Villarreal vs Austria Vienna prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2022-10-05 19:00.
Two sides who have made contrasting starts to their UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) adventures meet here as Group C leaders Villarreal host bottom club Austria Vienna. The Spanish side are actually forced to play home encounters at Levanteās Estadi Ciutat de ValĆØncia right now as their own stadium is being redeveloped, yet that upheaval hasnāt caused them any issues so far and they boast an unbeaten competitive record as the āhomeā side this season (W3, D1), scoring four goals in all three of the victories.
Two of those wins came in this competition, the first a 4-2 qualifying victory over Hajduk Split, and then the second was their matchday one 4-3 victory over Lech PoznaÅ. Including qualifiers, Villarreal have now won four straight European matches, scoring 2+ goals in each, and the last time they won as many in succession (nine – 2020/2021 Europa League), they actually went on to win the competition!
Austria Vienna travel to Spain struggling for form after winning just two of their last six matches in any competition (D2, L2), a run that includes their 0-0 draw against Hapoel Be'er Sheva and a 4-1 defeat away to Lech PoznaÅ which has left them bottom of Group C. As a further consequence of those poor results, the Austrian outfit now find themselves without a win in any European competition for ten matches (including qualifiers – D3, L7) which represents their longest ever such run without a victory.
Whatās more worrying for Vienna is their lack of attacking threat across that streak – they failed to score more than a single goal in any of those ten matches. However, more recently Manfred Schmidās men have scored 3+ goals in each of their last three domestic away matches (W2, D1), so if he can find the recipe to replicate that intensity abroad, then the visitors could throw up a shock result.
Players to watch: Ćlex Baena comes into the clash in fine form after scoring four goals across his last five competitive Villarreal matches, while Vienna eyes will be on Andreas Gruber as heās registered three goal contributions (G2, A1) across his last four competitive appearances – both of his goals came in the first half.
Hot stat: These two sides rank joint second and joint third for having committed the most fouls so far in the competition (Villarreal 30, Austria Vienna 29).