La Liga: Barca’s Celebration clashes with serious Business for Villarreal

Barcelona vs Villarreal

Barcelona head home on Sunday to celebrate their 2025 La Liga triumph and the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys will be packed to the rafters to welcome the conquering heroes.

With two games to play the title race is over, and when Villarreal visit Catalonia the Blaugrana will play with freedom and a sparkle in their boots. But for Marcelino’s Villarreal the stakes are high as they have a Champions League place in their grasp. As the Primera Division has five places in next season’s European flagship competition, the Yellow Submarine will qualify if they can hold on to their fifth place, and they currently sit five points clear of sixth placed Real Betis.   

Villarreal beat Leganes 3-0 on Wednesday to make it four league wins on the bounce while the Blaugrana followed up their stunning El Clasico victory with a 2-0 win against Espanyol in the Barcelona derby, a result which confirmed Hansi Flick’s men as 2025 La Liga champions.  

 

Talking Points

Pick your Barca Player of the Year

The La Liga 2025 betting odds have been backing the Blaugrana to win the title for some time now and, after beating Real Madrid in a classic encounter last week there was an air of inevitability when they met Espanyol on Thursday night. There was also a reminder of one of the reasons Barca have been so good this season as teen sensation Lamine Yamal scored a stunning goal, an individual piece of brilliance that we see week after week from the La Roja star. He had already tested the Espanyol defence a number of times when he took a pass from Dani Olmo just outside the penalty area and rifled an unstoppable shot which flew into the top left corner. After the hosts went down to ten men, late in the game, Yamal sparked celebrations in the away end when he teed up Ferran Torres for an injury time second.

That made it eight goals and 13 assists for the 17 year old and he’ll be in the frame for the Barcelona Player of the Year…but he has some competition.  

The evergreen Robert Lewandowski is at the other end of his career to Yamal but he still writes as many La Liga 2025 news headlines, at the grand old age of 36. The Polish scoring machine has bagged 25 league goals this season though it looks like Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe will pip him to the Golden Boot. It’s been a breakout season for Ferran Torres, in a side packed with glittering attacking talent the forward has scored 11 goals and made six assists, while 2024 recruit Dani Olmo has impressed with his all round play while helping himself to nine La Liga goals. The return of Pedri has undoubtedly been a huge factor in the Catalans’ success. His recovery from injury was a long time coming and his classy and assured performances in midfield set the tempo for the Blaugrana’s play.

But my vote goes to wide man Raphinha who, in a sparkling front three, has shone throughout the campaign. The Brazilian’s pace, trickery and superb passing have brought him 18 goals and nine assists and, at 28 years of age he’s in his prime.          

Which such an exciting squad Barca’s one regret will be their exit from the Champions League at the semi-final stage, but this is a treble winning team which surely has a bright future ahead of it.    

 

Villarreal are so close

With just two games to play the Yellow Submarine would have to sink without trace to miss out on a Champions League spot. While this is hardly the fixture Marcelino would have asked for, chasers Real Betis only picked up a point in midweek and they travel to Madrid to take on Atletico, before a home fixture against Valencia on the final day. Should the race go down to the final day the Yellow Sub has another chance to get over the line with a home match against Sevilla.     

Villarreal will try to take this game to Barca and they have the players to do it. Veteran striker Ayoze Perez has 18 goals from 29 matches a tally which puts him joint fourth in the Primera Division list of top scorers, alongside Raphinha, while wide man Alex Baena, one of the most exciting players in the Primera Division, has six goals and ten assists; and then there is the livewire Yeremy Pino who has scored three goals and made six assists.

This promises to be a clash which will be well worth watching!  

 

History

Barca have bossed this relationship, with 33 wins to ten, and there have been ten draws in all competitions since 1998; and the Blaugrana slapped Villarreal when they met back in September, plundering a 5-1 win, a result which was only sullied by a horrible injury to Barca keeper Marc Andre Ter-Stegen which kept him out for much of the campaign. 

Both teams have won four, drawn one and lost one of the last six.     

 

Betting Tip

Barcelona are at SBOTOP odds of 1.49 to win this game, with Villarreal at 4.60 and the draw at 4.20. The fact that Barca have already won the league makes this more tricky to call… but I can confidently predict there will be goals.

   

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