LOSC Lille vs Aston Villa facts

LOSC Lille welcome Aston Villa to France for the second leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final tie needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the first game at Villa Park.

Ollie Watkins and John McGinn scored early on in both halves to give Villa a two-goal lead in the home side's first UEFA quarter-final match in 26 years, but a late header by Badfodé Diakité gave the French side hope heading into the return leg.

Lille eased into their first-ever UEFA quarter-final by beating Austrian side Sturm Graz 4-1 on aggregate. A 3-0 first-leg away win and a 1-1 draw at home helped the French side maintain their unbeaten European campaign (W6 D4).

Villa – who are at this stage of a UEFA competition for the first time since 1997/98 – beat European heavyweights Ajax in the round of 16, drawing 0-0 in Amsterdam before an emphatic 4-0 victory in their home second-leg confirmed their place in the last eight.

Previous meetings

LOSC Lille wins 1
Aston Villa wins 1
Draws 1
LOSC Lille goals 4
Aston Villa goals 3

Aston Villa and Lille met in the 2002 Intertoto Cup semi-finals with the French side prevailing 3-1 on aggregate. Ian Taylor gave Villa the lead in the first leg in France only for an added-time goal from Fernando D'Amico to secure a 1-1 draw. The visitors won 2-0 in the second leg at Villa Park 0 thanks to goals from Abdelilah Fahmi and Nicolas Bonnal.

Form guide

LOSC Lille

Record vs English clubs: W3 D4 L10 F10 A21
Home record vs English clubs: W2 D3 L3

Lille are without a win in three home matches against English opposition (D1 L2), most recently being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League round of 16 by Chelsea in 2021/22 (0-2 a, 1-2 h). Indeed, in all eight of their home encounters against teams from England they have never scored more than one goal.

Their first-leg defeat extended their winless run against English teams, home and away, to eight games (D1 L7).

The French side are making their debut in the Europa Conference League after a fifth-place finish in Ligue 1 last season and a qualifying play-off round victory against Croatian side Rijeka (2-1 h, 1-1 a aet).

LOSC kept four clean sheets in their six Group A games, opening with 2-0 home win against Olimpija Ljubljana before a goalless draw at Faroe Islands group debutants KÍ. They then took four points from two games against Slovan (2-1 a, 1-1 a) and concluded their campaign with wins against Olimpija (2-0 a) and KÍ (3-0 h).

They then comfortably saw off Sturm Graz in the round of 16, following up a 3-0 away win in Austria with a 1-1 home draw to qualify for their first-ever UEFA quarter-final.

Les Dogues did not take part in UEFA competition in 2022/23, breaking a run of three consecutive European campaigns that included runs to the knockout stages of the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League and the following season's Champions League.

They finished top of their Champions League section two seasons ago, losing just one of their six games (W3 D2). However, a 4-1 aggregate defeat by Chelsea in the round of 16 (0-2 a, 1-2 h) ended their progress.

Their 2-1 defeat by Chelsea in 2021/22 is LOSC's only home European loss in their last nine games (W5 D3).

Lille have lost the first leg of a European tie away from home on two previous occasions, and managed to progress in one of those, most recently losing to Chelsea in the 2021/22 Champions League. They did, however, go through in the play-offs of the same competition in 2012/13 as they overturned a 1-0 loss at Copenhagen, winning the second leg 2-0 in France.

Lille have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.

Aston Villa

Record vs French clubs: W3 D2 L2 F6 A6
Away record vs French clubs: W0 D2 L1

Prior to the first leg Villa's last match against French opposition was that UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-final against Lille 22 years ago.

They had previously beaten Rennes on away goals in the Intertoto Cup semi-final in 2001 (1-2 a, 1-0 h) and defeated Bordeaux in the first round of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup (0-0 a, 1-0 h).

The Villans are playing European football for the first time since 2010/11 after a seventh-place Premier League finish last season under Unai Emery.

The 1982 European Cup winners came through one qualifying round to reach the group stage, comfortably beating Scottish side Hibernian (5-0 a, 3-0 h) in the play-offs with Ollie Watkins scoring a first-leg hat-trick. They then recovered from a 3-2 Matchday 1 loss at Legia Warszawa to win their next four games, at home to Zrinjski (1-0) and Legia (2-1) either side of their victories against AZ before a 1-1 draw at Zrinjski to finish top of Group E. That led them to their round of 16 tie with Ajax, progressing thanks after a goalless draw in Amsterdam was followed by a 4-0 win in their home second leg.

Villa have reached the spring phase of a UEFA competition for the first time since losing to CSKA in 2008/09 and are in a first UEFA quarter-final tie since losing on away goals to Club Atlético de Madrid in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup (0-1 a, 2-1 h).

Emery has won his last seven quarter-finals in UEFA club competition, with Villarreal, Sevilla, Arsenal and Valencia. He has only ever lost one last-eight tie; his first, with Valencia in the 2009/10 Europa League, going down on away goals against eventual winners Atlético.

Emery's side have scored 12 goals in their five European away matches so far this season, conceding five – three of them at Legia on Matchday 1.

Aston Villa have won the first leg at home in UEFA club competition on nine occasions and progressed in eight of those ties. The only time they have been eliminated after winning the first leg at home came in the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1990/91, when their 2-0 first-leg win against Inter was overturned by a 3-0 loss in Milan. This is the first time they have won the home first leg 2-1.

Villa's record in one UEFA penalty shoot-out is W1 L0:
4-3 v Inter, 1994/95 UEFA Cup first round

Links and trivia

Villa's Lucas Digne began his career with LOSC, joining aged 12 in 2005 and making the first-time breakthrough in 2011. He featured 49 times in Ligue 1 before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain in 2013.

Villa coach Emery spent two seasons in charge of Paris between 2016 and 2018, winning a domestic quadruple in 2017/18. In his first season, Emery worked under director Olivier Létang, now chairman at Lille.

Emery is unbeaten in seven previous meetings with Lille (W6 D1), playing them twice as Valencia manager in the 2009/10 Europa League group stage (1-1 a, 3-1 h) and beating them in all five meetings while in charge of Paris.

LOSC coach Paulo Fonseca managed Nicolò Zaniolo at Roma in 2019/20, the Italian making 33 appearances and scoring eight goals.

Have played together:
Samuel Umtiti & Clément Lenglet (Barcelona 2018–22)

Have played in England:
Vito Mannone (Arsenal 2005–13, Barnsley 2006 loan, Hull City 2010/11 loan & 2012 loan, Sunderland 2013–17, Reading 2017–20)
Nabil Bentaleb (Tottenham Hotspur 2014–16, Newcastle United 2020)
Angel Gomes (Manchester United (2016–20)Rémy Cabella (Newcastle United 2014/15)
Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolves 2016–19, Fulham 2020–23)

Have played in France:
Clément Lenglet (Nancy 2014–17)
Boubacar Kamara (Marseille 2017–22)
Youri Tielemans (Monaco 2017–19)Moussa Diaby (Paris 2018/19)
Diego Carlos (Nantes 2016–19)

International team-mates:
Samuel Umtiti & Clement Lenglet, Lucas Digne, Boubacar Kamara, Moussa Diaby (France)
Gabriel Gudmundson & Robin Olsen (Sweden)
Angel Gomes & Jacob Ramsey (England Under-19, U21)