Great chance for Villarreal to consolidate in the European positions.

Villarreal is in great form. They are playing very well, players are full of confidence and getting great results. They are outpaying all rivals, including the strong ones like Real Madrid.

Now they can be 100% focused in La Liga, because are not playing Spanish Cup anymore (because lost against Madrid), which is an important point - in the game before the ⅛ finals against Madrid, they made a bad performance and drew 1:1 away vs Celta.

Villarreal is a team who likes to attack with possession, and feel especially comfortable against offensive teams who leave spaces in defense and play a box to box game, like Girona or Valencia (both outplayed and beaten).

They also have a very solid defense: just 13 goals conceded in 18 games, the second best defense of the league after Barcelona.

Rayo Vallecano is a perfect rival for that. They are a very offensive team, who likes to play possession football, and are doing the same as last season: a very strong first part of the season and a weak second part. That’s normal: they are a team with the only target of avoiding relegation, and after achieving 25-30 points and being close to european positions, their performances decreases a lot.

Physically the team is also in a worse moment, with several players suffering small injuries such as key player Isi Palazon who has been injured this week (and doubtful for this game).

They are especially struggling in defense: are conceding a lot of chances and more goals than usual. As a matter of fact, they have the worst defense in the TOP10: 22 goals conceded in 18 games.

Villarreal has much more motivation for this match, as well as quality. The recent games against Rayo they were able to totally outplay them: last season they won 1:5 and 2:0 and in 2020 beat them 0:2 in the Spanish Cup.

Seeing the current level of both teams, with Villarreal going up and Rayo going down, I’m expecting a home victory here.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

这是比利亚雷亚尔巩固欧战地位的绝佳机会。

比利亚雷亚尔状态很好。他们踢得很好，球员们充满信心，取得了很好的成绩。他们的出价超过了所有竞争对手，包括像皇家马德里这样的强队。

现在他们可以100%专注于西甲，因为他们不再参加西班牙杯了(因为输给了马德里)，这是很重要的一点——在与马德里的决赛前的比赛中，他们表现不佳，客场1:1战平塞尔塔。

比利亚雷亚尔是一支喜欢用控球来进攻的球队，对阵那些在防守中留有空间、打禁区对攻的进攻型球队时，他们会感觉特别舒服，比如赫罗纳和瓦伦西亚(他们都被击败了)。

他们的防守也非常稳固:18场比赛只丢了13球，是仅次于巴萨的联赛第二防守。

雷约·巴列卡诺是完美的竞争对手。他们是一支进攻性很强的球队，喜欢控球，他们的表现和上赛季一样:赛季前半段非常强势，后半段很弱。这很正常:他们是一支唯一的目标是保级的球队，在拿到25-30分并接近欧洲排名后，他们的表现下降了很多。

球队的身体状况也很糟糕，有几名球员受了小伤，比如关键球员帕拉松，他本周受伤了(可能无法参加本场比赛)。

他们在防守上尤其挣扎:比平时丢了很多机会和更多的进球。事实上，他们的防守是前十名中最差的:18场比赛丢了22球。

比利亚雷亚尔在这场比赛中更有动力，也更有质量。最近对阵拉约的比赛，他们完全击败了他们:上赛季他们以1:5和2:0获胜，2020年在西班牙杯上以0:2击败他们。

看到两支球队目前的水平，比利亚雷亚尔在上升，拉约在下降，我期待在这里取得主场胜利。