Lille vs Aston Villa

Stade Pierre-Mauroy sets the stage for the second leg of a fiercely-contested Europa Conference League quarter-final tie between Lille and Aston Villa, with the visitors boasting a 2-1 aggregate lead.

Badfode Diakite’s late consolation header gave Lille a fighting chance in this tie, cutting Aston Villa’s lead in half, but they still have a mountain to climb. Lille’s effort to reach the semi-finals hinges on bucking an unwanted trend of failing to score more than once in their last eight home encounters against English opposition. Home and away, they’re winless in eight consecutive meetings with Premier League sides (D1, L7), casting further doubt on their hopes of turning this tie on its head. On a more positive note, Paulo Fonseca’s side had gone undefeated in seven straight matches before collapsing in Birmingham (W4, D3) and had a weekend off in domestic action to rest and prepare for this crunch fixture.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa received another confidence boost over the weekend as two unanswered second-half goals propelled them to a stunning 2-0 win at Premier League title hopefuls Arsenal, stretching their unbeaten run in all competitions to three games (W2, D1). By extension, the Lions have only suffered two defeats across their last 12 competitive outings (W7, D3). Led by Europa League specialist Unai Emery, Villa will fancy their chances in France, knowing their manager has only lost one quarter-final tie during his storied managerial career. The Spaniard has won his last seven quarter-finals in UEFA club competition and seems destined to make it eight in a row, with Villa progressing from eight out of nine European two-legged ties when winning the first leg at home.