Villarreal vs Zamora: Copa Del Rey Preview

It admittedly snuck up on me a bit, but Villarreal play their second Copa Del Rey match tomorrow versus Zamora CF. Zamora defeated SD Logrones 2-1 in their last cup match. This is another match where we should rotate heavily and still be just as heavily favored, so hopefully we can go out there and make it look easy.

Our Opponents

I’ll be honest, before writing this article the only thing I really knew about Zamora was that in 2018 they made a kit that was based on the human skeletal and cardiovascular systems, with the club crest being in the heart.

For the vast majority of their existence, Zamora have bounced between the third and fourth tiers. Currently, they are in the same Segunda B group as Deportivo La Coruna and Celta de Vigo II, sitting in 5th place. Unionistas lead that group.

Villarreal

I don’t expect to see very many regulars at all in this one. We have an crucial run of La Liga fixtures featuring tough but winnable matches, and banking points in those will be important as we try to balance three competitions over the next couple of months. The only guys who could be considered first choice regulars who started the first Copa Del Rey match were Pedraza and Mario Gaspar. I expect we might see Pena and Estupinan in this one, along with our regular crop of youngsters such as Baena, Fer, and Pino. Foyth started as a defensive midfielder in that first match, and while he has played poorly at that position in La Liga it would not surprise me to see him forming a sort of double pivot with Jaume Costa once again here, with Chakla and Funes Mori playing CB.

Predictions

We won our first Copa match 6-0. This probably won’t be quite that easy, but I still see us grabbing a 3-1 win.