Aston Villa’s UEFA Europa Conference League Group Stage campaign gets underway this Thursday with a trip to Poland to face Ekstraklasa side Legia Warsaw in Group E. Here’s the latest heading into the mid-week fixture at the Stadion Wojska Polskiego…
Words by: Liam Davies
THE BUILD UP
Unai Emery’s team enter the upcoming fixture on the back of their dramatic 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Villa Park on Saturday. The home side had a number of chances in the first-half but failed to find the back of the net, with Moussa Diaby having a goal ruled out for a narrow offside.
Palace opened the scoring just after the break, as Jean-Philippe Mateta put Odsonne Édouard through on goal and, after ‘keeper Emi Martínez slipped, the Frenchmen converted for his fifth of the season. It took until the 88th minute for the hosts to reply, with substitute Jhon Durán firing home a spectacular volley after Lucas Digne’s pinpoint cross. The late drama would continue, with Villa winning a penalty after Ollie Watkins was taken down. Following a long VAR check, referee Darren England stuck with his on-field decision and Douglas Luiz would step up to score in four consecutive home league games and put his side ahead.
Youri Tielemans sent Diaby down the left in the 101st minute and the summer signing found Leon Bailey at the back-post. The Jamaican found the back of the net for his fourth of the campaign, securing the three points for the West-Midlands outfit. This result propels the Villans up to seventh in the Premier League, with three victories and two defeats after five games played. Palace dropped below their weekend opposition to eighth, as a result.
Legia Warsaw enter Thursday’s game having drawn away at Piast Gliwice on Saturday. The home side went a goal up through midfielder Sergiy Krykun’s half-time stoppage-time effort, following Josué’s dismissal, after two yellow cards, for the visitors. Although a man down, Legia found a way back into the game and it was Albanian forward Ernest Muçi who would equalise in the 69th minute. Kosta Runjaić’s side would hold on for the point, despite late pressure from the hosts, and sit third in the Ekstraklasa after six games played.
The Legionnaires had to get through three play-off ties (six games) before entering the group stage round, defeating Kazakh side FC Ordabasy 5-4 over two legs, before seeing off FK Austria Wien 6-5 on aggregate. Legia would then beat Danish outfit FC Midtjylland 6-5 on penalties following a 4-4 score-line after two legs to claim a place in the main tournament.
Can Aston Villa make it two wins on the bounce and start their Europa Conference League campaign with all three points away in Poland or will Legia defy the odds to claim an extraordinary victory at home?
TEAM NEWS
ASTON VILLA
Aston Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey has returned to first team training this week, and is a part of the squad travelling to Poland for Thursday’s game in Warsaw.
The 22-year-old has been sidelined for the majority of the summer, after sustaining a metatarsal injury in the quarter-finals of the U21 Euros, missing pre-season and the first five games of the Premier League campaign, as well as the two UECL qualifiers against Hibernian too.
Jacob Ramsey.
Full-back Àlex Moreno could make his playing return for Villa tomorrow evening, after making the substitutes bench for Saturday’s win over Crystal Palace. The Spaniard returned to training last week after recovering from a hamstring injury that, like Ramsey, had him miss the start of the new term.
Tomorrow’s game presents an opportunity for Clement Lenglet to make his Aston Villa debut since arriving from Spanish giants Barcelona on a season-long loan on deadline day.
Elsewhere, this fixture comes too soon for both Bertrand Traoré and Diego Carlos who are unavailable through injury, whilst Emi Buendía, Tyrone Mings and Tim Iroegbunam all remain out on a long-term basis.
LEGIA WARSAW
Legia Warsaw will be without midfielder Rafal Augustyniak for tomorrow’s big game at the Stadion Wojska Polskiego. The 29-year-old former FC Ural Yekaterinburg man has missed the last two games in the Ekstraklasa through injury and has failed to train ahead of the clash with Unai Emery’s Aston Villa.
Manager Kosta Runjaić could welcome forward Blaz Kramer back this week, however, with the Slovenian rumoured to have returned from a thigh injury that kept him out of the recent encounter with Piast Gliwice.
Elsewhere, midfielder Bartosz Kapustka is unavailable due to a knee injury, whilst young defender Ramil Mustafaev is absent and will miss a large part of the 23/24 campaign with a cruciate ligament rupture.
Despite receiving a red card in the recent Ekstraklasa fixture, Josué is available for tomorrow, with the suspension to be served in the next league game (at home to Gornik Zabrze).
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A BIT ON LEGIA WARSAW…
Legia finished as runners-up in the Ekstraklasa last season, with Raków Częstochowa topping the table by nine points. Runjaić’s side did get one up on Raków and win some silverware however, winning last year’s Polish Cup 6-5 on penalties after a 120 minute period of stalemate.
Having finished tenth the season before, the Legionnaires had no European football last term and could focus solely on the domestic competitions. Portuguese striker Josué finished as the club’s top scorer, bagging 15 goals across all competitions; the former Porto man is the club captain and will lead his side out against Premier League opposition this Thursday evening.
One name that may be familiar to fans of the English leagues is Portuguese left-back Yuri Ribeiro, who spent two seasons in the EFL Championship with Nottingham Forest between 2019 and 2021, before making the switch to the Polish capital. Striker Tomáš Pekhart, who has eight goals to his name already this season, spent his youth career at Tottenham Hotspur, whilst midfielder Paweł Wszołek played three seasons in West-London with Queen’s Park Rangers between 2016 and 2019.
Tomorrow’s game will no doubt be one of the toughest fixtures of their season, but Legia will relish the occasion and will look to use their electric home atmosphere to their advantage on the night and cause an upset. The Polish side’s chances of advancing through to the knockout stages will not be determined by the outcome of this upcoming fixture versus Aston Villa, but avoiding defeat will certainly boost the confidence of the team and will give the fans plenty of hope heading into the other crucial matches against AZ Alkmaar and HŠK Zrinijski.
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MY PREDICTED LINE-UP
Let’s take a look at my predicted line-up for this upcoming fixture in Warsaw…
Do you agree? Who makes your side? Share yours now and let’s discuss?
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