Champions League: The Old Lady Can Sink The Sub

Juventus vs Villarreal

All roads lead to the Allianz Arena in Turin for the Champions League match of the week on Wednesday, when Max Allegri’s Juventus welcome La Liga aces Villarreal.

Unai Emery’s team held the Italians to a 1-1 draw in the first leg and the Yellow Submarine fans will travel in their numbers in the hope of completing a stunning upset. Both teams come into the match on the back of a league win and this is a clash of two sides in fine form. The hosts, by nature of home advantage and fewer injury concerns are strong favourites to make the last eight.   

The Champions League 2022 betting odds say the Old Lady is going to do it at a price of 1.48 to proceed, but Villarreal will do all it can to say afloat.

Talking Points

Vlahovic has ignited Juve’s campaign

A 3-1 win away to Sampdoria made it four wins on the bounce for Allegri’s men and, after a disappointing first half of the campaign, they have an outside chance of regaining the Scudetto, now up to fourth place in Serie A and seven points behind leaders AC Milan. League favourites Inter Milan were in Turin at the weekend where they were held to a 1-1 draw by Torino and the Old Lady is now just three points adrift of the current champions.

Following the return of the master Allegri the team became better organised and results picked up, and in January the boss moved in the transfer market to add some stardust. The Bianconeri raided one of their favourite sources of talent, Fiorentina, for the services of hotshot 22-year-old Dusan Vlahovic. The talented Serb has scored four goals in six starts for his new club and he opened the scoring against Villarreal in the first leg, with just 33 seconds on the clock. It was the fastest goal by a debutant in the Champions League history and this time around Villarreal will have a close eye on Juve’s latest star from the very first whistle.    

The energetic running of Vlahovic and his ability to find space has stretched defences, enabling team-mates Paulo Dybala and Federico Chiesa to create openings, while the January sales of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur to Spurs don’t seem to have upset the balance of Juventus’ squad. And for this match Allegri is hopeful that Giorgio Chiellini and Dybala will be fit to return.  

There is a good feeling around Turin at the moment but should the Bianconeri fail to make it through to the last eight the Champions League 2022 news headlines in the Italian press will be brutal. The country expects the Old Lady to deliver. 

Villarreal short on numbers

This is game-on for Villarreal at a SBOTOP price of 2.61 to go through to the quarter finals, but while the Bianconeri have few new injury worries, Unai Emery has more on his plate. His defensive lynchpin Raul Albiol went off at half time during Villarreal’s 1-0 home win over Celta Vigo on Saturday and is struggling with his hamstring, while striker Paco Alcacer and wing back Albert Moreno are definitely out. There are also doubts over the fitness of midfield man Etienne Capoue and experienced forward Gerard Moreno.

Recent high scoring league wins, 5-1 over Espanyol and 4-1 away to Granada has lifted Villarreal up to seventh place in the La Liga table  and the Yellow Submarine recovered from a 1-0 defeat away to Osasuna to record the win at home to Celta Vigo. Emery will hope to keep the momentum going and, in the absence of some key players, he’ll be relying heavily on the experienced Dani Parejo who was on target to earn Villarreal a draw in the home leg.

History

Juventus are twice Champions League winners but have struggled to make progress in recent seasons, going out at this stage in both the last two campaigns, and they have not progressed past the quarter final stage since 2017. 

Villarreal’s best effort in the Champions League was a semi-final appearance in 2006, and they qualified for this campaign courtesy of a first Europa League title in 2021.    

The two teams have met only twice before, the only occasion before the first leg of this tournament was a 2009 meeting in Turin, which the Yellow Submarine won 4-1.

Betting Tip

This tie is beautifully poised; the draw is at odds of 3.35 and Villarreal are at 3.58 to win, but the hosts are unbeaten in 12 games and in ten at home, and with a few injury worries in the Spanish camp they are clear favourites.

With one of the big guns, Paris Saint-Germain, already out of the competition  Juventus are one of a handful of teams which will have their eyes on a semi-final place at least, and a 1-0 win at odds of 5.51 would suit the Old Lady just fine.

 

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