They both shoot – yes
They both shoot – yes
Valencia’s situation turned out to be catastrophic. After 32 rounds, she stopped in 17th place in the table, ahead of the top three by only 2 points. For the first time in 47 years, the club can leave the Spanish top flight. Even the appointment of a new head coach did not bring significant improvement. Under the leadership of Ruben Baraja, the Bats were able to win only 4 out of 11 matches. They average 1.12xg per game over this period with 1.07xg allowed.
Despite this, at home Valencia scored 10 points out of 15 with the new coach, not allowing the opponents to create more than 1xg.
Villarreal has been on a roll lately. In his last 5 games out of 6, he far surpassed his opponents in the number of expected goals scored, in each of them he was able to create at least 2xg. It is true that it did not help Quique Setien’s team get maximum points in all matches. Despite this, he still has a mathematical chance to compete in the table even for the top four.
It is worth noting that under Setien, Villarreal is not distinguished by a monolithic defense. On average, it allows the opponent to generate 1.25 xg per match.
Valencia are doing great on their pitch and are able to take advantage of the problematic defense of Villarreal visitors. However, it is unlikely to keep the goal intact against the favorite to play the match.