Lille take on the visitors Aston Villa in the first leg of UEFA Europa League round of 1/8-finals. The match will be played on Thursday, March 12th at Stade Pierre-Mauroy (Villeneuve d'Ascq).
Lille played in the Champions League playoffs a year ago and looked quite strong there. However, in their domestic championship, amid tight competition, they finished slightly behind Nice, ending the season in 5th place. Recently Lille have shown fairly solid form in Ligue 1, regularly collecting points even in difficult fixtures and staying close to the European qualification zone. Their home performances have also been quite convincing, which allows them to remain competitive in the battle for the top positions. Now, already without David but with Giroud returning to finish his career, they are still managing to keep their chances of ending the season in the coveted 4th position. Still, the competition right now is extremely intense. Moreover, Bruno Génésio’s side are also busy in the Europa League. Things there have not always gone smoothly either: they started with victories over Brann and even Roma, the latter coming away from home. But in the end they finished the main round with an equal record of four wins and four defeats. So they had to play already in the first playoff round in February. And even there they first managed to lose 0–1 at home to Crvena Zvezda — fortunately in the return leg they scored two unanswered goals and advanced further.
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Aston Villa look very inconsistent. The Villans clearly benefited from the appointment of Emery. He immediately lifted his new, quite ambitious side into European competitions. However, in the current season Villa have alternated convincing victories with unexpected setbacks, which has made their overall campaign look rather uneven. Even so, the team remains capable of producing strong performances against serious opponents, especially in European matches. A year ago they effectively debuted in the Champions League format and reached the spring playoffs there, losing only to the eventual trophy winners, PSG. At the same time, on the domestic stage they finished level on points but lost 5th place to Newcastle United on tie-breakers. As a result, they had to move to Emery’s favorite competition, the Europa League. There the English side won 7 of their 8 matches (although they somehow managed to lose away 1–2 to the modest Go Ahead Eagles!), and only now are they starting the playoffs. Meanwhile on the domestic stage, after a shaky start, they produced a series of victories that secured a place in the top three, but ended the winter with another obvious crisis.
The clubs met in April the season before last in the Conference League playoffs. Back then they exchanged home victories, but it was the Villans who eventually progressed. Overall the English side have performed much better in this tournament. The pick here is a Aston Villa victory with a 0 handicap.
Prediction for the match: Aston Villa to win with 0.0 handicap.
