Aston Villa vs. Lille: Unai Emery's side bidding to extend Ligue 1 club's abysmal unwanted record in Europa League fixture

Aston Villa will be attempting to extend an abysmal unwanted streak held by Lille when they face off on Thursday night.

The Premier League club head into the second leg of their Europa League last 16 tie with the French outfit holding a 1-0 advantage from the first game.

At a time when Villa are looking to earn a top-five spot in the Premier League table, they have an opportunity to go deep in European football's secondary competition.

Unai Emery may have one eye on the important home encounter against West Ham United in England's top flight on Sunday.

Nevertheless, Villa will be eager to inflict yet another negative result on their opponents, who have not enjoyed any of their recent visits to England.

© Imago / Sportsphoto

Lille looking to make history at Villa Park

In nine previous trips, Lille have never won a competitive match, as well as losing eight of those fixtures.

The only time that they have avoided defeat in England was in a Champions League group-stage match against Manchester United at Old Trafford during the 2005-06 campaign.

Since then, seven successive defeats have been posted over a two-decade period, including a 2-1 loss at Villa in the Conference League quarter-finals in 2023-24.

Their other defeats since 2005-06 have come at Man United, Liverpool (twice), Everton and Chelsea (twice) respectively.

Furthermore, Lille have already lost six matches in this season's Europa League, including three of their most recent four away games.

However, they never conceded more than twice in defeats to Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys and Celta Vigo, and they won 2-0 after extra time versus Red Star Belgrade in the playoff round having lost the home leg by a 1-0 scoreline.

Bruno Genesio's side have also put together a six-game unbeaten streak in France's top flight, leaving them in fifth position in the Ligue 1 table.

© Imago / Sportimage

Villa closing in on Chelsea streak

Despite Lille's form going under the radar, Aston Villa have the chance to record a seventh successive win in the Europa League.

The only English team to prevail from more matches in a row in this competition was Chelsea between April 2013 and November 2018.