Villarreal - Arsenal
07.04 20:45
Villarreal managed to reach the closing stages of the Champions League for the second time in the last few years but they face a difficult job against revived Arsenal. The Gunners are doing great lately and they will have some very important players back for this clash, which makes them the favourites to go through.
Villarreal are struggling lately
Villarreal have made a lot of progress in the last few years and they have emerged as one of the leading teams in Spain. They did surprisingly well in Europe for such a small club and they were very close to reaching the Champions League final in 2006, when they were stopped by Arsenal in the semis. We are sure that the Yellow Submarine will be eager to get revenge for the aforementioned defeat. Manuel Pellegrini’s team have been somewhat inconsistent this season but they reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Panathinaikos and they will now try to do the same against Arsenal. Villarreal’s form is on the downtrend as they lost two of the last three games, but they are still a force to be reckoned with at their El Madrigal. They are yet to lose a home game in the Champions League, thus Arsenal face a difficult task. We have no doubts that the hosts will attack from the start and try to create a good advantage before the return leg, but their chances have been decreased as excellent winger Santi Cazorla have picked up an injury in the 3:0 defeat to Almeria and he will not be back this season. However, midfielders Senna and Cani have recovered and they will be fit to play, whereas Ibagaza returns from a domestic suspension. Rossi and Nihat are likely to start up front and the visitors will have problems containing them.
Fabregas and Adebayor are back
Arsenal had had a very slow start to the season, but they have shown a lot of improvement lately and their uptrend in form couldn’t have come in a better time as the Gunners still have a good chance to save this season. The latest run of good results saw them leapfrog Aston Villa in the fight for the Champions League place, while they also managed to eliminate Roma from the top European competition. The atmosphere in the team is great at the moment, especially as Walcott, Adebayor and Fabregas have recovered from injuries and that was a big boost for the team. These are all key players for Arsene Wenger’s team and the latest results are the perfect proof. The Gunners won the last four games in all competitions and they enter this match in great spirits. Andrei Arshavin is not eligible to play, but with the aforementioned players back, that wouldn’t be a problem. Van Persie, Eduardo and Diaby are also out, but Nasri could recover in time to face Villarreal. We have no doubts that the Gunners will adopt attacking approach and try to score an away goal, which would help them a great deal in the return leg.
Betting verdict
We should see a very interesting match between two attack-minded teams as both sides will be looking to win this match. This is likely to be a very open match and our advice is to bet on over 2.5 goals.
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