Villarreal vs Barcelona

August 30, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Having won all three fixtures in the new season, Villarreal will be feeling confident ahead of the clash with mighty Barcelona at El Madrigal. The Catalans eased off to a 3-0 win over Elche in their first match of the campaign, but they clearly face a much tougher task against in-form Yellow Submarine.

Bright start for Villarreal

Villarreal largely impressed on their return to Spanish La Liga, playing some exciting attacking football throughout the league campaign to achieve a top 6 finish. The Yellow Submarine kept the entire squad together while adding a number of exciting players such as Jonathan Dos Santos, Luciano Vietto and Denis Cheryshev, thus improving the strength in depth needed to cope with playing in Europa League. Marcelino Garcia Toral’s charges easily qualified for the group stages of the competition, recording a 7-0 aggregate victory over Astana, while giving some fringe players a chance to shine. Meanwhile, Villarreal enjoyed a great start to the new La Liga season, defeating Levante on the road and no doubt they go into the Barcelona clash brimming with confidence. While holding Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw at El Madrigal last term, the Yellow Submarine squandered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to the Catalans, and everything suggests we will see another high-scoring match, especially since the likes of Dos Santos, Uche, Cheryshev and Cani should have plenty of space to exploit behind the enemy lines.

A number of players will be recalled after they were rested in midweek, while youngster Luciano Vietto will have to settle for a place on the bench despite scoring a brace against Astana.

Testing times for the Catalans

Apart from winning the Spanish Super Cup, Barcelona won no major trophies last season, meaning this will be an extremely important campaign for the club, especially in the light of their latest transfer ban. While surprisingly holding on to Xavi Hernandez, the Catalans have signed some excellent players in Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Jeremy Mathieu, Thomas Vermaelen, Douglas Pereira, Claudio Bravo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, while the likes of Munir and Sandro emerged as the latest prospects from the youth school. All things considered, Barcelona look much stronger than last term, and new boss Luis Enrique seems to have already managed to get the team playing close to their potential. Following some impressive triumphs in pre-season, the Catalans hammered Elche 3-0, despite playing the entire second period with ten men on the pitch, as Leo Messi and Munir El Haddadi were in stunning form. As the attacking department appears to be in perfect working order, Barcelona can be trusted to continue their scoring run at El Madrigal, but their new-look defence could find it hard to withstand the pressure they are bound to experience when facing very good Villarreal side.

Neymar and Rafinha Alcantara are back in contention after recovering from injury, but Thomas Vermaelen and Marc-Andre ter Stegen continue to miss out. Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano are banned.

Verdict

Villarreal made life difficult for both Real Madrid and Barcelona at their El Madrigal last term, scoring four goals in the process, and the trend looks likely to continue. The Catalans should have enough quality to sneak a win here, but we can effectively rule out Claudio Bravo keeping a clean sheet.

Top pick: Both teams to score   1.65 (13/20) @ Ladbrokes

Alternative pick 1: Over 2.5 goals   1.62 (5/8) @ BetVictor

Alternative pick 2: Away win + both teams to score   3.10 (21/10) @ Coral

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