Back Villarreal to overcome Club Brugge
Spaniards Villarreal will be hopeful of shaking off their opening round defeat away to Dinamo Zagreb and easing past Club Brugge when they take them on tonight.
Villarreal finished in a disapointing seventh place last season in La Liga, marking their lowest finish since 2004 and meaning they only scraped into the Europa League places by a measly two points. Having come third just two years earlier, it will be the task of Juan Carlos Garrido, the club's former B team boss, to ensure that the club improves this season.
They've lost defender Diego Godin to rivals Atletico Madrid, but have added Carlos "The Bull" Marchena to their backline. They've also have Jozy Altidore back from a loan spell at Hull to bolster a forward line that already includes Brazilian Nilmar and former Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi.
The Yellow Submarine can also still depend on World Cup-winning left back Joan Capdevila, the ever-reliable Marcos Senna and versatile winger Santi Cazorla.
Things look promising so far, the team sit second in La Liga, above both Real Madrid and Barcelona, with four wins in a row and goals plentiful for both Nilmar and Rossi, who each have four and three goals so far respectively.
They've failed however to transfer this good league form into the Europa League. Though they qualified comfortably enough, beating Dnepr Mogilev 7-1 on aggregate, they lost their opening group game 2-0 to Dinamo Zagreb and will be hoping to turn things around against Belgian runners-up, Club Brugge.
This shouldn't prove too much of an issue, as the visitors are not in good form, losing their game at the weekend to usual strugglers Germinal Beerschot and only drawing last time out in the Europa League, at home to Greek side PAOK.
With this in mind, Villarreal are [1.37] to win tonight, with Club Brugge [11.5] to defeat the Spanish side.
Better odds can be found on the scorers, Rossi [2.18] and Cazorla [3.5] both scored against Malaga on Monda - Cazorla with a brace - and should be a good bet to find the net again tonight.
Villarreal v Club Brugge
Kick-off: 8.05pm
Live on ITV4
Fancy the Spaniards to win handsomely? Let us know below...
Published: 30 Sep 2010
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