MADRID, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The 30th round of matches in La Liga come with the title race again reduced to a head-to-head between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, while there is a key game between Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao as the race to qualify for Europe next season widens. Here are four things to look out for this weekend in Spain.
1. Barcelona running on empty against in-form Betis?
FC Barcelona plays its fourth game in 10 days when Real Betis visits Montjuic on Saturday night, meaning coach Hansi Flick has to continue with his squad rotations as he looks to keep his players as fresh as possible and avoid possible injuries.
Barca goes into the game after booking a place in the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid after an intense 90 minutes away to Atletico Madrid.
Barca has just 70 hours between the end of Wednesday's game and Saturday's kick-off, with Flick reserving Robert Lewandowski on Wednesday, while Gavi took no part in the game.
Betis is the in-form side in Spain at the moment, with Antony's arrival from Manchester United giving even more pace to a side that has won its last six games in La Liga.
2. Valencia to test Real Madrid
Real Madrid needed 120 minutes to beat Real Sociedad in the Cup on Tuesday and although the second-ranked team has 24 hours more to prepare than Barca, a Valencia side that is improving week-by-week could give some problems in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Valencia has become much harder to beat under coach Carlos Corberan, with striker Diego Lopez scoring in his last four appearances and considering the bad feeling between the two sides over insults aimed at Vinicius Jr in Valencia's stadium, this could turn into a scrappy game.
3. Huge game in Villarreal
Athletic Bilbao travels to Villarreal with a six-point lead over the home side in the table, but playing one game more than its rivals as both look to ensure a place in next season's UEFA Champions League.
Both Athletic coach Ernesto Valverde and Villarreal's Marcelino Garcia Toral have coached the other club, so the two sides know each other well.
Villarreal has plenty of pace in attack, with Alex Baena, Ayoze Perez and Thierno Barry, while Athletic should welcome back top scorer Oihan Sancet and defender Daniel Vivian for a vital match.
Athletic travels to play Glasgow Rangers in their Europa League quarterfinal next week and Valverde has to ensure his players are not distracted by their hopes of European glory and focus entirely on Sunday's key tie.
4. Copa del Rey opens up extra Europa League spot
The fact that the Copa del Rey final is between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid is good news for a host of clubs for a very simple reason.
Barca and Real Madrid are virtually ensured a place in next season's Champions League and that means the Europa League spot for the Cup winner will now go to the team that finishes sixth in La Liga.
However, with Spain second in the UEFA coefficient at the moment, it looks as if the top-five sides in La Liga will go to next season's Champions League, meaning the teams that finish sixth and seventh would go to the Europa League, with the eighth-placed side awarded a place in the Conference League.
That basically means every side down to Getafe in 12th place and perhaps even Girona and Osasuna could qualify for Europe if they put a good run of results together, meaning there will be interest until the last day of the campaign. ■
