Athletic, who won the Cup last Saturday, have been celebrating the whole week. Players drinking, having parties, celebrating with fans... They had two days' rest and did only three training sessions so far: in two of them, several players had a hangover.

Although Athletic is in great form this season, especially at home, for this fixture they have not been concentrated and I expect them to be also a bit unmotivated, which is normal after a huge success. And the main Athletic' strong point this season has been the intensity and pace at home, something I expect them to decrease in this fixture.

Important midfielder Ruiz de Galarreta is suspended, and one of the best players this season - Iñaki Williams is one of the players who have been celebrating hard and missed several training sessions due to hangovers.

On the other hand, Villarreal has been one of the best teams in the league recently. They improved a lot with the new coach, and although they didn't manage to improve in defense, they are scoring a lot of goals which are enough to win the games, even conceding 1-2 goals.

They have a lot of quality and confidence, which makes them to fight for Europe as are just 6 points below 7th position. If we look at the last 10 games, they've been the 3rd best team in the league (5/4/1), with only one defeat against Atletico in a great performance.

I expect them to make a strong away performance as they did against Barcelona (3:5), or Real Sociedad (1:3), who is a very similar team to Athletic but with less quality/danger upfront.

Villarreal just need to control the tempo of the game and keep Athletic far from their area. They need to control the game, have long possessions and dont let Athletic to put a high pace in the match. And for this, midfielder Parejo will be the key as he has a very strong ability to control and keep the ball, decreasing the pace and keeping the possession for his team.

I’m a bit concerned about the defense as Albiol is a slow defender and could struggle in the counters, but will have good help from Mandi or Pedraza. After all, main Athletic’s danger comes from the wings, where Villarreal has good players and probably will use wingers who are more defensive, like Traore instead of Guedes.

Upfront, Gerard Moreno is one of the best players in the league and has an amazing ability to generate chances from nowhere. Also striker Sorloth is in great form with 6 goals in the last 5 games.

In terms of quality, I see both teams at the same level. And in terms of motivation and preparation, it's clear that Athletic won't be at their best level. This will probably be the match this season with less preparation and physical form this season for them, and Athletic without intensity and pace isn't the same team.

上周六赢得足总杯的竞技队已经庆祝了整整一周。球员们喝酒、开派对、和球迷一起庆祝……他们休息了两天，到目前为止只进行了三次训练:在其中两次训练中，有几名球员出现了宿醉。

尽管本赛季竞技状态很好，特别是在主场，但他们并没有集中精力，我认为他们也会有点缺乏动力，这在取得巨大成功后是正常的。本赛季竞技的主要优势是主场比赛的强度和节奏，我预计他们在这场比赛中会有所下降。

重要的中场鲁伊斯-德-加拉雷塔被禁赛，而本赛季最好的球员之一Iñaki威廉姆斯也因为宿醉错过了几节训练课。

另一方面，比利亚雷亚尔最近一直是联赛中最好的球队之一。在新教练的带领下，他们进步了很多，虽然他们在防守方面没有改进，但他们进了很多球，这些球足以赢得比赛，甚至丢了1-2个球。

他们有很强的实力和信心，这使他们能够为欧洲而战，因为他们只比第七名低6分。如果我们看一下过去的10场比赛，他们一直是联赛第三强的球队(5/4/1)，只有一场对阵马竞的比赛表现出色。

我希望他们能像对阵巴塞罗那(3:5)或皇家社会(1:3)那样在客场表现出色，皇家社会与竞技非常相似，但前场的质量和威胁更少。

比利亚雷亚尔只需要控制比赛的节奏，让竞技远离他们的区域。他们需要控制比赛，拥有长时间的控球时间，不让竞技在比赛中打出高节奏。为此，中场帕雷霍将是关键，因为他有很强的控制和控球能力，可以降低球队的速度并保持控球权。

我有点担心防守，因为阿尔比奥尔是一个很慢的防守者，在反击中可能会很挣扎，但曼迪和佩德拉萨会有很好的帮助。毕竟，主要的竞技威胁来自边路，而比利亚雷亚尔拥有优秀的球员，他们可能会使用更具防守性的边锋，比如特拉奥雷而不是格德斯。

在锋线上，杰拉德·莫雷诺是联盟中最好的球员之一，他有着惊人的创造机会的能力。此外，前锋索洛斯在最近5场比赛中打入6球，状态非常好。

就质量而言，我认为两支球队处于同一水平。在动力和准备方面，很明显，竞技不会达到他们的最佳水平。对他们来说，这可能是本赛季准备和身体状态都比较少的一场比赛，没有强度和速度的竞技不是一支球队。