Leverkusen - Villarreal: By the Numbers

by siempre_riquelme on Mar 7, 2011 8:33 PM CET

With SSC Napoli behind us, here is another Europa League installment of "By the Numbers". We turn our attention now to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, which qualified for this competition by finishing 4th in the German 1. Bundesliga.

Team overviews:

Bayer 04 Leverkusen:

25 matches played (out of 34); 53(!!) goals scored, 34 conceded, +19 GD.
49 points, 2nd place in 1. Bundesliga; 12(!!) points behind runaway leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Villarreal CF:

27 matches played (out of 38); 46 goals scored, 29 conceded, +17 GD.
50 points, 4th place in La Liga; 24(!!) points behind runaway leaders FC Barcelona.

Individual statistics (in league play):

Bayer 04 Leverkusen:

MF Arturo Vidal (Chile): 9 goals, 8 assists
- The danger-man: tops on the club in both categories.
MF Renato Augusto (Brazil): 6 goals, 2 assists
- Started with Flamengo (Brazil); recent full international.
MF Sidney Sam (Germany): 6 goals, 2 assists
- Started with Hamburger SV (Germany); an up-and-coming star.
D Gonzalo Castro (Germany): 3 goals, 8 assists
- Chose Germany over Spain; won European U-21 Championship (2009).
2 players tied with 5 goals: MF Simon Rolfes, F Stefan Kießling (both from Germany)
GK René Adler (Germany): 63 saves, 32 goals conceded, .663 save percentage
- 10 caps for national team; missed South Africa 2010 due to injury.

Villarreal CF:

F Giuseppe Rossi (Italy): 14 goals, 5 assists
F Nilmar (Brazil): 11 goals, 3 assists
MF Santi Cazorla (Spain): 5 goals, 8 assists
MF Borja Valero (Spain): 3 goals, 7 assists
GK Diego López (Spain): 75 saves, 29 goals conceded, .721(!!) save percentage
- In ice hockey, .900 is the baseline. Over .700 is excellent in fútbol, I would imagine. A statistical reminder that López is having a great season.
- For reference, Iker Casillas is at .714 (50 saves, 20 goals conceded). But Victor Valdés has posted an astounding .815 (53 saves, 12(!!!) goals conceded).

Scoring statistics (in league play):

Bayer 04 Leverkusen:

6-4-3 at home (7th-best in 1. Bundesliga); 8-3-1 away (2nd).
- Beware of the return leg, even if we obtain a positive result in Leverkusen.
Has outscored league opponents 24-11 in the final 30 minutes.
Longest unbeaten streak: 8 matches (5-3-0)
No losing months this season.

Villarreal CF:

11-2-1 at home (3rd-best in La Liga); 4-3-6 away (4th).
- Shocking: for all of our road woes, only the teams ahead of us overall are better.
Has outscored league opponents 29-13 in the first half.
Longest unbeaten streak: 9 matches (7-2-0)
2 losing months: August (lost only match), February (winless in 4 matches)

Another tie that could have come one round later in the competition. Expect Die Werkself (the "Factory Squad", yikes) to come out firing at the 30,000-seat BayArena on Thursday evening, despite their somewhat indifferent home form. Look for a tight matchup over the 180 minutes (or more). Endavant Villarreal!

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Comments

A bit more looking backward.

by sidarth on Mar 7, 2011 8:39 PM CET reply actions

In central defender injury news for Thursday: Friedrich out, Hyypia likely in.

by sidarth on Mar 7, 2011 8:41 PM CET reply actions

latest media rumors, gargano to villarreal and rossi + borja 2 napoli

by jackson on Mar 7, 2011 8:53 PM CET reply actions

F Nilmar (Brazil): 11 goals, 3 assists

per villarrealcf.es nilmar has 10 goals, da 11th went 2 mario

by jackson. on Mar 7, 2011 8:56 PM CET reply actions

I still don’t think anyone is clear on that late goal against Racing. I got my statistics from ESPN Soccernet, but who knows?

by sidarth on Mar 9, 2011 8:02 AM CET up reply actions

Sounds good with that Injury, If friedrich is out, and Hyypia plays. He is very old and haven’t had speed in years. Nilmar and Rossi will be able to take advantage of this!!

by Jens the dane.... on Mar 7, 2011 9:17 PM CET reply actions

Zonal marking recap of the Atleti match:

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/03/07/atletico-3-1-villarreal-tactics/

by Allen on Mar 7, 2011 10:08 PM CET reply actions

A reasonable tactical summary but Atlético were good because we allowed them to be.
“A further problem was that their pressing wasn’t very good here – and so with no pressure upon the men in midfield – Tiago, in particular, had time on the ball – and space in behind, they were always likely to be opened up easily.” There was no pressing, our midfield just retreated.

by Kenez on Mar 7, 2011 11:43 PM CET up reply actions