Aston Villa vs Bologna

Villa Park is the venue as UEFA Champions League surprise package Aston Villa and misfiring Bologna lock horns for the first time.

Aston Villa overhauled an early deficit to beat Fulham 3-1 in a dramatic Premier League game at the weekend to set themselves up nicely for this trip following a gut-wrenching 0-0 home draw against Manchester United right before the international break. Preceding that result was a memorable 1-0 triumph against Bayern Munich on this ground, which made it two wins ‘to nil’ out of two for Unai Emery’s high-flying side in their first Champions League campaign since the early 1980s. Another shutout against Bologna would see the East Midlands outfit become the first team in this competition since Leicester City 2016/17 to not concede in their opening three fixtures. However, there’s a downside. The Lions have only broken the deadlock once in their last seven competitive home outings.

Visiting Bologna must take advantage of Aston Villa’s awkward home openings to get off the mark in the Champions League and avoid becoming the first side since Austria Vienna in 2012/13 to go three consecutive matches without scoring. Indeed, after a tepid 0-0 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk on matchday one, ‘I Rossoblu’ slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Liverpool last time out, meaning they’ve lost both previous European visits to English shores. Vincenzo Italiano’s men cannot be overly optimistic about their chances of bucking that trend after throwing away a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw against Genoa last weekend to make it four consecutive winless matches in all competitions (D3, L1). On top of that, they’ve conceded 2+ goals on four of their five competitive travels this season (W1, D2, L2).