With Barça again playing on Saturday night, Real Madrid could once more be 10 points behind when they face Racing in Santander on Sunday night, whilst Valencia will be looking to bounce back from defeat to Guardiola’s team when they open the weekend’s proceedings in Mallorca. Bilbao travel to Seville and Atletico Madrid are at home to Villarreal in two games that may play a big part in the European placings at the end of the season, whilst Espanyol travel to the in-form Llevant.

Seville and Bilbao battle for sixth spot

It’s sixth against seventh at the San Mames on Sunday when Seville and Athletic Bilbao, level on 38 points face off in the fight for a UEFA spot. Although they have lost their last three games –away to Barça and Zaragoza and at home to Valencia, Bilbao were on a good run before that and midfielder Carlos Gurpegui believes: “it’s vital to beat Seville and to get that winning sensation back – this is the right time to break our bad run”. The stats are against the Basques though, who have lost five of the last six games against Seville in Bilbao.

Garrido in the stands again

Atletico Madrid are eighth, three points behind Seville, but they will face a tough task on Saturday when Villarreal visit the Vicente Calderon. Villarreal broke a run of poor results in midweek beating Hercules with their boss Juan Carlos Garrido serving the first game of a two match touchline ban and he’ll be out again on Saturday, though he reckons: “a coach always wants to be on the bench, giving instructions -now I’ll have to do that by phone from the stands, but the positive side is that I guess I can see the game better from up there!”.

Tale of two runs

Only Barça, with 16 points, have a better record over the last six games than Llevant who have taken 13, including maximum points from their last three home matches. In contrast, Espanyol who visit them on Sunday, have won just one from their last six and lost their last two on the road against Osasuna and Almeria. Llevant are sweating on the fitness of their top scorer Caicedo, whilst Verdu and Rui Fonte have been added to Espanyol’s long injury list.

Crunch games at the foot of the table

At the bottom, Almeria travel to Hercules knowing that a win could take them past the Alicante team, whilst Osasuna, still without an away win all season visit Malaga in another six-pointer. Sporting, third from bottom face Getafe at El Molinon, where they are unbeaten in their last three and with Zaragoza up against Barça, the other team in the relegation fight, Deportivo, are at home to Real Sociedad on Monday night.