Villarreal vs Marseille

Estadio de la Ceramica is the venue as Villarreal and Marseille go head-to-head in the return leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

Villarreal’s embarrassing first-leg performance all but eliminated them from the Europa League last-16 after losing 4-0 at the Stade Velodrome. That defeat tipped the balance scale into the French sides’ favor in overall H2H stakes (W4, D2, L5), putting ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ in an almost impossible situation ahead of the rematch. Some confidence derives from Villarreal’s 1-0 home win against Ligue 1 side Rennes en route to topping Group F, though replicating that result wouldn’t be nearly enough to turn this tie on its head. But the Spaniards will at least be confident of avoiding another catastrophe after piecing together a five-game unbeaten run on home soil (W2, D3) and only losing once in their last eight European games in the province of Castellon (W5, D2).

On the other hand, Marseille did much of the heavy lifting in the first leg, claiming only their fifth win in 17 encounters against Spanish clubs (D3, L9). However, since they’ve only won once on Spanish soil, ‘Les Olympiens’ must be thankful for the first-leg result. On top of that, they’ve emerged victorious from 18 of the 24 UEFA knockout ties when winning the first leg on home turf, including the last nine on the trot. Maintaining momentum is crucial for Jean-Louis Gasset’s men, who have failed to win on seven of their last nine European travels (W2, D2, L5). On the bright side, since Gasset took charge of the team in the wake of a 1-0 loss at Brest, Marseille have won all five competitive matches via multi-goal margins.