The game was not unexpected, Valladolid's fragile defence was finally defeated after a short stalemate, although Saint-Tiago did not directly send assists in this game, but his pass success rate and running range, and ability to mobilize the team were unanimously praised, and fans couldn't help but sigh that after Riquelme, Villarreal finally had a player who could support the midfield.

Although Atletico Madrid, who was chasing after them after two rounds of victories, Valencia's fall also made the Villarreal secretly relieved.

On April 24, in the 32nd round of La Liga, Villarreal sat at home against Huelva, who is currently at the bottom of La Liga.

Last season, Huelva achieved a record of 11 wins, 11 draws and 16 losses, and finally ranked 16th and was in danger of relegation. Huelva drew 1-1 with Valladolid in the last round of the league and the two teams joined forces to send Zaragoza to the second division. Of course, the team has a good fighting power at home, only losing 2-3 to Real Madrid and drawing 2-2 with Barcelona.

But it is clear that Huelva has not been so lucky this season, top scorer Pongele joined Atletico Madrid, Cáceres was repossessed by Villarreal and sold to Barcelona, Huelva lost two pillars, in addition to last season's main Marquitos and Calvo have returned to their original team on loan, Martins also went to Benfica. In this way, rising midfield star Sissy has been the team's biggest takeaway so far, with the Spanish youth international impressing at Valladolid last season and other signings less well-known.

The current Huelva squad is mostly young and full of momentum, but lacks experience and influential stars, and in the past, Huelva relied more on the individual ability of core players such as Pongler to find opportunities, and now Huelva has to make changes but has not succeeded.

As early as the beginning of the season, there was an authoritative Spanish media evaluation that if the unfavorable start caused the team to turmoil, Huelva may lock in a relegation place early, and as expected, after the first six rounds of winless, Huelva's fragile internal centripetal force collapsed instantly, and the ranking plummeted, and now it is ironclad relegation.

In the face of such a salty opposition, coach Manuel Pellegrini generously gave a number of key players in the squad the opportunity to rest, sending four youth team players to start, and the result of course ended in victory for Villarreal. Saint-Tiago, who got the opportunity to rest, chatted with Tommasson in the stands and watched the whole game, and was not surprised by the result and the trend of the game.

After the game, the good news came from the other end of Spain, Atletico Madrid broke out again in the same round of the game, and was beaten by Racing Santander with a score of 1:5.

The widened margin means that Atletico will miss out on next season's Champions League, which is fatal and must not be accepted by Atletico's hierarchy.

Seeing this scene, Chilean Pellegrini can't help but feel a kind of rabbit and dead fox sadness, if Villarreal misses the Champions League next season, then his encounter will be 100% Aguirre reversed, fortunately, with Atletico Madrid's frequent upsets, Villarreal escaped death.

Without the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, Villarreal is gradually returning to calm, the media are chasing the new Champions League semi-finals and the Copa del Rey final, and the yellow submarine is completely diving into the deep sea to start the final journey of the season.

In the 33rd round of the league, Villarreal defeated Getafe 2:1 away, and Santo Thiago sent a key assist.

In the 34th round of the league, Villarreal played at home against Sevilla, which is third in the league, but unfortunately lost 0:1 in the end, losing the best opportunity to move forward.

The results of the two league rounds did not affect the players' continued preparation, and Villarreal, who were fourth in the standings, were no longer worried about next season, but the atmosphere at the training ground was involuntarily tense, and the training sessions that ended at half past three were often automatically trained by the players until five o'clock, for which coach Manuel Pellegrini did not say or intervene, everything was expected by him.

On May 11, in the 35th round of La Liga, Villarreal visited Camp Nou against Barcelona, the league's top player.

The 2007-08 season was a losing one for Barcelona, and although Laporta spent a lot of money on Thierry Henry, Milito and Toure Yaya in the summer of 2007, Azugrana was overwhelmed by endless injuries and infighting.

