Aston Villa travel to Northern France on Thursday night to take on Lille in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.
Aston Villa suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League for the first time since the end of August last time out, as they followed up their 2-0 defeat at Midlands rivals Wolves by losing 1-4 at home to Chelsea.
Unai Emery’s men have now won just one of their last six and two of their past nine Premier League encounters, but they remain in fourth position in the table, three points clear of both Chelsea and Liverpool.
The Villans recorded seven wins from their eight league phase matches in this competition which positioned them in second spot in the league phase table, avoiding the playoff round.
Lille, on the other hand, finished in 18th position in the league phase table and had to navigate their way past perennial Serbian champions Crvena Zvezda in the playoff round.
Despite losing the first leg 0-1 at home, Bruno Genesio’s men sealed their passage in the last-16 thanks to a 0-2 victory in the Serbian capital in the second leg.
Les Dogues saw their two-match winning run in Ligue 1 come to an agonising end at the weekend, as they conceded in stoppage time to draw 1-1 at home to Lorient, meaning they fell down to sixth position in the table, five points outside of the Champions League places.
How the bookies view it: Villa slight favourites
Aston Villa have been installed as slight favourites to take a lead back to Birmingham, with bet365 pricing an away success at 29/20.
Lille are 19/10 to make home advantage count on Thursday night, whilst the draw is 23/10.
Head to head: Good memories for Villa
These two clubs met as recently as the 2023/24 season, with Aston Villa knocking out Lille on penalties in the quarter finals of the Conference League after both clubs won their home legs 2-1.
Players to watch: Giroud to grab another goal against Villa?
Olivier Giroud comes into this clash having scored in three of Lille’s previous four Europa League fixtures, including a crucial goal in Belgrade to level up the tie against Crvena Zvezda in the playoff round.
The ex-Arsenal and Chelsea frontman scored 10 goals across his 10 appearances against Aston Villa during his time in the Premier League, and the 7/5 on offer for the Frenchman to Score or Assist on Thursday night appeals to me.
Backed a player to find the net? Check our Goalscorer Betting guide to see how the markets work and where to find value.
Predicted line-ups:
Lille will be without Marc-Aurele Caillard, Osame Sahraoui, Ousmane Toure, Ethan Mbappe and ex-Rangers forward Hamza Igamane due to injury.
Unai Emery will be unable to call upon Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans and John McGinn who are all injured, whilst Ross Barkley is ineligible.
Lille: Ozer, Santos, Mandi, Ngoy, Perraud, Andre, Mukau, Fernandez-Pardo, Haraldsson, Perrin, Giroud
Aston Villa: Bizot, Bogarde, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Buendia, Watkins
Anything else catch the eye?
This looks like a tough game to predict given the unpredictability of both sides in recent months, but I’m leaning towards this being a low-scoring clash.
Lille’s previous nine matches have averaged just 1.22 goals per game, with Under 2.5 Goals landing in all nine (100%) of those contests.
What’s more, Under 2.5 Goals has landed in eight of Aston Villa’s last 11 matches in all competitions, and a repeat pays an appealing 4/5 at bet365.
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