Aston Villa vs. Bologna: Unai Emery's side bidding to extend 43-year streak in Europa League quarter-final second leg

Aston Villa will be looking to extend a 43-year streak when they face Bologna on Thursday night.

Unai Emery's side head into the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final holding a 3-1 advantage from the opening game in Italy.

With Villa's priority being to finish in the top five of the Premier League table to guarantee Champions League qualification for next season, there is the potential for several alterations to be made by Emery.

Nevertheless, the West Midlands outfit are the favourites to progress to a last-four showdown against either Porto or Nottingham Forest.

Should Villa manage to extend a run of results that has lasted since 1983, they will enjoy a routine 90 minutes.

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What streak can Aston Villa extend against Bologna?

An Italian team has not scored at Villa Park since 1983, when Juventus prevailed 2-1 in a European Cup tie with Zbigniew Boniek scoring the decisive goal.

Villa have since put together a five-match streak against Italian clubs where they have kept a clean sheet.

Those games have been against Inter Milan (twice), Bologna (twice) and Juventus respectively.

Furthermore, Bologna have lost their last five competitive matches in England, not prevailing since overcoming West Bromwich Albion in 1967.

However, it should be noted that Bologna are on the cusp of equalling a UEFA Cup record having prevailed in their last five away fixtures in the competition.

Only two teams - Hamburger SV in 2008-09 and Porto in 2010-11 - have ever won six times in a single campaign.

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Aston Villa's daunting European home record

While Villa will be conscious of Bologna' away record, they have incredibly won 15 of their last 17 home fixtures in European competition.

That said, their solitary defeat came in a knockout tie as they went down 4-2 to Olympiacos in the first leg of their 2023-24 Conference League semi-final.