Aston Villa vs Cardiff City Prediction, Preview & Betting Tips

Aston Villa enters this game as firm favourites due to their Premier League status while also having a significantly stronger squad on paper.

Unai Emery’s men have earned the third-most points at Villa Park in the Premier League as they’ve won seven, drawn seven and lost just one of their 15 home matches, scoring 25 and conceding 18 in the process. Meanwhile, Cardiff are 19th in the Championship and have won just one of their 17 games away from home in England’s second tier, conceding 35 in the process (an average of just over 2 per game).

Prediction: Aston Villa 2-0 Cardiff City

Aston Villa and Cardiff City go head-to-head at Villa Park in what is expected to be a fairly one-sided FA Cup Fifth Round tie.

Date: 28/02/2025

Location: Villa Park

Time: 8pm

This is the first head-to-head meeting between the two sides since the 2017/18 season when they both plied their trade in the Championship. In April 2018, Villa won the game 1-0 at Villa Park as Jack Grealish scored the only goal of the game in the 85th-minute.

Unai Emery’s men are having a decent campaign, as they sit 10th in the Premier League with 42 points from 28 matches, just five points off fourth-place Manchester City who occupies the last Champions League qualification place as things stand.

In terms of domestic cup competitions, Villa crashed out of the League Cup at home to Crystal Palace in the Fourth Round, while the FA Cup has been much more positive, having beaten both West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur via 2-1 scorelines in the run-up to this game.

Villa have also been one of the surprise packages in the UEFA Champions League, as they managed an eighth-place finish in the Group Stage, accumulating 16 points from eight matches, having beaten the likes of Young Boys (3-0), Bayern Munich (1-0), Bologna (2-0), RB Leipzig (3-2) and Celtic (4-2) while drawing with Juventus (0-0) and losing to both Club Brugge and AS Monaco via 1-0 scorelines. They will face Club Brugge in the Round of 16.

As previously mentioned, Cardiff City are struggling in the Championship, as they’ve earned just 36 points from 34 matches while scoring 37 and conceding 55, seeing them sit just six points above the relegation zone.

The Bluebirds initially started the campaign under Turkish coach Erol Bulut, however, he was sacked on 22nd September having earned just one point from his six league matches in charge this campaign. Since then, they have been under the management of Omer Riza who has won nine, drawn 12 and lost nine of his 30 games in charge.

Like Villa, Cardiff exited the League Cup in the Fourth Round as they were beaten 5-3 by Southampton, while in the FA Cup, they have managed to advance past the likes of Sheffield United (1-0) and Stoke City (4-2 on penalties after a 3-3 draw).

Aston Villa versus Cardiff City will be broadcast live on ITV 1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.

Aston Villa

Unai Emery will be without the likes of Pau Torres, Ross Barkley, Boubacar Kamara and Amadou Onana for their home game against Cardiff City.

Cardiff City

Cardiff City will be without the likes of Jak Alnwick, Jesper Daland, David Turnbull and Ollie Tanner for their trip to Villa Park.

Aston Villa

Aston Villa suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat at Crystal Palace in midweek despite Morgan Rogers levelling the game up on the 52nd minute.

Prior to that match, the Villains managed to beat both Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur via 2-1 scorelines on either side of 1-1 and 2-2 draws with Ipswich Town and Liverpool.

Cardiff City

Cardiff City scraped a vital 1-0 home win against Hull on Tuesday night as Callum Robinson scored the only goal of the game.

In the run-up to that match, the Bluebirds had drawn 1-1 with both Plymouth Argyle and Bristol City after a 2-1 away defeat at Portsmouth. Their other game in this sequence was their penalty shootout win over Stoke City in the Fourth Round of the cup after a 3-3 draw.

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