Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv Prediction: Easy street for home side?

There could be quite a tense atmosphere at Villa Park on Thursday night with no away fans for the Uefa Europa League clash against Maccabi Tel Aviv (20:00 GMT, TNT Sports 2) and around 700 police officers expected to deal with planned protests. 

We will focus on matters on the pitch however, with Aston Villa looking for their third win of the group phase. Check out my Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv predictions, featuring team news and match odds, below.

Team News

Ollie Watkins will lead the line again for Unai Emery who will have to deal with a whole host of injuries. As it stands, Tyrone Mings is out for the rest of the year after pulling his hamstring against Liverpool, and he joined Emiliano Buendia, Youri Tielemans, Andres Garcia and Ross Barkley on the sidelines. 

Harvey Elliott is back having been ineligible to play against his parent club and he could start in the number 10 role, with plenty of rotation expected from the Spanish boss. Jadon Sancho and Donyell Malen could both be given starts in the wide positions, while Lamare Bogarde could play in midfield and Victor Lindelof should feature in defence. 

Football Odds

Maccabi Tel Aviv could switch to a 3-5-2 or stick with a back four, with Dor Peretz the club’s top scorer with eight goals. He should start in attack with Elad Madmon or Sayed Abu Farkhi if Zarko Lazetic chooses to line up with a front two. 

AZ Alkmaar loanee Kristijan Belic should play in midfield with Issouf Sissokho, while Tyrese Asante and Roy Revivo (what a name that is by the way), will start in defence. 

Today's Football Fixtures

Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv Odds

Aston Villa are the obvious favourites at 2/9 to win this game, with Maccabi Tel Aviv out at 14/1 to take all three points. That gives the hosts an implied win probability of 82% while a draw can be backed at 11/2.

Over 2.5 goals is priced up at 1/2, BTTS is 11/10 and Watkins is the favourite to open the scoring at 11/4. 

Aston Villa to win to nil @ 10/11

Aston Villa should win this game relatively comfortably, despite their slip-up against Liverpool last time out. They’ve picked up six points from their three Europa League games so far, with the shock defeat to Go Ahead Eagles ending their perfect start. 

Maccabi Tel Aviv, by comparison, are yet to find a win in this competition, and lost 3-0 at home to Midtjylland in their last appearance. They’ve only managed one goal in their three showings so far and it seems to me that they aren’t at the level required to compete, especially against the stronger sides in the Europa League. Villa should make it three wins from four and keep a clean sheet in the process. 

Bet Builder - Elliott and Malen to score, Bielec to get booked @ 7/1

This should be a dominant display from the home side so I will back a couple of goalscorers in a Bet Builder. Watkins is too short here for me so instead I’ll pick Elliott, who has scored one goal in just 174 minutes of action this term, and Malen, who has scored twice and deserves more minutes in this competition. 

I expect heavy rotation against a weak outfit, and these fringe players should be desperate to make a big impression. To boost our Bet Builder, let’s also pick out Bielec to get a booking. A tough-tackling midfielder, he’s already got four yellows this season in all competitions, with three of those coming in the Europa League or Europa League qualifying. 

Offers

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