Aston Villa vs Juventus Predictions

• Aston Villa have won three of their four Champions League fixtures
• Juventus have won only two of their last seven matches
• Villa have lost only four of their last 19 matches at home

Villa set for another successful European evening

Aston Villa are going through a lean spell in the Premier League but they have won three of their opening four Champions League assignments and can make it another European night to remember with victory over Juventus.

The Villans have gone four games without a win in the Premier League following Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace while they were beaten 1-0 away at Club Brugge in their latest Champions League outing.

However, they had defeated Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna to nil in Europe prior to that beating in Belgium, with those latter two successes coming at Villa Park.

That victory over Bologna should give Unai Emery some sort of guide given they are Juve’s Serie A rivals and are only two places and seven points behind the Old Lady with a game in hand.

Juventus remain unbeaten in the Italian top-flight after 13 matches but they’ve drawn seven of those fixtures, relying on their steely defence to grind out results.

Old Lady faced with difficult test

Thiago Motta’s appointment as manager has certainly sparked an improvement in the Italian giants but they’ve been unable to build on victories in their opening two Champions League matches against PSV (3-1) and Leipzig (3-2).

Juve have since limped to a 1-0 loss at home to Stuttgart and been held to a 1-1 draw at Lille and the injuries are starting to tot up for them with the absence of star striker Dusan Vlahovic one of the biggest blows.

So Villa may be confident of capitalising, even despite their recent form, and they tend to be pretty reliable at Villa Park.

Emery’s side have lost only two of their nine home games in all competitions and those reverses came against Arsenal in the league and Palace in the EFL Cup.

It means Villa have lost only four of their last 19 home matches and an electric atmosphere could help them claim a vital victory over Juve, who have won only twice in their last seven attempts.

That hard-fought 1-0 victory at home to Bayern on matchday two is evidence of what Villa could be capable of in this competition at home and they look the most likely winners of this contest.

It is likely to be cagey rather than explosive though, given all four of Villa’s Champions League fixtures have seen one team fail to score while seven of Juventus’ last nine games have gone under 2.5 goals.

With that in mind, correct-score punters may plunge for Villa to edge a low-scoring encounter 1-0.