Villarreal vs Atl. Madrid Match Preview

Villarreal is ranked at 6th place with 37 points and comes after some bad performances as they are winless over the last five matches collecting four draws and a loss. In fact from the top half teams, they are the team who has the fewest wins, just eight out of 24 matches. The main issue here would be the fact that not only they are having troubles in the league but also played in Europa League on Thursday which left them only two days to recover while their rivals had more.

At home, they come after suffering the first defeat of the season after falling 1-2 against Betis. They will miss Coquelin and Iborra who are both suffering from injuries while Moreno is expected to play from the start.

Atl. Madrid, on the other hand, is ranked at first place with 55 points and comes after two wins two draws, and a loss over the last five matches. They were having a calm season heading towards the title but collecting a draw and a loss in their two most recent games against modest Levante, allowed their rivals to shorten the distance. Having lost the first leg at home in the Champions League makes me think they will want to fully focus on the league as they do not want this advantage to slip away.

On the road, they won eight out of 11 matches while losing just once and that was against a team like Real Madrid. I expect Simeone to motivate his men to bounce back after the second defeat of the season.

In conclusion, I think Atl. Madrid can win this match or get at least a draw. Villarreal is not at their best right now and will be a little bit tired since they had fewer days to rest. They also lack a good offensive side as they scored only 33 goals until now. Atl. Madrid is a very solid team and they rarely lose twice in a row.