La Liga leaders Real Madrid will continue their quest for the league crown when they take on Villareal this Saturday.
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu
Key Statistics
Real Madrid are unbeaten in 16 home games in all competitions.
They have only failed to score just twice in their last 25 home games in all competitions.
Villareal are without a win in their last four away games in the league.
They are unbeaten in La Liga this season.
Carlo Ancelotti and Unai Emery have never drawn a game in their managerial head-to-heads (four wins apiece).
Head to Head (H2H)
The two clubs have met 44 times across all competitions, with Real Madrid winning 26 times in this fixture. Villareal have won only four times against Madrid so far, with their last win coming in the 2017-18 campaign.
Latest Performances in all competitions
Real Madrid: W-W-W-W-W
Villareal: W-D-D-D-D
Real Madrid
Early season La Liga leaders Real Madrid will welcome the current defending champions of the Europa League to the Bernabeu this Saturday, hoping to continue their early-season good form.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men are top of the league table after six games and are on their best start to the league season since 2013/14.
They returned to the top of the table by trashing Mallorca 6-1 in their last league outing and will be hope to remain there after this weekend games.
The home side head into this tie unbeaten in eleven competitive games and are also on a run of five competitive wins. At home, they are unbeaten in 24 leagues games (W18, D6) and will fancy their chances of extending their unbeaten run further.
They have now scored 21 goals in the league this season; their highest-scoring start to a season in 34 years, and will be looking to add to their tally in this game.
Although they are top of the table, Ancelotti is currently facing an injury crisis and will be without Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Dani Ceballos, and Marcelo for this tie.
The full-back duo of Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal are also struggling with knocks that have ruled them out for a month.
Possible Real Madrid line-ups
Thibaut Courtois; Nacho, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Miguel Gutiérrez; Casemiro, Federico Valverde, Luka Modric; Vinicius Junior, Marco Asensio, Karim Benzema.
Villareal
After finally picking up their first La Liga win of the season, Villareal will hope they can mount a serious challenge for a top-four finish this season.
The Yellow Submarines are currently seated in 12th place after five games. Their 4-1 win over Elche in midweek ended a run of six consecutive draws (in 90 minutes) in all competitions.
They will now hope they can build on that, but face the serious task of trying to nick a win against a Real Madrid side they have not beaten since 2018.
Unai Emery will be without star striker Gerard Moreno for this tie with the player sidelined with a muscle injury. Dani Rába and Samuel Chukwueze are back in training but will undergo late fitness tests to find out if they can be involved against Madrid.
Possible Villareal line-ups
Geronimo Rulli; Pervis Estupinan, Pau Torres, Raul Albiol, Alberto Moreno; Etienne Capoue, Francis Coquelin, Manuel Trigueros; Arnaut Danjuma, Moi Gomez, Yeremi Pino.
Prediction
Although Villareal have kept three clean sheets in their five games they are meeting against a Real Madrid side who are scoring for fun. This will be a strong test for Emery defence and Madrid will be looking to make a statement.
