Aston Villa face Olympiacos in the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the first leg.
After seeing off Lille in the previous round in a penalty shootout, Villa will hope to seal a spot in the Final in less dramatic circumstances as we face another difficult assignment against the Greek giants.
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Emery and the players will no doubt be fully focused on taking a big step towards reaching a major European final, but ultimately there is another vital game in our season on Sunday when we travel to Brighton.
In turn, the Villa boss has to get the balance right as we continue to compete on two fronts with an eye on qualifying for the Champions League next season, while his task is frustratingly made more difficult given our injury issues.
Long-term absentees Tyrone Mings, Emiliano Buendia, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey all remain sidelined, while it remains to be seen if either Alex Moreno or Nicolo Zaniolo will be able to feature in this game given their recent absences, with the latest expected from Emery in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Further, with Emiliano Martinez suspended after his heroics in Lille coupled with Youri Tielemans picking up an injury setback of his own last weekend, the list of Villa absentees continues to grow by the game.
Nevertheless, that’s been the case for most of the season and yet we find ourselves in a brilliant position in the last month of the campaign, and it’s hoped that we still have enough to continue to compete to the end.
Olsen, Diaby set to start for Villa in two changes to Emery’s XI
While it’s hoped Martinez recovers from his own injury blow to feature at the weekend, he’ll play no part in this one as Robin Olsen comes in to deputise and fill that void between the posts.
Although we’ve continued to concede a number of goals when the experienced Swede is on the pitch, there is no doubt that he has shown improvement in his shot-stopping and distribution, while he made a huge late save to ensure we came away with a point at least against Chelsea last Saturday night.
It should be an unchanged backline in front of him which is important to offer consistency and familiarity, with Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne getting the nod, while John McGinn is likely to drop back into a deeper midfield role alongside Leon Bailey, Douglas Luiz and Morgan Rogers.
That in turn allows Moussa Diaby to come in to support Ollie Watkins in the final third, and so that’s just two changes to the side that drew with Chelsea last time out.
Diego Carlos in particular will be itching to be involved as he’s been unlucky to miss out in recent games given his excellent display against Arsenal prior to the change, while we’ll have to wait and see if the likes of Zaniolo and Moreno are able to make the matchday squad and boost our depth.
It’s another massive European night at Villa Park, and it’s hoped that Villa are able to get the job done and take a commanding lead into the second leg in Greece next week to give ourselves a real chance of returning to Athens later this month for the Final.
