Champions League: Villarreal Bid to End English Misery

Villarreal vs Manchester City

Now here’s a couple of Champions League statistics for you.

Villarreal, the 2021 Europa League winners, have failed to triumph in any of their last eight competitive matches with English clubs.

Manchester City, meanwhile, the 2023 Champions League victors, have failed to win any of their last five away games in the competition, losing four straight matches on their travels to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Sporting Lisbon last term.

So what, if anything, will give this week as both clubs go in search of Champions League 2025 highlights?

 

Talking Points

Villarreal went into the weekend in fine fettle, sitting in third place in the La Liga standings.

That’s a fine achievement given they sold two of their best attackers this summer with the departures of Alex Baena and Thierno Barry to Atletico Madrid and Everton respectively. Baena was the team’s top playmaker with seven league goals and 10 assists, while Barry had 11 league goals and four assists last season.

Third place is where they end the weekend too.

At one point, they looked to be on course for a home league win as they led Real Betis 2-0, thanks to goals from Tajon Buchanan and Alberto Moleiro.

However, a double from former Man Utd man Antony – the second in the fourth minute of stoppage time – meant the game ended two apiece.

Marcelino’s men have also been involved in two close contests in this competition, a narrow 1-0 defeat at Spurs followed by a 2-2 draw at home to Juventus in which Renato Veiga’s late equaliser rescued a point.

Veiga was on loan at Juve during the second half of last season.

With Georges Mikautadze, Pape Gueye and one-time Arsenal man Nicolas Pepe among their talents, the ‘Yellow Submarine’ have the firepower to make life uncomfortable for Pep Guardiola’s City.

City, who crashed out with a whimper at the last 16 stage last season, opened their European account with a 2-0 home win over Napoli before being pegged back twice in a 2-2 draw at Monaco.

They warmed up for this encounter in the Premier League on Saturday with their deadly assassin Erling Haaland scoring two goals to down Everton. The Norway striker now has 23 goals in 13 matches in all competitions (for club and country) so far this term.

Aside from the result, Guardiola will have been pleased to see his squad depth strengthened by the return of key players from injuries as Omar Marmoush, Rayan Cherki and Mateo Kovacic all returned to action in the second half following spells on the sidelines.

There is even a chance left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri could feature in Spain following an ankle injury, more likely as a substitute, but definitely out are defensive colleague Abdukodir Khusanov and midfield ‘metronome’ Rodri who is not expected back from his hamstring problem before the end of the month.

For the hosts, the centre back ranks have been depleted by the absences of Logan Costa (ACL) and talented ex-Man Utd youngster Willy Kambwala (hamstring), while Juan Foyth is likely to miss out again too.

 

History

Two meetings, two City victories is the sum total of their history so far.

Both those games came in the group stages of the 2011-12 campaign, the first time City qualified for the Champions League just three years after the Sheikh Mansour takeover which changed the landscape of both the club and English football.

It took a stoppage time goal from Sergio Aguero to earn a City 2-1 win at the Etihad.

A couple of weeks later at the El Madrigal and it was much more one-sided as a Yaya Toure double and a Mario Balotelli penalty sealed a 3-0 success, although neither club reached the group stages – the days when the competition was a higher standard than today’s slug-fest.

You know my view – the quality won’t improve, there will just be more fatigued players come the end of the campaign.

 

Betting Tip

City are firm favourites with the SBOTOP Champions League 2025 betting odds, priced 1X2 @ 1.65 and Asian Handicap -1.00 @ 2.21.

The home team are on offer 1X2 @ 4.25 and Asian Handicap +0.75 @ 1.98.

A repeat of their 3-0 success more than a decade ago will pay out @ 15.00 with Correct Score and, while City are expected to win, I think it will be a lot closer than that.

So much so, I think there will be very little in it.

I have looked at and considered Total Goal 0-1 @ 4.06, 2-3 @ 2.08 and 4-6 @ 2.70 but my *** tip is for honours even and a 1X2 Draw @ 3.65 with City pegged back late on again.

   

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