Who: Barcelona vs Aston Villa
What: UEFA Champions League, matchday 4
When: Tuesday, November 2, 20:00 GMT
Where: Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain
How to follow: Al Jazeera will provide build-up and live updates from 17:00 GMT.
It’s a big match in the fledgling UEFA Champions League standings, with Aston Villa seeking to extend their perfect start to the league phase with a daunting trip to Barcelona.
Star-studded Barca are among the favourites to win the competition and sit top of La Liga after 10 wins from 11 matches. But they are eighth in the league phase table after seeing their perfect start to the campaign ended by a 4-2 defeat at PSG in their most recent fixture.
Though their domestic campaign has been slow to get going, Villa have won all three games, scoring 12 goals in Europe and will be keen to repeat their progress to the quarterfinals from 2024-25, when they went out narrowly against eventual winners PSG.
It’s another huge milestone on an impressive journey for Villa, who are owned by V Sports, a holding company jointly controlled by Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris and US private equity investor Wes Edens.
They completed their takeover of the Birmingham-based club in 2019, following the club’s promotion back to the Premier League after three seasons in the Championship.
Three bottom-half finishes followed but after Unai Emery was appointed in October 2022 following the departure of Steven Gerrard, the Spaniard guided Villa to seventh place at the end of that season and qualification for the UEFA Conference League, their first European campaign in well over a decade.
England striker Ollie Watkins – now playing for Saudi side Al-Hilal – scored 27 goals as Emery’s side reached the semifinals and also secured a top-four finish in the Premier League, securing Champions League football for the first time and their first appearance in Europe’s top competition in 41 years.
A famous 1-0 win over Bayern Munich at Villa Park and a goalless draw with Juventus helped them progress to the quarterfinals where they were edged out by eventual champions PSG, despite Villa winning the second leg 3-2 at Villa Park.
A sixth-placed finish in the Premier League saw Villa qualify for the Europa League last season and they swept through the group stage, winning seven of their eight games, before beating Lille, Bologna and Nottingham Forest in the knockouts and breezing past Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul in May to lift the trophy.
Another top-four Premier League finish came alongside it and took Emery’s side back into Europe’s top competition where they will now play on one of the biggest stages in world football, seeking to show they belong there.
While Hansi Flick’s side will start as strong favourites, they have not kept a clean sheet in the Champions League in 18 games – the longest run of any team in this season’s edition – and Villa will have their eye on writing another chapter in their fairytale story of recent seasons.
How have Barcelona fared this season?
After a perfect start to the campaign with thumping wins over Feyenoord and at Galatasaray, Hansi Flick’s side lost an epic Champions League encounter 4-2 against PSG to suffer their first defeat.
A 2-1 home loss to Real Madrid followed four days later in El Clasico, which ended their perfect start to their La Liga campaign after nine straight wins.
Barca, however, returned to winning ways by thrashing Alaves 6-1 onSaturday to return to the top of the table after briefly being overhauled by Atletico Madrid.
Lamine Yamal scored one and set up another, meaning he has notched 12 goals and 11 assists in all competitions this season. He already holds the record for Champions League assists by a teenager with 13, and is surely bound to find the single goal he needs in order to add the goals record before he turns 20 in July.
How have Aston Villa begun this season?
It’s been an up-and-down start to the campaign for the Villans.
They are only kept off the top of the league phase table by Paris Saint-Germain – who beat them 2-1 in the UEFA Super Cup in August after Villa’s Europa League win last season.
The English club sit second by virtue of goals scored alone after winning 3-2 at Club Brugge, 6-0 at home to Fenerbahce and then 3-1 against Viking at Villa Park.
However, in the Premier League they claimed one point from their opening four matches, though Saturday’s 1-1 draw against lowly Fulham, in which keeper Zion Suzuki scored an own goal, extended their unbeaten run to five games from which they have taken 11 points to climb to ninth.
They were dumped out of the English League Cup 3-0 by Bournemouth last week in the last-16 and announced on Saturday they will pursue legal action against pundit Jamie Carragher. Villa are accusing the former Liverpool defender of making “unacceptable insults” about the club and their supporters, saying “Aston Villa will never be Manchester United”, suggesting there is a hierarchy in football.
Barcelona vs Aston Villa: Predictions
Barcelona defeated Aston Villa in 72.0% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000 pre-match simulations, making them comfortable favourites for all three points.
Villa’s 100% start to the competition is therefore expected to end, with the away side pulling off a shock win in just 12.7% of the simulations and snatching a draw in 15.3%.
Barcelona vs Aston Villa: Head-to-head
This will be their first meeting since the European Super Cup final in January 1983. Villa were 3-1 winners on aggregate but suffered a 1-0 loss at Camp Nou in the first encounter.
The second leg was their fourth meeting in all competitions and Villa’s 3-0 success represented their first victory against Barca.
Unai Emery has much more recent history with the Catalans, though. He has faced them 30 times throughout his managerial career and picked up just three victories (D6 L21). His win percentage of 10% against Barca is his lowest against any side he has faced at least five times.
Emery suffered his heaviest ever loss in European competition at Barca when his Paris Saint-Germain side lost 6-1 at Camp Nou in March 2017, a match famously dubbed La Remontada.
Barcelona vs Aston Villa: Form guide
(Last five games in all competitions; latest match first)
What have the managers said?
Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick: “I’m focused on the next match. This is a Champions League match, and Aston Villa is in great form and Unai Emery is one of the best coaches in Europe. We’re talking about the Champions League… Every match is special. Any opponent has the quality to cause you problems; it will be a very difficult match.
“At this level, anything can happen. Against Real Madrid, the result could have been different. We have confidence in these kinds of matches, we really do. We’ve won 11 games, only two losses… I have confidence in the team and we showed that last Saturday. Now we’re talking about the Champions League and we’re focused on finishing among the top eight.”
What have the players said?
Barcelona and England winger Anthony Gordon: “Aston Villa are a very good team. I’ve played against them a couple of times. They have one of the best managers in the world and some very good players. They’re in great form and it’s going to be a great game. They’re always fully engaged, so it’s going to be quite a challenge.”
Predicted lineups and team news
While their attack has been rampant, Barca have been beset by defensive problems due to injuries to Eric Garcia, Jules Kounde and Xavi Espart. Those personnel issues forced Flick to hand Brian Farinas a debut at right-back and deploy Frenkie de Jong in the centre of defence at the weekend.
Andreas Christensen will not be risked despite stepping up his recovery from a thigh injury by returning to training.
Barcelona: Joan García, Joao Cancelo, Gerard Martín, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde, Fermin Lopez, Rodri, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Anthony Gordon.
There are no new injury concerns for Unai Emery to contend with, though Amadou Onana, Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka remain absent.
Aston Villa: Zion Suzuki, Matty Cash, Viktor Lindelof, Pau Torres, Ian Maatsen, Boubacar Kamara, Joao Gomes, John McGinn, Johan Manzambi, Emiliano Buendia, Nicolas Jackson.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
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