In-form Aston Villa will endeavour to strengthen their hopes of securing automatic last-16 qualification in the Europa League when they welcome Young Boys to Villa Park for their latest League Phase fixture on Thursday night.
The two teams butt heads just over 12 months on from locking horns in last season's Champions League when Unai Emery's men claimed a 3-0 victory in Bern.
Match preview
Following a poor start to the 2025-26 season, failing to win any of their opening six games, Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery has overseen an impressive upturn in form in the West Midlands, guiding his team to nine victories in their last 11 matches across all competitions (L2).
Defeats to Go Ahead Eagles (2-1) and Liverpool (2-0) represent the only blots on Villa's copybook in that time, and since losing to the latter, the Lions have won each of their last three matches by an aggregate score of 8-1, including last weekend's 2-1 comeback victory at Leeds United in the Premier League.
Morgan Rogers's second-half brace helped Villa come from behind to claim their sixth top-flight triumph of the season and climb to fourth in the table after 12 matches. Emery is thrilled with how his team has risen to the "challenge" in recent weeks and believes Villa are making positive progress towards their "ambitious objective to be in the top positions in the table".
In the Europa League, Aston Villa currently sit sixth in the 36-team League Phase table, just three points behind surprise leaders FC Midtjylland, after winning three of their opening four fixtures (L1), including a 2-0 home victory over Maccabi Tel-Aviv three weeks ago.
Emery's men will be confident of success against Young Boys, as they enter Thursday's contest having won 14 of their last 16 matches at Villa Park in all competitions (D1 L1), while they have also won all five European home games this calendar year - no team has won more home matches in European competition (excluding qualifiers) than Villa (12) since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign.
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Competing in European competition for the third successive season, Young Boys remain in contention to secure their spot in the last 16 of the Europa League despite making an inconsistent start to their League Phase campaign, winning and losing two of their opening four fixtures.
A heavy 4-1 home defeat to Panathinaikos on matchday one was followed by victories over FCSB (2-0) and Ludogorets (3-2), but they were brought back down to earth by PAOK in their most recent Europa League match three weeks ago, losing 4-0 in Greece.
No team has conceded more Europa League goals after four matches this season than Young Boys (10), who currently sit 22nd in the 36-team standings but only three points behind Thursday's opponents Aston Villa in the top six.
Razvan Lucescu's men have since responded by claiming emphatic wins over St Gallen and Winterthur in the Swiss Super League, beating the former 4-1 away and the latter 5-0 on home soil last weekend to climb up to second in the table and to within six points of leaders Thun.
Young Boys are now gearing up for their 14th competitive meeting in European competition against English opposition. In their previous 13, they have prevailed on just two occasions (D2 L9) against Manchester United (2-1) in September 2021 and Tottenham in August 2010 - the Swiss side have never won away against an English team in six previous attempts (D2 L4).
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Tyrone Mings (thigh) and Andres Garcia (unspecified) both remain sidelined with injuries, while Amadou Onana (muscle) will be assessed ahead of kickoff after missing last weekend's win at Leeds.
Ross Barkley is now eligible to play in the Europa League after replacing the injured Mings in Villa's List A squad and he could be handed a rare start in midfield alongside Lamare Bogarde, while Donyell Malen - who started and scored in the 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv - may replace Ollie Watkins up front.
Jadon Sancho, Evann Guessand, Victor Lindelof and Ian Maatsen will all be hoping to force their way back into the first XI, but Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres may retain their places at centre-back, protecting goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
As for Young Boys, Armin Gigovic is suspended, while former West Ham midfielder Edimilson Fernandes is injured along with Zachary Athekame and Facinet Conte.
Englishman Ryan Andrews, a summer signing from Watford, will battle with ex-Man United academy graduate Saidy Janko for a start at right-back, while left-back Jaouen Hadjam and midfielder Rayan Raveloson could both start, even though they are just one booking away from a suspension.
Chris Bedia has scored a team-high 14 goals in 21 games so far this season, including nine strikes in 13 Swiss Super League outings, and he is expected to lead the line, while 10-goal Christian Fassnacht is set to operate on the right side of attack.
Aston Villa possible starting lineup:
Martinez; Lindelof, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen; Bogarde, Barkley; Guessand, Rogers, Sancho; Malen
Young Boys possible starting lineup:
Keller; Andrews, Lauper, Zoukrou, Hadjam; Raveloson, Pech; Fassnacht, Sanches, Virginius; Bedia
We say: Aston Villa 3-1 Young Boys
It is difficult to back against a high-flying Aston Villa side in front of their home crowd, and even if Emery decides to rotate his team, the lineup he selects should still be strong enough to get the better of a defensively frail Young Boys outfit.
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