Atletico de Madrid - Villarreal preview - Turan: Villarreal game 'is a final'

Atletico Madrid's Arda Turan has labelled their La Liga visit from Villarreal on Sunday as "a final" as they aim to close the gap at the top on city neighbours Real.

Diego Simeone's champions trail Real by four points heading into week 15 and Turkish midfielder Arda Turan says third-placed Atletico cannot afford to slip up at the Vincente Calderon against opponents currently filling a European position in sixth spot.

"We get better and better every game. We finished November well, but we hope to finish the season just as well," Turan said at a press conference on Friday after being named the club's player of the month for November.

"The match against Villarreal is a final. We want to give happiness to our fans, and we're very focused on securing the win.

"We feel very good when we play at home, we're very powerful.

"If we want to be one of the League's greats, we must continue like this."

Atletico have won their last three league games and Tuesday's goalless draw at Juventus in the Champions League ended a run of five straight victories in all competitions.

But Villarreal are in fine form themselves having taken nine points from the last nine on offer in La Liga, including a 4-0 thrashing of David Moyes' Real Sociedad last time out.

Thursday night's 2-0 victory over Apollon Limassol in Cyprus also secured Villarreal's passage to the last 32 of the Europa League and head coach Marcelino admitted his side were thinking about Atletico before the end of the game.

"We had a very good attitude and with that we went 2-0 up before half-time," Marcelino said at his post-match press conference.

"We ran the clock down in the second half. We started fairly quickly and reached the opponents' goal.

"At 2-0 up we began to think about Atletico, so we made two changes at half-time and passed the time."

Atletico hope to have Brazil central defender Joao Miranda back after a six-game absence while Marcelino could revert to the side which routed Sociedad at El Madrigal last weekend.