Celta Vigo vs Villarreal

European hopefuls Villarreal head to Estadio de Balaidos to take on La Liga strugglers Celta Vigo in a must-win league showdown.

Celta Vigo’s decision to sack veteran coach Rafa Benitez in mid-March perhaps best illustrates their torrid La Liga campaign as they head into the last four rounds only one spot and five points clear of the bottom three. Avoiding defeat against Villarreal, a team they’ve failed to beat in five consecutive league meetings since a 4-2 away win in May 2021 (D2, L3), would go a long way to confirming Celta’s top-flight status for next season. Confidence comes from a three-game unbeaten league run on home turf (W2, D1) and the fact ‘Los Celticos’ kept two clean sheets during that sequence. Against this backdrop, it’s been eight years since Celta last held Villarreal scoreless at home, though they’ve conceded precisely once per game in five of their seven meetings at Balaidos since.

Visiting Villarreal reigned supreme against Rayo Vallecano last weekend, steamrolling to a 3-0 home victory to make it two league wins on the trot after back-to-back winless outings beforehand (D1, L1). A late European push is on the cards again, as they trail seventh-placed Betis by four points ahead of the last five rounds. Villarreal’s superb away form can only add to manager Marcelino Garcia Toral’s confidence, with his side going unbeaten on their six most recent La Liga travels (W4, D2) despite failing to keep a clean sheet in that run. In fact, not since a goalless draw at Getafe in September have ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ registered an away shutout in league action! On the contrary, they’ve conceded an average of just 0.5 goals per game across their last four top-flight visits to Celta (W2, D2).