Villarreal - Elfsborg
Villareal entertain Elfsborg of Sweden knowing a win will send them through to the next round. Villareal have been one of the best sides to watch in La Liga this season and they have a solid home record (5 – 1 – 1) with 13 goals scored and 9 conceded, not bad when you look at some of the teams they have played at home so far including Real, Barca and Sevilla. Apart from the 5 – 0 drubbing on match day 2 at the hands of Real Madrid, they have been quite impressive on their home patch as wins over Barcelona and Sevilla will testify.
Elfsborg are bottom of the group after 3 games and know nothing less than 3 points will be good enough to give them a fighting chance of progressing. Realistically though their season is over and they are only playing for pride at this stage. Their domestic season is finished where they finished in 4 th position with an away record that reads (5-4-4) with 16 goals scored and 17 conceded.
It should also be noted that the Swedish league finished at the end of October and they have only had 2 competitive matches since then. They have already visited Spain earlier this season when they were easily defeated 3-0 by Valencia in the Champions League qualifying process.
Team news for Elfsborg is hard to find but for Villareal, G Rossi, Josico and Gonzales are out.
Verdict
Given that Elsborg’s season is over with a few months it’s hard to see them being in good physical shape. There are rumors that Villareal will give some fringe players a run but even at that they should have far too much quality for this Elfsborg side. They were whacked 6 – 1 by Fiorentina in an earlier round and while I don’t think it will be maybe as big a defeat here, it will probably finish 3 – 0 minimum
Home win odds of 1.2 don’t interest me so il take Villareal –2 goals asain handicap, as they should cover this.
PICK
Villareal – 2 asain hdcp ( 2 @ bodog) 6 points
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment