Boosted by a victory over the Premier League leader, in form Aston Villa meets Basel in the Europa League on Thursday. After a slow start to the season, Villa bounced back to be currently on a seven-game winning streak in all competitions, including a 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Saturday. Beside a top-three place in the English top flight, the Villans are tied with Lyon and Midtjylland atop the standings of the second-tier European competition on 12 points with four wins from five games.
“The most important thing is how we are building the team, how we are achieving in our process during each competition, our stronger mentality in everything,” manager Unai Emery said ahead of the match at St. Jakob-Park in Basel. Emery has won the Europa League trophy four times during stints in charge of Sevilla and Villarreal.
Lyon hosts Dutch newcomer Go Ahead Eagles while Midtjylland faces Genk at home. The top eight teams after eight games go directly to the round of 16 in March. At the other end of the 36-team table, struggling Nice will look to earn the first points against Braga.
Teams placed ninth to 24th advance to the knockout playoffs in February. In other games, Nottingham Forest is away at Utrecht, Celtic and Roma meet in Glasgow and Maccabi Tel Aviv travels to Stuttgart. In the third-tier Conference League, Crystal Palace plays Shelbourne in Dublin and Fiorentina hosts Dynamo Kyiv.
