Aston Villa v Bayern Munich LIVE: Champions League team news, line-ups and more tonight
Aston Villa host the German giants in the second round of the Champions League league phase on Wednesday evening
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Aston Villa host Bayern Munich at Villa Park on Wednesday evening in the second round of fixtures in the 2024/25 Champions League.
The match is another showdown thrown together by the competition’s new league phase format, and Villa come into it having retained much of their from from last season.
Unai Emery’s side are fifth in the Premier League on 13 points, just two behind leaders Liverpool, though they missed the chance to go top of the league last weekend as they drew 2-2 to Ipswich.
As 3-0 win away at BSC Young Boys was a solid start to the European campaign for Villa, but it was bettered by some distance by Bayern’s win in their opener, as the Bavarians beat Dinamo Zagreb 9-2.
And the German champions will provide perhaps the toughest test of the season so far to Unai Emery’s budding Villa side.
Follow all the latest build-up, team news and score updates below, as well as the reaction to the evening’s other Champions League matches:
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery ready for ‘special match’ against Bayern Munich
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is ready for a “special, special match” when his side welcome Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Villa, who opened their campaign with a 3-0 win away at Young Boys, will play their first home fixture in Europe’s top competition since a quarter-final defeat to Juventus in 1983.
German giants Bayern travel to Villa Park for a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final, which Villa famously won.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery ready for ‘special match’ against Bayern Munich
Villa will play their first home fixture in Europe’s top competition since a quarter-final defeat to Juventus in 1983.
Team news
Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany has made two changes to the side that started the 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen.
In defence, Raphael Guerreiro drops out and Joshua Kimmich falls back to right-back, with Konrad Laimer taking his countryman’s place in midfield.
In attack, Jamal Musiala is replaced by Kingsley Coman.
Team news
Leon Bailey is only fit enough to start on the bench for Villa, so Jaden Philogene comes in as the only change to the aide that drew 2-2 with Ipswich last weekend.
Line-ups
Bayern XI: Neuer; Kimmich, Upamecano, Kim, Davies; Laimer, Pavlovic; Coman, Olise, Gnabry; Kane.
Subs: Ulreich, Peretz, Guerreiro, Dier, Goretzka, Sane, Muller, Tel, Musiala.
Line-ups
Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Philogene, Rogers, Ramsey; Watkins.
Subs: Gauci, Zych, Nedeljkovic, Cash, Maatsen, Bogarde, Young, Swinkels, Barkley, Buendia, Bailey, Duran.
Team news
The line-ups should be announced in around five minutes time...
Harry Kane faces late fitness test as Bayern Munich prepare for Aston Villa game
Harry Kane will be assessed on Wednesday morning to see whether he can feature in Bayern Munich’s Champions League clash at Aston Villa.
The England captain hobbled out of Bayern’s Bundesliga draw with Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday after suffering an ankle injury.
He trained on Tuesday morning and travelled with the squad to Birmingham, but a final decision will not be made on his fitness until the day of the match.
Harry Kane faces late fitness test as Bayern Munich prepare for Aston Villa game
Kane suffered an ankle injury during Bayern’s Bundesliga draw with German champions Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
Unai Emery frustrated at missed opportunity after Aston Villa are held
Unai Emery acknowledged Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw at Ipswich was a fair result, but had hoped they would end the day joint-top of the Premier League.
Villa looked set to warm up for Wednesday’s visit of Bayern Munich in the Champions League with another comeback victory after first-half efforts by Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins cancelled out Delap’s opener.
Kieran McKenna’s newly-promoted team had other ideas with Delap’s superb 72nd-minute solo effort enough to ensure the spoils were shared at Portman Road.
Unai Emery frustrated at missed opportunity after Aston Villa are held
Aston Villa could have gone level on points with Liverpool at the top of the table with victory at Portman Road.
Prediction & odds
Odds
Aston Villa 17/5
Draw 10/3
Bayern Munich 4/5
Prediction
The home supporters will try and will undoubtedly be vocal in their encouragement of the side, but they will not have enough to get anything out of the game against Bayern who are experienced in the Champions League.
Aston Villa 1-3 Bayern Munich.
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