Match Preview : Villarreal VS Barça- La Liga

It’s the final game of the year, and it couldn’t be a more important one in the long race for the title. Although the start to this current season has been an unconvincing one in terms of performances.

2025 as a whole for this team has been a brilliant one. With so many big and memorable moments, titles too. It’s been a really exciting and progressive year for the club and this team of players, under the leadership of Hansi Flick. So, we’ll be looking to end the year on a positive note in our final La Liga game before 2026. And it’s a big one. Live from the Estadio de La Cerámica, at 4:15pm local time, it’s Barça up against Villarreal. And it’s not going to be an easy game. Don’t forget this was the fixture that La Liga were absolutely desperate to be played in Miami. Until the backlash from that pretty much stopped it. So, well will be travelling away, to a stadium that in the past we have had decent results. But we can’t rely on past results to get us through today, we need to turn up for it, the stadium will be hostile. Villarreal are a fantastic team. So let’s jump straight into the preview!

A Quick Look at our opponent:

Now, Villarreal are an interesting case this season. Because on the face of it, domestically, they have been outstanding. They currently sit 3rd in the table, whilst having the best defence in La Liga too, only conceding 13 goals over the course of the 15 games they’ve played so far. They’re also on a winning run from their last 5 games in the league, the same as Barça and are the third highest scoring team in La Liga as well. So when you look at that, they really have had a brilliant start to the season and tonight’s game will be a very tough test for us. However, that form only seems to be present in La Liga.

As when you take a look at the other competitions they’ve been involved in so far this season, it’s actually quite embarrassing. They’ve only just been knocked out of the Copa Del Rey in midweek against Racing Santander. But I think the biggest surprise, is their form in the Champions League. Their performances and results in that competition, make absolutely no sense when you look at how well they’ve done in La Liga. They sit in 35th position, just one place above bottom spot in the Champions League “league” phase, with not a single win to their name. Like I’ve explained though, in the Spain is top division, their form couldn’t be any different. Which is why tonight’s game will be a tough one; as you just can’t predict what kind of Villarreal will turn up.

Predicted lineup:

Coming into the game, we have no additions to the squad. But we sadly have a couple of absentees, with one being a huge miss especially in a game like this. Pedri is sadly suffering from discomfort in his hamstring, so as a precaution, Flick has decided to leave him out and let him rest until the new year. Christensen is also out, yet again, after picking up and injury in training just yesterday. Apart from that, I think Flick will go definitely go with his strongest side. It will just be interesting to see what he does to replace the irreplaceable, Pedri.