Summary of the Monaco and Aston Villa match
Away from their form domestically and in the Champions League, Monaco are three points clear of the automatic round of 16 and elimination places, as Adi Hutter's side seek to avoid three successive losses in Europe at home to Aston Villa on Tuesday (5.45pm GMT).
After a 2-1 defeat to Montpellier on Friday left them without a win in four games in 2025, Hutter denied his players were distracted by the prospect of facing the 1981/82 European champions in the penultimate round of the fixture.
“I have great respect for Montpellier, but we need to impose ourselves to regain confidence,” the Austrian said after his team squandered its lead at the bottom of the French First Division, gifting Moussa Al-Taamari the equalizer.
“Tuesday's game will be completely different: it's the Champions League at home, but I don't think the team was really thinking about Aston Villa.
“We were in control in the first half. We were the better team. After (the draw) and the way we received it, I started to see bad body language… (then) we could only be dangerous in the last minutes.
Villa occupies eighth place in the English Premier League after a contradictory story on Saturday, as it recovered from a 2-0 deficit after 59 minutes against Arsenal, aspiring to win the title. Securing a 2-2 draw Thanks to two goals in the space of nine minutes from Ollie Watkins and Youri Tielemans.
They are within the automatic Champions League positions with one point, aided by Ross Barkley's 85th-minute winner in a 3-2 win over Leipzig on 10 December.
Hutter said: “Arsenal was the better team, but Villa came back and tied,” noting that his counterpart Unai Emery won the Europa League three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal.
“(Emiliano) Martinez is an unbelievable goalkeeper. (Morgan) Rogers is a great No. 10, (with John) Doran and Watkins up front.
“Tielemans is the pacemaker in the middle of midfield. We also have to be very careful with every goal at this stage of the league. Every goal can be decisive.”
Monaco vs Villa team news
Folarin Balogun will be absent from Monaco for a long period after shoulder surgery, while fellow striker George Ilinykhina will be absent due to a muscle problem.
Winger Crepin Diatta is unfit, and defender Thilo Kehrer – who scored against Montpellier – will be suspended if booked.
“If we lose our intensity, the coach will definitely kill us,” striker Briel Embolo said. Birmingham Live. He added: “Teams show us more respect and competitors defend harder. We have to adapt to ourselves.”
“We're still the same team we were three months ago. We have the same coach and players. It's an opportunity to put things right.”
There are doubts about the participation of midfielders Amadou Onana and John McGinn at Villa, who will play without defenders Diego Carlos (suspension) and Pau Torres (ankle), in addition to playmaker Barkley due to a calf injury.
Duran, that was He was reportedly the subject of a £57m bid from West Ham on Mondaywill be suspended for the visit of Celtic on January 29 (8pm) if the striker is booked.
New signature Donnell Malin It is not possible to register for the Champions League until the knockout stage.
The expected lineup for the match between Monaco and Aston Villa
Monaco: Magicy. Caio Henrique, Kerrer, Singo, Vanderson; Camera, Zechariah; Ben Small, Golovin, Akliush; piston
Aston Villa: Martinez. Cash, Konsa, Mings, Denny; Kamara, Onana; Bailey, Tielemans, Ramsay; Watkins
prediction
At the sharp end of the league stageA win for either team could be very important to their ambitions of automatically progressing by finishing as one of the top eight teams in the new 36-team single table format.
Much can depend on Monaco's ability to rediscover the form they showed at the start of the season, where they took 10 points from a possible 12, beating Barcelona and Red Star at home.
The Hueters were briefly top of Ligue 1 as part of an eight-match unbeaten run in Ligue 1, but have lost five and drawn two of their 10 league matches since then, also suffering back-to-back European defeats at home to Benfica and Arsenal.
In their first season in the modern Champions League, Villa's only defeat came, losing to Club Brugge, while their defensive record is the fourth best in this season's competition.
By contrast, only three teams among the top 23 have conceded more goals than the 10 goals conceded by Monaco, who lost 4-2 to Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 in their only home game since December 7.
The 2003/04 finalists will not want to visit Inter in the final round of the tournament and are uncomfortably close to the eight elimination places, and have a useful record against English opponents, having won 11 and drawn six of their 21 meetings.
Villa won three times and tied twice, 2-2, in the last five matches. Expect them to repeat the defensive intensity they showed in Europe this season with a 1-1 draw.
