FixturesFC Basel Vs. Aston Villa - Thu, Dec 11th 2025, 20:00 Aston Villa look to close out their European calendar year on a high on Thursday night, when visiting FC Basel on Matchday Six of the UEFA Europa League (ko 8pm). Unai Emery’s men travel to St. Jakob-Park hunting down an eighth successive win in all competitions and a third consecutive triumph in the Europa League in what is their final outing in the competition of 2025. Villa enter the clash on a high after Saturday’s last-gasp win over Premier League leaders Arsenal took them to within three points of the summit of the table, and currently sit third in the Europa League standings with three matches remaining. Basel, meanwhile, currently occupy the final qualifying spot in the league phase table, after two wins and three defeats from their five outings have them 24th with three games left to play. Ludovic Magnin’s men are third in the Swiss Super League, seven points off leaders Thun, though have only lost one of their last six league outings.Stats Aston Villa have played 93.5% of their passes short in the UEFA Europa League this season, the highest percentage of any side. The only English side to have a higher ratio of short passes in a Europa League season are Brighton in 2023/24 (93.9%). Basel have won each of their last seven home UEFA Europa League matches – the longest current ongoing winning home run in the competition – and are unbeaten in 10 on home soil (W8 D2) since a 2-1 defeat to Belenenses in October 2015. Aston Villa and Basel met in the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup final – after a 1-1 draw in Switzerland in the first leg, Villa won 4-1 in the second leg with goals from Darius Vassell, Juan Pablo Angel (x2) and David Ginola to qualify for the 2001/02 UEFA Cup. Aston Villa have won eight of their last 10 major European matches (L2), with all eight wins coming in 2025 – their most ever in a single year in their European history. Basel have won five of their last 10 major European games against English opponents (D1 L4), with their most recent game a 2-1 away win at Man City in March 2018 in the UEFA Champions League. Matchday Five The Villans made it back-to-back Europa League victories and four straight wins in all competitions on Matchday Five, when triumphing over another Swiss side at Villa Park. BSC Young Boys visited B6 at the end of November, and fell two goals down in the opening half thanks to Donyell Malen’s brace. The first was a neat header guided into the bottom corner just before the half-hour, and his second saw him turn away from a defender and finish confidently three minutes before the break. Joel Monteiro halved the deficit in stoppage time to make for a nervy final few minutes, but the hosts hung on to climb to third in the league phase table.Team News Unai Emery revealed Evann Guessand is fit to feature for the Villans, after the forward missed the weekend’s win over Arsenal with a knock. Ross Barkley and Tyrone Mings remain Emery’s only long-term injury absentees. Basel, meanwhile, are expected to again be without Kaio Eduardo, who has been nursing an injury. Villa are likely to come up against in-form Xherdan Shaqiri – the former Stoke City and Liverpool man has 11 goals and 10 assists in 25 games so far this season.Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts“The most important thing is how we are building the team, how we are achieving in our process during each competition, our stronger mentality in everything. Through it, try to show tomorrow how we can compete, how we can continue building our structure with the players in our tactical idea in Europe against Basel, because to play away is always difficult. To play in Europe is always difficult. Basel are going to play at home and they won two matches at home in this competition. They are feeling strong through their stadium with their supporters and they will be facing us so, so motivated.” - Unai Emery"We know we're facing a big challenge. I expect a tough game against a technically very strong opponent. We have to be prepared to suffer and also manage without possession for long stretches. But there are those magical nights at St. Jakob-Park. We want to bring the same energy to the stadium as we did against VfB Stuttgart, then anything is possible." - Ludovic Magnin
