Aston Villa look for a fifth win of the Champions League league phase on Tuesday evening, when visiting Monaco (ko 5.45pm GMT).
Unai Emery's side will be hoping for back-to-back wins in the competition as they look to consolidate a place in the table's top eight, after returning to winning ways before Christmas with a thrilling 3-2 win at RB Leipzig.
The Villans will also be aiming to stretch their unbeaten run to six matches in all competitions in their third-consecutive away game, after a win on the road at Everton last Wednesday was followed up over the weekend with a 2-2 draw at Arsenal.
They face a first-ever meeting with eight-time French champions AS Monaco, who have won just two of their last 11 games in all competitions.
Adi Hütter's men took 10 points from their first 12 available in this season's Champions League, however defeats on Matchday Five and Matchday Six have left them 16th in the league phase.
Despite reaching the final of the Champions League in 2004, Monaco have not qualified for the group stages of the tournament since 2018. After reaching the quarter-finals in 2015, Les Rouge et Blanc famously made the semi-finals two years later, with a side which included the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Radamel Falcao, Fabinho and João Moutinho.
They are currently fourth in the Ligue 1 table, having taken two points from their last four league outings.
Stats
Aston Villa’s Jhon Durán has scored three goals in just six UEFA Champions League appearances. The only players to net as often for an English club in the competition at a more frequent rate than the Colombian (68 mins) are Lucas Pérez (45 for Arsenal), Demba Ba (55 for Chelsea), Faustino Asprilla (58 for Newcastle) and Álvaro Negredo (65 for Man City).
Only two players have won more fouls than Monaco’s Lamine Camara (15) in the UEFA Champions League so far this season with three of those leading to the opposition receiving a card; only Sporting CP’s Trincão and Celtic’s Arne Engels have been fouled more often with the offence leading to either a caution or red card (4 each).
Excluding own goals, Monaco have had the most different goalscorers in the UEFA Champions League this season (10) – the last team with 11+ different scorers in a group stage campaign were Napoli in 2022/23 (11) and the last with 12+ were Borussia Dortmund in 2016/17 (14).
Among managers with 10+ wins to their name in the UEFA Champions League, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has the highest average margin of victory in the competition’s history (+2.9 from 26 wins overall).
Nine of Monaco’s 12 goals in the UEFA Champions League this season have come across their three home games with the French side last netting more on home turf in a group stage campaign in the competition in 2003/04 (13 in 3 games).
Only Atalanta (9), Liverpool (9) and Feyenoord (7) have won more points in UEFA Champions League away games so far this season than Aston Villa (6), who have scored exactly three goals in their two away victories in the competition (3-0 v Young Boys, 3-2 v RB Leipzig).
Monaco were unbeaten in their opening four games in the UEFA Champions League this season (W3 D1), but have since lost the last two against Benfica (2-3) and Arsenal (0-3). They’ve never previously conceded 3+ goals in three consecutive matches in the European Cup/Champions League.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has won each of his last six games against Monaco across all competitions (all in charge of Paris Saint-Germain), with the aggregate scoreline of those games being 23-4. His last game against them was a 7-1 victory in a Ligue 1 clash back in April 2018.
Aston Villa are winless in their four away matches against French sides in Europe (D2 L2), with the most recent of those coming last season, in a defeat away to Lille in the UEFA Conference League (1-2 in the quarter-final second leg in April).
This will be the first meeting between Monaco and Aston Villa, while the French side have won four of their last five home games against English sides in the UEFA Champions League (L1) – all of which have been against different teams (Chelsea and Liverpool in 2004, Spurs in 2016 and Manchester City in 2017).
Matchday Six
AS Monaco were well beaten when visiting England on Matchday Six, losing 3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on December 11.
Bukayo Saka's close-range finish put the hosts ahead just after the half-hour, before the England winger doubled the Gunners' advantage 12 minutes from time.
Kai Havertz added a third for Arsenal in the closing stages to condemn Monaco to a second-straight Champions League defeat, as the Mikel Arteta's side ended Matchday Six third in the league phase.
Team News
Donyell Malen will have to wait for his Aston Villa debut. He cannot be registered in the Champions League for the Villans until after the league phase.
Elsewhere, Ross Barkley and Pau Torres remain out, with Diego Carlos suspended.
The hosts have injury problems of their own. Folarin Balogun remains out with a shoulder injury, with George Ilenikhena and Krepin Diatta still sidelined.
Dennis Zakaria and Aleksandr Golovin have now fully recovered from illness, with Wilfried Singo and Christian Mawissa also back available, neither having featured against Montpellier on Friday.
Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts
“Monaco is a team with a very good position in Europe, a historic club in Europe. They have been successful last year finishing second and always they have young players with huge potential. We want to compete, trying to be protagonists in this competition, and we have a huge opportunity arriving here to play game seven with 13 points.”
Unai Emery
“We're going up against a Premier League team that has been stable at the top of the table in recent seasons. And even though Arsenal were the better team this weekend, they managed to draw after being 2-0 down by scoring two great goals at the Emirates. They also have a very good coach in Unai Emery, who has won the Europa League three times.”
Adi Hütter
