Aston Villa will continue their preparations for the new Premier League season when they face Eintracht Frankfurt at Lynn Family Stadium in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Unai Emery’s side will undertake a pre-season tour of the USA over the next week or so, with Frankfurt the first of a series of warm-up games.
Villa have already had a couple of run outs since returning to pre-season, losing to both Walsall and Hansa Rostock.
However, it is worth noting that Villa chief Emery opted to give a number of youngsters some first-team experience across those two matches.
As for Eintracht Frankfurt, they also have a couple of games under their belt, having faced both FSV Frankfurt and SC Weimar across the last week.
Dino Toppmoller’s team will now look to ramp up preparations for the forthcoming season against a Villa side that will represent a serious step-up in class.
How the bookies view it: Odds unavailable
At the time of writing, there are no odds available for this friendly fixture. Once they are released, they will appear here.
Head to head: History book blank
Aston Villa and Eintracht Frankfurt will face off for the first time ever this weekend. Emery’s men could draw some confidence from the fact that they twice toppled Bundesliga opposition in last season’s Champions League, claiming the scalp of Bayern Munich and then later defeating RB Leipzig during the league phase of the competition.
Players to watch: Burkardt to bag a goal?
After hitting 19 goals in 30 Bundesliga appearances for Mainz last season, Frankfurt will be hoping new forward Jonathan Burkardt can fire them to victory in Kentucky.
Jacob Ramsey has been one of Aston Villa’s standout players across their opening two pre-season friendlies, scoring against Hansa Rostock last time out. The Birmingham-born midfielder could merit consideration for an anytime strike here should odds become available.
Predicted line-ups
Eintracht Frankfurt's treatment room is relatively busy at the moment, with no fewer than five players expected to miss out here due to injury.
Speculation surrounding the future of Emi Martinez has been floating around all summer, however the Aston Villa goalkeeper is expected to feature in the USA.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp; Buta, Koch, Amenda; Kristensen, Skhiri, Larsson, Nkounkou; Knauff, Uzun; Burkardt
Aston Villa: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Moreno; Onana, Tielemans; Ramsey, McGinn, Malen; Redmond
Anything else catch the eye?
If last season is anything to go by, then there could be plenty of goalmouth action when these two teams go head-to-head.
24 of Aston Villa’s 38 Premier League matches last season produced Over 2.5 Goals, with the same bet paying out in 22 of Frankfurt’s 34 outings in the Bundesliga last term.
With that in mind, BTTS, Over 2.5 Goals or even a combination of both could be well worth a look once prices become available.
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