How Aston Villa could lose two key players for Lille clash

Aston Villa are set to face off with Ligue 1 outfit Lille in the first of two Europa Conference League ties on Thursday evening.

Unai Emery is a European competition specialist, having won the Europa League four times and reached the final on five occasions. As a result, it is not a surprise to see Aston Villa sat as 7/4 favourites with bet365 to win the Europa Conference League this year.

Aston Villa could lose two players vs Lille

Aston Villa’s latest challenge on their road to a European final is Lille, with the first leg of their quarter-final clash to play out at Villa Park on Thursday.

The duo will then play out the reverse fixture on April 18 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in France. Ahead of that meeting, though, the Midlands outfit could lose two key players.

John McGinn, Moussa Diaby and Matty Cash are all one booking away from missing next week’s second leg or the first leg of the semi-final if they pick up a third caution of the European campaign next week and Villa advance past the last-eight.

Cash is set to miss Thursday’s home clash with Lille and is a doubt to feature next week due to injury, but both McGinn and Diaby will have to tread a disciplinary tightrope during Villa’s next two European outings.

On a more positive note for Aston Villa, Ezri Konsa has also collected two bookings but because both were brandished in the same game and the second booking subsequently led to his sending off at Ajax, the centre-back remains two bookings away from another one-match ban.