Real Betis vs Villarreal CF – 11/09/2022
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Real Betis and Villarreal will both be looking to keep pace with La Liga’s early frontrunners when they go head-to-head in Seville on Sunday night.
The two sides are separated by a solitary point after four games, with fourth-place Real Betis trailing third-place Villarreal.
LIVE: Sigue en directo la rueda de prensa del Villarreal CF post Lech Poznam https://t.co/YyD6BZ6eAF
— Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) September 8, 2022
Villarreal are level with second-place Barcelona on ten points, while Real Madrid find themselves atop the table as the only team with a 100% record.
Real Betis kicked off their campaign with three straight wins, seeing off Elche (3-0), Mallorca (1-2) Osasuna (1-0).
However, they suffered their first defeat of the season last weekend – recording a 2-1 loss against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Thanks to a strong end to the previous campaign, Betis have lost just one of their last seven La Liga encounters.
Last time out, Betis secured a 2-0 victory at HJK in the UEFA Europa League – with Willian Jose bagging a brace.
As for Villarreal, they head into Matchday 5 on a four-game unbeaten streak in La Liga – having kicked off their campaign with three wins and a draw.
Following back-to-back wins over Valladolid (0-3) and Atletico Madrid (0-2), the Yellow Submarine drew with Getafe (0-0) before thrashing Elche (4-0) last time out.
Villarreal have been especially strong in away games in recent times, keeping five consecutive clean sheets on the road.
In the previous game, Villarreal secured a crazy 4-3 victory over Lech Poznan in the UEFA Europa Conference League on Thursday.
Head-to-head: Real Betis have only managed to win one of their last six La Liga meetings with Villarreal, suffering four defeats along the way.
Across the past five meetings, Villarreal have won 2-0 on three occasions. They also crushed Betis 5-1 back in 2019.
Team news: Borja Iglesias has been the star of the show for Betis this term, bagging four goals and one assist in four league outings. Plus, the hosts have no injury worries.
On the flip side, Villarreal will be without the injured Arnaut Danjuma on Sunday. Gerard Moreno and Alex Baena have both scored twice in La Liga this season.
When you couple Villarreal’s recent record in this fixture with their impressive start to the season, all the signs point towards the away win here.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Villarreal will claim all three points on Sunday – scoring over 1.5 goals while keeping a clean sheet.