FC Barcelona vs. Villarreal / La Liga – This is an interesting match too, no matter that Barcelona is a big favourite every time it is the hosts in La Liga. Surly, it is the case now, but unpleasant Villarreal certainly belongs to the group of teams that are capable to make a surprise at the Nou Camp, especially when they are in a great shape. More precisely, both teams are in long positive series, so Barca has seven wins in a row while Villarreal has four but a lot for string of matches which they didn’t lose. Both teams play successfully in Europe and have qualified for the Cup’s semi-finals, where will face each other pretty soon. In the first part of the season Barcelona minimally won at El Madrigal by 1-0, while Villarreal has not won at the Nou Camp since 2008. Begins: 01.02.2015 – 21:00 CET

FC Barcelona
Barcelona is making big advancements and it is probably indifferent who the next opponent is. They steamroller everyone in front of themselves and particular good for their self-confidence was that they defeated three times the reigning champion Atletico in a short period of time; the team who cause so much trouble for them in the last season. They’ve scored seven goals in three matches, which is also a great thing, against famously solid defence of the Madrilenians. They had scored even 15 goals in three matches against Elche and four more against Deportivo so the attack functions absolutely perfectly.

Messi and Neymar are the top scorers but they also assist each other and have good support in Suarez. The defence was a bit more unbalanced in in the second leg against Atletico, but overall it is the best defence in the league. Apart from Vermaelen and Douglas they have no problems with injuries, so the question is whether Barcelona has a weak spot at all in this moment. The answer is no and that is why are in a great series.

Probable lineups FC Barcelona: Bravo – Dani Alves, Pique, Mathieu, Jordi Alba – Busquets, Rakitic, Iniesta – Messi, Neymar, Suarez

Villarreal
Villarreal also plays greatly in recent days and they even have a much longer series without defeats than Barcelona. The Yellow Submarine has not lost since the beginning of November last year when they lost to Zurich in the Europa League and Valencia in La Liga in just four days. Since then they had played ten matches in the championship, two more in the Europa League and additional six in the Cup, all without defeat. In total it is even 18 matches, which is currently one of the best series in Europe so Villarreal comes at the Nou Camp full of self-confidence. They had defeated Getafe in two quarter-final matches  of the Cup by 1-0, while in the championship they defeated Athletic and Levante, also with a clean sheet.

It is interesting that they had lost only once this season as visitors in Seville, when they received two goals in final minutes of the match, so this is another proof that can be very unpleasant in this match. They have changed the team a bit of the winter transfer period so with them is now Campbell from Arsenal and has already debuted in the Cup, while stopper Gabriel Paulista went in the opposite direction. Gone are Cani, Espinosa and stopper Bailly, who is currently at the African Cup of Nations.

Probable lineups Villarreal: S. Asenjo – Mario, V. Ruiz, Musacchio, J. Costa – Trigueros, Soriano – Campbell, dos Santos, Cheryshev – Vietto

FC Barcelona – Villarreal PICK
Villarreal certainly knows how to set itself when plays away but this is a special away match and there is not much room for manoeuvring. Therefore, we expect that the guests try to outplay Barcelona, as they are worry free so in the end we can see a real goal-parade.

Pick: over 3.5 goals

Stake: 5/10