Villarreal vs Napoli preview

February 17, 2016
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

napoli villarrealLa Liga high flyers Villarreal take on Serie A title contenders Napoli in the first leg of the Europa League first knockout stage at El Madrigal.

The Yellow Submarine appear to be on the right track to return to old glory days, with the final Champions League berth in La Liga theirs to lose.

Villarreal did really well to open up an eight-point lead over top 4 rivals Sevilla, meaning they can also focus on the Europa League campaign.

Marcelino Garcia Toral’s charges didn’t get the luck of the draw as they were pitted against red-hot Napoli, and they are priced at 2.80 (9/5) to win the first leg.

Villarreal go into the game in very good spirits, with weekend’s win over Malaga having extended their unbeaten run in La Liga to eleven games (W8 D3).

On top of that, the Yellow Submarine managed to keep three straight clean sheets, meaning they definitely have reason for optimism.

The good news is that Roberto Soldado has recovered from a muscle problem, but Bruno Soriano faces a fitness test and Samu Garcia, Sergio Asenjo and Adrian Lopez are out injured.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Barbosa – Mario, Musacchio, Ruiz, Rukavina – dos Santos, Trigueros, Pina, Samu Castillejo – Soldado, Bakambu.

Following a somewhat slow start to the season, Napoli seriously raised their game and they have been absolutely amazing of late.

The Azzurri led the Serie A title chase for quite a while and they would have remained at the top had they not conceded a late goal in the derby clash with Juventus.

Napoli will now be looking to bounce back and prove they should still be regarded one of Europe’s in-form sides, but beating in-form Villarreal will be no easy task.

Nevertheless, with the Azzurri winning all six games in the group stage, they can be backed at 2.75 (7/4) to extend the impressive run.

Coach Maurizio Sarri is expected to ring changes to his starting line-up, with Gonzalo Higuain, Jorginho and Lorenzo Insigne set to be rested.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Reina – Hysaj, Chiriches, Koulibaly, Strinic – Lopez, Valdifiori, Hamsik – Callejon, Gabbiadini, Mertens.

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