Villarreal vs. Man City: Head-to-head record and past

Ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash between Villarreal and Manchester City, Sports Mole looks at the head-to-head records and previous meetings between the two clubs.

Manchester City could end their 12-month wait for another Champions League away win when they head to La Ceramica for Tuesday’s league-phase clash with La Liga giants Villarreal.

Pep Guardiola’s charges have failed to win any of their last five European matches on the road after being held to a 2-2 draw by Monaco – who rescued a late point through an Eric Dier penalty – last time out.

The Sky Blues now head to a Villarreal side who have not lost a single home match in any competition this season, but Marcelino’s men have only taken one point from their first two Champions League games of the new term.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at the head-to-head record and previous meetings between the two sides.

Head-to-head record

Previous meetings: 2

Villarreal wins: 0

Draws: 0

Manchester City wins: 2

Manchester City’s first-ever foray into the Champions League saw the Citizens paired with Villarreal, as the Premier League and La Liga giants squared up to one another in the group stage of the 2011-12 tournament.

Under the guidance of Roberto Mancini, the future Premier League champions did the double over the Yellow Submarine by a 5-1 aggregate scoreline, triumphing 2-1 at home in their inaugural meeting before a 3-0 away success.

However, Man City had to do it the hard way at the Etihad, where they fell behind inside just four minutes thanks to a strike from Cani, but Carlos Marchena’s own goal got the Citizens back on track just before half time.

Man City’s efforts to bag goal number two finally came to fruition in injury time, as none other than Sergio Aguero latched onto Pablo Zabaleta’s cross and struck a last-gasp winner for the Sky Blues.

The two sides would reconvene on Villarreal’s turf two weeks later, where Mancini masterminded a far more comfortable victory for the Premier League titans, thanks to two inspired individual displays.

Yaya Toure broke the deadlock for the Citizens on the half-hour mark, before the mercurial Mario Balotelli doubled the visitors’ lead with a penalty on the stroke of half time.

The two scorers then combined for City’s third in the second half, as Balotelli teed up Toure to put the cherry on top of the Ceramica cake.

Villarreal ended up finishing rock bottom of Group A with zero points to their name, but Man City failed to usurp Napoli or Bayern Munich and as a result dropped down to the Europa League, where they lost to Sporting Lisbon in the last 16 on away goals.