Steven Perez
Dailysports's expert
Villarreal
Barcelona
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On February 12, Estadio de la Ceramica (Villarreal) will host the match of the 21st round of the La Liga, in which Villarreal will compete with Barcelona. The battle will start at 21:00 CET.
Villarreal
The team, being under the rule of Emery during the previous couple of years, was able to become the winner of the Europa League, after which it reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. At the same time, “the Yellow Submarine” was steadily falling in the standings of the Primera. Perhaps, that was the reason why the management did not particularly try to dissuade Unai from leaving for Aston Villa. Moreover, a good successor, Setien, was found. To tell the truth, not everything worked out for Quique. He had got a hard start in a new place, and even in winter, after a pretty good start with 10 points in 4 rounds (including a victory in the battle with Real Madrid), “the Submariners” abruptly slowed down in the game. First, being fairly equal, the only goal was scored by Rayo Vallecano. But the main surprise, in a negative meaning, was the defeat in the struggle against Elche. The main outsider of the current draw managed to win with a 1-3 score!
Barcelona
The club finished the previous season without titles – neither Koeman nor Xavi found a recipe for a successful game without Lionel Messi. Moreover, the autumn of 2022 cannot be included into the asset. Then, there was one more 3rd place in the Champions League group, when “the Blaugrana” lost the battle for the play-offs, that time the team did not overcome Inter! Only in the winter the current mentor finally took the title, and it did not matter that it was only the Super Cup – a 3-1 victory happened in the decisive match over Real Madrid. At the same time, there was an opportunity to use the misfires of “the Galacticos” in the Primera, and, as a result, to move away from them in the standings. The previous round was also victorious – there was a confident 3-0 success in the match with Sevilla.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
Villarreal was able to finally win the match against Barcelona in the previous season – that happened in May, at the very end of the Primera. Still, “the Blaugrana” defeated “the Submariners” in October.
Predictions
Bookmakers do not believe that Setien will be able to “trip up” his former team. Let’s agree with them – Barcelona is now on the move and will win in the away battle (odd: 1.85).
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