Newcastle United vs. Villarreal: Sela Cup match two preview

Newcastle United round off their pre-season schedule by hosting Villarreal of La Liga at St. James' Park on Sunday afternoon, in game two of the inaugural Sela Cup.

Having beaten Fiorentina 2-0, Eddie Howe is looking to lift the pre-season trophy in front of his home supporters and to ensure his team finish pre-season unbeaten.

Kick-off against our Spanish opposition is at 4 p.m., with Nice of Ligue 1 facing Fiorentina of Serie A earlier in the day at 1 p.m. (both times BST).

Here's a look at the current Sela Cup standings, the XI Howe will field against Quique Setién's side, and all of the ticketing and television broadcast information you need.

What are the current Sela Cup standings?

Remember, it's three points for a win, one point for a draw, and one point per goal scored.

How will Newcastle line up?

None of the senior players who featured in the Fiorentina win are expected to be a part of the squad against Villarreal.

This means that Martin Dúbravka, Kieran Trippier, Alex Murphy, Sven Botman, Matt Targett, Sandro Tonali, Lewis Miley, Elliot Anderson, Miguel Almirón, Alexander Isak, and Anthony Gordon won't be involved.

Fabian Schär won't feature either, having failed a late fitness test ahead of the Fiorentina match, but he is set to return to full training next week. Joe Willock and Emil Krafth are both still unavailable, too, but Sean Longstaff is back in contention and set to start.

Although Tino Livramento was in the crowd today, he likely won't complete his move in time to be involved, meaning the fit-again Javier Manquillo should play at right-back.

Here's how we think Newcastle will set up against Villarreal:

Newcastle United (4-3-3): Pope; Manquillo, Lascelles, Dummett, Burn; Longstaff, Guimarães, Joelinton; J. Murphy, Wilson, Barnes

The bench will be filled with U21 players (and Loris Karius).

What kit will Newcastle be wearing?

It'll be black and white for NUFC again tomorrow, as Villarreal wear all yellow.

Are tickets still available?

At the time of writing, there are still ~2,700 tickets available to purchase through the NUFC booking site.

Cash turnstiles will again be in operation in the Leazes West Corner (between the Leazes End and the Milburn Stand), for seating in Level 4 of that corner.

The price for all tickets in all parts of the ground is £30 for adults and £15 for concessions.

Where can the game be watched?

The game isn't on television in the UK, or being streamed on NUFC TV, but unlike the Fiorentina match it is available in plenty of overseas territories, not just Italy and Malta:

beIN Sports Connect / Sports 2 (Australia)

DAZN Italy

DAZN Spain

ESPN+ (USA)

Fox Deportes (USA)

LaLiga TV Bar 2 (Spain)

M+ LALIGA TV3 HD (Spain)

Movistar+ Spain

S Sport+ Turkey

TVM Sport+ Malta

VG+ Norway

(If you need a VPN to watch the action online, we'd highly recommend Surfshark.)

What's Newcastle's head-to-head record with Villarreal?

The only time Newcastle and Villarreal have faced off was also in a friendly at St. James' Park, back in 2006 when we were managed by the late Glenn Roeder.

Dubbed by some as "The Nicky Butt Redemption Friendly", it saw Newcastle coming back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 thanks to two late headed goals off James Milner corners by the former Manchester United midfielder.

Shola Ameobi got the other goal following a Nobby Solano free-kick, with Robert Pires scoring one of the visitors' efforts.

If you love a table as much as we do, here's the full record for completeness:

How about a score prediction?

It's going to be another win for Eddie Howe's mighty Magpies. Let's round off pre-season in style with an exciting 4-1 victory and a trophy lift in front of the St. James' Park faithful.