Bayer Leverkusen vs Villarreal Betting Tips & Predictions

Villarreal have never won a major trophy but look like real darkhorses in this competition. Having already seen off Napoli, who were considered one of the favourites to win it they were 2-0 winners against Bayer Leverkusen last week to take control of this tie. Two goals from Cedric Bakambu secured the win for the Spaniards and with a clean sheet they are strong favourites to progress now although Bayer Leverkusen are odds on to win on the night.

Perhaps one reason for that is that Villarreal have shown a few signs of frailties in recent weeks. They were beaten 4-2 at Sevilla  on Sunday despite boasting one of the strongest defensive records in the major European leagues and it was their second successive defeat in La Liga following a shock 1-0 home loss to Las Palmas prior to that. They do though remain in pole position to secure 4th place and Champions League football next term.

Bayer Leverkusen are 7th in the Bundesliga and just 3 points off the top four but they’ve been fairly unconvincing for most of the campaign. They were 1-0 winners at home to Hamburg at the weekend but had failed to win any of their previous 4 matches. Worryingly for them they conceded 12 times in those matches and they really cannot afford to concede an away goal here.

Villarreal’s approach to this may have tweaked slightly given the way they were cut open by Sevilla at the back on Sunday. With Bayer not great at the back, they are likely to be a bit more positive and try to seek that away goal that would leave the Germans needing to score 4 rather than just park the bus and hope to see the game out which is a risky strategy. Bayer Leverkusen clearly will have to attack too and therefore at some point the game will become stretched and fairly open so backing both teams to score at 10/11 looks a good bet here.