Feyenoord v Aston Villa: predicted line-up, team news and match preview
When the Aston Villa players stride out from the tunnel for their second league phase match in the 2025-26 Europa League, they will find themselves on hallowed turf.
Villa won the European Cup at De Kuip in May 1982, the pinnacle of the club’s rich history, and they will return to play Feyenoord on Thursday evening.
Where once Dennis Mortimer, Nigel Spink, Gordon Cowans, Ken McNaught, Gary Shaw and Peter Withe put Villa at the summit of world football, so John McGinn, Emiliano Martínez, Boubacar Kamara, Ezri Konsa, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins will fly the claret and blue flag in Rotterdam once more.
Villa manager Unai Emery knows how to win in Europe. As a four-time Europa League winner, he has an unimpeachable record in European football’s secondary club competition and will have nothing but silverware in mind as his players experience a piece of the club’s heritage in the Netherlands on Thursday night.
The immediate target, he says, is to finish in the top eight of the league phase to automatically secure every available advantage for what follows. After that, victory in Istanbul in May is the one and only aim.
Feyenoord on fire
Villa’s second Europa League opponents qualified by finishing third in the Eredivisie last season, 10 points behind Ajax and 11 behind champions PSV.
Under head coach Robin van Persie, who succeeded Brian Priske last season, Feyenoord have started 2025-26 in spectacular fashion.
They sit atop the early-season Eredivisie with six wins and one draw from their opening seven fixtures and have scored more an average of more than two goals per game. Ayase Ueda already has six goals to his name and is scoring at roughly twice his expected goals value.
The acid test for Feyenoord will be when they come up against PSV at the end of the month but we’ll learn an awful lot about them from Thursday’s Europa League game.
Aside from a defeat in Champions League qualifying, their 1-0 loss at Braga in their first fixture of the league phase was the only time Feyenoord have been beaten so far this season. Make no mistake: this is a very, very tough assignment for Villa.
Villa team news
Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans are set to miss out through injury again, while captain McGinn’s self-inflicted knock against Fulham on Sunday raises a slight doubt but isn’t believed to be an issue in terms of Thursday’s match.
Ross Barkley is reportedly still short of match fitness and is ineligible having been omitted from Villa’s Europa League squad.
Elsewhere, it’s been confirmed that Tyrone Mings will be out until the international break with the ankle injury he sustained against Fulham on Sunday, missing the visit to Feyenoord and the Premier League game against Burnley.
Villa predicted line-up v Feyenoord
Mings’ lay-off means a start for Pau Torres, who would be in contention regardless after his performance against Fulham on Sunday.
Watkins and Martínez were left out of the starting line-up against Bologna last Thursday for different reasons but should be reinstated against Feyenoord, again for different reasons – Watkins because he looked much sharper against Fulham, Martínez because he sat out the first league phase match with an injury.
It’s clear at this point that Emery is intent on starting with Rogers and there are signs that the approach is beginning to work. I’ve advocated for Rogers to be taken out of the firing line but the time to do that is not in the next game after the player starts to repay that faith.
I’m also expecting to see the manager stick with Emi Buendía after his match-winning performance off the bench last Sunday, and with Evann Guessand, who is fast establishing himself as Emery’s first choice on the right and looking better and better with every passing match.
Where to watch Feyenoord v Aston Villa
Villa’s visit to Rotterdam will be broadcast live on TNT Sports 3 in the UK.
Read more ➡️ How to watch Feyenoord v Aston Villa: kick-off time, TV channels and streams
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