Villarreal 0-1 Rayo Vallecano – Betting Review
Match Summary
It was a game of two halves in the Monday night football contest in La Liga. Villarreal peppered Rayo from the start of the game but missed a couple of clear opportunities to score when on top.
Rayo to their credit settled more as a defence after escaping the toughest spell still at 0-0, then ended up being the slightly better side in the second half.
Rayo won thanks to a keeper mistake with 20 minutes left. Villarreal had another big chance to level in added time but were never truly able to control the 2nd half as they had the 1st period, falling to a 0-1 loss.
Sergio Camello’s 70th-minute winner proved the difference, but the Rayo keeper was easily their man of the match, keeping them in it during the first half.
On chances generated the home side merited a win, a fairer score would be 2-1.
The hosts dominated early and moved the ball with purpose and tempo. They had big chances too. Álex Baena put Yeremy Pino through, but he flashed his shot across Stole Dimitrievski’s goal.
Yeremy then turned provider on 18 minutes when he hung up an inviting cross for Gerard Moreno, only for the striker’s header to drift over.
All the scoring threat was being carved out by Villarreal as Baena’s dipping 20-yard strike was palmed away by Dimitrievski, before the keeper stopped a sorry effort from Étienne Capoué on the follow-up.
Samuel Chukwueze was next to go close, the Nigerian just curling just past the far post after a superb passing move.
From this point, Villarreal’s creation dropped and they were ultimately punished for not scoring when on top.
Rayo had their first effort on target when Ciss showed everyone that he is not a player with any attacking awareness, needlessly backheeling a tame effort when had time to swivel and shoot just outside the six yard box. It was arguably the best chance of the period, but simply fell to the worse possible player to score.
The second half was very different, Villarreal lost all their control and spark and Rayo gradually looked as much of a threat.
The second half was also quite an ugly game lacking in chances, something which suited Rayo.
Rayo were not conceding chances but not working any either, but they unexpectedly took the lead on 70 minutes. Camello sped onto a speculative through pass before sidefooting past a lost Jörgensen, who was at fault for the goal.
Villarreal looked to mount a response but they ultimately struggled to break down the visitors.
Gerard Moreno fluffed his lines during the first of nine minutes of added time. The home side was a let down in the second period but merited at least a draw.
Betting Analysis
Looking at the 1×2 market first. Villarreal came into the game with strong home form and looked certain to score first, but they wasted big chances early on when playing their best. The host’s wastefulness allowed Rayo Vallecano to ride the storm and then nick a second-half goal to win as the bigger outsider @ 5.00.
Moving onto the Asian handicap market for this contest. Rayo was never going to be a pushover and as pointed out in the preview, Villarreal had problems finding a breakthrough. It was similar to the previous week at home to Girona where only a ref mistake gave them a win, only this time Rayo finished their only chance to snatch an undeserved win. The market wasn’t wrong with hindsight, but Rayo +0.75 backers collected @ 1.94.
Looking at The Under/Over goal line last of all. The La liga weekend produced some very low-scoring games with zero or one goal scored and due to Villarreal’s terrible finishing, that trend continued on the Monday night match. Under 2.5 won @1.80.
