Aston Villa vs Juventus prediction: Can hosts regain their form at Villa Park against Serie A giants? | OneFootball

Aston Villa will hope to put an end to their poor run of form when they host Italian giants Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday (8pm, TNT Sports and Discovery+ app).

Unai Emery’s side are without a win in their last six, with draws against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace bookending defeats to Palace in the League Cup along with Tottenham, Club Brugge and Liverpool.

Before this spell, Villa suffered just one defeat in their opening 12 games, which came against Arsenal back in August and they were the early surprise package in the Champions League with wins over Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna.

Despite Villa’s current form, Juventus still need to be wary when they arrive at Villa Park, after all the Midlands outfit were underdogs against Bayern and they came away with a 1-0 win thanks to Jhon Duran’s second-half strike.

That game is one of only two defeats suffered by the German side so far this season, the other came against Barcelona, and it is the only time they have failed to score in 17 games so far this season.

Juventus have suffered a mixed start to the season too, with eight wins, eight draws and one defeat leaving them sixth in the Serie A table, four points behind the league leaders Napoli and 11th in the Champions League table with seven points.

That is two points and three places below Aston Villa and after beating PSV Eindhoven and RB Leipzig in their opening two games they have since been beaten by Stuttgart and held to a 1-1 draw in Lille last time out.

Villa have been installed as favourites by betting sites with odds of 11/8, while you can get 23/10 on a Juventus win to further dampen the mood at Villa Park.

These two sides have only met twice before, back in 1983 when Juve ended Villa’s defence of the trophy, beating them 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

Villa have already beaten Italian opposition this season, beating Bologna 2-0 with a fine performance courtesy of goals from John McGinn and Duran.

With home wins over Bologna and Bayern to their name, Juve will face a challenge to get back to winning ways in the Champions League following their defeat to Stuttgart and draw with Lille last time out.

Juve’s record in England is not great. The Bianconeri have won three of their last 15 away matches against English sides, drawing three and losing nine. It is their first visit to England since losing 4-0 to Chelsea in the same competition back in November 2021.

Their away form elsewhere in Europe isn’t a whole heap better either, winning just one of their last seven away matches, drawing two and losing the other four. There could be hope given Villa’s defensive issues of late.

Although Villa have only conceded once this season in the Champions League, they have shipped 10 goals in their last five games, including two in their draw against Palace last time out.

Emery’s men are also potent in the final third, scoring six goals in their four Champions League matches this term.

Juventus have below par at the back, failing to keep a clean sheet so far in Europe this season - despite only conceding seven in 13 domestically. But, they have found the net in three of their four games, and scored three in both of their opening two matches against PSV and RB Leipzig.

With two talented attacking teams and recent defensive issues, we like the price of 5/6 for both teams to score on football betting sites. The match could go either way, but sticking with both teams to score gives us leeway over the result.

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