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Villarreal vs. Athletic Bilbao: GameThread

The Yellow Submarine hosts los leones in an attempt to maintain its unbeaten start to the 2015-16 La Liga campaign. Villarreal makes 9 changes from its starting XI in Thursday's Europa League defeat in Vienna, with only Bruno Soriano and Víctor Ruiz keeping their places.

By siempre_riquelme
Víctor Ruiz: a key man in Musacchio's absence.
Víctor Ruiz: a key man in Musacchio's absence.
Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

6:15 pm kickoff at El Madrigal on a September Sunday. Nice weather in Vila-real. Direct rivals in town. Funds going to Syrian refugees. Should be a great atmosphere and a cracking match.

Villarreal XI: Areola; Mario, Bailly, Ruiz, Costa; Pina, Bruno; Nahuel, Castillejo; Bakambu, Soldado.

Villareal bench: Barbosa; Rukavina; Denis, Jona, Manu; Baptistao, Adrian.

Athletic XI: Iraizoz; De Marcos, Balenziaga, Laporte, Gurpegi; San José, Mikel Rico, Eraso, Aketxe; Kike Sola, Sabin.

No Aduriz or Raul García in the visitors' starting XI -- expect those two for 30-45 minutes in the second half. So the Yellow Submarine hopefully will come out to bury its guests in the opening 45 minutes. But Ernesto Valverde's outfit is still a threat from set pieces without its leading talisman.

Endavant Villarreal!

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