Next up, we have a very important match from the Spanish La Liga, where league leaders Barcelona will be playing host to Villarreal on Saturday, May 6th. Barcelona looked great in their previous match, as they easily overcame Espanyol on the road and continued to sit at the top of the La Liga. They will be looking to win all 3 remaining matches, hoping that Real Madrid will stumble in one of their 4 remaining matches.
Villarreal (18-8-9) have been in excellent form lately, as they have won 5 of their last 6 matches (5-1-0). They are coming into this match after securing all 3 points from a comfortable, 1-3 win at home against Sporting Gijon. They had already taken a 3 goal lead before their opponents scored a consolation goal at the 73rd minute. They are now sitting at the 5th spot of the La Liga with 63 points, just 1 point ahead of Athletic Bilbao, and 2 points ahead of Real Sociedad. With just 3 more matches to go, Villarreal can move up to the 3rd spot, and down to 8th, so they will be looking to grab as many points as they can. They will be relying on their massive defense, which is the 2nd best in the league with just 28 conceded goals. They have been very good on the road during the season (7-4-6), where they have lost just 2 of their last 10 matches (6-2-2).
Barcelona (25-4-6) are coming off a very comfortable 3-0 win on the road against Espanyol. After a goal-less first half, it was Luis Suarez who took the lead at the 50th minute, before Rakitic doubled that at the 76th minute. Suarez scored his 2nd personal goal of the night at the 87th minute for the final 3-0. Barcelona are still sitting at the top of the La Liga with 81 points, just as many as Real Madrid who have a match in hand. Barcelona have 3 more matches to play, and they will be looking to win all of them with as many goals as possible, and hope that Real Madrid hit an upset somewhere. Barcelona have been excellent at home so far (13-1-3), where they have the best offense with 56 goals, and the 2nd best defense with just 14 conceded. They will be coming into this match with just a handful of injury concerns, as Iniesta, Rafinha and Vidal are still unavailable, while Mathieu is currently listed as questionable to participate.