Villarreal managed, through a nil-nil draw with Manchester United, to advance to the knockout rounds of the Champions League. Although there is still an away match at Celtic to complete the group stage, it seems very likely that we will finish second in the group, behind ManU on goal differential.
Unfortunately, Villarreal added to its injury woes, with both Senna and Pires going down with knocks. Senna took a blow to the back of the leg just before half, and Pires had a hamstring issue midway through the second half. Taking those losses into consideration, Villarreal are now severely dipping into their second string for the away match at Recreativo this weekend. Also in the midfield, Cani is suspended for the upcoming match. In the back line, luckily, Godin will be back, having made a quick recovery from his injury; Gonzalo, though, is out through yellow card accumulation. Up front, Nihat is back into full-scale training, but is not expected to be ready come Sunday. With Llorente still out, only Rossi and perhaps Jozy (if Pellegrini decides to keep him around for the full year) are available up top. Why no Guille, you ask? Because he is questionable after also picking up an injury during the last few minutes of the match on Tuesday.
Skip below the break for some pictures of the match yesterday.
Thanks Samuel!