Aston Villa vs Lille Prediction: Hardly a thriller for Villa

Aston Villa welcome Lille to Villa Park on Thursday night (20:00, live on TNT Sports 1) for the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

Unai Emery's men are seeking to reach a third European quarter-final in as many seasons, and are in driving seat of this tie, after winning 1-0 in France last week. Read on for my Aston Villa vs Lille predictions, as well as the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara both remain sidelined for Villa, while Ross Barkley is ineligible for clash after being omitted from the club's Europa League squad.

Emiliano Buendia has emerged as a doubt after hobbling off in the weekend's defeat at Old Trafford, and Matty Cash will also assessed after missing the last two matches with injury.

As for Lille, Ousmane Toure, Hamza Igamane, Ethan Mbappe, Marc-Aurele Caillard, and Osame Sahraoui all remain on the treatment table.

The likes of Olivier Giroud, Benjamin Andre and Tiago Santos could be handed recalls after missing the weekend's triumph over Stade Rennes.

Aston Villa vs Lille Odds

Villa are 7/10 to win in 90 minutes, giving them an implied win probability of 58.8%, the draw is 3/1 and Lille are 18/5. To win the tie, Villa are massive favourites at 1/12 and Lille are 6/1.

Both teams to score is 10/11, while over 2.5 goals is available at the same price. Tammy Abraham and Ollie Watkins both lead the anytime goalscorer market at 7/5.

Correct Score - Aston Villa 1-0 @ 7/1

As mentioned in the introduction, Villa managed to win by a solitary goal in France last week, so the onus will be on the visitors to attack on Thursday night.

However, I'm backing the same scoreline as last week, as I'm predicting a cagey affair to play out at Villa Park.

Emery's men have won 1-0 six times this season, and they've haven't scored more than once in their last nine outings across all competitions. Lille have hardly been free-slowing in front of goal themselves, scoring just four times across their last four games, suggesting that Villa could nullify their French opposition.

Under 2.5 goals @ 10/11

Following on from that, if a correct score pick doesn't interest you, let's stick with the theme of goals - and predict that there'll be hardly any!

I've just outlined both sides' struggles in front of goal, and 11 of Lille's last 16 games have gone under 2.5 goals. In addition, this bet has landed in six of Villa's last nine, too.

There were just four shots on target for the entirety of the first leg, so I can't see either goalkeeper being tested too much on Thursday.

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