Villarreal and Barcelona will go head-to-head in the La Liga matchday 15 at Estadio de la Ceramica on Saturday. The kick-off is at 22:00 CEST.

Preview

Despite winning the 2020/21 Europa League final in May when they defeated Manchester United on penalties, Villarreal have struggled drastically in the current Spanish top flight season. Unai Emery's men have only won three league matches this term so far to find themselves in the 12th position in the table ahead of their clash with Barcelona. What's more, the Yellow Submarine will be hosting the Catalans on the back of a two-game streak without a win in all competitions as they shared points with Celta (1-1) last weekend before losing to Man United in the Champions League in mid-week (2-0).

Barca, meanwhile, celebrated Xavi's appointment as the club's manager with a 1-0 victory over Espanyol in the Barcelonian derby last Saturday to move into seventh in the La Liga standings with 20 points, 10 points adrift of leaders Real Madrid and four points ahead of their forthcoming opponents. The Blaugrana, however, couldn't gain revenge on Benfica for September's 3-0 thrashing at Estadio da Luz as they drew the Eagles 0-0 at Camp Nou on Tuesday.

Team news

While Gerard Moreno is the only injury doubt in the hosts' squad, Sergi Roberto, Pedri, Ansu Fati, Martin Braithwaite and Sergio Aguero won't help the visitors at El Madrigal for the same reason.

Prediction

It's been long 14 years since Villarreal defeat Barca at home last time but given the latter's record of zero away wins in the 2021/22 La Liga campaign so far, let's say that Emery's men have very good chances to break that unwanted trend on Saturday. Moreover, many would agree that the Blaugrana were quite lucky to claim all three points against Espanyol last weekend, meaning that the new manager have a lot of work to do ahead of him to bring his boyhood club back to the top level. Hence, let's say this encounter is likely to go down to the wire.

Tip

 Total under 2.5 at 2.152 with 1XBET.