Europa League defending champions Villareal will look to continue their UCL journey when they welcome Italian heavyweights Juventus to Estadio de la Ceramica on Tuesday.
Venue: Estadio de la Ceramica (Villarreal)
Key Statistics
Villareal have kept three clean sheets from their last four games.
The hosts are unbeaten in their last six home games (W4, D2).
They have scored 2+ goals in five of their last six home games.
Juventus are unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions.
They have not lost inside 90 minutes in their last 16 competitive games.
The visitors are winless in their last three away games.
Head to head
Both sides have not met in a competitive outing. This is their first meeting in this competition.
Latest performances in all competitions
Villareal: W-D-W-W-L
Juventus: D-D-W-W-D
Villareal
Europa League champions will be aiming to make progress in the champions league when they take on Juventus at home in the Estadio de la Ceramica for the first leg of their last 16 games.
Unai Emery’s team finished second behind Manchester United in Group F to make it this far, while Juventus topped Group H ahead of reigning champions Chelsea.
Villareal managed to qualify courtesy of the last day 3-2 dramatic win over Atalanta after having suffered a pair of defeats to Manchester United. This will be their first appearance in the knockout phase since 2009.
Unai Emery’s glittering success in the second tier of Europe’s continental competition is unparalleled, but the former Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain boss will be aware that more than anyone, his side are major underdogs to lift the Champions League trophy aloft.
The Yellow Submarines are on a four-game unbeaten run in La Liga- during which time they have taken 10 points from a possible 12 and conceded just one goal. Heading into this encounter, Emery would not have wished for a better time to face Italian heavyweights.
Possible Villareal starting line-up
Sergio Asenjo; Serge Aurier, Raul Albiol, Pau Torres, Alfonso Pedraza; Manu Trigueros, Moi Gomez, Dani Parejo; Samuel Chukwueze, Boulaye Dia, Arnaut Danjuma.
Injured: Francis Coquelin, Gerard Moreno, Ruben Pena
Doubtful: Etienne Capoue
Suspended: None
Juventus
Juventus secured passage into the round of 16, finishing as leaders of Group H ahead of defending Champions Chelsea despite suffering a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Londoners.
The Old Lady recorded five wins from six group stage matches to advance with 15 points – only the three perfect sides in Ajax, Liverpool and Bayern Munich progressed with a better record.
The 1995-96 Champions League winners are making their eighth consecutive appearance in the knockout rounds. But the last-16 curse has bedevilled them for the past two years. They went out at this stage to Lyon in 2020 before that disheartening exit to Porto last year. A more recent European success has been long overdue for the Italian Giants.
Meanwhile, the season hasn’t gone exactly as planned for Max Allegri as his team have found their previous stranglehold on Italian Scudetto broken by Inter Milan last season. This season they find themselves in fourth position trailing League Leaders AC Milan by nine points with 12 games left to play.
They are off the back of a 1-1 draw with Torino in the Derby della Mole as Matthijs de Ligt’s early effort was cancelled out by the visitors’ talisman Andrea Belotti. Going into this match, Max Allegri knows that nothing more will do than a win away at the Estadio de la Cerámica against Unai Emery’s in-form Yellow Submarines.
Possible Juventus starting line-up
Wojciech Szczęsny; Juan Cuadrado, Danilo, Matthijs De Ligt, Alex Sandro; Manuel Locatelli, Denis Zakaria, Paulo Dybala; Federico Bernardeschi, Alvaro Morata, Dusan Vlahovic.
Injured: Federico Chiesa, Paulo Dybala, Daniele Rugani, Luca Pellegrini
Doubtful: Federico Bernardeschi, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini
Suspended: None
Prediction
Villareal 1-2 Juventus
