Villarreal vs Celta Vigo preview - Marcelino fears burn out

Villarreal coach Marcelino is concerned that his side may not be able to keep up their usual intensity levels when they take on Celta Vigo.

The Yellow Submarine have played eight games in the past month and go into Sunday's match following gruelling games with Red Bull Salzburg, Real Madrid and Barcelona in the past 10 days, and the coach hopes his side show the same commitment as in those games against Celta.

Marcelino told a press conference: "We have to show that we are growing in maturity but obviously it's not going to be easy after such an intense week against Salzburg, Madrid and Barcelona. It would be a huge error to think that the Celta game is not of the same importance. It's a very important game because we go into it after losing at home and it would be great to win again. We need to have maximum concentration in this game."

The coach also praised his team for how they have dealt with the fixture pile up, which has seen them play 17 games in the last 60 days since returning from the Christmas break.

"We had the odd week off for internationals before Christmas but we don't have that any more, there is such little time to rest again but the team has dealt with it extraordinarily well. In a competitive sense we are 'in crescendo'. And that makes me very proud of my players. We will try and keep going in the same direction. We just have two months left of the season and we have to keep on making this huge effort."

Marcelino has opted to rest centre-back Victor Ruiz and will also be without Eric Bailly as the defender has a muscle problem, while Bruno Soriano and Bojan Jokic are still injured. Celta must make do without influential midfielder Michael Krohn-Delhi but Sergi Gomez returns from suspension.

It was not long ago that Celta were struggling in the Primera Division but now the Galician side are in resurgent form, picking up three wins and two draws in their last five outings, and Marcelino is well aware of how difficult Eduardo Berizzo's side can be to play.

"Celta are a team that constantly demand a lot of you during a game," he said.

"They play very attacking football and mark you all over the pitch. They attack well and counterattack well. This is going to be an end to end game, and I'm sure the team that takes their chances in the area will win. We will have to be patient and be intelligent in attack, which is not easy."