Barcelona will play Villarreal at home on Thursday. This will be both teams’ tenth match of the season. Barcelona recently lost to Real Madrid 3-1, which was their first loss of the season. Madrid is now in first place, three points ahead of Barcelona. Last week, Villarreal defeated Osasuna 2-0. They will try to keep winning against Barcelona.
Catch the La Liga game live on ESPN+ in the United States. Kickoff from Camp Nou is at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday. Look closer at this midweek match with odds from DraftKings Sportsbook.
Barca will probably still be missing several important players in Andreas Christensen, Hector Bellerin and Memphis Depay who have all been injured. This shouldn’t stop them much against Villarreal. They have been able to manage because of Robert Lewandowski, with help from Pedri and Ferran Torres to keep the club going.
Lewandowski is first in the league for scoring with nine goals in his first nine games. He is settling into his new team well, after leaving Bayern Munich at the end of last season.
Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno and Juan Foyth are both listed as doubtful for Thursday’s game. Francis Coquelin is out with a calf injury. Villarreal is led by Alex Baena with three goals on the season, and Nicolas Jackson leads the team in assists with two. Villarreal recently snapped a four-game winless streak with a 2-0 win over Osasuna, thanks to a brace from Arnaut Danjuma.
Villarreal and Barcelona have faced each other 26 times, with Barcelona winning 19 times and Villarreal winning once. The last time they met, Villarreal won 2-0. Barcelona is expected to win this time, with their player Lewandowski scoring.
Lauren Flores is a reporter for ABC News. She has covered major news stories for the network, including the 2016 presidential election, the 2017 Women’s March, and the 2018 midterm elections.