Unai Emery shoves Youri Tielemans but Aston Villa win to book place in Europa League last 16

Aston Villa are in a strong position to sail through to the last 16 of the Europa League, but this evening’s trip to Fenerbahce is one of their tougher assignments of the league phase.

The Premier League side have only lost one match in Europe, and a victory tonight would take them a step closer to a top-eight finish, reaching the last 16 without the need for a play-off match.

The Villa express train has slowed in the Premier League with one win in their last four games.

Unai Emery has of course won this competition four times – three with Sevilla and once with Villarreal – but the Spaniard was pretty downbeat at his pre-match press conference as he assessed Villa’s mounting injury problems.

Villa suffered an injury blow when John McGinn limped off in the first half of Sunday’s defeat to Everton and learned midfielder Boubacar Kamara was likely to miss the rest of the season after he suffered a knee injury the week before against Tottenham. Amadou Onana, Emi Martinez and Ross Barkley are also missing for this trip to Turkey.

As reported by Telegraph Sport’s John Percy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek has emerged as a target in this month’s transfer window in response to the bad news about Kamara. Loftus-Cheek has made 23 appearances in all competitions for Milan this season.

Fenerbahce have two familiar faces in the ranks who used to be at Villa not so long ago in the form of Marco Asensio and Jhon Duran.

Asensio has been in scintillating form this campaign, having scored eight times and providing six assists in the league, while Duran left Villa around a year ago.

Villa’s league phase concludes with a home game against Red Bull Salzburg next week, and bar a monumental collapse they should be in the draw for the last-16.

Full team news on the way shortly.