Aston Villa are the favourites for the Europa Conference League, and Lille will have to do something special to overcome them.
That’s the surprising admission from Lille manager Paulo Fonseca and sports coordinator Sylvain Armand, who were both full of praise for Unai Emery’s side after the draw on Friday.
Aston Villa are set to take on Lille in the quarterfinals of the Conference League next month, with them first set to meet at Villa Park on Thursday April 11th.
The Villains will head into the tie as the favourites after another impressive season under Emery that has them competing for Champions League football and moving confidently through the rounds in Europe too.
They ran out comfortable winners over Dutch giants Ajax with a 4-0 win over them at Villa Park earlier this week following a 0-0 draw in the first leg.
Many see them as favourites for the competition moving forwards, with Viktoria Plzen, Fiorentina, Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Club Brugge, PAOK and Lille the other sides left in the draw.
That’s certainly the prevalent opinion at the French side anyway, with Fonseca and Armand both full of praise for Aston Villa after the draw was made.
“We will have time to talk about Aston Villa,” the Portuguese coach is quoted as saying by Le Petit Pillois.
“The most important remains Brest, but you are right. I think the main candidate to win the Europa Conference League is Aston Villa. We will nevertheless have time to talk about it a little more in the coming weeks.”
“It’s a tough draw, but it’s also a big match,” added Armand, via Foot National.
“Aston Villa are the favourites for this competition and therefore this match, with a manager who has already won the Europa League four times. It will undoubtedly be a demanding match, but we will have two opportunities to face each other, with the return match at home.
“We are aware that English teams often perform well at home. Aston Villa proved this yesterday by dominating Ajax Amsterdam 4-0 at Villa Park. It will therefore be a complicated trip, in the middle of a dense calendar in Ligue 1.”
