Bologna started like they were playing on New Year's Day after a monster session the night before. Things have got better. 

Ladislav Krejci lobs a hopeful ball into the box before Federico Di Francesco stretches home keeper Neto when he cuts in from the left flanks before curling towards the bottom right corner.

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Nicola Sansone, Villarreal's summer signing from Serie A club Sassuolo, fancies a run at the Barcelona defence. Javier Mascherano is rocking on his heels, and Sansone gets away a decent shot, which Marc-Andre ter Stegen gathers.

Moments later, Sansone has another go from 20 yards, as they ball rolls nicely to his right foot, just to the left of the D. Ter Stegen gets some more catching practice.

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Whistles from the home fans as Villarreal midfielder Roberto Soriano is penalised for a somewhat over-enthusiastic challenge on Gerard Pique. 

Then, a smart build-up from the visitors creates a half-chance for Andre Gomes, who clears the bar from 20 yards.

Villarreal chances, it would seem, are like buses. (I mean in the sense that two have come along at once, rather than, say, that they have a large advert for a terrible film plastered down the side.) This time, it's Alexandre Pato down the left, getting to the byline and cutting back for Jonathan dos Santos once more. Lucas Digne makes an excellent block, and Sergio Busquets throws himself in the way to smother the follow-up.

Juventus get out of the blocks quicker than Usain Bolt. As Italian football journalist Mina Rzouki and stats gurus Opta illustrate with these impressive facts...

Villarreal on the counter thrust. Jaume Costa is away down the left, with time and room to pick out a cross to the far post, where Jonathan dos Santos is waiting for the volley. The former Barcelona midfielder, though, tries to take the skin off the ball, sending his shot into the stand. Great chance.

Villarreal on the defensive as Neymar bursts down the left and cuts back for Lionel Messi on the edge of the penalty area. A wall of yellow shirts forms to block the shot.

Barcelona try again. Messi dinks a lovely ball over the top for Neymar to burst on to. Sergio Asenjo, the home keeper, is off his line quickly to block. Villarreal's mean defence could be in for a testing night. It's a fascinating contest already.

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I'm pleased to say that Jonathan Jurejko has joined me in the commentary box (a little shed perched on the roof at Salford Quays; we have a flask of coffee and some shortbread between us). He'll be keeping an eye on the Juventus v Bologna game (he wrote the entry on that game below) so that I can concentrate on Villarreal v Barcelona. At some point, one of us will pop out for Iced Gems.

Andres Iniesta cuts in from the left for Barca, and hits a rangefinder stright into the gloves of Sergio Asenjo.

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The Juventus Stadium plunges into darkness ahead of kick-off, illuminated only by an image of former Bologna striker Ezio Pascutti on the big screen,

Pascuitti, top goalscorer in the Bologna side that won the 1964 scudetto, died aged 79 on Wednesday.

After everyone inside the stadium pays their respects, the home side kick off the game.

Juve looking to go four points clear by racking up their 26th consecutive Serie A home win - which would be a new record.

Image source, Reuters

Villarreal start positively, and win a corner - it's a short one, but Barcelona's defence is not fooled. Gerard Pique is there to sidefoot clear.

With that stat in mind, I'd like to know this: What are your memories of 2008? I endured possibly the most stressful night of my entire journalism career on transfer deadline night in September that year, frantically trying to find out whether or not Robinho had signed for Manchester City. (It was a long day. At the end of it, he had.)

Share your 2008 memories, plus thoughts on the two games, complaints about the quality of this text commentary and any other stuff that occurs to you, via Twitter, using the hashtag #bbceurofooty. Grateful for your contributions as always.

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A stat for you as we get under way: Villarreal have not beaten Barcelona in their last 14 meetings, a run stretching back to March 2008. A lot has happened in the world since then...

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Barcelona will hope that Messi's down time has done him good. They go into the match in third place after Sevilla won 4-0 at Real Sociedad last night, thanks largely to Wissam Ben Yedder's hat-trick.

The 17:30 GMT kick-off in La Liga, which doesn't affect the top six, finished not too long ago - Celta Vigo have beaten Malaga 3-1. It was an interesting evening for Celta Vigo's Daniel Wass, who scored at both ends.

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"Barcelona star Lionel Messi gears up for Villarreal clash by enjoying quiet night in with family and pet dogs" reads the headline on Mail Online., external

Referring to a photo posted on Instagram by Antonella Roccuzzo, Messi's partner, the site reports on how the Barcelona forward has been relaxing at home with his young sons and the family dogs, Hulk and Toby.

I'll leave you to figure out which one is Hulk.

Image source, antoroccuzzo88/Instagram

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One Villarreal player who will be particularly keen to do well tonight is Jonathan dos Santos. The Mexico midfielder, a scorer in that 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid last month, graduated through the youth ranks at Barcelona and played a handful of games for the first team before they sold him to Villarreal in 2014. His older brother Giovani - now with LA Galaxy - was at Tottenham for a while, and also played briefly for Ipswich at the start of the Roy Keane era. Although perhaps 'era' is overstating it.

Let's turn the focus to our La Liga game. Villarreal have been through an interesting time since losing to Liverpool in last season's Europa League semi-final. Manager Marcelino was surprisingly sacked on the eve of the new campaign - tensions with both the board and his players emerged as the decisive factor - and replaced by Fran Escriba, himself only just recovering from a dismissal, having been fired in April as Getafe plummeted towards relegation.

Image source, Reuters

Escriba made a slow start - Villarreal lost a Champions League play-off to Monaco - and were not helped by the loss of former Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado to cruciate knee ligament damage in August. But they are definitely moving in the right direction now. A 3-0 walloping of Atletico Madrid before Christmas was evidence of that.  

Here's the team news from Juventus Stadium; Mario Mandzukic misses out in attack as Max Allegri prefers to go with a two-man attack in Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala, supported by Miralem Pjanic. Midfielder Tomas Rincon, Juve's new signing from Genoa, is on the bench.

Juventus: Neto; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Chiellini, Asamoah; Marchisio, Khedira, Sturaro; Pjanic; Higuain, Dybala.

Bologna: Mirante; Torosidis, Oikonomou, Maietta, Masina; Donsah, Viviani, Dzemaili; Krejcí, Destro, Di Francesco.

Image source, Reuters

Just as with Rakitic and Barcelona, there has been a bit of intrigue around Juve's selection too. Patrice Evra, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has been left out of the squad by Allegri, prompting speculation that the former Manchester United left-back could be heading back to the Premier League.

"It's not certain he will leave Juventus," Evra's agent Federico Pastorello said. "We'll see what happens over the next few days." Well, that's cleared that up, then.

Image source, AFP

We're not just in Spain tonight, by the way, we're also in Italy, where Serie A has got back under way this weekend following its own winter break.

Juventus saw their lead at the top cut to one point earlier today as Roma won 1-0 at Genoa. Max Allegri's side will restore a four-point advantage if, as expected, they beat Roberto Donadoni's struggling Bologna.