Aston Villa v Bologna: Team news, betting odds, where to watch, lineups, prediction
Aston Villa will be keen to extend their unbeaten streak to 10 across all competitions in their Champions League clash against Bologna on Tuesday (22 October).
The Villans have found themselves in superb form this season, even beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in their last European fixture.
Preview
Unai Emery’s men are coming off the back of an emphatic 3-1 win over Fulham in a game that was full of drama.
Saturday’s game (19 October) was the Villans’ seventh win out of their last nine games and outlines how well the team have performed this season.
Villa will have home advantage for their next Champions League clash and will want to add another three points to their total after shocking Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.
Bologna’s form, on the other hand, has left a lot to be desired with the Serie A outfit’s last win coming against Monza on 22 September.
Their last two domestic fixtures have ended in draws and their last European game against Liverpool ended in a 2-0 defeat.
Villa will no doubt fancy their chances against an out-of-luck Italian side and are the favourites going into the clash.
Form Guide (Premier League/Serie A)
Aston Villa: WDDWW
Bologna: DDDWD
Betting Odds
Below are the odds for a Villa win, a draw between the teams and a Bologna win, courtesy of BetVictor.
Aston Villa win: 3/5
Draw: 3/1
Bologna win: 9/2
Team News
As per Premier Injuries (21 October), only Tyrone Mings and Robin Olsen should be sidelined for the Champions League tie.
For their last Premier League clash against Fulham, many names were expected to be out such as John McGinn, Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey. However, they were all a part of the Villans’ matchday squad.
Jaden Philogene was sent off against the Cottagers but, as the Champions League is a separate competition from the Premier League, the former Hull City is available for Emery to use.
This also means that Boubacar Kamara may finally make his long-awaited return after an extended period on the sidelines due to a major knee injury.
For Bologna, players such as Nicolo Cambiaghi, Oussama El Azzouzi and Lewis Ferguson are all set to miss the tie.
The latter has entered full training but won’t have quite recovered before the clash.
Villa-owned Samuel Iling-Junior is likely to be sidelined as he recovers from a small niggle.
Predicted lineups
Aston Villa: Martinez; Cash, Carlos, Torres, Digne; Philogene, Onana, Tielemans, Rogers; Duran, Watkins.
Bologna: Skorupski; Posch, Beukema, Lucumi, Miranda; Freuler, Moro; Orsolini, Fabbian, Karlsson; Castro.
Where to watch
The match at Villa Park kicks off at 20:00pm GMT on Tuesday, 22 October. The game will be available to view in the UK on the Discovery+ app as well as TNT Sports 1.
Prediction: Aston Villa 2-0 Bologna
When both Villa and Bologna’s recent form is taken into account, it’s hard to see how Emery’s men won’t triumph in this tie.
The form of Morgan Rogers and the goalscoring prowess of Jhon Duran have been particular points of interest over the season, and if Emery starts both attackers alongside Ollie Watkins, the deficit could end up even larger than the two goals predicted.
Emery’s men should have far too much quality for the Serie A side to handle and they should be able to extend their perfect run in the Champions League and get their points total up to nine.
If they do manage to come away with the win, it would no doubt boost their confidence and perhaps carry over some further momentum from the Champions League into the top flight.
In other Aston Villa news, Rory Wilson is set to be made to train alone after his recovery.
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