Villarreal news, November 14

Villarreal’s “under-23” squad is about to take on Tottenham Hotspur’s side in the International Cup—it’s at Stevenage Borough’s ground. Details are here.

This is our final group match—we’ve won the first two—if we win, we are definitely into the knockout round. if we lose or draw, who knows, because it depends on how Tottenham do when they play Benfica in their last match.

Our team call is mostly C-teamers with a few B-teamers in, including Pau and Chuca, who have seen first-team minutes this season. Endavant mini-submarino!!

Bruno Soriano MAY be in the squad when we play Athletic Club on Sunday—he has practiced with the first team now. He gave an interview to the local paper where he (not surprisingly) said he likes the look of the team and the diamond midfield, etc.

Euan McTear likes the deal to give Enes Unal some playing time at Levante (he scored in his first match for them) and his article from the summer on Villarreal’s success in developing center backs is especially topical given that Alvaro Gonzalez recently renewed his contract, so here it is again.

Cedric Bakambu wasn’t able to play in Congo’s final World Cup qualifier due to yellow cards; they won, but other results meant they didn’t make it to the finals. At the moment, it appears as though Antonio Rukavina will be our only representative in Russia, unless Denis Cheryshev can force his way back into the hosts’ squad. (NB: I am not counting Carlos Bacca since he is on loan to Villarreal at the moment).

That’s it for now, sorry about the lack of content of late but life intervenes. Anyone wants to help out with this labor of love, let me know!