Preamble
Villarreal are hurting, very badly. Nilmar, Rossi, Cani, Zapata, Camuñas, Senna, Marco Ruben are all ruled out for the clash against Manchester City at home. They have thirteen fit first team players that includes Cesár the backup goal-keeper and Ángel who hasn’t played a single minute of competitive football in 10 months. They have no fit strikers in their first team. It is not just a challenge to name an eleven for this game but an even bigger challenge to name the eighteen member squad. A big headache for the under-pressure Garrido.
Meanwhile Roberto Mancini has the exactly opposite kind of ‘headache’ with his team. He is spoiled for choices. Among Balotelli, Aguero and Dzeko, who is he going to start upfront? Milner, Adam Johnson or Nasri along with Silva behind them? Barry or Yaya in the central midfield? He is spoiled fo choice.
Manchester have won all three games after these two teams played in Manchester two weeks ago. One of the three wins include a thorough routing of intra-city neighbours, Manchester United 6-1. They lead the English Premier League by 5 points.
Villarreal come into the game with a win over Rayo Vallecano on saturday at home preceded by three straight losses. While the showing was positive, they lost four players Cani, Senna, Camuñas and Ruben in that game.
The Big B’s – Balo & Borja
Tactics & Matchups
The talent and depth mismatch between these two teams was very stark, even before the injury crisis at Villarreal. It is like night and day now. Villarreal will most likely play the young and promising striker of Villarreal B who is leading the Spanish 2nd division with 8 goals in the season so far.
Manchester City lined-up in a 4-2-3-1 in their home leg with Adam Johnson Silva & Nasri supporting Dzeko. Mancini switched to more of a 4-3-3 by replacing Johnson by Barry late in the first half. He also sent in Milner in the 2nd half.
Mancini will play Milner from the start and will most likely have the dangerous Dzeko paired with either Kun Aguero or Mario Balotelli. As Dzeko said earlier this week, this is a must-win game for them to have a chance of advancing to the knock-out stages.
Despite the controversy at the end of the game at the City of Manchester stadium, I believe Kun Aguero will get the start in a 4-4-2. Aguero has a very good record against the Yellow submarine in La Liga. Mancini will look for an early lead to kill any hopes of the home team and the play on the counterattack.
For Villarreal, they will most likely line-up in a 4-2-3-1 because they don’t have two strikers. Joselu will most likely get the start. Hernán Pérez, De Guzman & Wakaso or Borja behind the young striker. If Marchena is fit, he will start in the double-pivot along side Bruno.
As in the previous game, there is not a single favourable match-up for Villarreal in this game, except may be the goalkeeper position where both Diego López and Joe Hart are on par with each other.
Line-ups (likely)
Manchester City (4-4-2):
Hart;Zabaleta-Kompany-Richards-Lescott; De Jong-Yaya-Silva-Milner;Aguero-Dzeko
Villarreal (4-2-3-1):
Lopez;Mario-Musacchio-Gonzalo-Catalá; Bruno-Borja/Marchena; De Guzman-Wakaso/Borja-Hernán Pérez; Joselu Moreno
Conclusion
A tough game just got tougher for the yellow submarine with eight of their first team players (six starters) out injured. They havent had any kind of good luck or breaks going their way so far this season. While qualification in Champions League is still possible, the probability of that happening is very low. The important thing for Villarreal will be to give a good account of themselves and hope for no more injuries. Villarreal’s main battle is in La Liga where they languish at 13th just 2 points off of the drop zone. City looks primed for there second win of the group and set up a possible do-or-die clash against Napoli in the next matchday.
Roberto Mancini’s last trip to Villarreal didn’t have a happy ending. Juan Roman Riquelme lead Villarreal to a famous 1-0 win over Mancini’s Inter and eliminated them in the Quarterfinals of the Champions League 2005/06. The home fans are hoping for a repeat.
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