Rival watch: Home wins for Villarreal and Real Madrid

FC Barcelona’s next two league opponents showed their quality as both Villarreal and Real Madrid earned three points over the weekend, with the latter remaining level at the summit of the table with the Catalans.

Villarreal will visit Camp Nou next week in good spirits after an impressive 2-1 victory over Sevilla on Saturday. Goals from Mario Gaspar and Cedric Bakambu were enough to secure their first win in four matches. Marcelino’s men currently lie in fifth place, four points off the top of the league.

First place in La Liga is currently shared between Barça and Real Madrid, with less than three weeks before the two sides meet in the capital. Just hours before the Catalans defeated Getafe (0-2), Rafael Benítez’s side sailed to a comfortable 3-1 win over Las Palmas at the Santiago Bernabéu to end the week level on points.

Pablo Hernández’s last minute strike gave Celta Vigo a 2-3 win over Real Sociedad which sees them leapfrog Atlético Madrid into third place after Diego Simeone’s team could only manage a 1-1 draw away to Deportivo La Coruña.

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