La Liga: Barcelona vs. Villarreal

Posted on | March 5, 2008 | 1 Comment

This has all the ingredients to a great game. Barcelona are second in the league and Villarreal are third. The visitors have Atlético Madrid and Espanyol breathing down their necks and can’t afford to lose points at this stage in the league.
Barcelona qualified for the last eight of the Champions league on Tuesday night with a one nil win over Celtic Glasgow. But the victory came with a price, as Leo Messi hobbled off after thirty minutes with a reoccurrence of his torn thigh muscle. This will leave him out of action for six to eight weeks, and will miss some very important games, including the Champions league quarter final ties. His injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Barca, who really need to keep adding up league wins to maintain their title challenge intact. They are currently five points from leaders Real Madrid and this could extend to eight if they aren’t careful here. Villarreal are something of a bad omen for the Catalan side, and have chalked up some memorable wins against the Catalans, but they haven’t won at the Nou Camp for seven years.
After having been kicked out of the UEFA cup by Russian outfit Zenit, Villarreal have nothing to play for now except consolidating their position in the Champions league for next season. They are currently seven points behind Barcelona, but know all too well that a win here would cut the gap to four points, which would be much more accessible.
They missed a great opportunity at the weekend to get even closer to Barca when they could only draw away to Osasuna in a pretty boring goalless match. Barcelona had lost by four goals to two away at Atlético Madrid and the yellow submarines have only themselves to blame for a mediocre showing. Coach Pellegrini will want to change that before this game and I am sure the players will run out onto the Nou Camp pitch in another frame of mind.
I’m going to stick my neck out in this one and go for the away win. Barcelona will really be feeling Messi’s absence, and without him they simply don’t work as well. If Villarreal can get off to a good start and make the home side nervous, they could well close the gap at the top of the league.
Prediction: Away win (1-2)

Related posts:

1. La Liga: Villarreal vs. Barcelona
2. La Liga: Villarreal vs. Barcelona
3. La Liga: Levante vs. Villarreal
4. La Liga: Villarreal vs. Valldolid
5. La Liga: Villarreal vs. Recreativo de Huelva

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