Aston Villa meet Celtic in a huge final league phase fixture of 2024-25 UEFA Champions League.
Victory would see Villa secure a free pass to the Round of 16 with a top-eight finish if any of Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Atalanta or Bayer Leverkusen slip up elsewhere.
Celtic are assured of a knockout play-off spot at minimum but victory could see them either climb into the top eight or seeded for the next stage of the competition if results elsewhere go in their favour.
Team News
Tyrone Mings is ruled out for Villa after he suffered a minor knee injury in their 1-1 draw at home to West Ham in the Premier League.
Amadou Onana (hamstring), Ross Barkley (calf) and Pau Torres (metatarsal) remain sidelined,
Celtic will be without return signing, Jota who is ineligible to be registered for this clash but will be available in the knockout phase.
Daizen Maeda is suspended following his red card in their home win over Young Boys last week
James Forrest is still ruled out with a foot injury.
When is Kick-Off?
Villa host Celtic at Villa Park on Wednesday 29 January at 8pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is Aston Villa’s first-ever competitive meeting against Celtic in all UEFA competitions.
- Celtic are facing Villa away for the first time in a competitive fixture.
- Villa won each of their two previous meetings against Scottish opposition without conceding, which came in an 5-0 away win and 3-0 home victory over Hibernian in 2023-24 Europa Conference League Play-Offs.
- Unai Emery’s Villains are yet to concede at home in the league phase of this season’s competition.
- Celtic have failed to score in two of their three previous away games in the league phase of this season’s tournament (D2, L1).
Prediction
Having stuttered to a domestic draw against West Ham in which they failed to convert many chances following their early opening goal and poorly marked Emerson Palmieri’s equaliser, Villa really could do with a more clinical display if want a lighter February schedule and avoid the knockout play-offs.
Celtic though have had a week to prepare for this game due to Storm Eowyn postponing their domestic fixture but they weren’t clinical against the bottom-placed club, Young Boys last week, which is a slight worry on top of the fact that they have failed to score in two of their three away games in this phase of the competition.
A huge performance is therefore needed from Celtic but Villa should just have enough to grind out a win but it won’t be easy for either team.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-0 Celtic
Result: Aston Villa 4-2 Celtic