Odense produced quite a coup by eliminating Panathinaikos in the 3rd qualifying round, but they will need to produce another major upset in order to reach the group stages of the competition.

The Danish side have shown some promise in last year’s Europa League campaign, but the team appear to have matured a great deal since and they are now a very serious side.

Having salvaged a 1:1 draw in the dying moments of the first leg against Panathinaikos, Odense were not given big chances to go through before the return leg in Greece.

However, Henrik Clausen’s men largely impressed in Athens, with the 4:3 win seeing them earn a clash with Villarreal.

There are no doubts that the Danes face another strong opponent, but those who believe Odense can avoid defeat in the first leg should know that Unibet pays 1.84 (21/25) on double chance on the hosts.

Full-back Bernard Mendy is suspended after picking up a red card in the final moments of the PAO game, but all other players are fit to feature.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Wessels – Ruud, Moller-Christensen, Reginiussen, Hoegh – Sorensen, Djemba-Djemba – Johansson, Andreasen, Kadrii – Utaka.

Villarreal did well to achieve a 4th-place finish in Spanish La Liga last term and they are clearly the favourites to make it to Champions League group stage.

The club management faced a tough task of keeping hold of their star players following such a successful season, but they did pretty well in the summer transfer window, having sold just Santi Cazorla to Malaga.

Nilmar, Rossi and Valero all remained, while Cristian Zapata arrived from Udinese, so Juan Carlos Garrido again has a very good squad on his disposal.

Villarreal were pretty convincing in pre-season, losing only to Wigan in a match where Garrido had fielded a second string line-up, so odds of 2.00 (1/1) offered by William Hill on away win look pretty tempting to me.

Right-back Angel Lopez is the only player missing out through injury, while Marcos Senna, Nilmar and Carlos Marchena should be in contention despite carrying minor knocks.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-2): Lopez – Mario, Gonzalo, Zapata, Catala – Cani, Bruno, Senna, Borja Valero – Nilmar, Rossi.