Real Madrid

Real Madrid dealt blow as match at Celta Vigo is postponed

Published Feb. 4, 2017 3:40 p.m. ET

Ryan Rosenblatt

The mayor of Vigo has said that Sunday's match between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo will be postponed because of weather. The city has been hit by a storm and with winds topping 80 miles-per-hour, they do not think it will be safe to play.

"I have already spoken with the Celta president and they are putting together the technical report at the moment," mayor Abel Cabellero told AS. "The decision is irreversible. Last night the storm was very severe, it lifted part of the roof -- the firemen could not get in to fix it.

"The pitch is not match-ready. For us security is the most important, and in these conditions you cannot play tomorrow. We have agreed that with the president, the coaches, the firemen and all those involved. Unfortunately it must be postponed to another date."

Celta Vigo asked La Liga to postpone the match and the league later agreed to the postponement, but said that the new date for the fixture to be played is not yet decided.

Real Madrid have been looking forward to the match because they were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Celta just 10 days ago. They wanted revenge and to stay atop the La Liga table. They've even pushed to have the match played despite the weather, but that's not going to happen now.

The postponement will not be kind to Real Madrid. They've already had one match postponed this season because of the Club World Cup so with that match to make up and the Champions League starting back up, they're looking at some serious fixture congestion. Now this Celta match will be added to it. On top of that, Celta planned to rest almost their entire first team ahead of next week's Copa del Rey semifinal, so this postponement is not very good for the Merengues, but safety comes first.