Aston Villa vs Bologna: Match preview, team news, predicted line-ups, key players, and match prediction

Aston Villa continue their UEFA Champions League adventure on Tuesday night as they play Italian side Bologna at Villa Park. Having beaten BSC Young Boys and six-time winners Bayern Munich in their opening two games, Villa will be looking to make it three wins out of three that would all but guarantee them a spot in the play-off positions with five games still to play. Opta analysis found that 10 points will as good as guarantee a place in the top 24, with 99% of 50,000 simulations conducted seeing teams on 10 points make it into the play-off round.

Head-to-head record

This will be the first time in Aston Villa's long history that they have faced Bologna and there is therefore no head-to-head record to analyse. However, Villa have come up against clubs from Italy in the past. Since 1982 Villa have played an Italian club six times in major European competitions, winning twice and losing on four occasions. The Villans have not faced a side from Italy in major competitions since 1994.

Bologna meanwhile have faced English sides seven times in their long history. They defeated West Brom twice and Leeds United once back in the 1960s. However, since the beginning of the 21st century they are yet to win against English opponents in three attempts. Their previous Champions League outing saw them travel to Anfield, where they lost 2-0 to Liverpool.

Bologna's bleak start to the season

The Northern-Italian side have won just one of their opening ten matches across all competitions so far this season. You could say that they are the draw specialists so far this year, having drawn seven of those opening ten fixtures. That therefore means that despite only winning one game so far, they have only also lost twice.

With nine points from their opening eight games, the team sit 13th in Serie A, four points off both the relegation zone and the European places. Their only victory so far this season came against Monza, who currently sit 19th in the table.

Despite only losing away to Napoli and Liverpool this season, Villa will start the game as heavy favourites. Bologna have failed to beat the likes of Udinese, Empoli, Como, Parma and Genoa in the opening two months of their season after losing their manager and key players in the summer. After finishing fifth in the Italian top-flight last season, the club lost the likes of Riccardo Calafiori and Joshua Zirkzee this summer and have struggled to develop a winning strategy in their absence this term.

Team news

It was a surprise to most Villa fans that Saturday saw Unai Emery have a fully-fit squad to select from for the game against Fulham. Having suffered multiple injuries to the likes of John McGinn, Ezri Konsa, Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana before the international break, it seemed likely Villa would head to Craven Cottage with a much-depleted squad. However, all those with injuries and knocks had recovered and it meant Villa were at full strength.

Off the back of that victory over Fulham, Unai Emery has no fresh injury concerns and he might see this game as a good opportunity to rotate the squad with everyone available. Boubacar Kamara returned to the bench on Saturday after his eight-month spell on the treatment table, and he is again expected to be part of the squad. Tyrone Mings, also deemed fully fit, did not make the bench on Saturday but could on Tuesday evening.

Bologna have a few injury concerns heading into the game with Villa as Martin Erlic, Michel Aebischer, Lewis Ferguson and Oussama El Azzouzi all missed the 2-2 draw with Genoa on Saturday. Forwards Dan Ndoye and Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior also missed their last match but returned to training at Casteldebole on Sunday.

Key players

For Aston Villa, Youri Tielemans was once again named Man of the Match in the victory at Craven Cottage on Saturday. He continues to prove himself as one of the best midfield players in the Premier League, which is evidenced by his statistics (shown below). Should he start this game, he will be key in dictating Aston Villa's play going forward.

Aston Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior is eligible to play at Villa Park for his current side and he could be in line to make his first start for the Italian side due to their injury problems. Iling-Junior himself missed Saturday's draw with Genoa through injury, but was seen training on Sunday. He produced an excellent performance, which included one assist, in England under-21's 7-0 victory over Azerbaijan last week.

27-year-old Riccardo Orsolini has 227 appearances to his name for Bologna since his move from Juventus in 2018. The winger didn't make an appearance for the Italian giants before his move to Bologna but has since performed superbly for his club. With 58 goals and 27 assists for the club, he is certainly one of their biggest attacking threats. Having scored at the weekend, he will have confidence heading into this game.

Predicted line-ups

Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Carlos, Torres, Digne, Tielemans, Onana, Rogers, Ramsey, Philogene, Watkins

Bologna: Ravaglia, Posch, Beukema, Casale, Miranda, Moro, Freuler, Ndoye, Odgaard, Orsolini, Castro

Match prediction

Aston Villa fans believe that despite the team sitting fourth in the Premier League and winning both Champions League matches so far, they haven't actually seen the best of their team yet. It is the belief of most that this Villa team still have gears to go through and this is not a promising sign for the travelling Italian side who have struggled to win games so far this season. I believe the boys in Claret and Blue will be far too strong for their opponents and win this game pretty comfortably.

Aston Villa 3-0 Bologna (Watkins, Rogers, Duran)

UTV