La Liga: Villarreal vs. Barcelona Preview, Odds, Predictions, Pick

Villarreal has a big challenge coming up at its El Madrigal, as the reigning La Liga champions, Barcelona, come to town. Home unit had a very profitable summer selling several of their best players for a pretty significant amount of money. As usual, a plus on one side is a minus on the other, Quique Setien now has to form a new squad and stay relevant at the same time. As for Barcelona, something isn’t right with the champs, who had pale performances in the opening two rounds of the championship. 

Preview

Villarreal (+265) opened La Liga with a loss at home to Betis, 0-1. The Yellow Submarine didn’t deserve to lose, but on the other side, we can’t say that the outcome is unfair. After that, Villarreal visited Mallorca and erased mistakes from the opening event. 

They were better than the rivals, 1-2, dominating the pitch and completely outplaying the home crew. When looking at the numbers, Villarreal was a much better rival that day, therefore, they earned those three points fair and square. 

We stated that the team suffered plenty of changes, among others, their best attacker, Jackson, and the playmaker, Torres left to join Chelsea and Aston Villa. Setien now needs not only to cover up their absence, but several other players as well. 

Barcelona (+100) looked pale in each of their two La Liga events so far. The first one was against Getafe, which ended 0-0, in which the head coach Xavi got a red card and a suspension. The former midfielder will be out for this contest. The next one was at home vs. Cadiz, 2-0.

Xavi’s Blaugrana isn’t dominant in the attack, and they look slow in transition and also not creative enough, which is why we didn’t see Lewandowski in the first 45 minutes of the game against Cadiz. The Pole was cut off upfront, alone and without any help. Meanwhile, the defense is doing a very good job, proving that the title landed at Camp Nou because of the back line. 

Latest News

Alberto Moreno and Francis Coquelin are both out for the home team due to respective injuries. 

On the other side, Xavi is suspended, Ronald Arajuo also won’t appear, only his reason is injury.

Head to Head

Barcelona was confident last year, not allowing a single goal in two events against Villarreal. The first meeting was at Camp Nou, where Blaugrana routinely solved the rivals, winning 3-0. The second event, at El Madrigal, was a bit more tense, but the champs successfully overcame that obstacle winning 0-1. It was one of the most important victories of the campaign for them.

Prediction

Barcelona’s results are a product of a very hard defense. Last year’s performances of the back line were one of the best in the history of Spanish football, and even though many don’t like when Barcelona plays slow and degrading football, Xavi isn’t going to change his winning recipe. Blaugrana is going to El Madrigal with the intention of taking possession and slowing down the pace as much as possible, and as a result of that, we expect low efficiency, which is under 2.5 goals.

Pick: Under 2.5 goals -165

Here are more previews for this weekend’s games:

• Chelsea vs. Luton 
• Brighton vs. Newcastle
• Everton vs. Wolves
• Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Bayer Leverkusen
• Arsenal vs. Fulham
• Rayo Vallecano vs. Atletico Madrid
• Newcastle vs. Liverpool