Villarreal’s away from ahead of their crunch match with Rangers has one seriously impressive stat to it.
A win at Ibrox would send the La Liga side through to the last 32 of the Europa League. It’s going to be a huge contest in Glasgow, with Rangers also close to securing a place in the next round. Steven Gerrard’s men, however, won’t be guaranteed to go through even with a win tomorrow night.
We detailed exactly what Rangers are going to have to do to qualify regardless of the result tomorrow. You can read the different scenarios that could potentially occur here.
But there are some interesting stats ahead of this one that Rangers fans may want to know. None more so than the prospect of coming up against Villarreal’s nearly impeccable away form.
The Yellow Submarine have only lost one of their last 13 group stage matches away from home in European competition. This defeat came back in 2015-16 to Rapid Vienna in Austria. Sandwiching that, Villarreal have won five of their other 12 away fixtures, with seven ending in draws.
Rangers have had their own unbeaten run recently
Rangers, however, shouldn’t be particularly fazed by that. The club went on an 11-game unbeaten run of their own in Europe this season before being beaten in Moscow. They’ll be looking to rev again once more by beating Villarreal for the first time in their history. All previous three meetings between the sides have ended in draws.
Despite Villarreal’s unbeaten record, Rangers are also unbeaten at Ibrox under Gerrard. Something will therefore have to give. Rangers have won four of their six home matches on the continent this term. The only teams to take something from Govan were Osijek and Spartak Moscow, but the former was ultimately knocked out by Rangers regardless.
And even though Villarreal have such an impressive away-day record in group-stage action, they certainly haven’t had much to shout about recently. The La Liga side have won just one of their last six matches in Europe.
They’ve also won just three matches domestically all season. Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Real Betis ended a dismal run of eight domestic matches without a victory.
They certainly have an impressive away-day record in Europe, but they’re anything but in good form. Rangers will be looking for a high-tempo from the start tomorrow, and put one foot into the last 32 of the Europa League.
