Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid Predictions & Match Preview

Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid predictions and match preview for Sunday’s LaLiga fixture. Read on for analysis, team news and predicted lineups as the Yellow Submarine host Atleti.

Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid Preview

The season ends at the Ceramica on Sunday with a meeting of Villarreal and Atletico Madrid. The home team are guaranteed to finish 5th whatever the outcome here while the visitors are hoping to pip city rivals Real Madrid to 2nd on the final day.

Villarreal’s hopes of Champions League qualification ended in defeat at Rayo Vallecano last weekend. They had been in terrific form prior to that with wins in 5 of their previous 6 league games to keep up the pressure on Real Sociedad in the fight for 4th but it was always going to be an uphill task trying to overhaul the Basque side who barely put a foot wrong in the run-in until defeat against Atleti last weekend.

Instead the Yellow Submarine can look forward to another Europa League campaign and that’s an upgrade on the Conference League football from this season. The club have this week confirmed that Quique Setien will be staying and overall he can be pretty pleased with how he has turned the tide after a really rocky start to his time in charge of Villarreal. They have looked like a genuinely convincing team in recent weeks but there could still be big changes this summer and this may be the final game in Villarreal colours for long-serving academy graduate Pau Torres and potentially one or two others.

As for Atletico Madrid, they’ll be relatively pleased to see the back of the 2022/23 season. Much of the damage had been done by the midpoint of the season in truth with an early European exit and a miserable start to LaLiga which saw them quickly fall out of title contention. Since the turn of the year though, things have been much better for Atletico Madrid which offers hope of a brighter 2023/24 campaign which may be Diego Simeone’s last.

The second half of the season in the league, has seen Atleti collect 42 points from 18 games so far which very much equates to the kind of form you need to compete for a title if replicated over a full campaign. They have been less convincing in recent away games though in truth with defeats at Elche and Barcelona within their last four road matches while they blew a 3-0 lead to only a draw at Espanyol in their last away fixtures.

Team News & Possible Lineups

Villarreal

Possible XI: Reina – Moreno, Torres, Mandi, Femenia – Lo Celso, Parejo, Terrats – Pino, Jackson, Gerard Moreno (4-3-3)

Coach: Quique Setien

Atletico Madrid

Possible XI: Grbic – Hermoso, Witsel, Savic – Reguilon, Koke, Llorente, Saul, Molina – Griezmann, Morata (3-5-2)

Coach: Diego Simeone

Score Prediction

In an ideal world, Atleti would like to finish 2nd above Real Madrid but that’s largely out of their hands now and this is a tough final game. They are missing a number of important players still and they won’t take any risks with those just returning to fitness so this could be a difficult afternoon against a Villarreal side that has been playing well and scoring freely.

PLEASE NOTE – Our LaLiga score predictions are not betting tips! No profits are guaranteed if you’re using them to bet on Spanish football. If you are gambling, do so responsibly and never stake more than you can afford to lose. BeGambleAware.