Preview: Aston Villa hope to realise their Europa League ambition as they host Lille in round of 16 second leg
Preview: Aston Villa hope to realise their Europa League ambition as they host Lille in round of 16 second leg Despite faltering slightly in the league as of late, Villa remain firm favourites to win the Europa League and guarantee their place in next seasons Champions League. Once touted as slight outsiders in the title race, Villa now face a battle to maintain their position in the top four as they have won just one of their last seven Premier League games taking them from clear third place to just two points ahead of Liverpool in fifth place. Unai Emery is a sort of master when it comes to Europe’s second biggest competition, the Spaniard has won the Europa League an incredible four times and reached the final six times.
Lille have Champions League ambitions of their own this season, the French side currently sit fifth and just five points behind third placed Marseille. Lille have been in fantastic form and haven’t lost in the league since February 1st. They followed up their disappointing defeat to Villa by recording a strong result away at Rennes to keep their hopes of Champions League alive.
Villa have won the Champions League once before, making them just one of six English sides to have ever lifted the coveted trophy, they have had some strong recent seasons in Europe as well. The West Midlands’ side were also semi-finalists in the Conference league two seasons ago, also losing to winners Olympiakos 6-2 on aggregate. Lille have been semi-regulars in the Champions League for the past five seasons, however the French side have only ever made it to the round of 16 stage.
They were most recently knocked out by Borussia Dortmund with a 3-2 aggregate score. Lille have made it to this stage of the Europa League once before where they were eliminated by English opposition in the form of a 3-1 aggregate loss to Liverpool in the 2009/10 season, their last venture in the Europa League ended before it began with defeat against Ajax in the intermediate stage. The Villans have had a litany of injury issues to contend with lately as they have been forced to deal with the loss of their main midfield trio in John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans.
McGinn returned to action in the sides defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday but Kamara is likely to be unavailable to feature for the rest of the season while he continues to recover from a knee injury. Tielemans is still recovering from an ankle injury with his return too far away to have any chance at featuring in tomorrows fixture. Matty Cash and Emi Buendia are being assessed and could be deemed fit enough to make the squad for tomorrow’s crucial match.