Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace: How to watch European action this week, TV channel and kick-off time
Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace will hope to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League and the Conference League on Thursday.
The former two teams will be playing the second legs of their Europa League ties, while the Eagles take on AEK Larnaca in the Conference League.
The Villans will host Ligue 1 side Lille with a 1-0 advantage, after Ollie Watkins found the difference in France last week.
But there is work to do for Nottingham Forest and Palace, with the former having to travel to Denmark, needing a goal, and the latter facing a trip to Cyprus while the tie remains goalless.
Villa’s form has left much to be desired of late, but they will be confident of making it through to the quarter-final.
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Football Insider exclusively revealed this month that Unai Emery could leave Villa in the summer amid a growing frustration with the club’s financial restrictions.
The Villans are under the constant watch of the profit and sustainability rules, and have been blocked from significant spending in recent windows.
Qualification for the Champions League should help to ease those burdens, however, and on current form, they may need to do it via winning the Europa League.
Villa’s 3-1 loss to Manchester United on Sunday was their fourth consecutive Premier League game without a win, with Emery’s team having won just two of their last 10.
Having previously been in the title race, the Villans are now behind Man United, and only two points ahead of Liverpool.
Luckily, the Europa League is Emery’s speciality. Winning it this year would make his fifth time.
Villa’s clash with Lille can be watched on Thursday live on TNT Sports 1 at 20:00 GMT, while both Palace and Nottingham Forest will play at 17:45 on TNT Sports 3 and 2, respectively.
Are the Premier League sides expected to go through?
Opta‘s supercomputer has massive confidence that Villa will progress to the quarter-finals, handing them a 90.85 per cent chance.
The same cannot be said of Nottingham Forest, who boast only a 20.65 per cent chance against their Danish opposition FC Midtyjylland.
Palace do carry the supercomputer’s confidence, but will be wary with just a 63.24 per cent chance of progressing.
It was not a strong last week for the Premier League’s teams in Europe, but this is the week that really counts.
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