Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the second leg of Aston Villa’s R16 Conference League tie against Ajax as Unai Emery tries to win his fifth European trophy as a manager and Villa their second as a club, unless you count the Super Cup and Intertoto, which we don’t so we won’t). Last week’s 0-0 draw at Jopie Cruyff Arena was a rather cagey affair, Villa preoccupied with their match three days later against Spurs, which they lost, and Ajax still lost in incoherence after the disastrous reign of Sven Mislintat as sporting director and Alfred Schreuder and Maurice Steijn as head coaches.
Ajax have improved under the caretakership of John van’t Schip, losing only twice in the Eredivisie since he took over on Halloween, but they’re still not very good as a host of former players have not been shy about telling them.
Villa play West Ham on Sunday and will again have one eye on their Champions League place but are bound to show more ambition in front of a full house with Ajax, however diminished they have been for two seasons, in town. Both sides had a player sent off last week in a shonky refereeing performance – Ezri Konsa was sent off in the 83rd minute after two soft yellow cards, followed by Ajax wing-back Tristan Gooijer three minutes afterwards – and neither will be available. John McGinn, Sunday’s ‘human Scud’ will be starting a three-match Premier League ban at London Stadium, but will wear the armband at Villa Park tonight as Villa pick from a full squad bar the three long-term absentees Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings and Emi Bunendia. Jacob Ramsey remains a doubt.
Still no Steven Bergwijn and Steven Berghuis for Van’t Schip but he has Devyne Rensch and Josip Sutalo back in the squad.