Real Madrid vs Villarreal- Match Preview
Real Madrid takes on Villarreal on Sunday in the Spanish La Liga. It comes as no surprise that Madrid would be going into the match as favourites. The former champions have attained 16 straight wins at home in all competitions. On the other hand, Villarreal
has not been able to win even once at Bernabeu. The last 11 visits to Madrid by the Yellow Submarine all ended in defeats. Last season when Villarreal played Madrid, they lost by 6 goals to 2. To make matters worse for the visitors, they would be without the
services of their 2 most potent strikers, Nilmar and Marcos Senna- both are out due to injury.
Villarreal would also be tired from a hard fought mid-week cup tie against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Valencia-c40863, where they were 2 nil down but managed to fight back and win 4-2 in the end. Whereas Jose Mourinho’s team had the luxury of playing a 2nd string team in midweek
as they had won the first leg 8-0 and even after losing 2-0, made it through. Former Real Madrid goalkeeper, Diego Lopez, who is now at Villarreal, is still confident that his team would be able to come up with a good result in Madrid.
Lopez said: "If it can be done, you can do it. In football anything is possible, although it's going to be very difficult. After the Cup, we are full of confidence, but we're tired as well. The team made a great effort and we've not had many days to prepare
for the game."
He added that if his team continued to play their own game and did not get intimidated by the big names at Real Madrid, they would be fine. Lopez went on to say that Real Madrid is never easy to play at home, and, with Mourinho in charge, they would be even
more determined, but his team should not lose heart.
Villarreal are currently ranked 3rd on the table and are looking good to make it to the Champions League next season. But there is still an 8 point difference between them and Madrid. Apart from the injuries to Senna and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nilmar-c28044, Villarreal would
also be without the World Cup winning Spanish midfielder, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carlos-Marchena-c8481, who is also down with an injury at the moment.
Jose Mourinho has only had to taste defeat twice this season. Even though Madrid managed to move forward after the 2-0 defeat against Levante, as they had won 8-0 in the first leg, Mourinho did not take the defeat lightly and said that, regardless of the
first leg, his team should have been able to come up with a win. The second defeat the team suffered this season was a 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Barcelona. Real Madrid also have a few injury concerns and would not have the services of centre-back, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-c29670,
Argentine striker, Gonzalo Higuain and backup goalkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jerzy-Dudek-c18416.
Regardless of those injuries, Jose Mourinho still has a big squad to choose from. The eight players who will be fresh after the rest in midweek include http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Xabi-Alonso-c37045
and Mesut Ozil.
Mourinho said that his team is in good form and, despite a few absentees, he has a healthy squad to choose from and expects them to get all 3 points at home.
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