This match is certainly intriguing as, despite the fact they conceded two away goals in the first leg, Villarreal are by no means out of this tie.
Monaco secured an outstanding result by beating the Yellow Submarine in their own waters and securing two away goals in the process. This impressive win against one of the bigger names in Europe followed on from their impressive 5-2 aggregate victory over Turkish giants Fenerbahce in the previous round.
Their Ligue 1 campaign also got off to a good start with a win away at Nantes. However, Leonardo Jardim’s team have even more injury problems going into this match with Argentinean striker Guido Marcelo Carrillo picking up a strain.
Villarreal managed to reach the Europa League semi-final last season before being knocked out by runners up Liverpool. They will of course be disappointed to have conceded two away goals (which is worse than losing the match) but at the same time they know they can still get back into this one with a couple of away goals of their own.
However, their confidence may be knocked by the fact they could only manage a draw at Granada in their La Liga opener.
Monaco are the favourites going into this match and it is easy to see why. Two away goals puts them firmly in the driving seat and they’ll know that even a simple 1-0 win will get the job done.
I think Monaco will come out on top at home, although I do expect Villarreal to score. Although the French side spent €30m on good quality defensive players this summer, the Spaniards will spend most of the evening attacking and, with the quality in their ranks, will likely take one of their chances.
The price on a Monaco win, at 7/5, is well worth taking, whilst ‘Both Teams to Score’ is also reasonably rated at 1.80.
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