Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has named an unchanged team for their Champions League debut at Young Boys tonight.
It means Jhon Duran, who came off the bench to score a spectacular winner as Villa came back from 2-0 down to beat Everton on Saturday evening, starts among the substitutes once again.
He’s joined by Leon Bailey, who returns from a hamstring injury.
It’s Villa’s first foray into the Champions League, although they did win the European Cup, the same competition in a previous guise, in 1982.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Bogarde, Konsa, Pau Torres, Digne, Onana, Tielemans, McGinn, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins
Subs: Gauci, Zych, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Diego Carlos, Swinkels, Young, Barkley, Buendia, Bailey, Duran
Your Aston Villa squad for our first Champions League match 🫡#UpTheVilla pic.twitter.com/dIzacg3DBD
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) September 17, 2024
Young Boys prop up the Swiss Super League but did enjoy a 4-2 win at Vevey-Sports in the cup at the weekend.
Nevertheless, coach Patrick Rahmen makes five changes to his team.
Jaouen Hadjam, Tanguy Zoukrou, Ebrima Colley, Sandro Lauper and Silvere Ganvoula come in, replacing Loris Benito, Abdou Conte, Alan Virginius, Darian Males and Cedric Itten.
Young Boys: Von Ballmoos, Hadjam, Zoukrou, Ugrinic, Colley, Camara, Niasse, Athekame, Lauper, Ganvoula, Monteiro
Subs: Keller, Marzino, Lakomy, Itten, Imeri, Chaiwa, Elia, Virginius, Abdu Conte, Benito, Blum, Males
Unsere Startelf für den #UCL-Auftakt 🆚 @AVFCOfficial 🟡⚫️
YB ohne Pfeiffer, Janko, F. Conte, Crnovrsanin (verletzt), Husic, Bajrami (nicht im Aufgebot) und Seiler (U19).#bscyb #ybforever #ybavl pic.twitter.com/P6Q24tag5f
— BSC YOUNG BOYS (@BSC_YB) September 17, 2024
