Aston Villa vs Club Brugge

Villa Park forms the backdrop for the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie between Aston Villa and Club Brugge.

Aston Villa will be out to seal their quarter-final progression after a comfortable 3-1 first-leg win at Jan Breydel Stadium last week and become the ninth different English club to get this far in the Champions League – the outright most across all European countries. The omens look good for the Lions, who have progressed from 12 of the 14 previous two-legged European ties when winning the first leg. On another positive note, Villa beat Anderlecht 1-0 in their last home meeting with Belgian opposition en route to lifting the European Cup in 1982! Unai Emery can take further confidence from Villa’s three-match winning streak in all competitions, bookended by a hard-earned 1-0 win at fellow Premier League rivals Brentford last weekend.

On the other hand, Club Brugge bounced back from a first-leg disappointment with a 3-1 away win against Cercle Brugge at the weekend, extending their unbeaten away run in all competitions to five matches (W2, D3). Another stalemate will send the visitors packing, but they’ll likely need to grind for it anyway after failing to keep a clean sheet across their last seven away games. However, they can fall back on a stunning 3-1 victory at Atalanta in the return leg of their knockout playoff tie as they seek back-to-back away wins in the Champions League for the first time in club history. That’s easier said than done, considering they’ve not won any of their last 14 visits to English soil (D2, L12).