From Villareal USA website.

Villarreal-Sevilla: the two teams play three times in ten days. Here's our March schedule:

March 12 Villarreal vs Sevilla El Madrigal

March 15 Almeria vs Villarreal (away)

March 19 Sevilla vs Villarreal (away)

March 22 Villarreal vs Sevilla El Madrigal

It's very strange, isn't it! I suppose we return home after the Almeria match, since it's the early game on the Sunday, then fly to Andalusia again on the 18th.

Getting to the CL: some statistical analysis

Remember the winner of the Europa League gets a Champions League place (it's added to those already allocated, so if we won, we'd become a fifth Spanish CL team). We'd have to win four matches to get that place, and if we figure we have a 50% chance of winning each match, we'd have a 6% chance of winning the thing. That's conservative, though--I figure we'd be favorites in some of those ties and to be honest, if we get past Sevilla I'd give us even odds to get to the flnal, anyway--so I'd bump up our chances to win to between 10-15%.

What about catching Valencia for fourth and getting to the CL that way? Well, we could do it, sure, but to be honest it probably requires us to defeat Valencia in the Mestalla (April 4). I feel less confident about winning that tie than I do about winning any Europa League tie....maybe a 20-30% chance of winning there at best. And if we do win, maybe there is a 50-50 chance we make up the remaining points and finish fourth. So that looks like about a 10-15% chance, again. Statistics say the two chances are equal.

But it's not all statistics....

The Europa League offers several advantages apart from a CL place. There's money, of course---we already have earned just under €3m from the competition proper, and TV moneys get added to that. We've probably earned around €5.5-6m already if you include the TV pool, but getting to the final gets you another €4m (6.5m if you win the thing).

And apart from money, there's pride and prestige--even more important. Villarreal have come close before (semifinals) and it would be a really great thing if we could make it to the semis again, much less get to a final. Unlike Sevilla, who won the Europa League last year (and won it twice in a row when it was the UEFA Cup, so it's not like even that would be a new experience!), the value of getting to a final would be incalculable.

This weekend could decide a lot....

Marcelino has been adamant about rotating players, and clearly prioritized the Salzburg match over the Madrid one--note his comment afterward that "we won't see the same players against Madrid". This week, our midweek priority is the second leg of the Copa semifinal at home Wednesday. Regardless of whether we win or lose that, you'd have to think we would be looking to rest some players on Sunday against Celta, since we want to put out our strongest lineup at El Madrigal for the first leg of the Europa League.

The other key match on Sunday is Atletico-Valencia, which takes place after ours. Should Valencia win, they would leapfrog Atleti into third, and then (a) we would be between 8 and 11 points behind Valencia; (b) 6 to 9 points behind Atleti. And we still have Atleti to play in El Madrigal. Should Atleti win, Valencia would be 5 to 8 points ahead, and Atleti 9 to 12 points ahead. A draw would leave both at least six or seven points ahead of us depending on our result.

I'm liking the Europa League priority more and more, especially if our 'second lineup' can play like they did Sunday.

By Allen Dodson, March 3.

Fair enough, was surprised too to see their main players VS Salzburg on thursday while playing Madrid a Bernabeu on sunday, the coach is very wise to favourise EL for a CL qualification and completely surprised by the bench players looking to Galacticos in eyes after securing a 3-1 win away in Salzbur.

I personnally backing Yellow submarines ahead of Sevilla in the Spanish clash of EL, they met way too early imo, very classy choice to play the competition the right way...

And their depth is pretty good, despite loosing Paulista to Arsenal, they still have mamny weapons on the bench and i wish them to win a trophy this year except Copa del Rey.

Villarreal should put out a strong lineup--Vietto and Uche up front, probably; Cheryshev, Pina, Trigueros and Jonathan dos Santos in midfield; Mario, Musacchio, Ruiz and Jaume Costa as the back four in front of Asenjo. Most of these players--the fullbacks and keeper being the exceptions--either didn't play at all on Sunday or saw less than thirty minutes of action.

