Bologna vs Aston Villa live: Confirmed teams and full Europa League quarter final line ups
Europa League quarter-final teams as Villa visit Bologna
Bologna and Aston Villa have confirmed their starting teams for their Europa League quarter-final first-leg meeting at the Renato Dall’Ara Stadium on Thursday.
Villa beat Lille 3-0 on aggregate in the last 16. Bologna advanced with a 4-3 second-leg win at Roma, going through 5-4 on aggregate after an all-Italian epic.
The winners of the tie will face Porto or Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals. Those teams also meet in their quarter-final first leg at the Estadio do Dragao on Thursday (20:00 BST).
101GreatGoals.com has the team news and starting line-ups as Bologna host Villa in the Europa League.
We meet again 🤝
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 8, 2026
This time on Italian soil 🇮🇹 #UEL 🦁 pic.twitter.com/UC2GShdMkG
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Bologna confirmed team vs Villa
Bologna, who make three changes, are without injured goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski (hamstring) and winger Benja Dominguez (hip) and suspended defender Martin Vitik.
Tommaso Pobega, Torbjorn Heggem and Lewis Ferguson are the new faces in their line-up from their 2-1 win at Cremonese in Serie A on Saturday.
Federico Bernardeschi, Ferguson, Jhon Lucumi and coach Vincenzo Italiano are a booking away from suspensions in the competition.
Bologna starting XI: Federico Ravaglia, Joao Mario, Torbjorn Heggem, Jhon Lucumi, Juan Miranda, Lewis Ferguson, Remo Freuler, Tommaso Pobega, Federico Bernardeschi, Santiago Castro, Jonathan Rowe
Bologna substitutes: Nikola Moro, Riccardo Orsolini, Nicolo Casale, Nadir Zortea, Jens Odgaard, Simon Sohm, Massimo Pessina, Nicolo Cambiaghi, Francesco Castaldo, Matteo Franceschelli
Aston Villa full line up vs Bologna
Villa make two changes from their home win over West Ham on March 22, bringing in Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia.
Winger Jadon Sancho (shoulder) and midfielder Boubacar Kamara (knee) are sidelined.
Influential Tielemans made his comeback from an ankle injury as a substitute against West Ham, Villa winning four of the 11 games the Belgium international missed.
Matty Cash, Lucas Digne, John McGinn and Victor Lindelof must avoid bookings to be eligible for the second leg.
Aston Villa starting XI: Emiliano Martínez, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, Lucas Digne, John McGinn, Amadou Onana, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Emiliano Buendia
Villa substitutes: Ollie Watkins, Victor Lindelöf, Tyrone Mings, Harvey Elliott, Andres Garcia, Tammy Abraham, Douglas Luiz, Ian Maatsen, Lamare Bogarde, Leon Bailey, Marco Bizot, James Wright,
Where to watch Bologna vs Villa: TV channel, live online streams
Kick-off on Thursday is at 20:00 BST (15:00 ET / 12:00 PT). Live TV coverage in the UK is on TNT Sports 2 and the HBO Max app.
TNT Sports costs £30.99 a month and is available on a vast range of devices including smart TVs and gaming consoles.
Bologna vs Aston Villa stats
- Bologna have made the most ball recoveries (501) in this season’s competition of any team in the quarter-finals
- Defender Juan Miranda has attempted (72) and completed (22) the most players of any player in the 2025/26 Europa League
- With 94 crosses, Bologna have completed 14 more than any other side in this competition and 35 more than any team not yet eliminated
- The Serie A side are winless in their five previous European matches against English teams (D1 L4)
- Their only previous two‑legged European tie against an English club was a 5–3 aggregate defeat to Fulham in the 2002 Intertoto Cup final
- Only Nottingham Forest and Celta Vigo can match Bologna’s tally of 21 goals in this season’s competition. Villa have 17
- Villa have the highest passing accuracy (87.2%) of any team in the quarter-finals, with only Lyon (88.9%), who went out in the last 16, achieving a better figure in this season’s competition
- The Premier League club have had the most possession (56.3%) of any team still involved in this season’s competition
- They have lost all of their three previous European away matches against Italian clubs
- This is Villa’s first quarter‑final in the Europa League era of the competition, reaching this stage twice when it was known as the UEFA Cup with aggregate defeats to Barcelona (4-3) in 1977/78 and Atletico Madrid (on the now-abolished away goals rule) in 1997/98
- The Villans’ run of 13 wins in their last 15 continental matches (L2) – including their current run of seven straight wins – is the longest winning streak in their European history