Football writer Sam Cunningham recaps the European campaigns so far for Aston Villa and Crystal Palace and previews their upcoming matches.
Following two nights of UEFA Champions League action, the continental football feast continues on Thursday with a full round of fixtures in Europe’s other club competitions, the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League.
UEFA Europa League
Basel v Aston Villa
Thursday 11 December 20:00
Aston Villa have the chance to cement their place in the top eight and could possibly top the league phase table by the end of the evening. Unai Emery’s side are third, joint on 12 points with Lyon and Midtjylland above them.
Emery, a serial Europa League winner, three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal, will be hoping to qualify as soon as possible to focus on the Premier League.
But while Swiss side Basel are 24th in the table, on six points, they are notoriously hard to beat at their St. Jakob-Park stadium.
They have lost all three matches on the road in the Europa League, but won both matches at home.
They also halted a four-game winless streak with victory against FC Winterthur in the Swiss Super League on Sunday. Former Liverpool forward Xherdan Shaqiri scored in the match and will be a key threat.
Even at 34 years old, Shaqiri is still producing. The goal against FC Winterthur was his 10th in 23 matches this season. He’s netted in three of them in the Europa League, putting him joint fifth in the scoring charts.
Emery will, however, be confident of taking another stride towards automatic qualification with his Villa side one of the most in-form teams in Europe.
Villa have won seven straight matches – and 13 out of 15 – including a massive win against Premier League leaders Arsenal on Saturday to move into third place and touching distance of the top of the table.
You have to go back to 2001 to find the only time these two sides met, in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Paul Merson scored for Villa in a 1-1 first leg draw in Switzerland before Villa beat them 4-1 at home with goals from Darius Vassell, Juan Pablo Angel and David Ginola.
UEFA Conference League
Shelbourne v Crystal Palace
Thursday 11 December 20:00
This is the first time an English side has travelled to face Shelbourne at Tallaght Stadium for a competitive match.
And Joey O’Brien, the former Bolton and West Ham United full-back in charge of the Irish side, is hoping they don’t get thrashed, joking after they drew Crystal Palace that “it won’t be great if you get hit for six”.
A win would be a major scalp for Shelbourne, third-bottom in the table with only one point, but Palace head coach Oliver Glasner will be hoping for a smooth victory after struggling to find rhythm in the Europa Conference League.
Palace are in 18th place, leaving them in the unseeded knockout spots, after two wins and two defeats. Glasner believes the inexperience of his players hasn’t helped.
“Many [are] playing for the first time against teams from continental Europe,” Glasner told UEFA.com.
“And we could see it: they’re tough games. We could see against AEK Larnaca that you can be very [dominant] but can lose a game.
“In a group stage of six games, it maybe doesn’t matter in terms of qualifying for the next round, but when you enter the knockout stage, it’s important to be efficient in these games.
“On the other side, we could see against Dynamo Kyiv and especially against AZ Alkmaar that we can win every single game, so [we’re getting a lot of] feedback right now and all this feedback from every game will help us to be better and better in this competition.”
Glasner, who won the 2021/22 Europa League with Frankfurt, is a knockout football specialist and will be expected to turn things around to reach the Round of 16.
