week 18 9th january 2011:
real madrid v. villarreal
Undoubtedly, the game of the weekend, Jornada 18 pits Real Madrid against Villarreal, the 2 former sides of Pellegrini. Villarreal have returned to their attacking best, the same form which made them a force to be reckoned with under Senor Pellegrini. The prime example of this was the 4-2 humdinger against Valencia which was played out at El Madrigal.
This Villarreal is made of some stern stuff and showed tremendous mental strength to come back from 2-0 down and win 4-2 to advance to the next round in Copa del Rey.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, were humbled by Levante. Although the match consisted of mainly substitutes, it showed a worrying trait of this Real Madrid side that the substitutes are not good enough to handle even the La Liga strugglers.
Earlier this season, Villarreal were universally praised for daring to take the game to Barcelona and losing only because Barcelona had a team which can play ‘blindfolded’.
