Marseille vs Villarreal Prediction & Betting Tips - Europa League

Prediction published on 07/03/2024, 10:00  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 07/03/2024 at 10:07 in Europa League Prediction

Olympique Marseille have a date at home to Villarreal in the first leg of the Europa League last 16 this Thursday. The hosts got here courtesy of a 5-3 aggregate win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the knockout playoff round. The French side wouldn’t have picked a better time to have this game. They’ve posted three straight wins since their last loss, away to Brest in Ligue 1. Marseille are coming from a well-deserved 5-1 win away to struggling Clermont in Ligue 1. Among the scorers for Marseille was Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who has been in fine form lately. The Gabonese forward has five goals in the last five matches and will be relied upon here. Aubameyang is also a prolific scorer in the history of the Europa League. In Marseille’s eight Europa League matches this season, Aubameyang has scored seven times. In his form, Marseille are enjoying a good run lately, but they aren’t doing great defensively. In 10 straight matches, they have no clean sheet but they only failed to score in one of the last five matches. Both teams scored in eight of Marseille’s last 10 matches.

Villarreal, like Marseille, are also coming into this game on a good run. They won their last two outings and carry to this game a seven-game unbeaten streak. In those seven matches, Alexander Sørloth scored six times, and will be a key figure for them here. In their most recent match, Sørloth scored three as they thrashed Granada 5-1. This was the third time in six matches that they scored at least three goals. Earlier, they beat Real Sociedad 3-1 and Barcelona 5-3. What would seem like an issue to deal with for Villarreal is the defence. They have one clean sheet in 14 matches. In eight of their last 10 matches, both teams managed to score. Three times in their last 10 matches, they conceded three goals. The Yellow Submarines come into this game without a clean sheet in 12 straight away matches but only failed to score in one.