It’s seventh against eighth in La Liga this weekend, as Villarreal travel to Los Carmenes to face Granada on Saturday afternoon.
Having won each of their previous two games, seventh-place Villarreal currently lead eighth-place Granada by seven points.
⚽️ La pincha, la centra o la clava en la red. Multiusos Víctor Díaz 🙂 pic.twitter.com/00zTWlEsMh— Granada CF ❤️⚪️ (@GranadaCdeF) April 1, 2021
⚽️ La pincha, la centra o la clava en la red. Multiusos Víctor Díaz 🙂 pic.twitter.com/00zTWlEsMh
A win for Villarreal would take them ten points clear of Granada, while a while for Granada would see them close the gap on Villarreal to just four points.
It’s fair to say that Granada have been pretty inconsistent this season, with a record of W10-D6-L12 underlining their unpredictability.
But despite their consistency struggles, Diego Martinez’s side are enjoying a decent run on home soil at the moment.
In fact, Granada have won each of their last four home matches in all competitions and have only lost one of their previous eight.
Having netted just 34 goals, Granada are the joint-lowest scorers in the top 12 of La Liga as things stand.
It is also worth pointing out that Granada have the worst defensive record in the entire league, having conceded 46 goals.
On the flip side, Villarreal have one of the best defensive records, with just 31 goals in the against column.
Following a barren eight-game winless run – six draws and two losses – across January and February, things are starting to look up for the Yellow Submarine.
After beating Eibar 3-1, Villarreal beat Cadiz 2-1 in their last game before the international break, securing back-to-back wins for the first time since early January.
Looking at the bigger picture, Villarreal have only lost four of their last 39 games in all competitions, meaning they are tough to break down.
Head-to-head: Interestingly, Villarreal are unbeaten in each of their previous nine La Liga meetings with Granada.
The two sides played out a thrilling 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture back in January, despite Yan Brice Eteki’s red card for Granada.
Team news: Granada could be without as many as seven first-team players through injury on Saturday, including Carlos Neva, Luis Milla and Dimitri Foulquier.
Villarreal will be without Vicente Iborra and Geronimo Rulli this weekend, while Gerard Morena and Francis Coquelin are injury doubts.
Three of the previous five meetings between Granada and Villarreal have ended in a draw, so we are likely to see another close game this time around.
Forebet predicts that Granada and Villarreal will produce a low-scoring draw on Saturday, with both sides scoring under 1.5 goals.