Aston Villa vs Zrinjski tips and predictions: Back Villans to run riot against Bosnian newbies
Jhon Duran and Douglas Luiz
Planet Sport Bet’s Robbie Savage is backing Aston Villa to record a comfortable victory against Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League.
Aston Villa, fine form. They’ve won 11 of their last 12 games at Villa Park – that defeat coming against Everton in the Carabao Cup. Great win at the weekend.
Zrinjski are in decent form, four wins from four. In their last group game, they beat AZ Alkmaar 4-3 which is a fantastic win.
But I think Aston Villa need to bounce back after that defeat against Legia Warsaw. I think they will.
I’m going with a 3-0 Villa win.
Robbie’s Tip: Aston Villa 3-0 Zrinjski Mostar
Aston Villa vs Zrinjski team news
Alex Moreno, Leon Bailey, Emi Buendia and Tyrone Mings are unavailable for Villa, while Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara may not be risked.
Jhon Duran has scored in each of his Europa Conference League starts and could feature alongside Nicolo Zaniolo and Jacob Ramsey in the attack.
The Serbian visitors usually favour a 4-3-3 formation, but it’s hard to know how brave they’ll be at Villa Park.
Club captain Nemanja Bilbija has scored six in seven in the league and netted in both legs of their Europa League qualifier defeat to LASK.
Key stats
- Aston Villa have scored 18 goals in five home matches this season.
- Ollie Watkins has seven goals in 10 appearances.
- There have been 13 goals in Villa’s three European games this season and seven in one match involving Zrinjski.
- Zrinjski’s win over AZ was their first in the group stage of any European competition.
Planet Sport’s other bets to consider
Aston Villa have thumped Everton 4-0, Crystal Palace 3-1 and Brighton 6-1 at home this season.
Ollie Watkins (7), Douglas Luiz (4), Jhon Duran (4), Matty Cash (3) and Leon Bailey (3) have all started the season in fine goalscoring form.
However, Unai Emery is expected to make changes, so we could see the likes of Omari Kelleyman and Duran feature in the attack.
That makes the latter a tempting prospect if you’re looking for a good price on goalscorers, of which there should be several.
Zrinjski have never qualified for the Champions League, Europa League or Europa Conference League group stages until this season.
The Bosnian side have played 61 European ties since their Intertoto Cup appearance and have won 27 of those, but tend to fall at the final hurdle.
They’ve enjoyed domestic dominance in the past decade, winning six league titles and completing their first league and cup double for 16 years in May.
