Aston Villa confirmed XI v Ajax: Unai Emery may regret Lucas Digne decision at Villa Park
Aston Villa will be quietly confident of progressing in the Europa Conference League ahead of their round of 16 second leg meeting with Ajax.
The Amerstam outfit make the trip to Villa Park on Thursday (14 March), having held the English giants to a goalless draw in the first leg last Thursday (7 March).
Unai Emery will be relying on plenty of noise from the home support, who have witnessed their home fortress fade away in recent times.
Confidence should still be high among the Villa Park faithful, even after Tottenham Hotspur came to town on Sunday (10 March) and left with a stunning 4-0 win, with home captain John McGinn seeing red.
Emery must get more from his players this time around, with Ajax certainly nowhere near their best this season.
Unai Emery opts for Alex Moreno ahead of Lucas Digne in Aston Villa v Ajax
The manager had plenty of big decisions to make regarding his starting XI for this huge European clash under the lights, one of which involved opting for Alex Moreno over Lucas Digne at left-back.
The latter will have been hugely disappointed about the result against Tottenham, but he impressed in various areas, winning two of his three duels, making two tackles, one clearance and one interception, and completing 71% of his passes [Sofascore].
He also had an attempt at goal, and while it was off target, Emery could certainly be doing with the attacking left-back and his ambitions to get forward against Ajax.
That said, Moreno is certain to try and get into the final third as much as possible, with the Spaniard certainly not a bad alternative to the Frenchman.
In other Aston Villa news, one player is now unsellable after a recent 97% display that left Manchester City star Jack Grealish wowed.
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