Villarreal vs Girona prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2023-01-21 13:00.
Less than 72 hours after the capitulation of giving up a 2-0 half-time lead to Real Madrid in their 2-3 Copa del Rey loss, Villarreal have to regather mentally and focus on their push for a return to the UEFA Champions League. With the battle for fourth extremely tight and involving multiple clubs at present, Villarreal canāt afford to slip up here, but they could be cautious as the last six meetings against Girona at any venue have been claimed by the away side of the day.
Villarreal do at least remain undefeated in LL since the World Cup (W2, D1) despite a mounting absentee list that will be exacerbated if the outgoing transfers of forwards Arnaut Danjuma and Nicolas Jackson are completed. But with their five LL goals scored in those three games coming from other sources, Villarreal should still be confident of progressing to 31 points here, particularly after crafting one of LLās best home records (W5, D1, L1) despite playing almost all their āhomeā games away from the recently renovated Estadio de la Ceramica.
In spite of being the pre-season relegation favourites, Girona instead sent Sevilla closer to the Segunda DivisiĆ³n with a 2-1 home victory that saw them move alongside Barcelona to share the longest active undefeated streak (W3, D4) of this LL season. While scoring goals hasnāt been much of a problem recently as Girona have converted in a near-league-best 14 consecutive LL games, the visitors have reinforced their attacking threat in the transfer market by claiming the signature of Ukrainian international Viktor Tsygankov.
Girona began the round just five points clear of the drop zone and in the relative safety of mid-table. Yet despite this, manager MĆchel is urging against complacency after he became the clubās second most-successful coach (W31) in their professional history, setting his team the aim of exceeding their greatest LL points haul of 51 (tenth place) in 2017/18. If they can improve their winless LL record as away outsiders (D3, L4), then that could become a reality.
Players to watch: Samuel Chukwueze extended Villarrealās lead during the week with his third goalscoring appearance from his last five games. His eight goals in all 2022/23 competitions have been after the first half-hour. On a similar note, Yangel Herrera has found the net in the last ten minutes of Gironaās last two LL games.
Hot streak: Both teams have scored in Gironaās last 16 competitive matches.