Europa League Finals: Villarreal vs Manchester United Preview, Odds, Prediction

Villarreal and Manchester United meet in Gdansk to decided the Europa League champions. The two sides have a lot at stake, the Yellow Submarine probably a bit more. United secured its ticket to the UEFA Champions League next year, while on the other side, Villarreal needs to win in order to do so. However, that won’t diminish the motive for the Red Devils, who want to finally get some trophies under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The Norwegian was under heavy criticism over the past two years, and this is a perfect chance for him to shud down all those who don’t believe in him. That, of course, won’t be easy because, on the other side, we have a master for this competition, Unai Emery, who has three EL titles.

Preview

Villareal (+375) reached the finals after defeating Arsenal in the semis. It was perfect revenge for Emery’s ludacris departure from Emirates, once Arsenal’s board believed they could do better without him.

The first game at El Madrigal ended 2-1 for the hosts, while the rematch saw no goals, thanks to Emery’s perfect tactical setup that numbed the Gunners’ attacks and slowed down the match’s pace. Overall, Villarreal plays tough and tactical games, and even though the recent results aren’t suggesting anything like that.

Three of the last five saw over 2.5 goals, but four of the previous six had just one side netting. The Yellow Submarine’s form is shaky, posting five wins, four defeats, and one draw in the past 10 matches. But what encourages their fans is that they haven’t lost in 12 consecutive EL road matches.

Manchester United (-110) defeated Wolverhampton in the last round of the English Premier League, 1-2, closing what was a solid season for them. If they win the Europa League, we might say that it will become a successful one.

What is noticeable in United’s recent matches are goals on both sides. The most recent six ended with both teams scoring, and all but one of those games finished with over 2.5 goals. Solskjaer’s defense was doing wonders at one point of the season, especially on the road, but as time went by, the Red Devils slowed down a little bit.

It is interesting that United didn’t win three straight matches before Sunday’s triumph at Molineux and that all those games took place at Trafford. They looked much better on the road than at home this year.

Latest News

Samuel Chukwueze won’t play for Villarreal, and he is the only one ineligible for the Yellow Submarine.

Phil Jones is out for United, while Fred, Harry Maguire, Anthony Martial, and Scott McTominay remain doubtful for this event.

Head to Head Games

Now check this out. These two sides played four times since 2005, all in the UEFA Champions League group stage, and all four games ended without goals. This is really interesting.

Prediction

We expect to see a hard and pretty conservative match with both managers trying to protect their own goal and only then attack from some counterattacks or set pieces. Therefore, we aren’t expecting too many scores on Wednesday night, and our final pick is low efficiency, meaning under 2.5 goals.