Overview
Unai Emery is going through a period of sublimation in the Midlands when leading Aston Villa to 13 wins in the last 15 matches in all competitions (losing 2), in which 10 matches they scored two goals or more.
Villa's latest home win came against Premier League leaders Arsenal. Emiliano Buendia became the hero with the decisive shot in the 95th minute, sealing a 2-1 victory and extending Villa's winning streak to seven.
The difficulties at the beginning of the season are now just memories. Emery's team is now considered a true candidate for the Premier League title race, having finished third in the rankings, three points behind Arsenal after 15 rounds and ahead of a relatively favorable away trip to West Ham.
Before thinking about the Premier League, Villa need to focus back on the Europa League - where they are aiming to end the group stage in the top group. After five matches, they have 12 points (4 wins, 1 loss), along with Lyon and FC Midtjylland at the top of the overall rankings of 36 teams. Another victory will help them strengthen their hope of reaching the top 8 and winning a ticket to the round of 16.
In the previous match, Villa defeated Young Boys 2-1 at Villa Park. However, the away trip to Basel will not be easy, because Villa's away record in the UEFA Cup/Europa League is quite poor. They have only won one of their last six games (D1 L4). Villa also just lost 1-2 to Go Ahead Eagles in their most recent away European match in October.
Having returned to the Europa League for the first time since reaching the quarter-finals six years ago, Basel are going through a rather erratic League Phase, with alternating wins and losses in the first five matches (2 wins, 3 losses).
rotBlau will have a big advantage when returning to St. Jakob-Park, where they are on a seven-match winning streak in the Europa League - the longest in the current tournament. These include two wins this season against Stuttgart (2-0) and FCSB (3-1).
However, a 1-2 defeat to Genk in the fifth round caused Ludovic and Magnin's team to fall to 24th place out of 36 teams. They still hold a place in the final play-off, three points behind 10th place and have three challenging matches against Aston Villa, Red Bull Salzburg and Viktoria Plzen.
Basel entered the upcoming match with a high spirit when they won both of their most recent matches in the domestic arena. They beat Grand-Saconnex 3-1 in the Swiss Cup round of 16, before beating Winterthur 2-1 in the Super League thanks to a goal in the 93rd minute by Keigo Tsunemoto.
Although they are rated lower when facing Aston Villa in the Europa League, Basel still have reason to hope when they have won 5 out of the last 10 matches against English representatives. However, they are currently third in the Swiss national championship and are seven points behind the leader, showing that instability is still a big problem for this team.
Personnel situation
It is still uncertain whether Basel striker Kaio Eduardo will be present. The 20-year-old player has just reached the expiration date of his suspension but is still receiving treatment for an unknown injury.
As for Aston Villa, Tyrone Mings and Ross Barkley continue to be absent due to thigh and knee injuries, while Evann Guessand is still doubtful to play after an injury that has left him unable to play against Arsenal.
Expected lineup:
Basel: Hitz, Tsunemoto, Adjetey, Daniliuc, Schmid, Metinho, Bacanin, Shaqiri, todayy, Otele, Broschinski.
Aston Villa: Bizot, Bogarde, Lindelof, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Onana, Buendia, Tielemans, Rogers, Malen.
The match between Basel and Aston Villa takes place at 3:00 am on December 12 (Vietnam time).
