Zenit Petersburg – Villarreal SOCCER PICKS
Zenit St. Petersburg and Villarreal meet, in a match for this phase of the UEFA Europa League (8th Finals). There is no record of direct confrontations between these two teams in the last 3 years. The last match was played on 21-02-2008 and ended with the score: Villarreal (2-1) Zenit St. Petersburg. In this match the home factor may be decisive, since both teams present considerable differences in the results obtained at home and as a visitor.
Zenit St. Petersburg:
The home team reached this stage of the UEFA Europa League (8th Finals) after a home win by (3-1) and a loss by (1-0) with Fenerbahçe. This is a team that usually makes good use of the home advantage, stronger with the help of its supporters, since in the last 30 matches they register 6 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses in away matches; against 10 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses at their stadium. In the last match that they disputed, for the Premier League, they beat Ural Sverdlovskaya by (0-1). In the last 6 home matches for the UEFA Europa League Zenit St. Petersburg has won 6.
For this competition, it records a sequence of 6 victories in its last home matches. They have not been very strong defensively, since they have suffered goals in 8 of the last 10 matches, but their offense has scored frequently, since they have scored goals in 8 of the last 10 matches for this competition. In 12 matches in the competition, they suffered the first goal 6 times, but got the comeback in 2.
The Zenit St. Petersburg comes to this game with a victory, by 0-1, in the displacement to the land of the Ural, in a game to count for the Russian championship. In the last game for the Europa League, the visitors eliminated Fenerbahçe. In this match against Villarreal, Zenit St. Petersburg must play in 4-4-2, benefiting from maintaining ball possession and organized attacks, looking in most cases for striker Artem Dzyuba: this player is one of the highlights of the team, being the owner of great positioning. For this game coach Sergey Semak can not count on Kokorin and Kuzyaev and Erokhin, players recovering from injury.
Villarreal:
The visiting team reached this phase of the UEFA Europa League (8th Finals) after having eliminated Sporting Lisbon, with a draw by (1-1) at home and a win by (0-1) away in the previous round. This is a team that usually makes good use of the home advantage, stronger with the help of its supporters, since in the last 30 matches they register 1 win, 8 draws and 6 losses in away matches; against 5 wins, 7 draws and 3 losses at their stadium. In the last match that they disputed, for the First Division, they lost with Deportivo Alavés at home (1-2). In their last 4 away matches for the UEFA Europa League Villarreal has a record of 1 win and 3 draws.
For this competition, they have not lost any of the last 4 away matches. Their offense has scored frequently, since they have scored goals in 6 of the last 8 matches for this competition. In the last 19 away matches for all competitions there are 2 periods that stand out: they have scored 7 of their 18 goals between minutes (76′-90 ‘); He suffered 11 of his 25 goals between the minutes (76’-90 ‘).
The Villarreal comes to this game with a defeat, 1-2, in the reception to Alavés, thus adding the second consecutive defeat in the Spanish championship. In the last game for the Europa League, the visitors eliminated Sporting Lisboa. In this game away from home, coach Javier Calleja must act in 3-5-2, favoring the tactical organization and looking for a counterattack to take advantage of the space in the back of the opponent: Alfonso Pedraza is the great responsible for this type of transition . It is important to note that Karl Toko Ekambi is the best score of Villarreal, with 12 goals scored. For this game, visitors can not count on Manu Trigueros, Javi Fuego and Bonera, all due to injury.
