Overview
After a streak of 11 consecutive victories at Villa Park in all competitions, scoring a total of 23 goals, Aston Villa unexpectedly suffered a 0-1 defeat to Everton last weekend. This defeat caused Unai Emery's team to miss the opportunity to narrow the gap with league leaders Arsenal to 4 points in the Premier League.
Notably, this is the first time since October 2022 that Aston Villa has failed to score despite launching 18 shots in a Premier League match. It is not surprising that coach Unai Emery clearly expressed disappointment after the final whistle.
However, the Spanish strategist's statement after the match caused much controversy, when he affirmed that Aston Villa is not a candidate for the top 5, and also said that there are other more potential teams.
However, reality shows that Villa is still third in the Premier League table, 9 points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea. This weekend, they will play away at Newcastle United, but for now, the whole team must focus on the Europa League arena.
Aston Villa is currently one of the 6 teams that have secured a place in the Europa League knockout play-offs this season. After six matches, Emery's team has won 15 points (5 wins, 1 loss), ranking third in the 36-team standings, equal points with Lyon and Midtjylland.
In the most recent match, Villa won 2-1 at Basel's stadium, thereby getting very close to winning a direct ticket to the round of 16. With 2 more matches left, including the reception of Red Bull Salzburg in the final round, the English representative has a complete chance to finish the group stage in the top 8.
Statistics also bring confidence to the Villa Park home team as they have won four of their last six encounters with Turkish representatives, scored 11 goals and conceded only three.
In the opposite direction, Fenerbahce entered the match with very high form. After closing 2025 with a 1-2 defeat to Besiktas in the National Cup, the yellow-green team had an impressive start to 2026 with 4 consecutive victories in all competitions.
Most notably, the 2-0 victory over Galatasaray in the final of the Turkish Super Cup, added motivation to coach Domenico Tedesco's team in the Super Lig championship race.
The 3-2 victory over Alanyaspor last weekend helped Fenerbahce narrow the gap with the leading team Galatasaray to just one point, while maintaining an unbeaten record after 18 rounds in the domestic league (12 wins, 6 draws).
In the Europa League, Fenerbahce currently has 11 points after 6 matches. After the defeat on the opening day against Dinamo Zagreb, the Turkish representative won 3 and drew the next 2 matches, thereby taking a big advantage in the race to the top 24.
Not only stopping at the goal of participating in the play-offs, Fenerbahce even nurtures hopes of entering the top 8. A 4-0 victory at Brann's stadium helped them rise to 12th place, only 2 points behind the top 8 leading teams before the last two matches against Aston Villa and FCSB.
In terms of head-to-head history, Fenerbahce has faced English teams 20 times but only won 4 times (2 draws, 11 losses). The last time they defeated a Premier League representative has taken place since the 2016-2017 season, when they defeated Manchester United 2-1 in the Europa League.
The confrontation between Aston Villa and Fenerbahce is therefore crucial for the ambition of both teams to advance straight to the round of 16, promising to be one of the most notable matches of this round in the Europa League.
The match between Fenerbahce and Aston Villa takes place at 0:45 AM on January 23 (Vietnam time).
