Aston Villa – AZ

The visitors will surprise the Aston Villa players with a better game than they did a fortnight ago

The most notable game of the fourth round of the Conference League group stage will be played in Birmingham. Before the last round, Quartet E was absolutely equal, but victories by Legia and Aston Villa lifted them above AZ Alkmaar and Zrinjski Mostar. Overall, the Birmingham club started the group stage with a defeat in Poland, where they allowed Legia to score three goals. On Zrinski Mostar in the home walls players Aston Villa also adjusted weakly, but managed to press their opponents on 90+4 minutes - 1:0. In the third round was the first face-to-face meeting of the upcoming rivals. In it, the fight did not turn out at all. By the middle of the first half, Aston Villa won in Alkmaar with a score of 2:0, in the middle of the second - 4:0. Local players managed to score a prestige goal, which only slightly sweetened the bitter pill - 1:4. Before this defeat, AZ lost to Zrinjski in Mostar, allowing their opponents to make a crazy come back - from 0:3 to 4:3. In the second round, the Dutch club defeated Legia 1:0 at home in the minority. Bookmakers have identified the home team as the favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.42 on their victory. "Villans" in the current season played only one match in a draw, being an absolutely uncompromising team. Aston Villa have played a predominant number of matches away, but at home have not lost any of the seven official matches of the season. The Birmingham club lost away to Nottingham Forest in the last round of the championship and did not look like themselves. Such a result may not mean the beginning of a decline in the game "villans", but even slight signs of this with the addition of a weak mood of the team for Conference League matches can lead to problems in the coming Thursday. AZ Alkmaar's defeats in the Conference League are their only losses in the current season. In the national arena, the team has not suffered a single setback in three months of the current season. This allows the club with one match in reserve to sit in second place in the Eredivisie - just behind "sinless" PSV. The guests of the upcoming match have all the necessary personnel and playing resources to perform successfully in Birmingham.