Gewiss Stadium Champions League clash: Crowds ready for Atalanta - Villarreal action

Both teams should be fairly well rested for this game, as they have had some quiet days to prepare. Hopefully this will translate into lots of action on the pitch.

Everyone involved with the away team has to get their travel gear ready for this match as there's a whopping 1300 kilometers to cover before arriving at the match.

Atalanta form and stats

3 victories, 3 draws and 2 defeats. That’s what Atalanta have to build on here at Gewiss Stadium in the Serie A. On the other hand, in the Champions League, Atalanta has performed like this (both home and away): 1 win, 3 draws and 1 loss. The team is able to perform also as the away side, as they are nurturing a very healthy winning streak of five straight victories regardless of arena.

It's back home for Atalanta, who return with a good feeling about themselves after beating Napoli away with the result 3-2. Freuler, Demiral and Malinovskyi found the net in that victory. Ruslan Malinovskyi, who usually features in attack, was the top player for the side in that game, collecting a rating of 8.02 (out of 10). Malinovskyi scored one goal, hit three key passes and dribled past the opponent 1 of 1 times.

The hosts are favourites to win this game, with an estimated chance of about 55-60% of that outcome. Earlier Atalanta matches with similar probabilities have ended with two wins, zero draws and zero defeats (from two games).

Atalanta are traveling soon after this match as the Serie A match at Hellas Verona awaits in three days.

Goals decide football matches and Atalanta are scoring many of them at home; 17 on target from 8 league matches. Atalanta's goalkeeper has had to pick the ball out of their own net 11 times. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above.

Villarreal form and stats

There's been little loot from Villarreal's travels as they have only collected 5 points from 8 away games in the La Liga. Villarreal only have 0 wins to counter their 3 defeats and 5 draws. The mentioned statistics is only from the league, looking at the Champions League stats, they have 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses both home and away.

There might be some fixture complaints from Villarreal as they are again playing away from home after losing on the road in their previous match, the La Liga match against Sevilla (0-1). Defender Raúl Albiol was the best team player with a rating of 7.21. Albiol hit one key pass and won 4 of 7 duels.

As mentioned above, the odds for this match puts the home team as favourites. Perhaps this eases the pressure on the away team, who are capable of producing an upset here on a good day. Looking at earlier matches with similar odds and Villarreal playing away, we found two games. Results were zero away wins, two draws and zero home wins.

A quick return to home after this game, as Villarreal are hosting Rayo Vallecano in the La Liga only three days away.

There's been a serious shortage of goals from Villarreal's away games in the league this season with only 4 goals from 8 matches. 8 goals have been conceded by Villarreal in these games.

Head 2 Head

Top Goalscorers

D. Zapata Banguera 9 goals

M. Pašalić 7 goals

A. Groeneveld 5 goals

Atalanta missing players

Villarreal missing players