Villarreal vs. Atalanta 9/14/21 UEFA Champions League Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Villarreal is welcoming Atalanta to Estadio de la Ceramica in round 1 of Group F of the UEFA Champions League. Villarreal hasn’t won any of their last 10 games, but they are still a good team capable of playing great soccer. Atalanta has been hot and cold so far this season, and their offense is grossly underperforming.

Villarreal’s offense or defense isn’t doing so well so far this season, and even though they haven’t lost any of their first 3 LaLiga games, Villarreal hasn’t lost any of their games. During this 3-game streak, Villarreal has scored 2 goals, and they have also conceded 2 goals. Villarreal was also one of the teams in LaLiga whose game was postponed, and that might do them some good ahead of this game. At the moment, Villarreal is healthy, they have a solid depth, and they have signed some players that should give them more quality on the bench. Even though Villarreal ended last season outside the Champions League zone in LaLiga, they have qualified thanks to them winning the Europa League. Now, this is a sold group for Villarreal, and I think they definitely have the quality to compete for that second place, but they will need to improve their form really fast.

Atalanta is about the same quality as Villarreal, but their offense isn’t producing much so far this season. in their game against Atalanta at home this past weekend, Atalanta has had 55% of ball possession, 5 shots on goal, 10 corner kicks, 5 big chances created, and 86% of the correct passes. In the past seasons, Atalanta has had a lot of offense to compensate for the lack of defense, but they don’t have that at this point. This was the game where we saw 3 penalty kicks, and 3 goals, but unfortunately for Atalanta, they conceded 2 goals and lost this game 1-2. Hateboer and Muriel are both injured for Atalanta, but this is the team that still has a lot of depth. Atalanta’s form might be bad at the moment, but when they get going, they will be hard to stop, and I think that is coming soon.

These two teams have never met in the past, but I have a feeling this will be a great game. Neither team is doing so well right now, and it’s important to start the Champions League with a win, which is why I will stick to goals in this one.