Real Madrid head into this one off the back of a 1-2 loss to Atlético on September 20, a result that followed wins over Elche (3-2) on September 15 and Vallecano (4-1) on September 12.
The main question is the availability of Kylian Mbappé for this duel. He suffered an injury with France during the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League, but it will play as starter this game.
Real Madrid confirmed lineup
Mourinho lines Real Madrid up in a 4-2-3-1, with Courtois behind a back line of Rüdiger, Konaté, Alexander-Arnold and Carreras. Bellingham and Tchouameni sit as the double pivot, with Federico Valverde, Yan Diomande and Arda Güler supporting Mbappe up top.
Real Madrid confirmed starting XI (4-2-3-1): Thibaut Courtois, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Álvaro Carreras, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Ibrahima Konaté, Antonio Rüdiger, Arda Güler, Federico Valverde, Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Yan Diomande. Coach: José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix.
Villarreal confirmed lineup
Iñigo Pérez sets Villarreal up in a 4-4-2, with Gulácsi in goal behind a back four of Cardona, Veiga, Navarro and Mourino. Ayoze Pérez, Gueye, Akhomach and Comesaña make up the midfield four, while Moleiro and Gerard Moreno lead the line together. There are no absences listed, so Pérez can call on his full group, with Moreno’s partnership up front key to carrying over the scoring form from the Levante win.
Villarreal confirmed starting XI (5-3-2): Péter Gulácsi, Alex Freeman, Sergi Cardona, Renato Veiga, Juan Foyth, Pau Navarro, Santi Comesaña, Pape Gueye, Ilias Akhomach, Ayoze Pérez, Alberto Moleiro. Coach: Iñigo Pérez.
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.