PREVIEW | Villarreal v Barça

FC Barcelona have seven games left to play in La Liga. On paper, the mission is simple. Win all seven and the championship trophy is secure. The game with leaders Atlético Madrid in a fortnight’s time is obviously a red-letter day, but so are trips like Sunday’s to Villarreal.

Of Barça’s four remaining away trips, this is the only to the home of a side that’s in the top half of the table. The ‘Yellow Submarine’ is currently parked at seventh in the table, and the team have also marched all the way to the Europa League semi-finals, in which they’ll face Arsenal later this week.

Barça have not lost on any of their last thirteen visits to the Estadio de la Cerámica (all competitions), but three of the last five have ended in draws. And at this stage of the championship, anything but all three points could prove very costly indeed.

How it stands

Real Madrid were held at home to a 0-0 draw with Real Betis on Saturday, a major setback for their title aspirations. Barça can match them for points with a win today, and would still have one game in hand.

Atlético Madrid play in the Sunday night fixture, and it's a a tricky away trip to Bilbao (9.00pm CEST). Sevilla entertain Granada (6.15pm CEST), and if the top sides slip up this weekend, a win could throw them right into the mix.

Earlier this season...

The match between the two sides at Camp Nou. 

Team news

Ousmane Dembélé and Neto have both been given the medical all-clear and have been included by Ronald Koeman in the squad that travelled by coach to Villarreal and stayed the night in a hotel.

However, Miralem Pjanic is having trouble with his right knee and sits this fixture out, along with the also injured Martin Braithwaite, Philippe Coutinho and Ansu Fati.

Did you know?

• After going unbeaten in their first eleven games at the Estadio de la Cerámica this season, Villarreal have now lost three of their last four.
• Former Barça man Paco Alcácer is having a fine season with Villarreal, scoring six goals and giving four assists.
• Gerard Moreno needs just one goal to match Villarreal’s all-time Liga record holders (Giuseppe Rossi and Diego Forlán with 54 each).

• Ronald Koeman has only won one of his four games as manager against Villarreal. Luckily for us, that was the one as Barça manager earlier this season!
• Eight of the Villarreal squad have scored against Barça in the past, with Daniel Parejo top of the list with three goals (although none of those were in a Villarreal jersey).
• Villarreal have the best record of any Liga team in the first quarter of an hour of a game (14 goals for and just 3 against). Meanwhile, Barça’s strongest period is the final quarter hour of the first half (17 goals for and 5 against).
• When scoring first, Villarreal have only gone on to lose one game this season. In stark contrast, when conceding first they have only gone on to win once. Getting the first goal is going to be more important than ever!

Ronald Koeman says

"Atlético, Madrid and Sevilla are winning a lot of games. Our advantage over Atlético is that we still have to play them at home and could win that one. But I don’t think any team is stronger than the other.”

“Dembélé is in the squad, so that means he could start. Ansu and Coutinho have more long-term injuries than we expected and I don’t know if they’ll play again this season.”

"I don’t think this is our hardest away game left. Each game has its difficulties. It depends more on us. If we can play with the same energy as other games, it’s one we can win. But Villarreal play good football so it’ll be an interesting game.”

"It’s been some time since the first game we played against them. Their European form shows what a strong team they are. I think they have long enough between now and their game [with Arsenal] on Thursday.”

“I’m not too worried about our own tiredness. We analyse the players’ data and they’re recovering well. We’re trying not to train them too hard – maximum recovery is what matters most.”