Newcastle United – Aston Villa

The visitors will take at least one point back to Birmingham.

One of the key duels of the next round of the Premier League will take place in Newcastle. Here two teams will meet that have recently become direct rivals for places in the Champions League zone of the Premier League's elite division. Aston Villa and Newcastle are largely similar. Around the same period both clubs returned to fighting for something serious in the Premier League, both became brilliantly realized projects of two talented coaches, with a high level of backing from their management. In the past season Aston Villa devoted a lot of time to the Champions League. There, the Birmingham club reached the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by PSG. Due to an unusually high workload on the European stage, Unai Emery could not keep the team in the Premier League's Champions League zone, losing the last qualifying place to Newcastle on tiebreakers. Now Aston Villa is conquering the Europa League, which allows focusing on the Premier League and, for the first time in many decades, contending for the title. Newcastle this season is competing in the Champions League, defending the colors of English football quite successfully. However, in league battles the Magpies lack the strength. For their most important match they approach only eighth in the table, ten points behind the Villans. Bookmakers have made the home side the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.99 on their victory. In the middle of the week Newcastle easily beat PSV at home, sending three unanswered goals into their net. The win allowed the Magpies to take a place in the top eight of the Champions League group stage. Considering that among the contenders for it are Barcelona and Manchester City, Howe's side must hold this position with a successful result against PSG in Paris. It will take place just two full days after the Aston Villa match. The Birmingham club has already solved all its tasks in the Europa League. The Villans on Thursday brought back a victory from Istanbul, where they defeated the star-studded Fenerbahçe. Despite an unexpected defeat by Everton in the previous round, Aston Villa is in good form. The visitors are not expected to lose in Newcastle.