Real Madrid vs Villarreal
Football: Spain : La Liga BBVA
Sunday, 21st February 2010. Kickoff 21:00

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Real Madrid

Los Blancos continue chasing Barcelona and have recently reduced the handicap to 2 points. The Catalan club hammered Racing at home on Saturday evening, so Pellegrini's men are in a must win situation as they face Villareal in the closing match of Spanish week-end.

Real produced arguably their weakest performance of the season vs. Lyon in the first leg of the Champions' League 1/8 finals. 0-1 loss was marked with poor passing play as if the team had never been on the same pitch before.Perhaps Galacticos were not ready to face such a physical opposition.Lyon provided high pressing and a very close contact defending limiting the free space to the minimum.

Now Real Madrid has a point to prove not only to their loyal fans, but to the public in general.Left wingback Royston Drenthe got injured in midweek and will be out of action for 3 weeks.Pepe,Metzelder are absent from the center of defense.Guti is also unavailable.

Expected formation and line up :
Real Madrid (4-4-2)
Cassilas
Arbeloa,Sergio Ramos,Albiol,Marcelo
Granero,Xabi Alonso,Diarra,Kaka
Ronaldo,Raul or Benzema

Villareal

The Yellow Submarine is targeting a 6th place finish by the end of the season to guarantee a ticket to Europa League. Ambitious club had to review objectives after senior Valverde failed to live up to the high expectations of the board. Garrido stepped up after Villareal sunk yet again at home, this time to Osasuna.

Last week-end Valverde’s successor celebrated his first victory in charge of the Yellow Submarine in a home fixture against Athletic Bilbao. Capdevila and in-form Nilmar secured the positive result.

Villarreal was involved in Europa League 1/16 final first leg against Wolfsburg on Thursday. An entertaining evening brought a high-scoring 2-2 draw and lowered chances of progression to the next round. Villarreal is without 2 regular center backs for the trip to Madrid. Gonzalo is injured and Godin received a stupid red card in the previous fixture. To make things worse Fuster and Santi Cazorla are unavailable. Their absence is a real blow to Villarreal’s offensive potential.

Expected formation and line up :
Villarreal (4-2-3-1)
Diego Lopez
Angel,Marcano,Kiko,Capdevilla,
Senna,Matila
Cani or Rossi,Pires,Ibagaza
Nilmar

Betting advice

I'm going for goals here. Real has recorded their "under" match in midweek vs. Lyon, just can't see them not scoring at least twice against experimental Villarreal's defense.

At the same time - Yellow Submarine can well upset Cassilas since Real's been too nervous at the back recently. By all means an "over" affair in prospect with Real prevailing more or less confidently.

Don't forget, Pellegrini is up against his former team, which he virtually built himself.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Real Madrid (-1,25) @ 1.67 with Bet365
Take Over 2.75 goals @ 1.705 with Bet365