Villarreal meets Levante in a local battle, with Levante already looking to its chances next season in the Segunda while the Yellow Submarine aims for the Champions League. Villarreal's target at the moment is sputtering Barcelona, who lost midweek to woeful Valencia in the Copa del Rey. If we manage to surpass the Blaugrana, we will be looking at overtaking Madrid as well. Senna pointed out, "if we win we will get the full points away from home, but besides that it is important to win to continue putting pressure on Madrid and Barcelona."
But first things first - we must win at Levante, who is "playing for pride". Villarreal has struggled against some of the lower-tier teams this year. They must come out in top form tomorrow, and give a repeat performance of the 3-0 thrashing they handed Levante earlier in the season. It will not be easy, as Pelligrini pointed out - Levante have not lost at home since the halfway point of the season. But Villarreal has little choice, as Atletico Madrid seems to have regained their momentum and just today handled Sevilla at the Sanchez-Pizjuan.
After Thursday saw Guille and Godin miss training because of minor injuries, Godin has recovered. However, Guille has not, and Cygan joins him on the sidelines for the match. Rossi will be out as well, because of his call-up for the Italian U-21 side. The traveling squad for the match: Diego Lopez, Viera; Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Capdevila, Godin, Angel, Josemi; Josico, Senna, Pires, Cani, Cazorla, Eguren, Mati Fernandez, Bruno Soriano; Nihat, Tomasson and Guille Franco (Franco is traveling, but is unlikely to play because of his knee injury).
In terms of Levante's injury report, Juanma Gomez has recovered from an ankle injury, but the squad will be without Laurent Courtois, Felix Ettien, and Saul Ferndandez. Levante will have, for the first time since his transfer from AZ Alkmaar, Shota Arveladze. You'll have to forgive me for giving Levante's squad short shrift. I really do not know the squad well.
I feel comfortable in saying I expect Villarreal to play well tomorrow. The team has been riding high, winning their last three road Liga matches. Although Levante have won their last two home matches and had been putting quality football together for a stretch, they were humbled 3-0 at Atletico last week.
For American fans, the match will not be televised on GolTV, so it means we are stuck with following the play by play of Marca or Soccernet.
Prediction: Villarreal nearly repeats the scoreline from earlier in the season, and wins 0-2. Vamos Villarreal!