Aston Villa vs Lille LIVE: Unai Emery’s men seek to continue push for European glory against French giants – kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Aston Villa’s push to be crowned Europa Conference League champions continues tonight against Lille.

The Villans welcome the former Ligue 1 champions to Birmingham for the first leg of what should prove to be a thrilling tie.

Unai Emery’s side have lost just one of their Europa Conference League games this season and dispatched Ajax in the last round.

However, Lille should prove a tougher test than the Dutch giants.

Lille are currently fourth in Ligue 1 and are arguably the strongest team left in the tournament, meaning should Villa win, the competition would open up.

Aston Villa vs Lille: Fortress Villa Park

Aston Villa’s Europa Conference League campaign has been built on an incredible home record.

The Villans have played four home European games this year, winning all of them.

In those games, they’ve conceded two goals and scored nine.

Ajax were the most recent side to visit and were blown away 4-0 in Villa’s backyard.

Most teams prefer to play the first legs of European ties away from home and the second on familiar territory.

However, with the backing of the Villa faithful, you would expect Emery’s team to try and end this tie in the first leg.

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• Lille have faced Aston Villa once previously in a European knockout tie, eliminating them in the semi-finals of the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup (3-1 on aggregate).
• Lille are winless across their previous seven major European games in England (D1 L6), scoring just one goal across those matches.
• This will be Aston Villa’s fifth major European quarter-final and their first since the 1997-98 UEFA Cup (eliminated by Atlético de Madrid); meanwhile, Lille have never reached the quarter-finals of a major European competition before.

Aston Villa vs Lille: Team news

The hosts will have John McGinn available after he missed the last few weeks due to a domestic suspension.

Emiliano Martinez is fully fit and Nicolo Zaniolo is also back from a European ban.

But Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara and Emi Buendia are all absent with ACL injuries.

Matty Cash and Jacob Ramsey also won’t feature.

Ollie Watkins has been struggling with a hamstring issue, but he’s likely to start.

For the visitors, Angel Gomes is expected to be fit after shaking off a similar problem to Watkins.

However, Samuel Umtiti, Andrej Illic and Tiago Morais are all going to miss out.

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• Including qualifiers, Aston Villa have won all five of their home games in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season – should they defeat Lille, Aston Villa will set their longest ever winning run at home in Europe (6 games).
• Lille are unbeaten in their eight games in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season (W5 D3), equalling the club’s longest unbeaten run in major European competitions (also 8 between 2001-2004) – Lille haven’t conceded more than one goal in a single game in the Conference League this term (3 goals conceded in total).
• Despite having the highest expected goals value of any team in the UEFA Europa Conference league this season (18 xG), Lille have scored four goals fewer than their xG would suggest (14 goals), the highest negative difference of any team in the competition this term – by comparison, Aston Villa have scored 16 goals from just 9.9 xG in the competition this term (+6.1).

Aston Villa vs Lille: What has been said?

Former Villa forward Gabby Agbonlahor thinks that his former side lack that big-team mentality.

Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “When we used to play and we were one or two goals up. We would say that a clean sheet wins us the game.

“Villa were 2-0 up [against Brentford] and they conceded three goals in nine minutes. Unacceptable.

“If you want to finish in the top four, you can’t have form like that.

“They’ve worked hard all season and are throwing it away with performances like that.

“Aston Villa should have won that game.”

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• Lille have averaged the most ball possession (65%), the most successful passes in the opposition half (274) and the most successful passes ending in the final third (140) per game of any team in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season.
• Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz has assisted four goals in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season (including two assists in the second leg of the play-off round v Ajax), with only Eintracht’s Farès Chaïbi assisting more in the competition this term (6).

Aston Villa vs Lille: Date and how to follow

This Europa Conference League quarter-final first-leg clash is set to take place on Thursday, April 11.

Kick-off at Villa Park is scheduled for 8pm.

The match will be broadcast on TNT Sports 3.

talkSPORT will have regular updates from Birmingham and talkSPORT.com will have all the reaction.

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.