RB Leipzig vs. Aston Villa: Unai Emery out to avoid ending nine-year Champions League run

Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery will be out to avoid ending a nine-year streak when they face RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

The Premier League outfit head into Tuesday night's fixture in Germany sitting in ninth place in the standings after five matches.

Villa have earned an impressive 10 points, beating Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna and securing a share of the spoils with Juventus.

With three matches remaining, the West Midlands team likely need one more win from their remaining three fixtures to guarantee a bare minimum of a playoff spot.

Nevertheless, first on the agenda for Emery is trying to extend a record that he has held since the 2015-16 campaign.

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Villa winless in two European games

Preceding the goalless draw with Juventus last time out, Villa suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge in Belgium.

Should Villa fail to overcome the challenge of RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena, it would represent the first time in nine years that Emery has gone three successive games in the Champions League without recording a win.

While Sevilla would eventually lift the Europa League crown in 2015-16, they had earlier gone four games without success between September and November 2015.

After a 2-0 reverse at Juventus, Emery oversaw back-to-back defeats at the hands of Manchester City, losing 2-1 and 3-1 respectively.

A fourth setback would follow versus Borussia Monchengladbach, yet beating Juventus on the final matchday enabled Sevilla to drop down into the second tier of European football.

Villa will be playing in their first competitive fixture in Germany since losing 3-1 to Hamburg in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup.

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RB Leipzig looking to avoid 21-year worst run

Incredibly, RB Leipzig have lost each of their opening five matches, going down to Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool, Celtic and Inter Milan.

Should they suffer a sixth defeat in a row, it would represent the worst losing streak by a German side in this competition since Bayer Leverkusen in 2003.

Furthermore, Leipzig have lost their most recent four encounters against English opposition.