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Marcelino García Toral has spent much of this season playing down the idea that his Villarreal side are title contenders.
Given the financial advantages enjoyed by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, the Castellón club’s top-four rivals, he is no doubt right to do so. Yet, with Spain’s big three in Saudi Arabia on Supercopa de España duties, the Villarreal manager is not oblivious to the opportunity to make hay while the sun shines.
Currently occupying third place in La Liga, behind leaders Barcelona and Real but narrowly ahead of Atlético on goal difference, Marcelino knows his team have a golden opportunity to put a little daylight between themselves and Diego Simeone’s side. With both teams on 38 points, Villarreal have two games in hand over Atléti. Win them both, and they could be six points clear in third by the time Simeone and company return to league combat against Alavés next weekend.
What has Marcelino said about Villarreal’s meeting with Alavés?
“Before finishing the first half of the season, we have 38 points,” said the Spaniard on the eve of Villarreal’s own meeting with 13th-placed Alavés, which will be followed on Tuesday by a trip to Betis. “The same as Atlético with two matches fewer. We have the option of reaching 44 points, and that is incredible.
“For now, we want to win and reach 41 points. And to achieve it, we must make the most of the fact we are playing at home and show that we have the hope, the capacity and the ambition to win.”
The evidence suggests they do.
Villarreal have won seven of their past eight league outings, with the sole blemish a 2-0 home defeat to Barcelona just before Christmas in which they squandered a plethora of early opportunities before Renato Veiga’s 39th-minute dismissal effectively extinguished their challenge.
Can Villarreal disrupt Spain’s big three?
The big three might have more financial muscle but, after Barcelona and Real Madrid, no team amassed more points in 2025, few boast a stronger squad, and none has a better chance conversion rate (with 34 goals from 315 shots, Villarreal have a ratio of 10.8% for that metric, 0.3% more than second-placed Barcelona, who have converted 53 of 503 efforts).
If there is a ceiling on how high the club can go, it is perhaps implicit in the identity of the only three clubs to have beaten them this season: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético. That perhaps explains why Marcelino, while upbeat about the possibility of establishing a six-point advantage over Simeone’s men, is not looking beyond the most immediate challenge.
“We know that Alavés are going to demand a lot from us,” said the Villarreal manager. “They are an intense, dynamic and supportive team. A team that plays well and has a playing structure similar to ours. They are a team with good technical ability that run a lot. They also break well on the counter-attack and concede few goals.
“We want to win, and we have to be very focused to achieve it. From that premise, we know they are going to demand us to run a lot, defend well and be clinical in the boxes. If we achieve that, we will be closer to winning, but it will not be an easy match.”
Emerging from the shadow of Spain’s big three promises to be similarly challenging.
