Liverpool vs. Villarreal: Preview and betting tips

The Champions League play-offs continue with the opening games of the semi-finals. In one of them, Liverpool and Villarreal will face each other. While the English team was one of the favourites to win the title from the start, Villarreal has been a pleasant surprise this season.

Liverpool have been going through the Champions League fearlessly so far. It won all six matches in the group stage, then knocked out Inter and Benfica in the play-offs. The return leg against Inter is the only game Liverpool have lost so far this season. However, despite a narrow 0:1 defeat, they comfortably secured promotion.

In the English Premier League, Liverpool are in a title fight with Manchester City. They are only one point behind their rivals and with five rounds to go, no other team can speak in the battle for the top spot.

Villarreal, on the other hand, are astonishing European football in the Champions League. First they left Atalanta and Young Boys Bern behind in the group stage, then they surprisingly eliminated Juventus and Bayern Munich in the knockout stages. Especially the defeat of Bayern Munich was quite shocking, as the German club was one of the hot candidates to win the whole competition.

However, Villarreal cannot fully transfer their performance from the European competition to the domestic league. Here they are currently in seventh place, a position that guarantees participation in the next edition of the Conference League. It is four points behind relegated Bilbao, but only three points behind sixth-placed Real Sociedad.

The last matches between the two teams were in 2016, so they are not very telling. However, in one case Villarreal enjoyed a 1: 0 victory, then Liverpool beat their opponents 3: 0. Interestingly, this was also a semi-final of a European competition, but it was the Europa League.

In my opinion, not many goals will be scored in the match. This is the opening game of a double header, so we can expect a rather more cautious battle. Moreover, Villarreal proved in the quarterfinals that they can keep an offensive team like Bayern at bay. So we are unlikely to see more than two goals in the match.