Barcelona vs Aston Villa: Carragher predicts end of 18-game run
Web StoryWatch this story in 15 seconds →Key takeaways
- Barcelona host Aston Villa at Spotify Camp Nou on Tuesday night in the Champions League. Kickoff is 8pm GMT, which is 1am PKT on Wednesday.
- Villa sit second in the league phase with three wins from three. Barcelona are eighth with six points after a 4-2 defeat at PSG.
- Jamie Carragher backs Barcelona to win and keep a clean sheet. That would end their unwanted 18-game run without one in Europe.
Barcelona meet Aston Villa in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night. The league phase matchday 4 tie kicks off at 8pm GMT at Spotify Camp Nou.
It is a clash of form and pedigree. Villa have won all three of their European games this season.
Barcelona are the favourites. They have not kept a clean sheet in 18 Champions League games.
What happened
Aston Villa travel to Barcelona second in the league phase table with nine points. They won 3-2 at Club Brugge. They thrashed Fenerbahce 6-0 at home.
Then they beat Viking 3-1 at Villa Park. Only Paris Saint-Germain sit above them, and only on goals scored. PSG beat Villa 2-1 in the UEFA Super Cup in August.
Barcelona sit eighth with six points. They started with big wins over Feyenoord and at Galatasaray. Then their perfect start ended with a 4-2 defeat at PSG.
Four days later they lost 2-1 at home to Real Madrid in El Clasico. That ended nine straight La Liga wins. They bounced back on Saturday.
They thrashed Alaves 6-1 to return to the top of La Liga. They now have 10 wins from 11 league games.
The two clubs have not met since the 1983 European Super Cup final. Villa won that tie 3-1 on aggregate. They lost the first leg 1-0 at Camp Nou, then won 3-0 at home.
Why it matters
Jamie Carragher has made this game about two streaks. The Sky Sports pundit expects Villa to lose at Barcelona. He also expects Barcelona to finally keep a clean sheet.
That would end their unwanted run of 18 Champions League games without one. No team in this season's competition has a longer run.
The Opta supercomputer agrees with Carragher on the winner. It gave Barcelona a win in 72.0 percent of its 10,000 match simulations. Villa won just 12.7 percent of the simulations, with 15.3 percent ending in a draw.
There is bad blood between Villa and Carragher. The club announced on Saturday that they will take legal action against him. They accuse him of making "unacceptable insults" about the club and its fans.
Carragher had said that "Aston Villa will never be Manchester United". TNT Sports predicts a 3-1 Barcelona win, with both teams to score. The National predicts 4-1 to Barcelona.
For Villa, this is a test of how far they have come. Unai Emery took over in October 2022 after Steven Gerrard left. He lifted them from the lower half of the Premier League to the Champions League.
Last season they won the Europa League, beating Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul in May. Emery turns 55 on Tuesday. His contract runs to 2029.
What happens next
Kickoff is 8pm GMT on Tuesday, 9pm local time in Barcelona. That is 3pm ET and 1am PKT on Wednesday.
The game is shown live on TNT Sports 1 and HBO Max in the UK. Coverage starts at 7pm UK time.
Barcelona have injury problems in defence. Eric Garcia, Jules Kounde and Xavi Espart are all out. Andreas Christensen will not be risked as he returns from a thigh injury.
That forced Hansi Flick to hand Brian Farinas a debut at right-back at the weekend. He also played Frenkie de Jong in central defence.
Villa have fewer worries. Amadou Onana, Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are still absent. There are no new injury concerns for Emery.
Lamine Yamal will be Barcelona's main danger. He scored one and set up another in the 6-1 win over Alaves. He now has 12 goals and 11 assists in all competitions this season.
He already holds the record for Champions League assists by a teenager, with 13.
Emery has a poor record against Barcelona. He has faced them 30 times as a manager and won just three. His win rate is 10 percent.
It is his worst against any side he has faced five or more times. His heaviest European defeat came at Camp Nou in March 2017. His PSG side lost 6-1 in the famous "La Remontada".
Villa will look to Nicolas Jackson again after his strong recent form. Barcelona need a win to stay in the top eight. Flick called it "a very difficult match".
He praised Emery as "one of the best coaches in Europe".
Predicted lineups
Barcelona (Al Jazeera): Joan Garcia; Joao Cancelo, Gerard Martin, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Fermin Lopez, Rodri, Pedri; Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Anthony Gordon.
Aston Villa (Al Jazeera): Zion Suzuki; Matty Cash, Viktor Lindelof, Pau Torres, Ian Maatsen; Boubacar Kamara, Joao Gomes; John McGinn, Johan Manzambi, Emiliano Buendia; Nicolas Jackson.
Villa's perfect European start is on the line. Barcelona want to prove the PSG defeat was a blip. Carragher has called a home win and a clean sheet.
Tuesday night will show if he is right.
For more on Villa's European form, read our report on their 6-0 rout of Fenerbahce. For Barcelona's last European outing, see their 4-2 defeat at PSG.
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