Club Brugge vs Aston Villa LIVE: Champions League team news and line-ups ahead of last-16 clash – UK Times

There are a lot of elite footballers who still have the Champions League theme as their ringtone, and some will be actively playing it on the way to stadiums. Familiarity hasn’t dulled excitement. It’s fair to say that isn’t really from the relative laboriousness of the group stage, but rather the exquisite energy of the knockouts.

This week is where football history starts to be made, partly because of how visions of glory can be instantly consigned to the past. It is tension and tantalising opportunity all at once. Through that, there’s a distinctive thought, one even more striking than the sense many players will feel this week of stepping out into great stadiums. A good chunk of this season’s stars were children when watching Barcelona’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, the kind of game that made them first realise the unique magic of these nights.

Unai Emery has confirmed that Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings and Matty Cash have all travelled to Belgium for Tuesday’s first leg.

Spain centre-back Torres has been out since breaking a metatarsal at the end of December, while fellow defenders Mings and Cash have missed the last two games.

The availability of all three gives Emery more options throughout the game.

Aston Villa will meet Club Brugge for just the second time in European competition.

The first meeting between the two sides came in the Champions League this season, a 1-0 league phase win for Club Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

The Villa boss said: “Each one is playing in his position, trying to feel comfortable.

“And the players are understanding as well where are the spaces are to use them and trying to overcome the difficulties with the opponent they were facing us.

“Of course, I am very happy how they played and how they are adapting to us.

“We will need them for the next matches and the challenges we have.”

Asensio’s second-half double, one of which was set up by Rashford, helped Villa to their first quarter-final in a decade with a 2-0 win over Championship strugglers Cardiff.

The pair have both made a big impact since joining on loan in the January transfer window, with Asensio scoring four goals and Rashford making three of them.

More from Hayen who spoke about what he is expecting Aston Villa to bring to the match tonight.

He said: “Aston Villa have added talented individuals [since the last meeting], but as a team they have remained the same.

“The expectation is that they will bring a lot of intensity, will look for solutions in-game and will play offensively.”

The Club Brugge head coach said: “We prepare for every match in the same way, both in our domestic competitions and in the Champions League.

“A lot will depend on the first match.

“They have lost seven of the last nine away matches, but Aston Villa are unbeaten in 14 matches at home, so we must try to win at home.”

“Attention is really good, I’m really happy with the teammates, with the staff, they give me a lot of confidence, so I try to do my best in the pitch,” Marco Asensio told Villa’s official website.

“And it’s going well, so I want to score more, give more to this team, to this club and that’s my objective.

“We have to keep pushing, we are in the right way, so the next step is Champions League and now the focus is there.”

Marco Asensio wants to help fire Aston Villa to glory this season after an impressive start to life at the club.

The 29-year-old signed on loan from Paris St Germain in January and has settled in well, scoring four goals in his last three games.

Two of them came in the 2-0 win over Championship strugglers Cardiff which sent Villa into their first FA Cup quarter-final in a decade.

This match will be a tense affair, with the visitors happy to take any sport of result back to Villa Park.

With Emery’s side unlikely to throw everything at it in attack, it could end in a stalemate.

Club Brugge 1-1 Aston Villa.