Category World News

Who: Oviedo vs Real Madrid
What: Spanish La Liga
Where: Estadio Carlos Tartiere in Oviedo, Spain
When: Sunday, August 24, at 9:30pm (19:30 GMT)

How to follow: We’ll have all the updates on Al Jazeera Sport from 6:30pm (16:30 GMT) in advance of our live text commentary stream.

The La Liga season reaches its second round of fixtures with a potentially early-season giant-killing in the offing.

Newly promoted Oviedo will not be expected to take much from the record Spanish league winners, Real Madrid.

Los Blancos limped over the line last weekend in their first match of the new season, Xabi Alonso’s first in charge.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at what could be an even bigger banana skin on Sunday.

How are Real Madrid shaping up?

Alonso took charge of Madrid before the FIFA Club World Cup, in which his new charges reached the semifinals before suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.

After a short close-season break, Real returned to training before edging Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday thanks to a Kylian Mbappe penalty.

“After a two-week preseason, against a team who had longer, there were things missing, but the result gives us stability going forward,” said Alonso after that match.

What are Oviedo’s credentials?

Oviedo returned to Spain’s top flight after an absence of almost a quarter of a century by beating Mirandes in the second-tier playoff final in June.

The club from the northern region of Asturias, coached by Serbian former player Veljko Paunovic, were therefore left facing a quick turnaround before tackling life back in La Liga.

How did Oviedo fare in their first match back in La Liga?

With a 40-year-old Santi Cazorla coming off the bench and Venezuela veteran Salomon Rondon leading the attack, Oviedo lost 2-0 away at Villarreal in their first game back in the elite.

Now, they host the 15-time European champions in front of what will be a sellout 30,000 crowd at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere.

How are the new Los Blancos signings settling?

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen, signed before the Club World Cup, made their La Liga bows for Madrid in that game, while left-back Alvaro Carreras made his debut after joining from Benfica.

Teenage Argentinian sensation Franco Mastantuono also came on for his first appearance.

Alonso will now hope for a more fluid display as his side continue what looks like a kind opening run of fixtures, building up to the derby away to Atletico in late September.

The Argentinian teenager is tipped for a huge future and made his La Liga debut on Tuesday off the bench for Madrid.

Mastantuono moved to the Bernabeu in June, signing from River Plate for just more than 63 million euros ($72m and penning a six-year deal.

The winger or attacking midfielder, who made his senior Argentina debut in early June, just before playing at the Club World Cup with River, will hope to make a big impact in La Liga this season.

“He has that Argentine grit and competitive spirit,” said Real coach Alonso this week, while also hailing the youngster’s ability to play the final pass.

With Rodrygo still being tipped to depart Real in the transfer window, that would leave Mastantuono and Brahim Diaz to contest a spot on the right wing.

What happened the last time Oviedo played Real Madrid?

This is the first meeting between the sides since Real won a Copa Del Rey meeting in November 2002.

Head-to-head

This is only the 18th meeting between the sides, with Real winning nine times and Oviedo on four occasions.

Oviedo team news

Alvaro Lemos misses out through injury, while Santiago Colombatto, Jaime Seoane and Lucas Ahijado face late fitness tests.

David Costas returns from suspension, but Alberto Reina was sent off in the defeat by Villarreal last time out, so he sits this game out.

Real Madrid team news

Ferland Mendy, Eduardo Camavinga, Jude Bellingham and Endrick are all absent for Los Blancos due to injury.

Many eyes will still be on Rodrygo with the Brazilian forward left on the bench against Osasuna while being heavily linked with a move away from Madrid.

Antonio Rudiger returns to the backline following suspension.

Real Oviedo predicted starting lineup

Escandell; Costas, Dendoncker, Calvo; Vidal, Ilic, Sibo, Alhassane; Chaira, Rondon, Hassan

Real Madrid possible starting lineup

According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Gaza famine is “a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself.”

You try to buy a kilo of flour in Gaza.

You open your wallet; what’s inside?  A faded 10-shekel note, barely held together by a strip of tape. No one wants it; it is all rubbish now.

