Galatasaray vs Villarreal preview, team news, h2h, & tips: Osimhen eyes Spanish scalp as new season beckons

Galatasaray host Villarreal at RAMS Park on Saturday, August 8, in what is the last pre-season friendly of the summer for both clubs before their domestic campaigns get under way.

Okan Buruk’s newly crowned Turkish champions have had a bumpy few weeks on the road in Austria, while Villarreal arrive in Istanbul fresh from a narrow win over Levante as Iñigo Pérez continues to stamp his ideas on the squad he inherited from Marcelino.

It is a rare fixture between the two clubs, who have met just three times in over two decades and have never faced each other in a competitive match outside Europe’s secondary continental competition back in 2004.

Both sides go into it with plenty to sort out before the serious business starts. Galatasaray are still searching for a replacement for Mauro Icardi up front, while Villarreal are trying to work out how much of Marcelino’s identity survives the arrival of a head coach with very different ideas about how his team should play.

Match preview: Buruk’s Champions Look For Rhythm as Osimhen Carries The Load

Galatasaray were crowned Süper Lig champions for a fourth consecutive season in May, finishing top with 77 points from their 34 matches, a return of 24 wins, five draws and five defeats that left them three points clear of great rivals Fenerbahce.

It was the club’s 26th league title overall and matched the record of four straight championships that Galatasaray themselves set between 1996 and 2000. The rest of the season was more mixed. Buruk’s side finished runners-up in the Turkish Super Cup, exited the Turkish Cup at the quarter-final stage, and were beaten by Liverpool in the Champions League round of 16 after a heavy defeat at Anfield in the second leg.

Pre-season has continued that up-and-down theme. Galatasaray thumped Ümraniyespor 5-1 in their opening friendly, then lost 2-0 to newly promoted Monza and 3-0 to Venezia during a training camp in Austria, before salvaging a 3-3 draw against Rennes back in Istanbul on Sunday.

Osimhen scored in that game, and Baris Alper Yilmaz’s stoppage-time penalty rescued a point after Esteban Lepaul’s hat-trick had put the French side ahead three times.

Osimhen The Focal Point of Everything

Victor Osimhen remains the single most important player at the club, and this summer has only reinforced that. Mauro Icardi, who was the second-choice striker and the man who broke Gheorghe Hagi’s club record for league goals by a foreign player, left as a free agent when his contract expired at the end of June after four seasons. Galatasaray have yet to bring in a like-for-like replacement, despite reported interest in Benfica’s Franjo Ivanovic.

That leaves Osimhen carrying an even heavier burden than before. The Nigerian finished last season with 15 league goals and 22 in all competitions, despite missing around five weeks after fracturing his forearm in the defeat at Liverpool in March.

He returned in style, scoring on his comeback against Fenerbahce and then netting twice against Antalyaspor to help seal the title. Transfer speculation has followed him through the summer, with Tottenham reported to have had an offer of around £55 million turned down as Galatasaray hold out for closer to £65 million, but Osimhen passed a pre-season medical and returned to training with the group, and he looks set to lead the line again on Saturday.

Villarreal, for their part, arrive off the back of the best points return in their history outside their record-breaking 2007-08 campaign. Iñigo Pérez’s predecessor Marcelino guided the club to third place in La Liga with 72 points, a club record 72 goals scored in the process, and back-to-back qualification for the Champions League for the first time ever.

The continental form did not match the domestic level, though, with Villarreal collecting just a single point from eight games in last season’s league phase, and they were also knocked out of the Copa del Rey in the round of 32 by Racing Santander. Marcelino left at the end of the season after the two sides could not agree fresh terms.

Pérez, who arrives from Rayo Vallecano, has overseen a mixed pre-season so far. Villarreal lost 2-0 to Benfica in Portugal, beat PSV Eindhoven 3-1 in the Netherlands, and won the group stage of the Como Cup before losing the final 3-1 to Ligue 1 side Lens.

They rounded that off with a battling 1-0 win over Levante on Wednesday, with substitute Logan Costa scoring the only goal after Juan Foyth had made his first appearance of the summer following injury.

Head-to-head: Galatasaray Still Searching For a First Win Over Villarreal

There is no reverse fixture to draw on here, since this is a rare, one-off exhibition meeting between two clubs from different leagues rather than part of any shared competition this season. The full history between them stretches back only as far as 2004, and it does not read well for the hosts.

