Cypriot champions Pafos FC are set to host Spanish outfit Villarreal at Limassol’s Alphamega Stadium in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and will do so in search of a return to form after looking somewhat out of sorts in recent weeks.

After beginning their season by marching their way through the Champions League’s qualifying stages and starting their domestic campaign like a house on fire, recent weeks have seen the side suffer a little bit of a wobble, winning only one of their last four in all competitions and relinquishing their lead in the Cypriot domestic league table.

Those four fixtures saw Pafos FC grind out a 0-0 draw away at Kairat Almaty in the Champions League last month, before slumping to a 2-1 defeat away at Omonia thanks to a last-minute Willy Semedo penalty, and then lose an uninspiring Cypriot Super Cup final against Aek Larnaca last week.

They have since got a win on the board, having scraped past Ael 1-0 at the Stelios Kyriakides Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with Ael themselves out of form, but will now be hoping to pull off an upset on Wednesday night to truly get their season back on track.

Their opponents, Villarreal, have been something of a Jekyll and Hyde team so far this season, flying out of the traps in their domestic league and stumbling in Europe.

They currently sit second in La Liga, just two points behind Barcelona, and put four past Rayo Vallecano in their most recent league fixture on Saturday, after having hit Ciudad de Lucena for six in the Copa del Rey a week ago.

However, they remain without a win in the Champions League so far this season, having suffered defeats away at Tottenham Hotspur and at home to Manchester City, and having taken a solitary point at home against Juventus.

As such, they in fact sit below Pafos FC in the league table with three games played, with the Cypriot side having picked up draws away at Greek giants Olympiacos and against Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan, either side of a 5-1 shellacking at the hands of German juggernaut Bayern Munich.

Manchester City’s John Stones in action with Villarreal’s Georges Mikautadze [Reuters]

Villarreal have tasted European glory once before, winning the Europa League, Europe’s second-tier football competition, in 2021.

In that year’s final, they beat Manchester United in the Polish city of Gdansk after a marathon penalty shootout which finished 11-10, following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes of football on the night.

The 2021 Europa League triumph is Villarreal’s only ever major honour, though four of the starting XI from Gdansk remain at the club, four and a half years on.

After Wednesday, Pafos FC’s next European tie will come at home against Monaco on November 26. They will then travel  to Turin to face Juventus on December 10 and to London to face Chelsea on January 21, before concluding their Champions League adventure at home against Slavia Prague on January 28.

Villarreal, meanwhile, will travel to Germany to face Borussia Dortmund on November 25, before hosting Danish outfit Copenhagen on December 10 and Dutch four-time Champions League winners Ajax on January 20, before playing their last league phase game, again in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen, on January 28.