Barcelona vs Villarreal Betting Tips

On the face of it Barcelona look to have improved defensively with only 1 goal conceded in their last 5 matches but when you consider the quality of the opposition it is perhaps a little premature to jump to that conclusion. Clean sheets against Getafe and Villanovense and twice against BATE are hardly anything that the European Champions should be getting carried away about but the clear evidence so far this season has been that they concede goals when they play the stronger sides.

Prior to their most recent 5 games, which haven’t been the toughest, both teams had scored in all of their previous 8 matches. They conceded 4 times at Vigo and twice at Sevilla in defeats, while they have won but also conceded in all of their last 4 Primera Division home games. Levante, Las Palmas, Rayo Vallecano and Eibar provided the opposition, all of whom you’d expect to be bottom half sides when the league settles down.

Villarreal are much better than all of those teams and have been enjoying a strong campaign so far. After a slight blip they have managed to win 3 of their last 4 matches in all competitions and are 5th in La Liga only 4 points below Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top.

They scored on visits to all of the top three sides last season and also netted in both legs of their Copa del Rey Semi-Final against Barcelona despite losing both games. Therefore there is a lot of reasoning behind backing both teams to score in this match at odds of 5/6.

It is still hard to back against Barcelona at the Camp Nou though as they very rarely drop points and despite conceding 4 goals in their meetings with Villarreal last season, they still won all 4 matches.

They are still not quite at their best and obviously the absence of Leo Messi isn’t doing them any favours but Luis Suarez and Neymar are both in good form and a 2-1 home win might be worth backing at odds of 13/2.