Their loanee Joel Campbell was their weakest link vs Madrid, in addition to Bailey the one under the PK on Ronaldo, both wont play because both are bench players...

Neymar deniying 3 vs 2 chance to Suarez/Messi again, Busquets injured very bad injury, worst news just before clasico, hope its not as bad as it seems...

1-1 Barça could pay getting it easy after scoring, still game in hands...

yeah. good game thus far

This Thomas Pina is a danger for human being, what a tackle on Neymar, already sent Busquets to Hospital.
Tarjeta Roja deserved.

Selfish Neymar....Disgraceful to not feed Suarez when he does the runs each time.

edit : 1-2 Happy Suarez didnt feed him.

Bilbao - Barça in the final in may 30th.

4 weeks for Busquets, no Clasico big blow, Busquets is a main piece of the puzzle in ball recovering, controlling tempo and linking Defense and attack.

This will put Enrique in only one choice, Mascerano as a CDM, and giving Mathieu a CB role pairing with Piqué.
Very big blow.

Mascherano miles better than Busquets for me...

Villareal should stick to La Liga. They get more money from La Liga, and can use that money to compete later on.

They have more chances to get a CL ticket, i give the 25% of winning ELif they go past Sevilla...One of the 2 will gofarmark my words...

I don't doubt it. Both of them are excellent teams, but Villareal are short on funds and have to be very careful on where they tread.

pina is mad injuring busquets was just ordinary. he always lide passes the ball, but neymar one!!!!!

It was an orange, but i guess he paid for both of the tackles simultanously....

I disagree about Mascherano is miles better than Busquets. Busquets to a lot of people seems overrated, but these coaches are not stupid. Busquets has his way of playing really smart (similar to Muller he makes things looks easy by just running around).

Busquet of course can't compare to Modric or something but he has his own specialty that's hard to explain, his touches can fool other players and also bring confident.

Only problem I hate from him (any player), sometimes he lost ball STUPIDLY from his uneccessary dribbles and then stop there act like he was fouled (show to the ref), Barca got countered and conceed a goal... that's really stupid

^busquets is soooooooooooooo overrated, so is pedro. mascherano is a bit underrated

@Tuan yes i agree :) Busquets is silly, just like Alves :) Alba looks stupid. But this aside, Busquets is the octopus of Barça, take the ball in a very smart way, many aspects of his game isnt shown due to how he is used.
For example good shooting skills, best placing player in the world, always where he should be and this alone is crucial in Barça game play, if he is your teammate, you always have the option Busquets no matter your position or the rivals arround you, he finds a way to give you options while having the ball.
Busquets is a type of players that can be the best in his position if used correctly, just like Ozil, completely useless in an other style of use...

This is a big blow, he isnt played as a cdm while Mascerano is in the team for no reason, he wasnt prefered to Yaya Toure for no reason too...
Toure if you guys remebered, couldnt go forward due to Barça special tactics and couldnt show all what he has...
Busquets isnt overrated nor Pedro, they are made to play for Barcelona...

^pedro is leavig apparently

^^alba is not stupid either, and alves and mascherano dont play well anymore. mascherano at agrentina is different.

anyway just stay on topic now. this is about villareal not barca

This is my thread kid...

oh yeah. and don't call me kid kid

@lio Saying your own teams player overrated is pathetic and childish, as a madrid fan i feel arbeloa is the weakest link in madrid, but from time to time he surprises me, and mate saying Busquets overrated is like you havent watched busquets play, do you close your eyes when you see busquets, the guy always amazes me with his positioning and ball interceptions, and for the love of God dont make me talk about pedro, the guy is one of the most dangerous players in barcelona, he is unpredictable, He is fast, a good dribbler and has an amazing shooting technique so Start watching more Barcelona games than criticizing your own players........kid.

Sorry tiki that i went off-topic