Aston Villa – Celtic

In Birmingham, the hosts will have the advantage and will come away with a win

After the first half of the matches of the general stage of the Champions League, Aston Villa were among the best teams, second only to Liverpool on points. The last few days of play have not had the best effect on the Villans' position in the standings but the defeats have not led to critical consequences. Unai Emery's team is in ninth position, allowing them to play in the preliminary stage of the play-offs with other teams in 10-24 positions. Of course, the task of the Birmingham club for the last round is to win and finish in the top 8, which will send it straight to the stage 1/8 finals. In the tight schedule of the English football calendar, avoiding two matches with a serious load and attracting extra prize money are serious motivation. Celtic have all the questions of promotion to the playoffs solved. The team will definitely not drop below 24th place at the end of the final round. Well, and will not be able to complete the overall stage in the top 8, even in case of victory in Birmingham. Of course, the Scottish team will perform at maximum speed on Wednesday, but a much stronger opponent definitely has a plan of action. Bookmakers have identified the home team as favourites for the upcoming encounter, offering odds of 1.51 on their victory. For Unai Emery, who has won the Europa League so many times, the play-offs have actually started, which the Spanish coach loves so much. Despite just one win in the last four rounds of the Champions League, Aston Villa remain in the top three in the tournament for the fewest goals conceded. On Sunday, the Villans played a match of the championship of England in their home walls, which will allow them to qualitatively prepare for the guests from the Scottish capital. Celtic are leading in the Scottish championship with a big advantage, which allows the team to focus on the Champions League meetings. Despite a decent list of participants of the general stage, some oddities of the new format allowed Celtic to avoid meetings with the strongest representatives of the elite European tournament. As a consequence, only one defeat in seven rounds, allowed in Dortmund with a score of 1:7. In general, the visitors have a strong team, but it will not be able to avoid defeat in Birmingham.