Aston Villa will host Fenerbahce on Wednesday night in their first Champions League night at Villa Park since running PSG close in the quarter finals back in April 2025, and Unai Emery’s side are looking to make it back-to-back wins to start their European campaign.
Villa’s visitors qualified for the group stage (or league phase as it is now known) of the Champions League for the first time since 2008 by edging past Lyon in the final playoff round, and drew their first match 1-1 at home to Roma.
They are managed by Ismail Kartal, who joined for his fourth spell at the club in June. Early in the season they are 4th in the Turkish Super Lig after four wins, one draw and two losses.
Fenerbahce have the best goal difference in the league (+13) mostly owing to an 8-0 win over Eyupspor, but lost 2-1 at home to Besiktas in their most difficult fixture of the season so far.
There are lots of familiar faces in their squad, including former Villa loanee Marco Asensio and previous Premier League players in Ederson, Nelson Semedo, Nathan Ake, N’Golo Kante, Matteo Guendouzi. Mason Greenwood and Romelu Lukaku.
Left-back Archie Brown was born in Birmingham and came up in West Brom and Derby’s academies. He was linked to Villa two summers ago when he was playing for Belgian side Gent.
In terms of Villa’s matchup with Fenerbahce, here are three key notes ahead of Wednesday’s game:
Tyrone Mings needs to play again
Villa fans may be looking forward to Pau Torres coming back into the lineup after Mings’ error which led to a Brentford goal, but like on Saturday, this is a match where Mings makes more sense as the left-centre-back.
Fenerbahce’s main striker this season has not been Lukaku, but Vedat Muriqi who signed in the summer from Mallorca. He has six goals already this season and is a towering striker at 6’4”. Whether it is him or Lukaku up front, Mings will cope with the physical battle better than Torres.
Some of their more dangerous attacks have come from Ederson’s long kicks being knocked down by Muriqi or Lukaku to nearby teammates.
They have been a threat from both crosses and set plays, ranking joint 1st in the Super Lig with five goals and 3rd in xG with 3.6 from set pieces. Centre-back Milan Skriniar even scored from a long throw-in against Besiktas.
The issue for Mings on Saturday was that Brentford’s aggressive press caused him problems in possession, but that should not be as much of a factor on Wednesday, as Fenerbahce are only winning the ball in the final third 3.1 times per game, compared to 5.2 for Brentford.
Emery would be wise to back Mings again in this one rather than drop him because of an error which is unlikely to be repeated.
Wan-Bissaka vs Greenwood
Fenerbahce are a threat on the counter-attack, which was regularly on display against Roma, and Mason Greenwood is a big part of that from the right wing. The Englishman has four goals already this season and is dangerous in one-on-one situations.
Although it is not his natural side, having Wan-Bissaka play at left-back in place of the injured Matteo Ruggeri may actually be a good thing for Villa in this game, due to his defensive prowess and ability to win the ball in creative ways.
On the other side, it will likely be Kerem Akturkoglu or Oguz Aydin, both of whom are lively, and with Brown pushing up and forming part of the attack from left-back, Matty Cash could have his hands full and will need support from presumably John McGinn playing in front of him.
Kante is not the player he used to be, but he can still scurry across the pitch in possession and get his team forward. Shutting down Fenerbahce’s breakaways will be important for Villa on Wednesday.
Fenerbahce sloppy at the back
Fenerbahce look like a team of mercenaries on paper, and they play like it without the ball.
While Kante and Guendouzi theoretically form a combative midfield, and Fenerbahce do rank 2nd in the Super Lig in tackles per game (17.3), there are equally some very poor moments from the pair where they do not show enough desire to win the ball back in midfield.
Frankly, this team looks very lazy and disorganised without the ball. They leave themselves open and there are often opposition players in alarming amounts of space in the final third.
The distances between defenders does not seem right and they can be targeted with passes around the corner or floated ones behind the back line. They do not get much defensive support from Greenwood in particular, and they are not great at defending their own box either.
There is not much urgency to close people down on the edge of the box either, although Fenerbahce are helped by the fact Ederson is still a strong shot stopper.
Villa should have no problem causing this team problems, whether that is through runs behind the defense, counter-attacks or combinations in and around the penalty area. Nicolas Jackson’s movement will test Skriniar and Ake all night.
Expect the starting 11 to look similar to the second half against Brentford, with Suzuki in goal, a back four of Cash, Lindelof, Mings and Wan-Bissaka, a midfield of Kamara, Gomes, McGinn, Manzambi and Buendia (or perhaps Mbaye or Garnacho), and Jackson up front.
As long as they keep Fenerbahce at bay defensively, which has been the weaker side of Villa’s performances, they should be able to notch their first home win of the season on Wednesday night.
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