Villarreal at Real Madrid: La Liga Gamethread

Just like last week, fans all over La Liga will be scrambling from match to match, looking for scores and running calculations or checking the live table. For our opponents, things are fairly simple. They need Atletico to drop points and they need to win, and then they get a La Liga title. For us, there are a few different permutations that involve us getting a Europa League place for next season, the most likely (in my opinion) being a situation where we force a draw while Celta Vigo beat Real Betis. I’m ultimately not too worried about it, regardless, it’s all about the Final, now.

Lineups

What... just... what Unai? I don’t understand man. We’ve got to play a Europa League final on WEDNESDAY and you don’t rotate a bit. I just don’t get it man. Are we gonna get some of those weird halftime subs?

I guess there’s an argument for trying to be as sharp as possible going into a final, and that we should do what we can to ensure Europa regardless of how the final goes... but I just so strongly disagree. I’ll be watching with my heart in my throat all day hoping no one gets hurt.

With this lineup, we have two guys who are better than anyone Madrid has at their respective position, Pau and Gerard. Will that be enough to get the result we need? Only time will tell.

Madrid continues to cobble together a back line with whatever scraps are available. Miguel is a nice young player, but he’s not ready to try and help on a player of Gerard’s quality. Odriozola is a player with no confidence and will have trouble with Yeremi. I definitely think we can score in this one.

Thoughts?

Let me know what you think about the match below!