Unlike the 2006-07 season, which fought until the last minute, Barcelona was already quite weak in the middle and late stages of the 2007-08 season, and the long winless situation almost handed the title to Real Madrid, and in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, although Rijkaard led the team to the semi-finals, injuries to key players and poor form on the field made Azugrana have to say goodbye to the championship early. Not only did Rijkaard be declared out before the end of the season, but the core of Dream II led by Ronaldinho and Deco also left after the season, leaving only a collapsed Dream II ruins.

After suffering two consecutive years of fruitless season, Barcelona carried out a radical reform in the summer of 2008, from the appointment of new coach Pep Guardiola to the heavyweight recruitment of 100 million euros, it should be said that Rijkaard's era has been basically wiped out at Camp Nou, and in the face of the upcoming new season, winning at least one trophy is only the minimum goal of the new Barcelona.

The first signing of the Camp Nou in the summer of 2008 was obviously Pep Guardiola, although the King of Camp Nou did not have too much coaching experience, but thanks to the good foundation laid by Rijkaard, as well as the advantages of Cruyff and Van Gaal, Guardiola still quickly adapted to the new role, and after two consecutive years of embarrassing results, Barcelona President Laporta is also in this summer, and the summer investment of more than 100 million is unrivaled in La Liga.

Pep Guardiola's summer reinforcements focus on the defence, the new Barcelona coach spent a total of 68.5 million euros on renovating the back, which is more than the total amount spent by Rijkaard in the five years of Barcelona's defense, Alves became the full-back standard with a value of 35 million euros, and the Brazilian's performance in the summer warm-up matches was really eye-catching, and the addition of Manchester United central defender Gerard Pique and Villarreal central defender Cáceres is seen as Barcelona's investment in the future, although Brazilian Enrique was loaned to Bayer Leverkusen for training, but it does not rule out the possibility that Barcelona may recall it at any time.

Pep Guardiola's transformation of the midfield is quite tactical, Keita and Hleb are both veterans who have been on the field for many years, not only are they still in their prime, but they are also blue-collar roles on the pitch, which is exactly the new signings that Guardiola needs, and the introduction of Keita and Hleb is also considered to be the most revealing sign of Guardiola's cautious style of play. At the same time, Barcelona's most important signing this summer was Samuel Eto'o, and after a series of changes, the Cameroonian striker was finally able to stay at Camp Nou, which was also a happy ending for all.

Of course, all this is not perfect, although Barcelona's total investment in reinforcements this summer has exceeded 100 million euros, but there are still several hidden dangers that must attract Guardiola's attention, first of all, Barcelona does not have a regular left winger, after missing Silva and Capel one after another, who will fill the gap left by Ronaldinho is still in doubt, and secondly, there is no full-back substitute, once Abidal and Alves are injured or suspended, Guardiola does not have the right players to key firefights, and finally there is the problem of the goalkeeper's substitution, Pep Guardiola has still not been able to find a good goalkeeper who can bring out the best in Valdés.

Compared with the big purchases in the summer, Barcelona's team cleaning work was also quite successful, the old minister Thuram finally retired, Esguero and Edmilson defected to Osasuna and Villarreal respectively, Dos Santos and Deco joined Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea respectively, Zambrotta and Ronaldinho went to AC Milan together, it should be said that except for Deco leaving Camp Nou It is a pity, the transfer of the rest of the players has long been planned, and Barcelona's strength has not declined because of blood loss.

Looking at Barcelona's performance in the warm-up matches and Champions League qualifiers, it should be said that Guardiola did not deliberately carry out too many innovations, whether it is the formation configuration or the offensive and defensive routines, they basically follow the tactical core of Rijkaard, and on this basis, they inherit more of the essence of Cruyff's dream team, make use of the space on the pitch as much as possible, especially the requirements for depth are stronger, in addition, the attack is more three-dimensional and faster, the first line of defense is built by the forward, and the midfield interception is strengthened.

After having Toure-Yaya and Keita, strengthening the interception and control of the midfield is the signature signal of the new Barcelona coach, as much as possible to get rid of the slightly weak "midfield tricore" of the black swan era, and replace it with a more powerful meat grinder "Black Wind Double Brake", and at the same time do not rule out the possibility that Guardiola will push Marquis to the back, so that the Mexican and Keita and Toure form a three-defensive back waist, of course, this is more likely to appear in the Champions League.