Valencia (12-10-9) at Villarreal (14-6-11)
La Liga Soccer: Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 11:00 am (Estadio de la Ceramica)
The Line: Villarreal +110 / Draw +255 / Valencia +230 -- O/U: 2.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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Villarreal host Valencia meet in La Liga soccer action from the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday morning.
Villarreal come into this match in 6th place, sitting on a four game unbeaten run since the restart with a 2-2 draw with Sevilla to improve to 48 points with a record of 14 wins, 6 draws and 11 losses. In the draw with Sevilla, Paco Alcacer gave Villarreal the lead in the 18th minute but Sevilla would tie the game at one in the 39th minute. Pau Francisco Torres would put Villarreal in front in the fourth minute of first half stoppage time. The lead would last past the hour mark, but Sevilla would tie the game at two in the 63rd. Sevilla would have 62% possession in the second half but neither side would find a go-ahead goal down the stretch, settling for a share of the points at full time. Gerard Moreno leads Villarreal in scoring with 12 goals while Santi Cazorla has 8 goals with a team-high 7 assists on the year. Sergio Asenjo is Villarreal’s top goalkeeper, conceding 1.07 goals per 90 minutes with 9 clean sheets in 28 league appearances this season.
Valencia on the other hand, come into this one in 8th place, parked on 46 points with a record of 12 wins, 10 draws and 9 losses after a 1-0 loss to Eibar in their last match. In the loss to Eibar, Valencia fell behind in the 16th minute when Geoffrey Kondogbia’s miskick resulted in an own goal to put Eibar ahead 1-0. Valencia would hold 66% possession in the match with 63% in the second half, but Valencia wouldn’t muster up a shot on goal in the match, resulting in being held off of the score sheet at full time. Maxi Gomez leads Valencia in scoring with 9 goals on the year while Daniel Parejo has 8 goals and Rodrigo Moreno has a team-high 7 assists. Daniel Wass also has 6 assists this season for Valencia.
This should be a great game and heavy plus money with one of the better teams in La Liga like Valencia is tempting. However, Valencia has struggled on the road since the restart, even with no fans in the opposing stands. A loss to Real Madrid may be excusable, but losing to Eibar is hard to swallow. Villarreal’s picked up 10 of a possible 12 points since the restart, firing themselves into the middle of the race for European football and I think they take a step closer with another win here. I’ll take Villarreal to win on the ML as well as the correct score line of 1-0 which has been the final of all three of Villarreal’s wins since the restart.
Chris’s Pick Villarreal ML +110 / 1-0 Villarreal Correct Score +700
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg