Following the Aston Villa victory against Fulham, the Unai Emery side is looking to capitalize on the recent good performance with a win against Feyenoord.
The European competition started off well enough with the win against Bologna. Villa will now take on the Eredivisie team while looking to make it two wins in a row in the Europa League competition.
There is not too much reason to doubt Villa's ability to qualify for at least one of the knockout phases. Being a Premier League side, however, means that the expectation should be for Villa to finish in the top eight, which would yield automatic qualification for the Round of 16.
This challenge has become a little more difficult in terms of the squad that has been able to make the trip to the Netherlands.
As reported by Birmingham Live's John Townley on X, Jadon Sancho will be unable to take part in the fixture due to an illness. Other players who are not going to be able to play against Feyenoord include Amadou Onana, Youri Tielemans, Tyrone Mings, and Andres Garcia.
It goes without saying that these names are highly important for the success of the club. Villa have been forced to overcome a lot to this point of the season as a whole. Missing players and being shorthanded are aspects every team has to deal with, but this has been more so the case for Villa.
Need for Aston Villa to overcome
This is what makes it difficult to have anything other than three points be the expectation for this fixture. Even away from Villa Park, this squad is plenty good enough to compete in an away match and find a way to earn a win.
Until the boost comes from some of the aforementioned players, particularly in midfield with the likes of Onana and Tielemans, it will be good to see how Villa are able to compete once at full force.