Villarreal vs Eibar 19/09/20

19 September 2020

The two teams that drew their opening La Liga fixtures will lock horns at the Estadio de la Ceramica this weekend, as Villarreal face Eibar.

Villarreal hope to make things right after being held to a dismal 1-1 home draw to newly-promoted Huesca last time out. Yet, since football returned to action back in June, the ‘Yellow Submarine’ have won just three of seven La Liga home fixtures (D2, L2). Interestingly, though, Estadio de la Ceramica hosted many entertaining affairs back in 2019/20, as 12 (63.16%) of Villarreal’s home league matches last season saw over 2.5 goals and both teams on the scoresheet. Despite the team’s recent struggle, Unai Emery can rely upon his side’s overall top-flight H2H home record against Eibar (W4, D1, L1), seeking his first competitive win in charge. What’s more, they’ve won each of their last three such clashes, without conceding once. 

Meanwhile, a goalless home draw with 10-men Celta Vigo on Matchday 1 is not the kind of performance ‘Los Armeros’ will be looking to dwell on ahead of their clash against the side they’ve failed to score against in three of their last four top-flight H2Hs. Eibar’s immense goal-scoring problems were widely exposed on the road in 2019/20, where they netted a miserly average of 0.73 goals per La Liga away match. In fact, José Luis Mendilibar’s men drew a blank in nine (47.37%) of their 19 league trips last term. It also took Eibar a bit of time to pick up the pace in 2019/20, as their opening six La Liga trips back then yielded just four goals scored.