Hibernian and Aston Villa lock horns in the Europa Conference League tonight
Hibernian and Aston Villa lock horns in the Europa Conference League tonight
Hibernian and Aston Villa will battle it out tonight in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying rounds and as such, now is a great time to check out our featured bookmaker partners where you can enjoy some excellent Aston Villa free bets ahead of this meeting.
Hibernian and Aston Villa lock horns tonight as they both look to steer themselves into the group stages of this season’s UEFA Europa Conference League.
All-British contest
This all-British contest at Easter Road looks set to be a thrilling affair, the Scots having made it through two qualifying rounds thus far in the competition and now just two games (home and away) from making it into the group stages of the tournament. Aston Villa mark their return to European competition by entering the tournament at this stage of proceedings.
Slow start
Having finished their 2022/23 Premiership campaign in fifth position, Hibernian have started slowly this term with league losses against St Mirren and Motherwell as well as a hugely disappointing defeat in Andorra in the Conference League. They have since enjoyed a win over Raith Rovers in the Scottish League Cup but will be in for a very tough time when Villa come to town this evening.
Confidence high
Having enjoyed a solid pre-season campaign, Aston Villa endured a rather sticky start to their Premier League campaign with their first outing ending in a 5-1 defeat to Newcastle United. They subsequently bounced back with a convincing win over a somewhat listless Everton side last time out and confidence will be high in the visiting camp ahead of their trip to Easter Road.
Injury concerns
Villa triumphed in each of their closing seven home matches last term and as a result leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur into seventh position, however they head into this match somewhat depleted due to some injuries. Given these absentees, it will be interesting to see how Villa boss Unai Emery will set things up for this first-leg clash and there’s every reason to believe that he will adopt a three-man defence as he trialled in the pre-season campaign.
Greater resources
Clearly Aston Villa have far greater resources than Hibernian and the visitors are unsurprisingly clear favourites to go into the second leg with an advantage. Nevertheless the hosts won’t make things easy for the Premier League side and we envisage them adding to the scoreline in what looks set to be an away win.