Basel v Aston Villa: Line-ups, stats and preview

Basel v Aston Villa preview

Aston Villa will hope to continue their magnificent recent form and cement their grip on a place in the top eight of the Europa League when they visit Basel.

Villa have surged to within three points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a run of five straight wins in that competition, their latest a 2-1 victory over the Gunners at Villa Park last Saturday.

They have also won each of their last two Europa League matches since a surprise defeat at Go Ahead Eagles in October. With 12 points from their first five games, they are level on points with Lyon and Midtjylland at the top of the table and can take another step towards automatic progression to the last 16 with victory in Switzerland.

Unai Emery’s men are the heavy favourites to take all three points, with Basel having only won two of their opening five games.

The defending Swiss champions are seven points behind leaders Thun in the Super League, losing five games already in their domestic league after suffering in defeat in only nine games in the top flight last season.

But only two of those losses have come at home, while they have not lost in the confines of St. Jakob Park in the Europa League.

Basel occupy the final playoff round qualification spot as it stands, and a win would greatly increase their hopes of going through to the next stage.

Yet with Villa boasting the second-best defensive record in the league phase, it would be no surprise if the challenge of breaking down Emery’s men proves too much for Xherdan Shaqiri and Co.

Basel v Aston Villa team news

Villa remain without Tyrone Mings (thigh) and Ross Barkley (knee) and Evann Guessand is a doubt with a knock that kept him out of the victory over Arsenal.

Basel forward Kaio Eduardo’s availability for the fixture is in doubt because of an unknown injury.

Basel v Villa predicted lineups

Basel starting XI: Hitz; Tsunemoto, Adjetey, Daniliuc, Schmid; Metinho, Bacanin; Shaqiri, Leroy, Otele; Broschinski

Aston Villa starting XI: Bizot; Bogarde, Lindelof, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Onana; Buendia, Tielemans, Rogers; Malen

How to watch Basel v Aston Villa: TV channel, online live streams

Kick-off on Thursday is at 20:00 GMT (15:00 ET / 12:00 PT). Live TV coverage in the UK is on TNT Sports 1 and the Discovery Plus app.

TNT Sports costs £29.99 a month through Discovery+, which includes Eurosport and entertainment and is available on a vast range of devices including smart TVs and gaming consoles.

Basel v Villa stats

• The only previous meetings between these sides came in the Intertoto Cup final in August 2001, with a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Switzerland followed by a 4-1 victory for Villa in England
• Basel have lost three of their last eight matches at home against English teams (W4 D1)
• They have won their previous two home matches in this season’s league phase
• The Swiss Super League team are unbeaten in their last 10 home fixtures in the Europa League proper (W8 D2), having won each of the most recent seven
• Villa have lost one of their six matches against Swiss opposition (W4 D1)
• The Villans have won the last three of those matches, including a 2-1 home victory against Young Boys on Matchday 5 this season
• Unai Emery’s squad have won eight of their last 10 European matches (L2)
• Their last seven matches in all competitions have ended victoriously

Basel v Aston Villa prediction

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