Villarreal - Malaga    (lost)

Villarreal is currently flying in the league being placed 4^th and performing in great fashion. They outplayed Atletico de Madrid in the last home match and deserved more than the 1:1 draw. They are coming after a convincing win (0:3) against Levante who were down to 10 men since the beginning of the match. They are solid at the back, have an incredible CM couple in Bruno and Trigueros and up front players such as Uche or Giovani are always capable of creating goal chances with the support of skilful wingers Cani, Perez or Pereira. Giovani, Aquino, Perbet, Pina and Costa were all players that were ineligible for Levante’s match or were on the bench which reveals the deepness of the squad. Costa and Giovani are back for this one and for the first time this season coach Marcelino has a full squad to choose from.

Any resemblance between last season Pellegrini’s Malaga and Schuster’s is pure coincidence. Despite a nice start with some good results in the last 8 matches they have only one victory and that was a lucky last minute goal against a depleted Betis. They are coming from a home defeat against poor traveller Bilbao. They could control the match only in the last 15 minutes of the first half where they managed to score the opening goal. Second half was entirely for Bilbao with Schuster paralyzed in the bench watching his team being pushed at the back and pathetically trying to loose time hoping for the final whistle to arrive and secure at least a point. Nor only that didn’t happen as they lost important playmaker Portillo for Villarreal’s match as he was red booked in the last minutes. Other absent players will be: El Hamdaoui, Santa Cruz, Casado, Ferreira and Chen.

All the quantitative and qualitative facts analysed point towards a comfortable victory for home team.