahead of the first match-day of the season - Luis Suarez will continue to score the goals, Marcos Llorente will be a revelation up front as well. The newly arriving Moussa Dembele from Lyon will certainly be a boost as well. 

The defense will be a strong as ever and there may even be a break of the bad run of form against Barcelona with a win. 

In fact, Sports Burst will be as bold to predict Atletico to be leading the table on January 12. By a single point over....Real Madrid. But with three games in hand. 

Catch our Sports Burst live show at 12PM ET on our Facebook page and beIN XTRA channel to get the predictions ahead of matchday 1 in LaLiga for Atletico Madrid.

River Plate try to make Copa Lib magic 

LaLiga's Tuesday of time-warping actually starts at 1PM ET on beIN SPORTS with the matchday 4 clash between Granada and Osasuna. While Granada are blowing hot and cold but are holding fast in midtable, Osasuna are like an unhappy customer with a massive over-delivery of bedroom furniture - down in the dumps with too many unhelpful draws. 

However, these two tasty LaLiga ties on beIN SPORTS are merely the halfway point of a day of drama. Straight after the completion of Atletico's season opener, there's a rescheduled Copa Sudamericana semifinal first leg clash between Coquimbo Unido and Defensa y Justicia. 

All neutrals should get on board the Chilean Coquimbo train as the team is the only one from eight left in the Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores final fours that are not Argentinean or Brazilian.

Straight after that match, it's a chance to watch history being made. River Plate are in the city of Santos to take on Palmeiras for a Copa Libertadores semifinal second-leg - just one more step to take to reach a third successive final. 

One problem - the team is 3-0 down from the first leg, but in these madcap climes, anything is possible. 

Palmeiras vs. River Plate is live on beIN SPORTS from 7:20PM ET. 

Laporta leads the pack to be Barca's next president

Barcelona fans are waking up on Tuesday with something approaching clarity over the future.

On Monday, the candidates taking part in the January 24 elections to become Barcelona president were whittled down to just four, due to the number of signatures they were able to present. 

The front runner by some margin is Joan Laporta - the former president of Barcelona between 2003 and 2011 - who picked up 10,257 signatures, compared to his nearest rival, Victor Font with 4,713. 

Seeing as the only way Laporta can be defeated is with an accumulation of votes from candidates still in the running or those who dropped out, some haggling and hustling is now likely to take place over the next few days.

beIN SPORTS will be there to bring all the latest on a hugely important process for the future of Barcelona.  

Meanwhile, Barcelona - along with Real Madrid - continue preparations for Wednesday's Spanish Super Cup semifinals against Real Sociedad and Athletic Club respectively. 

Back at the ranch in LaLiga and there have been two sackings in the past 24 hours. Bottom of the table Huesca fired Michel after Monday's 2-0 loss to Betis. Huesca have picked up just one LaLiga victory in 18.

Alaves have taken the surprising decision to sack Pablo Machin on Tuesday, despite the team being two points off the relegation zone.