Villarreal vs Real Betis

Estadio de la Ceramica plays host to Villarreal’s 2023/24 La Liga opener against last season’s top-six rivals Real Betis.

Villarreal paid a high price for missing out on Champions League qualification last season, courtesy of a 5th-place finish, with three first-team stalwarts, Samuel Chukwueze, Nicolas Jackson, and Pau Torres, leaving the club in the summer. Despite buying Denis Suárez and Ben Brereton Díaz to soften the blow, QuiqueSetien’s new-look side fail to impress in pre-season, going winless in their final five exhibition matches (D2, L3). Villarreal’s poor summer form cannot inspire much confidence in the ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ camp, and neither can the fact they’ve only won one of their last eight day-one fixtures (D5, L2). After going winless in both 2022/23 La Liga meetings with Betis (D1, L1), Villarreal will have every reason to doubt their chances of defying their proneness to slow league starts.

Meanwhile, Real Betis’ third consecutive top-six La Liga finish last season failed to produce the desired effect in pre-season as Manuel Pellegrini’s men won just one of their six warm-up fixtures (D1, L4). A lack of scoring prowess tormented ‘Los Verdiblancos’ in the summer, as they netted under 1.5 goals in all six friendlies. That’s an ominous sign for Betis, whose last 11 top-flight visits to Villarreal yielded just one victory (D3, L7). It’s also worth noting they scored one goal or fewer on ten of those 11 travels to the province of Castellon. But there’s a silver lining for Betis. They went unbeaten on their final three road trips at the tail-end of last season (W2, D1), keeping two clean sheets in that time.