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Gerard Moreno among players journeying to Sassuolo

Villarreal has a traveling party of 19. Aleix Garcia is not included, Gerard Moreno is.

Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images

Those looking for indications of transfer activity in the tea-leaves have noted Gerard Moreno is included in the traveling party which will play a friendly against Serie A club Sassuolo on Sunday (8:30 AM ET; no idea if there will be any TV for this one).   I would not read too much into it at tis point, given we know the only way Espanyol will have any money is if the sale of Cristian Stuani goes through and Hector Moreno is sold. (This article, which explains the delay in Stuani's signing by Middlesborough, also mentions ex-Villarreal B player Salva Chamorro, whose move to Hamilton Academicals in Scotland fell through).

Leo Baptistao is not included, presumably an injury worry?   Samu Garcia not recovered yet.  And, Aleix Garcia is not included, who knows if that means the move to Man City is still on.

Jonathan dos Santos isn't included either, but then he only returned to training after the Gold Cup last week.

The complete squad is:

  • Keepers: Areola y Barbosa.
  • Defenders: Mario, Jokic, Jaume Costa, Pablo Íñiguez, Eric Bailly, Víctor Ruiz and Pantic.
  • Midfielders: Pina, Bruno, Trigueros, Samu Castillejo, Espinosa, Alfonso, Nahuel and Iván Alejo.
  • Strikers: Gerard Moreno y Jonathan Pereira.

The club is flying out from Castellón Airport on Sunday for the match and will return the following day.

You'll recall we played Sassuolo in the Ceramica Trophy match last year, winning 4-2; since then, Sassuolo have lost striker Simone Zaza,  signed by Juventus for €18m, and Domenico Berardi, who had been loaned from there for two years, was purchased for €10m.

As this article reminds us, Sassuolo is a ceramics town like Vila-real, in fact slightly smaller.  Sassuolo came up to Serie A for the first time in 2013-14 and has survived for two seasons, no mean feat when you consider they are one of only a few clubs ever to appear in Serie A representing towns that are not provincial capitals.  Again, like Villarreal in Spain.

I don't know of any TV for the match, but will update this article if I find out there is.  As always, Radio Vila-real will have the match, and Vavel.com's Villarreal section will probably provide a minute-by-minute match commentary in Spanish.

Endavant!