Football betting tips: Europa League
1.5pts Aston Villa to win at 27/20 (bet365)
0.5pt Aston Villa to win to nil at 3/1 (General)
Europa League connoisseur Unai Emery will have his eyes firmly set on a fifth continental cup, with his meticulous reputation well renowned across the continent.
He won’t be taking this clash with Bologna lightly.
In last season's Champions League, Emery’s ASTON VILLA side beat Bayern Munich and drew with Juventus before getting knocked out to the eventual winners PSG. But even then, Villa gave PSG a real scare, beating them in the second leg of their quarter-final clash.
The point is, the Villans proved last season they can go toe-to-toe with the biggest and best sides on the continent which is why it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see them priced as 7/4 favourites to win the competition with Sky Bet.
In 10 Europa League games this season, Villa have won nine, with their only defeat coming at Go Ahead Eagles back in October.
Interestingly, six of those victories have been coupled with a clean sheet which is why backing Villa TO WIN as well as Villa TO WIN TO NIL both appeal.
The latter has also won in three of Villa’s four away wins in this competition as they’ve beaten Feyenoord, Fenerbahce and Lille without conceding.
In the Premier League, the Villans have outperformed the underlying data all season long but it has caught up to them recently.
Unai Emery’s side were in contention for the title at one point but currently sit in fourth, 16 points behind Arsenal but with a five point cushion on fifth.
Obviously, it would have been great to keep title hopes alive until Easter but at least now Villa’s league position allows them to focus solely on this competition.
They'll need to take their A game to Northern Italy because hosts Bologna won’t go quietly.
They had a pretty disastrous spell of 15 games starting just before Christmas where they only won three times in all competitions (D3 L9).
Since getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Lazio in mid-February, the Italian side won eight of their last 11 games.
In this competition, they’ve been consistently good, going 11 unbeaten (W7 D4).
The only side they've lost against was Aston Villa in their opening game, they also lost to the Villa in the Champions League last season and on both occasions, Emery’s side beat them without conceding.
Odds correct at 13:00 BST (07/04/26)
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