Match Schedule: Villarreal vs. Real Madrid, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
In the world of football, much can change in only a week and Alvaro Arbeloa hopes he's steadied the ship.
Arbeloa Takes Charge of Real Madrid
Named Real Madrid manager after the surprising sacking of Xabi Alonso earlier this month, Arbeloa received a baptism by fire as his team was embarrassed in a Copa del Rey defeat to Segunda Division side Albacete in his first match in charge. While fan unrest remains, some of it has been quieted by back-to-back wins for Real—a 2-0 win over Levante last Saturday in league play before a 6-1 demolition of Monaco at the Bernabeu in the Champions League with Kylian Mbappé scoring a brace against his former club.
At his pre-match availability this week, Arbeloa said the Monaco thrashing could represent a change of fortunes for his club.
"Hopefully, the game against Monaco will be the turning point we need," the former Spain defender said. "Kylian said it and we commented on it before the game, that it was time for the players to step up and show the fans what they want to do, to fight together and bring them joy. It's something very important and they did it, they did it, with a lot of effort, a lot of work and a lot of unity, which is very important to try to achieve our objectives. Hopefully, everything will continue like that."
Match Preview
That new mindset will be tested on Saturday when Los Blancos take on Villarreal at El Madrigal. It's a meeting of the second- and third-place teams in the table. Real sits second on 48 points, one behind leaders Barcelona, while the Yellow Submarine is in third on 41 but with a game in hand.
Historically, the rivalry between the two teams has been decidedly one-sided. In 54 matches, Real has won 31 games, Villarreal has taken six and points have been shared in 17. In October, Real won the reverse fixture at the Bernabeu by a score of 3-1 with Vini Jr. bagging a brace. The Yellow Submarine's last win over Real came in April of 2023 as Villarreal claimed the league double over Los Blancos with a 3-2 win at the Bernabeu. But prior to that season, you would have to go back to 2018 for Villarreal's last win over Madrid.
Even with the traditional dominance over the opposition, Arbeloa still sees Saturday's match as a tricky one.
"The match is very important because of what it means, because of the opposition and because of three points that would give us a lot of confidence," Arbeloa said. "It's one of the toughest games we have in the league. We know that we'll have to be at our best and play at a very high level if we want to get the three points. That's what we're focused on and that's what we've been working on over the last few days."
Villarreal's Struggles
On the other side of the pitch will be a Yellow Submarine team coming off of two straight losses. After dropping a 2-0 decision to Real Betis in the league on Saturday, Villarreal fell 2-1 to Ajax in its penultimate Champions League fixture on Tuesday. Mississauga, Ont.'s Tani Oluwaseyi scored the lone goal for the hosts with a fine volley. With only one match remaining, a trip to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, Villarreal is still looking for its first Champions League win. On a single point from a draw with Juventus in October, Villarreal sits 35th of 36 teams in the table.
"That's football," manager Marcelino said of the loss. "We've had several matches like this in the Champions League. We had chances. We could have wrapped it up in the first half. We left it open, also because their goalkeeper was decisive. We scored a goal, then we scored an early own goal, and afterwards, when we were pushing hard for the win, they made it 1-2."
Sunday: Leaders Barcelona take on Oviedo.