Elche vs Villarreal Preview: Team News & Prediction
Click here for today’s sports betting tips from our expert analysts!
Elche have been one of the surprise packages in La Liga, and another could well be Villarreal, who will believe they are still just about in the title race.
Kick-off date/time:
How to watch on TV: UK – Premier Sports / US – ESPN have the exclusive rights to La Liga games in the USA, so any game may be televised on one of their affiliated channels
How to watch online: UK – Premier Player / Disney+ / US – ESPN+
Elche preview: Impressive Elche
Following their promotion to the top-flight last season, Elche begin the return to action after the mid-season winter break sitting tucked inside the top-half of the table with just five defeats in their 17 top-flight matches so far this season.
They finished an impressive 2025 by hammering Rayo Vallecano by four goals to nil in the Community of Valencia, courtesy of goals from Hector Fort, Alvaro, German Valera and Martim Neto.
Villarreal preview: Need to bounce back
Villarreal return to action now sitting 11 points adrift of league leaders Barcelona but the Yellow Submarine, under the impressive management of Marcelino, do have two games in hand on the league leaders.
They may well believe they missed a massive opportunity a couple of weeks ago to cement their status as title challengers as they suffered a 2-0 defeat to the aforementioned Barcelona a couple of weeks ago at El Madrigal.
Elche team news: Hector Fort out
Hector Fort sustained an injury while celebrating his goal the other week and so he is now sidelined, while both Grady Diangana and Andre Silva are doubts.
Predicted XI (3-5-2): Inaki Pena; John, Affengruber, Pablo Bigas; Josan, Alvaro Nunez, Marcos Aguado, Aleix Febas, German Valera; Rafa Mir, Alvaro
Unavailable: Hector Fort (Injured)
Questionable: Diangana (Injured), Silva (Injured)
Villarreal team news: Plenty of issues
Villarreal are dealing with plenty of issues for this one as Juan Foyth, Renato Veiga and Tajon Buchanan are now missing through suspension, with the likes of Pape Gueye and Ilias Akhomach away at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
Predicted XI (4-4-2): Junior; Pau Navarro, Rafa Marin, Andre Altimira, Sergi Cardona; Oluwaseyi, Santi Comesana, Dani Parejo, Alberto Moleiro; Pepe, Ayoze
Unavailable: Foyth (Suspended), Veiga (Suspended), Costa (Injured), Alfonso Pedraza (Injured), Gueye (International duty), Pau Cabanes (Injured), Buchanan (Suspended), Ilias Akhomach (International duty)
Questionable: Santiago Mourino (Injured), Kambwala (Injured), Partey (Injured)
Elche vs Villarreal prediction
Eder Sarabia is known for being an eccentric and an attacking coach but his Elche side, as he describes being the best version of Elche ever, are also an effective team, too, this season. Villarreal have an abundance of attacking options themselves and have also been thrilling when on it. Their amount of defensive absentees does leave them fallible, though, and a high-scoring encounter seems a good bet for this one at Estadio Carlos Martinez Valero.
Elche vs Villarreal tip: Both teams to score
