Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Juventus – Wed, Nov 27th 2024, 20:00
Aston Villa look to return to winning ways in the Champions League on Wednesday evening, when locking horns with Italian giants Juventus at Villa Park.
Unai Emery’s side made a perfect start to their European campaign over the first three games of this season, beating BSC Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna, before falling to a 1-0 defeat at Club Brugge in Matchday Four, which left them eighth in the league phase.
The Villans now take on the Bianconeri for only the third time in history, having been knocked out of Europe’s elite competition by Juve in their last participation before this season in 1983, the year after the lifting the famous trophy. Indeed, before 2024/25, Juventus were the last team to visit Villa Park in the European Cup.
The Turin outfit remain unbeaten in Serie A after 13 matches, sitting in sixth place, four points off leaders Napoli.
Under the stewardship of Thiago Motta, wins over PSV and RB Leipzig saw them make a perfect start to this season’s Champions League campaign, before a defeat at home to VfB Stuttgart and a draw away at LOSC Lille, which see them currently sat 11th in the league phase.
Recent finalists in 2015 and 2017, Juventus have won the competition on two occasions – in 1985 and 1996.
Stats
26% of Pau Torres’ passes in the UEFA Champions League this season have broken at least one opposition line (42/162). Among defenders to have attempted 100+ passes in the opening four rounds, the Aston Villa man has the highest such percentage this term.
Dusan Vlahovic has been involved in five goals in his six away UEFA Champions League appearances for Juventus (4 goals, 1 assist), including at least one in his last three. No Juve player has ever scored or assisted in four consecutive away appearances.
Jhon Durán has scored in each of his two home UEFA Champions League appearances for Aston Villa this season; the only two Villa players to score in three home appearances in a row in major European competition are Ian Taylor in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup (3) and Ollie Watkins in last season’s Conference League (4).
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has beaten Juventus twice before in the UEFA Champions League, winning with Sevilla in 2015 and Villarreal in 2022. No manager has ever beaten Juve with three different teams in the competition.
Through the first four matchdays in the UEFA Champions League this season, Juventus suffered the most opposition high turnovers of any team (54). Indeed, they also conceded the most shots following a high turnover from their opponents (11 – level with Young Boys).
Aston Villa have won seven of their last eight home matches in major European competitions (L1), with five of those wins coming by a one-goal margin.
Juventus have won just one of their last seven away UEFA Champions League matches (D2 L4), beating RB Leipzig 3-2 earlier this campaign. They had won seven of their previous nine away games before this run.
Aston Villa have won their opening two home UEFA Champions League matches, with only Spurs in 2010 and Leicester in 2016 winning their first three among English teams. They have also kept two clean sheets so far, with Milan in 1992/93 the only side to win their first three home games without conceding, while Chelsea were the last side to keep clean sheets in their first three home games overall (W2 D1 in 1999).
Juventus have only won three of their last 15 away matches against English sides in European competition (D3 L9), while this will be their first such trip since losing 0-4 to Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League in November 2021.
This will be the third time Aston Villa and Juventus have faced each other in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, following two meetings in the 1982/83 quarter-finals. Juventus won 5-2 on aggregate with victories in both legs, with the Italian side going on to finish as runners-up that season.
Matchday Four
Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw away at LOSC Lille in their fourth outing of the league phase at the beginning of the month.
The French outfit took the lead just before the half-hour mark through Jonathan David, but Juve responded after the break, taking a share of the spoils back to Turin after Dušan Vlahović equalised from the penalty spot.
The draw left Thiago Motta’s men 11th in the league phase, and the hosts 14th.
Team News
Unai Emery has been boosted by the returns of Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara from injury, after the pair missed the weekend’s draw with Crystal Palace.
The Villa boss did confirm in his pre-match press conference that he would be without the services of Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey, who remain sidelined.
Juventus have been hit by injuries this season, and will be without Dušan Vlahović (thigh) for the clash, while Douglas Luiz will also be denied a Villa Park reunion with muscular issues of his own.
Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal are sidelined with respective ACL injuries for The Old Lady, along with Nico González and Arkadiusz Milik, while USA midfielder Weston McKennie has not travelled after picking up a knock at the weekend.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“[Thiago Motta’s] progression has been fantastic. Juventus now is in the process of building a team, but competitive. I think they are playing very good football, of course, not yet, all the ideas he wants to set there, but last year with Bologna he had a very good year. Tomorrow, Juventus is the favourite in front of us, because they have experiences, they have a really good team, and very good players, and they are favourites to be in the top eight.” – Unai Emery
“We will face a great team. A team that is in good form, especially in this competition. We will go into the game with great humility, determined to play our game and with respect [for] our opponent as always. I am always positive, I have great confidence in my players who show every day that they are ready to compete and give everything.” – Thiago Motta
