La Liga Week 24 Schedule, Fixtures, Table & Stream: Lionel Messi & Barcelona Try to Extend Winning Streak, Cristiano Ronaldo & Real Madrid Look to Stay in First Place

By Damon Salvadore First Posted: Feb 20, 2015 10:59 AM EST

Another exciting week of Spanish League soccer is here, and Week 24 kicks off with a Friday matchup between Getafe and Espanyol.

After that, soccer fans have a weekend full of nonstop soccer action, showcasing the very best teams in the league.

The hottest soccer team in Spain will open things up on Saturday morning. Barcelona takes on Malaga, who is in seventh place in the standings. This may seem like an easy game for Lionel Messi and Neymar, but we must remember that Malaga tied Barcelona in Week 5, 0-0. That game was in Malaga, however, whereas this game will be at Barcelona, who has only lost one home game this season, which was in Week 10 to Celta Vigo.

Barcelona has won their last six consecutive games, including a 5-0 dominating victory over Levante last week. Messi has been on fire during this stretch, scoring 11 goals during this six-game win streak. Messi now has 26 goals (two behind Ronaldo) and a league-leading 13 assists. Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has been by far the best goalie this year, allowing just 13 goals in his 23 starts.

Barcelona has allowed nine less goals than any other team this season.

La Liga's first place team, Real Madrid, will be playing Elche on Sunday. After a devastatingly embarrassing loss to Atletico Madrid in Week 22, in which they lost 4-0, Real Madrid rebounded to beat Deportivo last week to remain in the top spot. Cristiano Ronaldo leads the league in goals this season with 28, but he hasn't found the net since Week 19 against Getafe on Jan. 18. Breaking Messi's 50 goal record will be extremely tough as Ronaldo will need to score 23 goals in the final 15 games.

Real Madrid has been in first place since Week 10, but many soccer fans are starting to have their doubts. Colombian superstar James Rodriguez is still out with a broken foot, they were swept by Atletico Madrid, and Ronaldo is in a scoring slump.

Atletico Madrid has a critical game against Almeria this weekend. Although Atletico Madrid put together one of the most impressive victories of the season against Real Madrid two weeks ago, they fell to Celta Vigo last week, 2-0. With that loss Atletico Madrid is now 16-2-5 with 50 points, six points behind Barcelona and seven points behind Real Madrid. Outside of Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic, Atletico Madrid isn't get much offensive support.

Still, we can't count out the defending champions.

Another very big game will be between Valencia and Córdoba. If Valencia goes on to defeat last place Córdoba, that will give them 50 points. If Atletico Madrid loses to Almeria, that means that Atletico Madrid and Valencia will be tied in the standings for third place.