Villarreal vs Real Betis - prediction, team news, lineups

By Ben Sully | 13 Sep 2026 00:12, Last updated: 13 Sep 2026 00:14

Real Betis will be targeting a third consecutive victory in all competitons when they travel to Estadio de la Ceramica for Monday's La Liga clash against Villarreal.

Meanwhile, the Yellow Submarine are still searching for their first victory under head coach Inigo Perez, who replaced Marcelino in the summer. 

Perez arrived at Villarreal with a strong reputation after enjoying significant success with Rayo Vallecano, the club he guided to an eighth-place finish in 2024-25 before he led them to the Conference League final.

However, Andoni Iraola's former assistant has been unable to work his magic in the early stages of his Villarreal tenure, having started with a five-game winless run in all competitions.

The Yellow Submarine kicked off the campaign with consecutive 2-2 draws against Racing Santander and Atletico Madrid before they fell to back-to-back losses against Alaves and Deportivo La Coruna.

Perez experienced another disappointing result in the first Champions League match of his coaching career, with a Santiago Mourino header and a stoppage-time own goal proving fruitless in a 3-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in Germany.

The Villarreal boss will be desperate to oversee an upturn in fortunes in a busy week that features games against Betis, Malaga and Levante in the lead-up to the three-week international break. 

Perez should at least fancy his chances of overseeing a positive result, considering he has never lost in any of his previous five managerial meetings against Betis (W1, D4).

Betis, meanwhile, have made a strong start to the 2026-26 campaign, having recorded four victories in their opening five competitive matches, including a 1-0 victory against Real Madrid in their most recent league outing.

Los Verdiblancos followed that result with a hard-fought 3-2 away win against Lille in their first Champions League outing since the 2005-06 group stage.

Marc Bartra netted a brace as Betis came from behind on two occasions, before Troy Parrott, who scored the winner against Real Madrid, netted on his Champions League debut with what proved to be the winning goal.

Betis will now turn their focus back to La Liga action, with Manuel Pellegrini's side sitting in fifth spot and just three points adrift of the top two of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The Andalusian outfit managed to take four points from their two games against Villarreal last term, including a dramatic draw on their most recent visit to La Ceramica which Antony netted a brace to rescue a point from two goals down.

That result made it four consecutive head-to-head away games without defeat since losing 2-0 in October 2021 (W2, D2). 

Villarreal are likely to be without the services of Carlos Romero and Juan Foyth, who is unlikely to feature after missing the last two matches through injury.

Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi is set to make his La Liga debut after replacing Luiz Junior for the narrow Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund.

Perez is set to freshen up his side amid the busy schedule, with Alex Freeman, Nicolas Pepe, Alberto Moleiro, Ayoze Perez and Gerard Moreno all in contention to start Monday's fixture.

As for the visitors, Aitor Ruibal is continuing to work on his rehabilitation from a knee injury he sustained at the end of last season.

Abde Ezzalzouli and Diego Llorente should be available for selection, with the latter set to wear a mask after sustaining a broken nose in the win over Real Madrid. 

Brazilian winger Antony is expected to recover from illness in time to take his place on the right flank at La Ceramica. 

Gulacsi; Freeman, Navarro, Veiga, Cardona; Comesana, Saliba; Pepe, Gerard, Moleiro; Perez

Valles; Bellerin, Bartra, Natan, Garcia; Roca, Bernal; Antony, Isco, Fornals; Parrott

Perez could do with a win to alleviate the early pressure building on his shoulders, but with Betis set to pose a tough test, we think he will have to settle for a fifth draw in six managerial clashes against Los Verdiblancos.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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