Aston Villa vs Ajax

There’s nothing to separate Aston Villa and Ajax ahead of the return leg of their goalless Europa League last-16 tie at Villa Park.

A 0-0 draw in Amsterdam leaves a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs, yet Aston Villa’s warm-up for this crunch contest didn’t go as planned. Unai Emery’s side slumped to a dreadful 4-0 home defeat to Premier League top-four rivals Tottenham last weekend, relinquishing a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions in the process (W3, D1). Keen to bounce back from his career-joint-high home loss, Emery must find a way out of Villa’s recent home crisis. After only losing once in 15 matches in Birmingham spanning almost a year, the Lions have suffered four defeats in their last five home outings (W1). However, they’ve been victorious in all four European home games this season, consolidating their home record in continental action across their last seven such fixtures (W5, D1, L1).

In the meantime, Ajax failed to beat mid-table Eredivisie outfit Fortuna Sittard at the weekend, drawing 2-2 on home soil as their dismal run continues to give manager John van ‘t Schip a sizeable headache. With his team picking up just one 90-minute win across their last nine competitive matches (D6, L2), he’d be wise to rally his troops ahead of this daunting-looking trip. But playing on these shores has been problematic for the Lancers since a 1-0 win at Tottenham in the 2018/19 Champions League semi-final first leg. They have since lost all four European away encounters against English sides, including a 2-0 defeat at Brighton in this season’s Europa League group stages.