Celtic will face Aston Villa in the final Champions League group game on Wednesday night.
Brendan Rodgers has already assured Celtic a Champions League playoff place after beating Young Boys at Celtic Park last midweek.
With the Hoops heading to Villa Park this week, Rodgers will be looking to end this campaign with a win over the English Premier League side to help boost Celtic’s chances of earning a seeded playoff spot.
However, beating Unai Emery’s side will not be an easy task but it seems that there are two weaknesses in the Premier League side that Rodgers and his Celtic team could exploit at Villa Park on Wednesday.
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Aston Villa are looking ‘pretty knackered’ ahead of Celtic’s Champions League visit
Villa made a storming start to their Champions League campaign and, at one point, even topped UEFA’s table at the start of the competition.
Currently, in 9th place, Rodgers could jeopardise Villa’s chances of earning an automatic qualification place with a win and even boost Celtic’s slim chances of nabbing a top-eight place.
And it seems that there are two weaknesses in Villa the Celtic boss could expose to do just that according to pundit Daniel Storey.
Storey told The Totally Football Show [21m 45s], “The thing that jumped out for me, and it’s been happening a fair bit recently, Villa conceding late goals.
“I think there is an element of fatigue in that squad now. They obviously played midweek Champions League again and didn’t have a great result there.
“They’ve got Celtic at home. There is a chance if results go against them and certainly, if they don’t win that game that they might for all their good start in the Champions League, they might have to play in that playoff round and therefore have another two games.
“They desperately need to avoid that because the squad looks pretty knackered, to be honest.”
Aston Villa’s Champions League results vs Celtic
With both teams already guaranteed at least another fixture in the Champions League, here is how Celtic’s record in the competition fares compared to Aston Villa’s.
Celtic’s Champions League results
- Wednesday 18 September 2024: Celtic 5 v 1 Slovan Bratislava
- Tuesday 1 October 2024: Borussia Dortmund 7 v 1 Celtic
- Wednesday 23 October 2024: Atalanta 0 v 0 Celtic
- Tuesday 5 November 2024: Celtic 3 v 1 RB Leipzig
- Wednesday 27 November 2024: Celtic 1 v 1 Club Brugge
- Tuesday 10 December 2024: Dinamo Zagreb 0 v 0 Celtic
- Wednesday 22 January 2025: Celtic 1 v 0 Young Boys
Aston Villa’s Champions League results
- Tuesday 17 September 2024: Young Boys 0 v 3 Aston Villa
- Wednesday 2 October 2024: Aston Villa 1 v 0 Bayern Munich
- Tuesday 22 October 2024: Aston Villa 2 v 0 Bologna
- Wednesday 6 November 2024: Club Brugge 1 v 0 Aston Villa
- Wednesday 27 November 2024: Aston Villa 0 v 0 Juventus
- Tuesday 10 December 2024: RB Leipzig 2 v 3 Aston Villa
- Tuesday 21 January 2025: Monaco 1 v 0 Aston Villa
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