Madrid: Top seated Real Madrid will be looking forward to holding their spot and well as their dominating unbeaten start to the campaign as they host Unai Emery’s Villarreal at Santiago Bernabeu.
Karim Benzema who is in the most lethal form of his recent years had already found the net eight times for Los Blancos in six games. With his brace against Mallorca, the French striker has entered the prestigious squad of La Liga’s highest goalscorers with 200 goals in the jersey. He looks set to add to his tally as his team takes on the defending Europa League Champions. Although the defense woes keep to worry the Spanish Giants, the addition of David Alaba has been a lot helpful while 18 year old Eduardo Camavinga have been absolutely vital. With a new boost in confidence, having scored a hat-trick on his return, a long sidelined Marco Asensio is set to feature in the clash . Although VillaReal has become a better side, the 13 times Champions League winners are still the favourites to win the tie by a great margin .
Absence of Talisman Lionel Messi continues to haunt FC Barcelona as the Spanish Giants could muster only nine points out of 15 sitting at the seventh spot. After an underwhelming loss against Càdiz , Barcelona will be hoping to bounce to winning ways as they face Levante United at Camp Nou. The tie would not be so easy to overcome as Levante had previously caused Barcelona a lot of problems . They had ended the side’s hopes of being invincible league winners on the final match day in 2018 along with other upsets. Head coach Ronald Koeman’s future at the club seems to be in a blur as reports in Spain stated Barcelona planning to bring Club legend Xavi Hernandez to replace the Dutchman.
