Key events
“It’s clear,” O’Neill says of Celtic’s task tonight. “Executing it is something else. It’s at home. We’ve got some advantage there with the big crowd … we’ve made it difficult for ourselves but even so it’s a game to win.
“We’ve expended a lot of energy in the last couple of weeks. The bench will play a very important part.
“It’s bringing it forward. It’s more games to look forward to, if we make it. If you are trying to chase down the league, I’d be delighted if I was the opposition, if Celtic progressed … but it’s all part of it.”
Aston Villa v Salzburg teams
It’s six changes for Villa from the 2-0 win at Newcastle.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Bogarde, Lindelof, Mings, Digne, Sancho, Onana, Hemmings, Buendía, Watkins, Elliott. Substitutes: Bizot, Wright, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Jimoh, Maatsen, Rogers, Young.
Salzburg: Schlager, Trummer, Gadou, Schuster, Kratzig, Bidstrup, Kitano, Diabate, Baidoo, Konate, Alajbegovic. Substitutes: Insertschitzky, Hamzic, Rasmussen, Terea, Bischoff, Onisiv, Kjaergaard, Damboou, Lainer, Lukic, Lukic, Aguilar, Yeo.
Referee: Rohit Saggi (Norway)
What are your hopes, expectations, dreams and fears? You can email me.
Tonight’s latest Europa League scores are available here.
I mean, they will be after 8pm UK time / 9pm CET. At the moment, it’s 0-0 everywhere.
“Villa feel like a proper club again,” says your roving reporter Martin Keown at Villa Park. Not sure what “proper” means there, but OK.
“They can win the Premier League. Everyone’s saying they can’t.”
Can they? Do they? Are they?
Steve Sidwell therewith some thoughts on Martin O’Neill’s management style. He said the current Celtic interim manager didn’t get too involved at training in his experience but come each Friday “he would come into his own”, engendering a “siege mentality” and making players feel “10 feet tall”.
Celtic are one of five teams that could drop into the elimination places tonight. Young Boys, Brann, Lille and GNK Dinamo are the other four. In other words, fewer than 10 points in the table, and you’re at risk.
Max Rushden
It’s half an hour after attempting to watch 18 football matches at the same time on the final match day of the Champions League group stage, so it’s still a little early to tell whether I think it was a brilliant night of football or not.
The information overload from a TV, laptop and phone means I may need a couple of weeks to really process it – by which time of course this will all be forgotten and we’ll be wondering whether one point from three Premier League games is enough for Thomas Frank to keep his job.
Here’s a dash of transfer news for your delectation:
The following 13 sides secured their place in the knockouts after Matchday 7, otherwise known as last week:
Bologna, Braga, Celta Vigo, Crvena Zvezda, Fenerbahçe, Genk, Nottingham Forest, Panathinaikos, PAOK, Porto, Roma, Stuttgart, Viktoria Plzen.
Meanwhile Lyon, Villa, Ferencvaros, Freiburg, Midtjylland and Real Betis were already through as of Matchday 6.
And again, Aston Villa and Lyon are the two teams guaranteed to be in the round of 16 already. Clear?
Ewan Murray
Martin O’Neill’s involvement in celebrated European moments in Celtic’s history means he is entitled to bridle at the belief that domain is no longer a priority. O’Neill used pre-match media duties for the Europa League visit of Utrecht on Thursday to point towards what has the potential to be an uplifting few days for the Scottish champions.
“We got a result in Feyenoord and fought our guts out in Bologna,” he said. “We don’t now want to just throw it away. We want to try and go for it if we can. We could still lose the game. We might not win the match and we might go out of the competition, but we want to give it a go.”
Tonight we reveal the Uefa Europa League table – IN FULL and UNREDACTED:
As it stands, Lyon, Aston Villa, Freiburg, Midtjylland, Braga, Roma, Ferencvaros and Real Betis are the clubs in the top eight.
As ninth-placed Porto are on 14pts, it means that Lyon and Aston Villa, joint-top and both on 18pts, are the only clubs mathematically guaranteed to finish in the top eight, and go straight to the round of 16.
Preamble
Welcome to the Union of European Football Associations Europa League Matchday 8. It’s all to play for this evening as 11 hungry teams compete for a paltry five remaining knockout phase places, not to mention the tear-up to make it into the hallowed top eight and qualify automatically for the last 16.
Aston Villa v Salzburg, Nottingham Forest v Ferencvaros and Celtic v Utrecht will be among the fixtures that are uppermost in our thoughts among the feast of 18 matches. But we’ll try to stay across the mind-melting complexity of the league-phase finale in all its glory.
Will we witness anything remotely as exciting as the goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin “doing a Jimmy Glass” against Real Madrid, and sending Benfica into the Champions League knockouts with a 98th-minute header? It seems unlikely but stranger things have happened.
Kick-offs at 8pm UK/9pm CET.
