We have reached the semi-final stage of the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League and on Thursday the 29th of April we have a meeting between Villarreal and Arsenal.
This will be the first leg of the tie and the match will be played at the Estadio de la Cerámica, giving Villarreal home advantage first.
#VillarrealBarça | 1-2 | ⏱️90'+5' | Final en el Estadio de la Cerámica. pic.twitter.com/bTYB2OtUEp— Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) April 25, 2021
#VillarrealBarça | 1-2 | ⏱️90'+5' | Final en el Estadio de la Cerámica. pic.twitter.com/bTYB2OtUEp
The hosts come into the game having suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat at home against Barcelona in La Liga on the weekend. Villarreal opened the scoring after 26 minutes but conceded the equaliser just two minutes later and found themselves 2-1 down by half-time. Having had a man sent off in the second half, Villarreal could not find a way back into the match.
That was a second successive defeat in La Liga for Villarreal following a 2-1 loss at Deportivo Alavés in mid-week. In fact, Villarreal have picked up just two victories from their 5 most recent games in all competitions and one of them came at home against Dinamo Zagreb in the quarter-final of the Europa League.
Villarreal have a tremendous record in the Europa League and they are on a run of 8 successive victories. They are undefeated in their last 12 Europa League matches and have won each of their last 6 at home.
Trends show Villarreal have been scoring goals at home for fun in the Europa League and they have found the back of the net in each of their last 12 home fixtures in the competition.
Arsenal travel to Spain having suffered a disappointing 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Everton in the Premier League on the weekend. That result leaves The Gunners in 10th place and there is a possibility they will finish in the bottom half of the table this season, which would be hugely disappointing.
Trends show Arsenal have picked up only two victories in their last 8 games in all competitions.
One of those wins came away from home in the Europa League as Arsenal produced one of their best performances of the season to defeat Slavia Prague 4-0.
In fact, Arsenal have a strong away record in the Europe League and they are on a run of 10 matches without defeat.
Arsenal have been scoring plenty of goals on the road in the Europa League this season, including 3 at Molde and Olympiakos plus 4 goals at Dundalk and Slavia Prague.
Looking ahead to the team news and Villarreal should be at full strength for this game. They have not injury or suspension concerns and have two of the competitions top scorers this season in Paco Alcácer and Gerard Moreno.
Arsenal will be hoping forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is fit having contracted malaria. Kieran Tierney, David Luiz, and Alexandre Lacazette are unlikely to feature due to injury.
We expect this to be a tight game although both teams have the potential to score goals.
Arsenal will know the importance of scoring an away goal and should find the back of the net but Villarreal have a good home scoring record in the competition. 1-1 is an appealing correct score option for this game.