Villarreal vs Manchester United Prediction & Betting Tips - Europa League

Prediction published on 23/05/2021, 15:48  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 24/05/2021 at 10:07 in Europa League Predictions

The history of Manchester United and Villarreal meetings is a curious one; they’ve played each other four times, all in the Champions League and none of them has won. All their meetings have ended in goalless draws, the most recent coming in 2008. The two sides will face off in the Europa League final in Gdansk, a game of crucial importance to the two sides. For Villarreal, a first appearance in a European final is a signal of the growth they’ve had. Further, the loss to Real Madrid in the last La Liga game means they can’t get to the Europa League next season, but they can get to the Champions League with a win in this clash. Managed by a proven winner in this competition, Unai Emery, and a man who knows United well, the Yellow Submarines will be in the right hands going to this game. That will however not change the fact that they’ll be the underdogs. They have two wins in the last five matches. On their way to the final, they eliminated Premier League side, Arsenal, and they’ll take motivation from their recent 4-0 win over Sevilla. In their 14 matches in this competition this season, Villarreal haven’t lost, winning 12. The two games they failed to win were away from home, and they have five straight away clean sheets in Europa League.

Manchester United signed off their Premier League campaign in style, by beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 at the Molineux Stadium in the West Midlands. Now they have a tougher assignment in the Europa League final and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer just about recognized that with the changes in his team for the Wolves game. Skipper Harry Maguire is injured and could even miss the final. Bruno Fernandes, David De Gea, Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw and Edison Cavani were all given a day off while more first team players in the squad spent the entire time on the bench. United’s win was their first in four matches after going through some slump, though with a top four place secured that was expected. Having no clean sheet in the last seven matches should be a concern though, and in four of the seven they’ve let in two or more goals. United reached the Europa League semi finals last season and got eliminated by a Spanish side, Sevilla, who went on to win it. This season, they joined in the knockout stage after finishing third in their Champions League group and they’ve done well to get here. In the eight Europa League games, they’ve won five, drawn two and lost once. They conceded five goals in the semis and will be eyeing a better defensive performance here.