The 10-shekel note, normally worth about $3, was once the most commonly used bill in daily life. Now, it is no longer in circulation. Not officially—only practically. It has been worn out beyond recognition. Sellers will not accept it. Buyers cannot use it.

There is no fresh cash. No replenishment.

Other banknotes are following the fate of the 10 shekels, especially the smaller ones.

If you pay with a 100-shekel note for an 80-shekel purchase, the seller will likely be unable to return the remaining 20 due to the poor physical state of the banknotes.

Many notes are torn or taped together, and entire stalls now exist just to repair damaged currency so it can be used again. Anything is better than nothing.

But the disintegration of banknotes is not the only problem we have in Gaza.

Civil servants have gone months without pay. NGOs are unable to transfer salaries to their employees. Families cannot send remittances. What once supported Gaza’s financial structure has vanished. There is no mention of when it will return. Just silence.

Money is stuck. Trapped behind closed systems and political barriers.

If you manage to obtain money from outside sources — perhaps from a cousin in Ramallah or a sibling in Egypt — it comes at a cost. A brutal one. If you get sent 1,000 shekels ($300), the agent will hand you 500. That’s right, the commission rate on cash withdrawals in Gaza is now 50 percent.

There are no banks to offer such withdrawals or oversee transfers.

The signs are still there. Bank of Palestine. Cairo Amman Bank. Al Quds Bank. But the doors are shut, the windows are dusty, and the inside is empty. No ATMs work.

There are only brokers, some with connections to the black market and smugglers, who are somehow able to obtain cash. They take huge cuts to dispense it, in exchange for a bank transfer to their accounts.

Every withdrawal feels like theft disguised as a transaction. Even so, people continue to use this system. They have no choice.

Do you have a bank card? Great. Try using it?

There is no power. There’s no internet. No POS machines. When you show your card to a seller, they shake their head.

People print screenshots of account balances that they cannot access. Some walk around with expired bank documents, hoping someone will think they’re “good enough” as a pay guarantee.

Nobody does.

There are a few sellers who accept so-called “digital wallets”, but those are few, and so are people who have them.

In Gaza today, money you can’t touch is equivalent to no money at all.

And so people have to resort to other means.

At the market, I saw a woman standing with a plastic bag of sugar. Another was holding a bottle of cooking oil. They did not speak much. I just nodded. Traded. Left.

This is what “shopping” in Gaza looks like right now.  Trade what you’ve got. A kilo of lentils for two kilos of flour. A bottle of bleach for some rice. A baby’s jacket for several onions.

There is no stability. One day, your item will be worth something. The next day, nobody wants it. Prices are guesses. Value is emotional. Everything is negotiable.

“I traded my coat for a bag of diapers,” my uncle Waleed, a father of twins, told me. “He looked at me as if I were a beggar. I felt like I was giving up a part of my life.”

This is not a throwback to simpler times. This is what happens when systems disappear. When money dies. When families are forced to sacrifice dignity for survival.

People don’t just suffer—they shrink. They lower their expectations. They stop dreaming. They stop planning. What future can you plan when you can’t afford tomorrow?

“I sold my gold bracelet,” Lina, my neighbour by tent, told me. “It was for emergencies. But now, every day is an emergency.”

Gaza’s economy did not collapse due to bad policy or internal mismanagement. It was broken on purpose.

The occupation has not just blocked goods entering Gaza; it has also blocked currency and with it, any sense of financial control. It has destroyed the banking system. It has made liquidity a weapon.

Cutting off Gaza’s money is part of a larger siege. There is no need to fire a bullet to destroy a people. Simply deny them the ability to live.

You can’t pay for bread, for water, for medicine, so how do you sustain life?

If this trend continues, Gaza will be the first modern society to completely return to barter. There are no salaries. There is no official market. Only personal trades and informal deals. And even those will not last forever. Because what happens when there is nothing left to trade?

If this isn’t addressed, Gaza will be more than just a siege zone. It will be a place where the concepts of money, economy, and fairness will die forever.