Sörloth’s quick return to La Ceramica

Matchday 1 in Spain’s La Liga will be concluded on Monday evening with the clash between Villarreal and Atletico Madrid. Kick-off at the Estadio de La Ceramica is set for 9:30pm, when Alexander Sörloth celebrates a quick reunion with his former club

Sörloth moved from Villarreal to Atletico a few weeks ago, now the Norwegian is celebrating his debut at Atletico directly at his old club. Can he even fire Atletico to victory? It would be a special punchline, of course. If you want to place the Villarreal vs. Atletico Madrid bet on a Sörloth goal in combination with an Atletico win, you can get an interesting 2.95 on this in the Bwin app, for example.

Atletico have not only strengthened with Sörloth, but also with other well-known and expensive players – will the Rojiblancos get off to a good start at the Yellow Submarine or will it still take some time for the team to settle in? We take a look at this in this preview of the Villarreal v Atletico Madrid match, including odds and predictions. We provide betting tips and interesting statistics on both clubs.

Villarreal – Statistics & current form

Villarreal CF will have to make do without their top scorer this season. Alexander Sörloth scored 23 goals last season – without scoring a single penalty. That was the main reason for the upswing in the second half of the season. Villarreal were the fourth-best team in the second half of the season, with just three defeats since January.

Due to the botched first half of the season, in which there were only five wins, Villarreal still only finished the season in eighth place and thus outside the European ranks.

Villarreal CF: A European Cup place is on the cards even without Sörloth

This season, participation in Europe is once again the clear goal – even if they had to let top scorer Sörloth go for over 30 million. But without the striker, the Yellow Submarine will of course run out of goals. The 65 goals they scored last season were the fifth-best figure in La Liga behind the top four teams in the Champions League.

So how will Villarreal perform in front of goal without Sörloth? They failed to score in two of their five games during their mixed preparation. Only one game was won (3:1 against Sion), and most recently there was a resounding 4:0 defeat in the final acid test against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Not the best omens ahead of the tough game against Atletico and Sörloth. An opening win is therefore not a matter of course for us, but would rather be a small surprise. The Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid betting odds of over 3.00 at the online bookmakers also underline this feeling.

Predicted Villarreal line-up:

Atletico Madrid – Statistics & current form

Sörloth was of course not the only expensive and sensational summer transfer at Atletico Madrid. The first of the three major transfers so far was that of European champion Robin Le Normand. The central defender also came from Real Sociedad for over 30 million euros. He is expected to significantly stabilize the Simeone team’s recently overaged and not always overly stable back line and is clearly intended to be the new leader of the defence.

However, the signing of Julian Alvarez, the most expensive transfer of the summer so far, naturally caused the biggest stir. Atletico transferred a fixed fee of 75 million to Manchester City for the Argentine world champion, and the sum could even rise to 90 million with bonus payments. In Sörloth and Alvarez, Atletico now have a new and wickedly expensive attacking duo – it will be exciting to see how well Atletico’s new attack already harmonizes

Ahead of Villarreal vs. Atletico Madrid: Rojiblancos arrive with new, expensive strike duo

The test matches have looked pretty good so far, with Atletico scoring eleven goals in their last three pre-season games and beating Juventus 2-0 in their last tough test. As the Rojiblancos have also scored at least two goals in six of their last seven matches against Villarreal – once they went goalless – we believe they will score at least one goal this time too. If you want to bet on Atletico Over 1.5 goals, you can get odds of 1.90 or better – depending on the bookmaker.

Predicted line-up of Atletico Madrid:

Villarreal – Atletico Madrid head-to-head comparison / H2H record

We have already mentioned the direct comparison: Recently, this has been in Atletico’s favor. Last season, Simeone’s side won both games, although they only won 2:1 at La Ceramica by the narrowest of margins and not entirely deservedly. At home, meanwhile, the result was a more comfortable 3:1.

However, Atletico have not won the four previous encounters. This pairing is often very evenly matched, as the five draws in the last ten meetings and the overall record make clear: 46 games, 16 wins for Atletico, 16 for Villarreal and 14 draws.

Only Villarreal victories have been few and far between of late, with just one in the last ten encounters – a 2-0 win for the Yellow Submarine in August 2022. So if you think it’s time for the team from the Valencian Community to win again in this match, which is so often played at eye level, you could consider the good value on the home team in your Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid betting tip

Villarreal – Atletico Madrid betting tip

However, we rather expect the visitors to win – should there be a winner. Because, as mentioned, the game is very often totally evenly matched, especially at La Ceramica, but we see advantages for the guests from Madrid. The name Sörloth has to be mentioned again in this regard, as the 23-goal man is a real asset for Villarreal up front. Villarreal have not yet signed a successor, Gerard Moreno played in the center against Brighton (0:4) in the last test, but the Spanish ex-national player is not a real breaker in the storm, he feels much better around a real nine

So who will convert the passes into goals? Villarreal don’t necessarily have to go scoreless in their home game, but we expect Sörloth, Griezmann, Alvarez and co. to provide even more goalscoring threat – if the three of them play together at all, as Alvarez was not yet registered with La Liga as of Friday. In the end, we assign Atletico the slight favorite role, so that our Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid prediction aims at Atletico’s victory and both teams scoring