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Villarreal vs Rangers Predictions

  • 16:55
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Villarreal
    Rangers

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      Villarreal vs Rangers Predictions

      Steven Gerrard will surely be doing everything to ensure a positive result on the night, it won’t be easy for the ‘Gers though as they’ve been drawn with European regulars Villareal.

      Steven Gerrard continued his fantastic run as Rangers manager at the weekend by seeing his side beat Dundee 4-0. Goals came from Lassana Coulibaly and James Tavernier while Ryan Kent and Glenn Middleton also contributed to the scoring with both players getting their first strikes for the club. It was a truly dominant display from the Bears who controlled the game all over the pitch. However, Dundee have still to even pick up a point this season and this was the result that Gerrard would have expected, he was even quoted after the game asking for his team to be even more clinical, probably with this Villareal match in mind.

      Rangers have definitely been much better than the side they were last season under Caixinha, Murty and Nicholl but much of their success has been in the European qualifiers rather than domestically. They did slightly buck that trend at the weekend after only winning one of their previous four league games, but Gerrard will be happy to be back on the continent. An away trip in this one will stretch his side, but Rangers have only conceded thrice in their eight qualifiers against some tough teams like Maribor. In their other matches against quality teams, they have suffered though, drawing with Aberdeen and losing to Celtic.

      Rangers have only won one of their last four games, conceding five so it’s not ideal form for Rangers to be going into this one. Also, they have only lost one of their eight away games so far but have drawn far too many with five. However, their opposition for this game haven’t been great recently so this may be quite an even game.

      Real have only won one of their last four La Liga games, conceding three times and only winning once. After the success of last year, it has been a vastly different set of performances this season. Villareal blew away many teams last season, scoring four against the likes of Deportivo, Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad. This season, they haven’t been as lethal.

      They lost one of their most efficient players in an attacking sense last season, Samu Castillejo got six goals and five assists last year but left for AC Milan in the summer, and his replacements have been pretty lacklustre. Gerard Moreno and Karl Toko Ekambi were brilliant last season but are still to impress so far at their new team and last season’s top scorer Carlos Bacca has failed to take games by the scruff of the neck like he did last campaign. They won their last match against Leganes, but they were lucky as the opposition missed a penalty and had lots of opportunities to win it.

      We think this will actually be a tight game despite Villareal’s stature in Europe. Rangers have scored 12 goals in their last six games and with Villarreal only having two clean sheets in their last seven competitive games we expect the Bears to get a goal in this one. Villarreal, even though they haven’t been scoring for fun, they still have lots of attacking quality and with this game being at home where they won the majority of their points last season. Neither team have been in great form, but both won their most recent game and we’re going to back a great result for Rangers at a 1-1 draw.

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