![[Pre-Match Thread] Lille vs. Aston Villa (Europa League - Round of 16)](https://www.eucup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/yYYcKArZCbh9SItHbNGFZGe_do3SJRt7dnCANOBxeoI-1024x768.jpeg "[Pre-Match Thread] Lille vs. Aston Villa (Europa League – Round of 16)")
Competition: Europa League – Round of 16
Date: Thu 12 Mar 2026
Kickoff: 17:45
Venue: Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Referee: Jose Sanchez
Aston Villa Statistics (all competitions)
Form: WLDLL
Goals per match: 1.3
Average Possession: 54.5%
Goals conceded per match: 1.2
Pass Accuracy: 85.6%
Shots per game: 12.6
Tackles per game: 15
Clean Sheets: 12
Lille Statistics (all competitions)
Form: LWWWD
Goals per match: 1.5
Average Possession: 56%
Goals conceded per match: 1.3
Pass Accuracy: 85%
Shots per game: 14.1
Tackles per game: 15.1
Clean Sheets: 13
TEAM NEWS COMING SOON
-
This is the fifth European meeting between Lille and Aston Villa – they met twice in the Intertoto Cup in 2002, with Villa drawing away and winning 2-0 at Villa Park, then faced in the 2023-24 Conference League quarter-final (both 2-1 home wins).
-
Aston Villa have never won an away European match (inc. qualifiers) in France in six attempts (D2 L4), losing the last three in a row.
-
Lille have won the first leg in just one of their last seven major European knockout ties (D2 L4) and were beaten 1-0 by Crvena Zvezda in the first leg of their play-off tie last month.
-
Lille’s Olivier Giroud has 19 UEFA Europa League goals and could be the 11th player to score 20 (since 2009-10) – with all 19 scored since Giroud turned 30; the only two players to score 20+ goals after the age of 30 are Aritz Aduriz (26) and Edin Dzeko (20). Giroud has also scored in each of his last eight matches against Aston Villa, scoring 10 goals between August 2013 and December 2020 for Arsenal and Chelsea.
-
Aston Villa have won their last five UEFA Europa League matches, their longest ever winning run in major European competition. The last English team to win six games in a row in the Europa League was Arsenal between October and December 2020.
How are you feeling? What's your starting XI? Predictions? UTV!
by just_boof_it
9 Comments
Hot take: I actually like our draws in Europe.
Knowing the villa we tend to perform better in the harder fixtures and tend to flop against easier teams on paper.
mcginn back in the squad, cash is not in any of the training pictures / airport pictures so im going to presume hes injured meaning bogarde will feature at RB.
Conflicted. Our playstyle is better suited for Europa and the start of Europa kickstarted a good campaign, plus we have McGinn back now and Lille aren’t the same side they used to be. But we seem to be very lacking in confidence in the last couple games and form doesn’t turn around overnight. Hoping for the best… just don’t lose (or lose by a small enough amount that we can turn it around). UTV
Up the Villa
I think it’ll be another miserable evening to be a Villa fan in 2026 unfortunately. Think we’ll go there to slow things down, try and keep it tight, but end up conceding a couple of stupid goals.
2-0 Lille, uphill battle at Villa Park next week.
I’m hoping that this can kick start our season again like how the Bologna game did at the start of the season. McGinn getting some minutes would also be nice. It’ll be funny to see Emi’s reception in France again haha.
Take a look at the last side that we put up against Lille. Barring 1-2 names it’s almost the same side. Really shows how we’ve struggled to add on top of our existing 11.
Regardless, excited for this tie and we should come out with the win. That should really help us pick up some form over the league
Shitting bricks
Ive always liked giroud as a player and that season we tried to sign him (I think when we ended up signing samatta) I was desperate for us to sign him
Because HE ALWAYS FUCKING SCORED AGAINST US. I think we are still the team hes scored against most in his career, certainly in England
But my god this team needs a win