Zenit – Villarreal, Europa League Prediction

Zenit again find their shape and are marching confidently to the title in Russia. They also received a gift from Spartak Moscow and now their lead on the top is 3 points. They have been kicked out of the Russian cup long time ago, so they have focused their attention on the fight for the title and matches in Europa League. In the last match they managed to defeat Fenerbahce 3-1 as a host and so they qualified. But it had to be much easier for them vs. the Turks, who are terrible this season.

Villarreal’s performance this campaign in La Liga is just awful. The yellow submarine is in the relegation zone and they are facing a real struggle for survival. Indeed, it will be quite important for everyone in the club to realize that the danger of Villarreal to get relegated is real and if they have to sacrifice the Europa League for that, they have to do so. Still, we saw a lot of fighting and professionalism in their matches against Sporting, where they were the better team.

Villarreal’s attack is frankly weak. At the same time as a Spanish team have relatively stable defense, at least in terms of their matches in Europe League. Zenit is also a defensive team that relies heavily on defense. We believe that this will be one of the games with lowest number of goals in Europe League. The odds for this is definitely worth it. Villarreal has not lost in Europa League already in 8 consecutive games, which is important to note. Prediction – Under 2.5 goals at 1.65.

• Villarreal have only conceded 1 goal in the last 6 Europa League matches
• Villarreal has only scored 4 goals in the last 9 away games in all competitions