Preview: Lille vs Aston Villa - prediction, team news, lineups

Aston Villa travel to Northern France to face Lille at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday evening.

The two teams meet for the first time since their enthralling Conference League quarter-final tie in April 2024 when the English side prevailed on penalties following a 3-3 draw over two legs.

Match preview

After reaching the Conference League semi-finals in 2024 and the Champions League quarter-finals last season, Aston Villa are competing in the Europa League knockout rounds this term after finishing second in the 36-team League Phase, level on points with table-toppers Lyon.

The Midlands club have scored two or more goals in nine of their last 13 European matches, including five of their seven victories across eight League Phase fixtures this season – their only defeat was suffered away against Go Ahead Eagles on matchday three in October.

Since beating Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 at home at the end of January, Villa have suffered a dip in form on the domestic front which has coincided with injuries to a few key players. Just one win has been posted across their last seven games (D2 L4), most recently suffering a heavy 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea in the Premier League a week last Wednesday.

The Europa League could represent a valuable distraction for Villa, and possibly a backup route to next season’s Champions League, as a four-game winless run in the Premier League has dented their top-five hopes, though they still sit fourth and three points above Liverpool in sixth.

Head coach Unai Emery is “dreaming” of steering Villa to their first major trophy since 1996 and winning his record-extending fifth Europa League title as a manager. The Spaniard has won 66 of his 102 matches in the competition with five different clubs and he has never been eliminated in the last 16 in seven previous campaigns.

Unlike Villa, Lille were forced into the Europa League knockout round playoffs after an inconsistent League Phase campaign, winning four and losing four of their eight matches to finish 18th in the standings and four points adrift of the automatic last-16 spots.

Les Dogues overturned a one-goal first-leg deficit to beat Red Star Belgrade 2-0 after extra time in the second leg held in Belgrade at the end of last month, progressing 2-1 on aggregate to reach the last 16 for the fourth time in five seasons in European competition.

Bruno Genesio’s side have since extended their unbeaten run in all tournaments to four games (W3 D1), though they conceded a 93rd-minute goal to draw 1-1 with Lorient in Ligue 1 last weekend, leaving them sixth in the French top-flight table and five points behind the top four with nine games remaining.

On Thursday, Lille return to Stade Pierre-Mauroy where they have won three of their five Europa League home games this season (L2), scoring at least two goals in each victory, but they have only come out on top in two of their last eight home matches across all competitions (D2 L4).

Against English opposition, Lille have only won three of their previous 19 encounters (D5 L11), but one of those was against Aston Villa back in August 2002, winning 2-0 at Villa Park in the second leg of an Intertoto Cup semi-final tie.

Lille Europa League form:

Lille form (all competitions):

Aston Villa Europa League form:

Aston Villa form (all competitions):

Team News

Lille are set to be without Marc-Aurele Caillard (elbow), Osame Sahraoui (groin), Hamza Igamane (ACL), Ethan Mbappe Lottin (thigh) and Ousmane Toure (knee) due to injury.

Goalkeeper, Berke Ozer, centre-back pairing Aissa Mandi and Nathan Ngoy, and midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi are all one booking away from a suspension, but they are all expected to continue in the starting lineup.

Former Southampton left-back Romain Perraud and ex-Tottenham midfielder Nabil Bentaleb are both likely to start, while 39-year-old Olivier Giroud - a Europa League winner with Chelsea in 2018-19 - has scored four of his nine goals in Europe this season and is set to begin up front.

As for Aston Villa, Youri Tielemans (ankle), Boubacar Kamara (knee) and Andres Garcia (thigh) remain sidelined. This game may also come too soon for John McGinn (knee), while Matty Cash (calf) and Harvey Elliott (unspecified) will be assessed ahead of kickoff.

Ross Barkley is ineligible after being left out of the club’s Europa League squad, so Amadou Onana and Douglas Luiz are expected to link arms again in centre-midfield, with Morgan Rogers operating in an advanced central role and seeking to end a five-game goalless drought.

Ollie Watkins is set to get the nod to lead the line over Tammy Abraham, while Jadon Sancho could be recalled at the expense of either Leon Bailey and Emiliano Buendia to start on the right flank.

Lille possible starting lineup:

Ozer; Santos, Ngoy, Mandi, Perraud; Bentaleb, Andre, Bouaddi; Haraldsson, Giroud, Correia

Aston Villa possible starting lineup:

Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen; Luiz, Onana; Sancho, Rogers, Buendia; Watkins

We say: Lille 1-1 Aston Villa

Lille defeated Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last season, so it would be nonsensical to rule out the French outfit from pulling off an upset in this two-legged affair with an out-of-sorts Aston Villa side.

Having said that, we expect a response from Emery’s men and they should have enough quality in their side to come away with at least a share of the spoils, keeping the tie finely poised ahead of next week’s return fixture at Villa Park.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.