Young Boys take on the visitors Aston Villa in the round 1 match of UEFA Champions League group stage. The match will be played on Tuesday, September 17th at Stadion Wankdorf (Bern).
Young Boys once again claimed the top spot in the Swiss Super League, where they have dominated in recent years. However, under new head coach Patrick Rahmen, they had a rocky start to the season. The reigning champions lost their opener 1-2 at home to Sion, and then failed to secure points in away games against Servette and St. Gallen. They followed this with two consecutive 2-2 draws against Zürich at home and Yverdon Sport away. At that point, few believed the yellow-and-blacks could pose a real challenge to Galatasaray in the Champions League qualifiers. Yet, the Swiss side pulled off two wins over the Istanbul giants. Afterwards, they only managed a 1-1 draw against Lausanne. After warming up with a 4-2 win over Vevey Sports in the Swiss Cup, the real fight begins.
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Aston Villa has been building toward this for a long time. The "Villans" have both a proud history and considerable ambition, along with the resources to back it up. But it wasn’t until Unai Emery arrived in Birmingham that these factors translated into real success. In his first season, having taken over mid-campaign, the Spaniard led the team to a 7th-place finish. In 2023/2024, while also competing in the Europa Conference League (starting in the summer qualifiers and reaching the spring playoffs), Villa managed to finish 4th in the Premier League, leaving behind a strong and motivated Tottenham. Now, after strengthening the squad for their much-anticipated return to the Champions League (although they lost the race for João Félix), the team has had a decent start. In August, they claimed 2-1 away victories against both West Ham and Leicester, though they did suffer a 0-2 home defeat to Arsenal. In the last match against Everton, Villa made an impressive comeback, overturning a 0-2 deficit to win.
It’s not surprising that these two historic clubs, who rarely play in European competitions, are meeting for the first time. There’s little doubt that Villa will come out on top, but this is their debut match in the competition. A safe bet would be "total over 3.0 goals."
Prediction for the match: Over 3.0 scored goals.
