Slavia Praha vs Villarreal Prediction

Recent form: contrasting continents

Villarreal's domestic form has wobbled lately. They lost away at Real Madrid, were beaten at home by Napoli in Europe, then drew 0-0 with Elche before bouncing back with a win at Valencia. They've also been involved in some high-scoring European nights, including that 4-3 defeat at Liverpool.

Slavia Praha: 20 completed matches; Villarreal: 20 completed matches.

Slavia Praha

20 matches

Win

65% 13 / 20

Draw

25% 5 / 20

Loss

10% 2 / 20

Scored

50

Conceded

15

Difference

+35

Villarreal

20 matches

Win

40% 8 / 20

Draw

20% 4 / 20

Loss

40% 8 / 20

Scored

36

Conceded

28

Difference

+8

Slavia Praha's domestic season reads well on paper, with 11 wins from their last 20 matches. Their European form has been tougher going, though, with a draw at Fenerbahce and a defeat away to Sabah FA in the league phase.

Slavia's league phase form looks shakier than their domestic season suggests.

Comparative Team Statistics: Slavia Praha vs Villarreal

Head-to-head: a flashback to 2017

The two sides have only met twice on record, both in the 2017 Europa League. Villarreal won away in Prague, and the return leg finished 2-2. That's nearly a decade old now, so it tells us little about either squad as they stand today.

Champions League league phase table

In this season's league phase standings, Villarreal sit 14th with three points from their two games so far. Slavia Praha are down in 31st without a point yet in this phase.

Slavia need a response in front of their own fans to get on the board in this phase.

Team news: not much to go on

The only discipline note we have is a red card for Slavia's M. Konecny in a single match, which doesn't tell us much about likely availability for this fixture. There's no further team news to draw from here.

Slavia Praha:

Penalty cards:

M. Konečný x 1

A month out, plenty can change

This preview is written roughly a month before kickoff, so the form patterns we're seeing now won't necessarily hold by late November. Villarreal will want to turn their scrappy European results into more points, while Slavia will be hoping home advantage finally pays off in this phase.