Villarreal vs Espanyol

A high-stakes midweek La Liga encounter pits European hopefuls Villarreal and relegation-threatened Espanyol against each other at the Estadio de la Ceramica.

Back-to-back 2-1 defeats to Sevilla and Valladolid, in which they trailed ‘to nil’ at halftime, have probably landed a knockout blow on Villarreal’s outside chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, leaving them eight points below fourth-placed Real Sociedad. There’s a more pressing issue as with only one point separating them from seventh-placed Athletic Bilbao, Quique Setien’s men risk falling out of the European placings. Despite starting this round 13 places above visiting Espanyol, ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ have emerged victorious in just one of their last four top-flight H2Hs at La Ceramica (D2, L1). However, a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture in November made it two H2Hs triumphs in a row for Villarreal, as many successes as they had in their previous ten meetings with Espanyol in La Liga (W2, D2, L6).

On the other hand, a goalless home draw against perennial relegation candidates Cadiz last time out curtailed Espanyol’s dreadful six-game losing run in La Liga, yet their survival hopes are still in the balance. But even though they head into proceedings second from the bottom, it’s not all lost for ‘Los Periquitos’ as they sit only two points adrift of safety. New boss Luis Garcia has gone winless in his first three games in charge (D1, L2, but if it’s any consolation, he masterminded Espanyol’s first clean sheet since mid-February. But his primary assignment is to get his side back to winning ways for the first time since a 2-1 home triumph over Mallorca two months ago. Since a 1-0 victory at dead-last Elche in February, the visitors have lost four away league games ‘to one’ on the trot.