Aston Villa return to Champions League action on Tuesday night when they welcome Bologna to Villa Park.
Last time out, Aston Villa had the high of beating Bayern Munich, but now they face a team also punching above their weight.
The now-Juventus boss Thiago Motta did wonders to help the Italian club to Europe’s elite competition before leaving for Turin.
As Villa fans can make similar comparisons to Unai Emery, whose team have only lost one game in all competitions this season, but are well aware of the opposition’s threat.
In the summer, Villa signed Samuel Iling-Junior from Juventus, with Douglas Luiz heading towards the other direction, but Emery opted against keeping him.
The 21-year-old played a fair few pre-season games for Aston Villa, but was then loaned out to Bologna for the rest of the season and it just happened to be that they drew the Italian club in the Champions League.
Slow start for Aston Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior at Bologna
This is a long-term project from Villa’s perspective and they are hoping Iling-Junior can take his game to the next level for a team also in the Champions League.
If that happens, then you sense he will be ready to be part of Emery’s squad next season.
But, so far, it has been a slow start for Iling-Junior at his loan club, with the England U21 star yet to make a start.
Illing-Junior has scored one goal for Bologna and it came up against Cesc Fabregas’ FC Como side, with his equalising goal coming in stoppage-time.
It’s still early days and Villa will be hoping his game time increases in these coming months, with his team sitting 12th and the player getting an overall rating of 6.50 from WhoScored from his five matches.
| Tournament | Apps | Mins | Goals | Assists | Shots per game | Pass Success % | Man of the Match | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serie A | 0(3) | 91 | 1 | – | 1.3 | 80 | 1 | 6.73 |
| Champions League | 0(2) | 36 | – | – | 1 | 93.3 | – | 6.16 |
| Total / Average | 5 | 127 | 1 | 0 | 1.2 | 85.3 | 1 | 6.50 |
Can Iling-Junior play against parent club Aston Villa in Champions League?
In English football, if you are loaned out to another English side, then you aren’t allowed to play against your parent club. Like Alex Moreno being loaned out to Nottingham Forest this summer.
But it’s a different story in Europe and it’s probably something those in the Premier League can learn from because it makes things far more interesting.
The simple answer is that Illing-Junior can play against his parent club Villa and he is in Bologna’s matchday squad for the game.
He probably won’t start, but it will be interesting to see how he fares if he comes off the bench and it’s pretty amazing that the first time Villa fans will see him in competitive action is against their own club.
