Villarreal aiming to end Barcelona’s triple title dream

BARCELONA host high-flying Villarreal before Real Madrid visit Granada tomorrow as the Spanish title race goes down to the wire.

Both the Catalans and Los Blancos have 81 points, Barcelona having played 35 games, while Madrid retain one in hand on their rivals.

Barcelona need to repeat the sprint finish which carried them to the trophy last year and hope Madrid slip up along the way, if they are to retain La Liga for a third successive season.

Captain Andres Iniesta returns for the Blaugrana after a thigh injury so coach Luis Enrique can line up with his strongest side against the Yellow Submarine, fifth in the table.

Former Barcelona player Jonathan dos Santos hopes Villarreal can cause an upset when he returns “home” to face them.

“I always watch Barcelona games. I feel a lot of love for the club and I’ll always support them,” he said.

“We hope it will be a good game to watch and let’s see if we can win. “[Our] team is doing very well physically and we won at the Vicente Calderon, which is very tricky.”

Villarreal’s 1-0 at Atletico Madrid on April 25 was one of five wins in their last six matches, a run which has given them an outside shot of catching Sevilla in fourth place and qualifying for the Champions League.

For that they need Jorge Sampaoli’s side to continue struggling for form, given they are five points behind with three games to go.

Tomorrow morning, Sevilla host Real Sociedad who are seventh and fighting for a Europa League qualifying spot them- selves.

Immediately after Barcelona’s game tomorrow Real have the chance to either play catch-up or move ahead of the Catalans, when they face Tony Adams’ already-relegated Granada.

The Andalusians are 19th in the table, although to salvage some pride they will want to avoid a heavy defeat in front of their own fans against Los Blancos.

Madrid will be without Dani Carvajal, who suffered a hamstring injury and is set to miss the rest of the league campaign, while Gareth Bale and Pepe may also miss out.

Real Madrid’s 3-0 thrashing of Atletico in the Champions League semifinal on Tuesday means they will not need to rest too many players for the second leg next week.

Granada striker Adrian Ramos insisted that despite relegation the team’s job was to fight until the end of the season.

“We have a commitment to Granada and we should be professional for the fans,” he explained.

“It’s very difficult to work after the relegation, but we need to stay professional and show determination, trying to give the fans something to cheer about in what’s left of the season, or give them a win.

“We know they’re one of the best clubs in the world, with a great squad and players that really can make a difference. We just need to try and do our jobs.”

The rest of the weekend’s fixtures are Sporting Gijon vs Las Palmas, Atletico vs Eibar, Alaves vs Athletic Bilbao, Valencia vs Osasuna, Deportivo La Coruna vs Espanyol, Malaga vs Celta Vigo and Leganes vs Real Betis. – dpa