UEFA Champions League Prediction: Villarreal – Manchester City (21-10-2025)

After the international break, the UEFA Champions League is back as we have the third round starting on Tuesday, October 21st. Villarreal is still looking to get their first win as it hosts English giants Manchester City.

The Spanish team opened their 2025/26 Europe campaign against a direct Citizens competitor in the English Premier League – Tottenham. The match lacked action, and the only shot on target was registered by the English side, which resulted in a goal, and Villarreal lost 0-1.

The second round, however, was a different story, and The Yellow Submarines managed to get a point in a home fixture against Juventus in the dying minutes of the game. The Old Lady was leading the game 1-2 up until the 90th minute when R. Veiga’s goal gifted Villarreal its first point of this tournament.

The team found way more luck in the LA Liga this season as they currently sit in third place with 16 points after 8 matches. But the last game indicates that they might not be ready to fight against the European elite, since they lost 3-1 in The Bernabeu against Real Madrid.

Manchester City should be kicking themselves after the last round fixture, since they’ve dropped the lead twice against AS Monaco and eventually drew 2-2. All three points were up for grabs, but after the VAR review the referee awarded the penalty in the 90th minute of the game which eventually was converted by Eric Dier. The first round for the Citizens was a different story, hence they comfortably beat Napoli 2-0 at home.

Pep Guardiola’s men seemingly finally found form in the Premier League. After a shaky start, they are now unbeaten in the last 4 fixtures recording 3 wins and 1 draw. Erling Haaland is the man to watch – the Norwegian is the top scorer in the Prem with 9 goals in 7 matches. He is also a top scorer for the Citizens in the UEFA Champions League with 3 goals so far.

Defenders A.Khusanov, Ait-Nouri and attacking midfielder O.Marmoush are still questionable for this game as they haven’t featured for Man City in the past fixtures as well. On the other hand, Villarreal should be expecting a return from their two attackers G.Moreno and A.Perez for this game.

With both sides finding more and more success in the attacking phase we are expecting to see goals on the both halves of the pitch. Villarreal are among the top xG per game teams in La Liga this season 2.13 per game and scored 16 goals in 10 games across all competitions.

Although City’s xG ratio is less impressive (xG 1.74 per game in the Premier League), they were able to convert their chances in a more successful fashion. The Citizens played 10 official games in the 2025-26 season and already scored a whopping 21 goals.

Having all this in mind and the fact that the attacking players are returning from an injury list for both sides, it is hard not to see Villarreal and City scoring at least one goal respectively in this fixture. This makes the match ideal for betting on top predictions at the best betting sites.