Galatasaray and Villarreal were drawn together in the UEFA Cup third round in early 2004, with the first leg in Istanbul finishing 2-2 before Villarreal won the return leg 3-0 in Spain to advance 5-2 on aggregate.

The pair did not meet again until December 2022, when a pre-season friendly at Türk Telekom Arena produced seven goals, with Villarreal twice coming from behind before winning 4-3 courtesy of a late penalty.

Across those three meetings, Galatasaray have never beaten Villarreal, taking just one draw and two defeats from the fixture. It is a modest quirk of history that adds a little extra motivation for the hosts, even in a match that carries no competitive weight of its own.

Team News: Outs, Doubts and Predicted Lineups

Galatasaray

Out: Wilfried Singo is unavailable with a hamstring injury sustained on World Cup duty with Ivory Coast in June, and he is expected to be sidelined for around three months.

Watch for: Osimhen scored in the draw with Rennes and looks sharp heading into this one, while Ilkay Gündogan and new loan signing Lesley Ugochukwu offer fresh options in midfield. Without Icardi, Yunus Akgün, and Baris Alper Yilmaz are the likeliest cover in attacking positions.

Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Çakır; Sallai, Bardakçi, Ayhan, Jakobs; Torreira, Elmali; Akgün, Sara, Sané; Osimhen.

Villarreal

Out: Alfonso Pedraza and Arnaud Tenas have both left the club this summer, the former as a free agent and the latter on loan to Mallorca.

Boost: Juan Foyth returned from injury against Levante and should be involved again here.

Watch for: New signing Peter Gulácsi made his first appearance in goal in midweek and looks set to keep his place. Georges Mikautadze came off the bench against Levante and could be recalled to the starting line-up given the standing of the opponent.

Predicted XI (4-3-3): Gulácsi; Freeman, Foyth, Veiga, Cardona; Comesaña, Parejo, Buchanan; Pépé, Mikautadze, Moreno.

The Managers

Okan Buruk is closing in on his fifth season back at the club where he made his name as a player, having returned in July 2022 after Galatasaray had slumped to a 13th-place finish, their lowest ever in the top flight.

Since then he has delivered four straight Süper Lig titles, taking his combined tally as a player and manager to 11 league championships with the club, a record in Turkish football.

His football tends to be built around a settled 4-2-3-1, an aggressive press, and license for his wide players to drift inside and support a lone striker, a system that has been shaped around Osimhen’s movement since the Nigerian’s arrival.

Iñigo Pérez, at 38, is by contrast at the start of a new chapter. He spent time as Andoni Iraola’s assistant before taking permanent charge of Rayo Vallecano in February 2024, guiding them to eighth place in La Liga in each of his two full seasons and to a first European final in the club’s history, a Conference League final defeat to Crystal Palace in May.

He has signed a contract with Villarreal that runs through 2029, and early signs from pre-season suggest he wants his new side to play with more control and a higher defensive line than Marcelino’s compact, counter-attacking approach, which produced an average possession share of just 44 percent last season, one of the lowest in La Liga.

Tactical Preview

Galatasaray should line up in their familiar 4-2-3-1, with Lucas Torreira and Eren Elmali screening the back four while Yunus Akgün, Gabriel Sara and Leroy Sané rotate around Osimhen.

With Singo out, Buruk has already turned to Roland Sallai at right-back in his absence, and that switch could leave space behind Sallai for Villarreal to attack if their front players time their runs well.

Villarreal under Pérez have shown glimpses of a higher press and quicker circulation than under Marcelino, but the transition has not been seamless, and both Benfica and Lens found space in behind their back line during pre-season.

If Nicolas Pépé and Tajon Buchanan can get at Galatasaray’s full-backs in wide areas, and if Alberto Moleiro, who has attracted interest from Arsenal, finds pockets between the lines, Villarreal have the tools to trouble a Galatasaray side still working out its shape without Icardi as an option off the bench.

Set pieces could matter too. Abdulkerim Bardakçi and Kaan Ayhan give Galatasaray a physical presence at both ends, while Renato Veiga and Foyth offer similar qualities for Villarreal, so neither side should be discounted from finding a goal from a dead ball if open play proves stubborn.