Villarreal vs Granada CF preview - Marcelino focused on Granada

Villarreal coach Marcelino wants to avoid any discussion of his side's upcoming Copa del Rey semi-final tie against Barcelona until his side have played Granada, who visit El Madrigal on Saturday.

The cup tie with the Catalans comes little more than a week after an entertaining 3-2 defeat to Luis Enrique's side, which ended Villarreal's record-breaking unbeaten run of 18 games in all competitions.

But the coach batted away all questions about Barcelona in his pre-match press conference.

"Our next game is against Granada, and we aren't going to think about anything beyond that," he said.

"We will speak about Barcelona after Saturday, but all I can say is that we are feeling very optimistic and ambitious at the moment. Those two virtues are helping us maintain this excellent run of results we've had this season, and we are in very good shape to take on Granada."

The coach is also extra wary of Granada, as new coach Abel Resino has taken four points from his first two games in charge of the club, who lie 18th in the Primera Division table on 18 points.

"We should focus all attention on Granada because they have taken four points from their last six, they have a new coach and I'm sure it's going to be very difficult for us to beat them," he said.

"Granada will make things very difficult for us. They have a lot of speed on the wings and they are also going to demand a lot of us on a technical level. They play in a more open way and I'm sure it's going to be more of an end-to-end game than when we met earlier in the season (a game which ended in a 0-0 draw)."

Marcelino has no fresh injury concerns for the game, but is still unable to grant a debut to new signing Eric Bailly, who will play in the African Cup of Nations final on Sunday for Ivory Coast against Ghana.

Granada will be without Jeison Murillo, Sulayman Marreh and Ruben Rochina through injury, while Piti, Juan Carlos, Jhon Cordoba and Fran Rico are just one yellow card away from a suspension that would see them miss the following week's home game with Athletic Bilbao.