The Spanish La Liga season also resumes this weekend and features the mouthwatering clash between 2nd placed Villarreal and 4th placed Real Madrid as the early season pretenders look to get one over the regular contenders in the domestic top flight this Saturday.
The Estadio de la Cerámica provides the venue for this top four clash in La Liga with Villarreal no doubt keen to pick up where they left off before the international break having registered back-to-back wins against Real Valladolid and Getafe, and in turn extend their unbeaten sequence to seven matches.
📹 Today's training session: 🛠 Physical circuit🔄 Ball exercises🚩 Mini matches💥 Finishing drills#RMCity | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/lHGUD1r8IE— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) November 17, 2020
📹 Today's training session: 🛠 Physical circuit🔄 Ball exercises🚩 Mini matches💥 Finishing drills#RMCity | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/lHGUD1r8IE
Villarreal have lost only once so far in this new La Liga season which came in the form of a heavy 4-0 defeat on the road at Barcelona but the hosts have responded in positve fashion by putting together a six-match unbeaten run.
This encouraging sequence of results include four wins over Deportivo Alaves 3-1 and Valencia 2-1 along with the aforementioned wins against Real Valldolid and Getafe, but they’ll face their biggest test yet on home turf this Saturday when Real Madrid visit, while goals could feature as three of Villarreal’s five home games to date have seen over 2.5 goals.
The international break probably came at just about the right time for Saturday’s visitors, Real Madrid, as they were handed a heavy 4-1 defeat away from home at Valencia which raised more than just a few eyebrows especially as they’d previously recorded a 3-1 win away from home over arch-rivals, Barcelona, only a couple of weeks prior.
Five wins out of their first eight matches of this new Spanish top flight season has helped Real Madrid up into familiar territory near the top of La Liga and four points behind early leaders, Real Sociedad, but the visitors are more than capable of putting a few wins together in quick succession and claiming top spot.
However, an earlier defeat at home to Cadiz shows Real Madrid’s occasional susceptibilities and vulnerability, and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to that heavy loss at Valencia last time out in this clash at Villarreal.
Three out of Real Madrid’s five away matches have also produced three goals or more, so goals could feature again on Saturday.
In addition, each of the previous five meetings between these two sides have all resulted in over 2.5 goals as well.