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Club Brugge v Aston Villa
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Kick Off: Wednesday 6th November at 17:45
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Competition: UEFA Champions League
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Watch Live: TNT Sports 2
Surprise league leaders, Aston Villa are in Brugge on Wednesday night for a matchup between the two losing semi-finalists of last season’s UEFA Conference League.
Club Brugge have lost both of their home games in the Champions League so far and Villa will be travelling to Belgium with the hope of maintaining their perfect record in mind.
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Aston Villa have already travelled to Young Boys and won in match week 1 and followed up with Villa Park victories over Bayern Munich and Bologna. Villa have some tough fixtures to come later in the league stage against Juventus, RB Leipzig, Monaco, and Celtic. If they can beat Club Brugge and extend their 100% record to four matches then they’ll almost guarantee progression to the later stages of the competition and take some of the pressure off those later games.
Club Brugge have three points from their first three league stage matches. A 1-0 win over Sturm Graz the filling in between the sandwich of defeats by Dortmund and AC Milan, 3-0 and 3-1.
Like Villa, Club Brugge still have to play Juventus and Celtic. They also have fixtures against Sporting and Manchester City to come. The Belgian side currently sit in 26th place of the 36-team table.
Villa are yet to concede a goal in their three Champions League matches so far, a contrast to their Premier League record where they average conceding 1.5 goals per game
👕 Club Brugge v Aston Villa Predicted XI
🔍 Club Brugge v Aston Villa Players to Watch
🟣 Emiliano Martinez
In Emiliano Martinez, Aston Villa have one of the world’s elite-level goalkeepers that they can rely on. Martinez has recently won the Lev Yashin Award, given to the goalkeeper of the season. Martinez has won the award in consecutive years. Martinez is incredibly consistent yet still manages to elevate his performance level on big occasions as evidenced by his famed penalty heroics and tournament-winning saves produced for Argentina.
Villa’s clean sheets in the Champions League come from defending their penalty area really well, inviting their opposition to take low-margin shots, and putting their trust in Martinez to make regulation saves. Martinez’s save numbers in the three league stage matches so far read 5-7-3, an average of 5 per game.
🟣 Jhon Duran
It’s difficult to predict the Aston Villa XI for this game. The fixture comes in between tough away Premier League matches versus Tottenham and Liverpool – as such rotation is expected. It’s likely that Jhon Duran will get a rare opportunity to start a game, either in place of Ollie Watkins or alongside him as Morgan Rogers was substituted off with a knock at the weekend.
Whether he starts of comes on from the bench, Duran can be expected to be shot happy. In 130 Champions League minutes this season, Duran has taken nine shots. That’s a shot every 14.44 minutes. Across all competitions, Duran has taken 32 shots at an average of one every 20.63 minutes.
Sometimes wayward, sometimes spectacular but always plentiful, Duran shots at goal this season have been on target 40.6% of the time.
📂 Club Brugge v Aston Villa Cheat Sheet
The fourth matchweek of the Champions League is packed full of action and our football betting predictions are crafted to help you in your picks. Check out our Champions League accumulator tips and Champions League bet builder tips.
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💻 Club Brugge v Aston Villa Form and Tactics
Aston Villa will be missing Ross Barkley for Wednesday’s fixture with Matty Cash and Morgan Rogers also doubts after failing to complete Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to Tottenham. It’s possible that Unai Emery could rotate further still with Ian Maatsen, Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara, Leon Bailey, Jaden Philogene and Jhon Duran pushing for starts.
Villa’s base formation is a 4-4-1-1. Emi Martinez is a near certainty to start in goal. Ezri Konsa will probably shift to right-back to replace the injured Matty Cash with Diego Carlos coming into the side to partner either Pau Torres or Tyrone Mings at centre-back. Ian Maatsen may start ahead of Lucas Digne at left-back. The starting midfield quartet will be made up of four from Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana, Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn, Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey and Jaden Philogene. Jhon Duran is expected to either partner Ollie Watkins or Morgan Rogers up front depending on Rogers’ injury status.
Villa will be looking for a reaction after a horror second half showing against Tottenham on Sunday saw a 1-0 half-time lead turn into a 4-1 full time defeat.
Club Brugge are without the suspended Raphael Onyedika and the injured Gustaf Nilsson on Wednesday. The Belgian side set up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
Brugge like to double up on the flanks where both full-backs look to join with their wingers. Maxim de Cuyper backs up Christos Tzolis on the left, and Joaquin Seys backs up Andreas Skov Olsen on the right. Captain, Hans Vanaken is the playmaker in the #10 position and is pivotal to setting the tone that Brugge play off.
Club Brugge’s domestic form is good. They’ve won their last four in the league and cup. The run of wins has seen them rise to 2nd in the Pro League but they are still seven points adrift of pacesetters Genk.
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🏁 Club Brugge v Aston Villa Ref Watch
- Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)
- In 13 matches officiated this season, Stieler averages 4.61 yellow cards per game – twice this has resulted in a sending-off.
- Stieler has given a further 2 straight red cards this season
- Steiler has given 4 penalties this season. An average of 1 in 3.25 matches.
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* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.
* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.
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