Aston Villa's 2025-26 Europa League campaign kicks off this week as they take on Serie A side Bologna.
- Date: 25/09/2025
- Kick-off: 8:00pm
- Location: Villa Park, Birmingham
Aston Villa's start to the season has been poor, with Unai Emery's men winless in all competitions. Villa are winless from six games in all competitions, scoring just two goals and conceding six. Villa are having huge trouble creating chances, with the Midlands club averaging just 0.73xG per game, the lowest in the entire Premier League.
They can, though, take confidence from the fact they're still very tough to beat on home soil, with Crystal Palace the only team to beat them at Villa Park in any competition since August 2024.
Bologna's start to the season has been mixed, with the Italian side winning two and losing two of their four games. Both defeats came away from home, while the two wins came on home soil. Three of their four games have seen only one goal, so they're prone to a low-scoring encounter.
Bologna haven't won any of their last six competitive games away from home, so fans will feel as though that's the biggest hindrance preventing them from beating a wounded Villa side.
Villa desperately need to hope that something drastic changes in the coming weeks. Unai Emery's side have looked uninspired and out of ideas, and many will feel as though their lack of incomings in the summer is the driving factor behind that.
They do still have new faces, though, and the likes of Harvey Elliott have a huge task in the expectation of providing some invention and inspiration, but any major change will have to be a collective one, and the signs in the opening weeks of the campaign have been very worrying.
Aston Villa 1-1 Bologna
