Madrid: Villarreal face a make or break Champions League football tie at home to Manchester City on Wednesday in the middle of a major injury crisis.
Although Juan Carlos Garrido's side returned to winning ways and probably saved the coach's job with a 2-0 home win against Rayo Vallecano, it came at a cost.
Villarreal went into the weekend game without strikers Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi, who are both long term absentees with knee problems, and during the match Garrido could only watch as Cani, Marco Ruben and Marcos Senna also picked up serious injuries.
Ruben pulled his groin, while Cani is out of action for six weeks after damaging his knee.
Things became worse for Garrido on Monday when defender Cristian Zapata strained his right knee in the training session.
The injuries leave Garrido without first choice strikers for a game his side has to win to have any chance of remaining in the Champions League. His side has lost its first three group matches and has no points, meaning it will be a struggle to even finish third and achieve the consolation prize of a place in the Europa League after Christmas.
Garrido will call on B-team striker, Joselu, who has scored eight goals in the Spanish second division, while midfielder Borja Valero will probably play in a more advanced role in order to add some weight to the attack.
Manchester City meanwhile travel in a fine run of form and with their confidence sky high following their recent 6-1 win away to local rivals Manchester United.
They are top of the Premier League but cannot afford to drop more points in Europe following a slow start to the group stage, which saw them draw at home to Napoli and lose away to Bayern Munich.
City only defeated Villarreal a fortnight ago thanks to a last minute goal from Kun Aguero. The Villarreal players accused Aguero of mocking them in the tunnel after that defeat and it will be interesting to see if that provokes any bad feeling in what is already destined to be a tense match on Wednesday in the El Madrigal Stadium.
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