Legia Warsaw v Aston Villa

Legia Warsaw vs Aston Villa Preview

Onto Group E, and Polish side, Legia Warsaw, play host to Aston Villa at their Stadion Miejski Legii in this opening game of the group with both sides expected to be fighting it out with Dutch outfit, AZ, for the top two positions in the group.

Legia Warsaw bring a decent looking set of results so far in their new campaign as the hosts have suffered just the one defeat out of their opening 13 games in all competitions which came in the form of a 2-1 defeat at home to Austria Vienna in the early qualifying rounds of the Europa Conference League but Legia have also collected eight wins as well during this period.

Thursday night's hosts started the ball rolling with a win on penalties over Rakow Czestochowa in the Polish Super Cup while also progressing through the qualifying rounds of this competition with victories against Ordabasy 5-4 on aggregate, Austria Vienna 6-5 on aggregate and Midtjylland on penalties after the scores were level at 4-4.

However, it's been Legia Warsaw's extraordinary form on home soil that has caught the eye as the Polish hosts have lost just once in their last 39 matches in all competitions so Aston Villa are likely to need something special in order to walk away with the points here.

Onto Aston Villa, and the west midlands club managed to bounce back from their recent heavy 3-0 defeat away from home at Anfield against Liverpool on the weekend when they inflicted a similarly heavy defeat upon Crystal Palace in the Premier League, making it five wins out of their last six matches in all competitions.

Despite being handed a heavy 5-1 thrashing away from home at Newcastle United on the opening day of the Premier League season, Aston Villa have responded in promising fashion by collecting domestic league wins against Everton 4-0, Burnley 3-1 and Crystal Palace 3-1.

In addition, Aston Villa also secured their passage through to the group stage of this season's Europa Conference League after thrashing Scottish Premiership side, Hibernian, by way of a comprehensive 8-0 win on aggregate, so the visitors will be in confident mood that they can continue their winning momentum into this Thursday night's clash in Poland.

Legia Warsaw v Aston Villa Verdict

This is the first appearance in the Europa Conference League for both Legia Warsaw and Aston Villa and both sides look to have solid claims on the possibility of taking all three points in this opening game in Group E.

Legia Warsaw have been extremely tough to beat but Villa may perhaps hold the edge with greater quality in the final third and could earn the spoils in this one.

Therefore, our main bet will be Aston Villa win @ 1.55

Other side bets worth considering:

Aston Villa win & Over 2.5 goals @ 2.30

Correct score: Aston Villa 2-1 @ 8.50